Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everybody. I am presiding officer and Commissioner Shakira Johnson. Welcome to the June 23rd, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting. We have a large crowd today and we have a lot of items on our public hearing agendas. So if we have run out of the printed agenda, there is a QR code just outside that back door that you can scan. And I think, yeah, she has a QR code in the back if you need to scan that. so you can see the agenda. So bear with us today as we have a packed house. And we also have a switch in our inspirational speaker. Our scheduled inspirational speaker is actually under the weather, so we are sending her extra prayers. But fortunately, Demetrius McCoy Sr., who is chief of staff for District 5, has stepped up and is willing to do our inspirational for us. So Pastor McCoy is the pastor at Redemption Life Church in Lithonia. As stated, he's the District 5 chief of staff. And he is the father of two amazing boys. And most importantly, the husband to Dr. Mariah McCoy, who is the assistant principal at stone mountain elementary school. Pastor McCoy. Good morning.

Good morning commissioners. Good morning. Madam president officer. I know our CEO is watching. Good morning, everyone. I'll try that again. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Thank you, I'm so glad you're glad to be here. For just a few moments, I'm going to share this. I do understand that one of the worst things that a preacher can do is pray too long or speak too long before the main course is served. I understand you're not here to see me. You are here to give your public comment, to hear this meeting, so I'm going to move on out the way. But for just a moment that I have your attention, I want to share a thought with you. And if I were to hypothetically ask you a question, the question would be how many emergency exits are in this room? I don't want you to look. I'm hoping that you discovered that before you entered in the room, how many emergency exits that there are. And if you have not, you're probably looking out around the room counting them now. There's a scripture in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, which says you are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted. But God can be trusted not to let you to be tempted too much, and he will show you a way of escape. Madam President, officer, and commissioners, I want to share this thought. Find the nearest exit. Find the nearest exit. Before every flight takes off, passengers hear familiar instruction. Please take a moment to locate the nearest emergency exit. Place your oxygen mask on before assisting others. Before a cruise ship departs, passengers participate in a safety drill, and they're shown where the life rafts are. They're shown where life-saving equipment is. Before movies start, the lady on the screen says, please take a moment to locate the nearest emergency exit. What is interesting is that these instructions are given long before a crisis ever happens. The plane has not experienced turbulence, the ship is not taking on water, there is no fire in the building, yet preparation should always come before panic. Recently, I found myself in this situation where my family and I went on family vacation. And my wife wanted some Texas Roadhouse. And so we stopped in Augusta at Texas Roadhouse, and if you've ever been there, you know that everyone goes there not for the steak, you go for the bread. And so we got our two baskets of bread, and as I ordered my meal, the light started flashing, the siren went off, and to my surprise, everyone sat there because they wanted their steak. While the fire emergency exit was going off and fire alarm was going off, everyone sat there until a lady came out and said, everybody has to leave. It's interesting because in these moments, the menu didn't matter, the amenities didn't matter, the decor didn't matter, the small things did not matter. The only thing that mattered is where the nearest emergency exit was located. As I reflected on this experience, it reminded me that many of us spend a great deal of time locating opportunities, advantages, conveniences, challenges, but spend very little time identifying how we can exit when the pressure arrives. We know where success is. We know where comfort is. We know where resources are. But do we know where the nearest emergency exit is? I want to say this and then I'm going to take my seat. The problem and the pathway arrive together. And sometimes the greatest challenge is not that an exit does not exist, It's sometimes the greatest challenge is recognizing when the exit appears. I want to challenge everyone today that as you enter into dialogue, as you enter into conversation, there will be opportunities for you to go in one direction. But I encourage you to find the nearest emergency exit. Let's pray. Gracious Father, thank you for the opportunity to share this inspiration. Thank you for the opportunity to locate ways out of things that seem challenging thank you for the opportunity to even exit hard places hard things and challenging things and move forward in the things that will continue to progress this county bless our leaders bless our ceo our presiding officer and our commissioners and staff as we all work together to find the nearest emergency exit so that we can continue progress for this great county christ's name i pray amen

so we will now have our pledge of allegiance led by commissioner robert patrick and then we will head to the floor for our two presentations i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands

Good morning everyone. Good morning. We have a full house for sure and a long agenda. My name is Michelle Long-Spears. I am proud and honored to serve as the District 2 Commissioner. I'm equally proud to be known as the Animal Commissioner. It is my pleasure to present a proclamation recognizing June 2026 is Foster a Pet Month in DeKalb County. For many of us, pets are cherished members of our families. They provide companionship, comfort, happiness, and so much joy. Yet every day, animal shelters throughout our community, across Georgia, and across our country care for animals that have been surrendered, abandoned, or found as strays, all while working to connect them with safe and loving homes. Our animals end up in what I call animal jails, doggy jails. While shelters work tirelessly to meet this need, they often face challenges related to space and resources. One of the most impactful ways our community can help is through fostering. Opening your home to a pet, even for a short time, foster families provide animals with a safe, stable environment while they await adoption. Helping them to adjust to life in a home and creating much needed space and shelter for other animals in need in our community. Fostering is also a rewarding opportunity for individuals and families who may be considering, not quite ready yet, pet ownership, but not really truly prepared for a long term commitment. They get to dip their toes in fostering and being a pet owner, if you will. This allows people to experience the joys of caring for a pet while making a meaningful difference in that animal's life. Here in DeKalb, we are fortunate to partner with the fantastic Lifeline group that is behind us now in their blue shirts. and we have been partnering with them for quite some time now. Lifeline manages and operates and certainly supports our animal shelter and is the biggest organization of its kind in the state of Georgia. We are very lucky to have Lifeline in our community. Through their leadership and the dedication of volunteers, rescue organization, advocates, foster families, the board of commissioners, the CEO, people who are here, everybody who cares about furry friends, countless animals have been given a second chance of life. As we conclude Foster a Pet Month, we also recognize the compassion, generosity, and commitment of those who work every day to care for vulnerable animals. Their efforts help make DeKalb County a more humane and compassionate place for both people and pets. Before I have Madam Clerk read the proclamation into the record, and after that, if please, Rebecca Gwen, the CEO of Lifeline, will come forward to make a few comments. I would like to share a personal story about fostering a pet. My foster's name is Joey. I have had Joey since July of two years ago. Actually, it'll be two years next month. He is now my dog, my forever dog. When I brought him into my home, I had this bundle of energy. I mean, to a point, I don't recall my Labrador retriever having quite that much energy. And I will say, for the first three months, I tried to adopt out Joey. I took him to Maloof, several people at Maloof remember. Director Jack Lumpkin was always someone fun that would come and visit and pet my Joey. I walked him around Decatur, Brookhaven, took him to dog parks. But unfortunately, I couldn't find anybody to foster him. And the longer that time went on, guess what? I fell in love with Joey. And Joey is now a member of my family. He has been worth every couch that he ate, every dining room cushion that he chewed up. The many times he is, Miss Tyler, Sonya Tyler is here and she knows about this. The many times that my dog has escaped through our front door, crawled under a fence. My goodness, but this dog is worth every single minute. that we have had him and he has been incredibly trainable and has turned out to be such a wonderful pet. And so I encourage everybody here who has a home where you can open up to a four-legged friend, Please, please consider fostering. It will help reduce the numbers in our shelter. If you decide that fostering for a week is all you can do, when they get back to the shelter, they're much more adoptable having been in someone's house instead of stuck in a cage day in and day out. So without further ado, if Madam Clerk would please read the proclamation into the record and then Rebecca will come forward.

Whereas companion animals enrich the lives of individuals and families and animal shelters throughout Georgia and the nation, often face overcrowding due to the number of animals surrendered, abandoned, or brought in as strays. And whereas the month of June is recognized nationally as Foster a Pet Month, highlighting the life-saving impact of pet fostering and encouraging community involvement in animal welfare. And whereas fostering provides animals with a safe, loving, and stable environment while they await adoption, helping them become better prepared for permanent homes and creating space and shelters for other animals in need. And whereas foster families and animal advocates play a critical role in supporting the welfare of cats and dogs, and the dedication of local shelters, rescue organizations, volunteers, and community partners has helped save countless animals' lives. And whereas Lifeline Animal Project, operator of DeKalb County Animal Services, supports one of the nation's largest foster programs, by providing resources and assistance to foster families caring for animals awaiting adoption. Whereas increasing awareness of pet fostering throughout DeKalb County will encourage more residents to open their homes to animals in need, strengthening the community's commitment to compassionate animal care and reducing shelter overcrowding. And now, therefore, I, Michelle Long-Spears, along with the Board of Commissioners, On behalf of DeKalb County and its more than 775,000 residents, do hereby proclaim June 2026 as Foster Pet Month in DeKalb County and encourage all residents to recognize this special observance and consider supporting local animal shelters and rescue organizations through pet fostering. Proclaim this 23rd day of June 2026.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Spears. It's a good crowd. You could help. No. I want to really thank all of our foster families and foster parents. And I think there are a few. I see one. Anybody else that's fostering right now? Look at that. OK. Got a few. Yeah. and and that's about right there are over 750 animals in foster homes right now for the dekalb county animal shelter that lifeline operates and that is really a testament to this community it is one of the largest foster programs in the country and it's because you step up. The commissioners step up, the administration steps up, the CEO steps up, all of you step up and help because animals really matter. So I'm gonna be brief, but I just wanna thank all of our foster families, our foster teams, on everybody that goes the extra mile to do what's right for the animals in our community. So thank you all for being here. I also want to say, because it is National Foster of Pet Month, all of our animals who are in foster are available for adoption with fees waived. So please check out our website. It's dekabanimalservices.com. You can sort by the foster dogs and cats. And it's a great time to really get a new family member. Also, I wanted to mention we have all different kinds of opportunities for fostering. You can do dog for the day, where you're just taking a dog out into the community for a single day we have weekend warriors we have two-week foster trials we have a lot of different opportunities to to fit for everyone so uh how you can help us you can help the animals and you can help each other by fostering a pet so thank you so much commissioner all the commissioners mr ceo how are you yes good to see you all right all right three one two three thank you

Good morning, everybody. I guess we're all glad still to be here. maybe okay good morning well as you know i'm commissioner robert patrick i represent the good people on the north side district one today we are here to acknowledge the 2026 district one african-american music appreciation month trailblazer award first i do want to acknowledge uh yoshi i hope that everything is fine health is important and we all are praying for you yoshi and i first met way back in 2024 when she was the featured performer at labor day live at pleasandale park and it was uh well you're always on our mind so thank you today we continue a special tradition in district one as we present the 2026 african-american music appreciation month trailblazer award excuse me trailblazer award to james jaylak lackey And before I go any further, I just realized, is Miss Patton here? And is Star here? If y'all would, please come on up. Amos will let you through. And I suspect everyone knows this is Usher's mom. This is James Lackey's mom, and we are always honored and thrilled to have you here. So thank you for being here. And Star. Hi. Pleasure to have you here as well. Your dad is? jay lack yes so we got some some big power here this morning thank you all for being here um let me start over again today as we continue the special tradition in district one uh acknowledging the efforts of african-american music appreciation month the trains trailblazer award goes to james jay lack lackey jay lack is someone whose influence in music spans production composition and sound innovation at the highest level a visionary music maestro a super producer, composer, and sound designer. Unfortunately, JLAC cannot be with us today because he is preparing for something extraordinary. This Friday marks the start of the R&B tour by Usher and Chris Brown, a multi-city global production expected to reach millions of fans. JLAC will be alongside his brother, Usher, helping shape the sound of a tour that will be experienced by an estimated two million people. As we celebrate African American Music Appreciation Month, we pause to recognize the foundation of global impact that African American artistry has had. Here in Georgia, we are home to some of the most influential artists, producers, and engineers in the world, legends like James Brown, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, CeeLo Green, who we had here a few years ago, among many others, whose creativity continues to shape the sound of American music. It is important that we not only celebrate the legacy, but also recognize those who are carrying it forward today through excellence, innovation, and cultural impact. James J. Lackey is one of those individuals. A District 1 business owner and creative force, his work continues to elevate music on a global scale. While he cannot be with us here today, we are honored to have his daughter, Star Lackey, and his mom, Ms. Jonetta Patton, here to accept this recognition on his behalf. At this time, we proudly honor JLAC, Visionary Music Maestro, Super Producer, Composer, and Sound Designer as the 2026 District One African American Music Appreciation Month Trailblazer Award recipient. Madam Clerk, please read the proclamation to the record.

Whereas James J. Lacklacky has established himself as one of the music industry's most respected composers, producers, and songwriters, earning national recognition for his exceptional ability to craft timeless records that have influenced contemporary R&B and popular music for more than two decades. And whereas throughout his distinguished career, Jay Lack has collaborated with many recording artists, including Usher, Lloyd, Chris Brown, B.O.B., and Luther Vandross, helping create chart-topping songs that have shaped the soundtrack of a generation. And whereas JLAC's contribution to the landmark album Confessions have produced one of the most acclaimed albums in modern music history, earning three Grammy Awards, and he continues to lead his creative mark through recent productions, including Usher's hit single Boyfriend and the song Majela from the acclaimed 2024 album Coming Home. And whereas, as the owner of Star Studios in DeKalb County, Commission District 1, James J. Lacklacky has built a nationally recognized recording facility, attracting internationally acclaimed artists and producers, including Usher, Justin Bieber, Whitney Houston, Miguel, Jazzy Faye, Rico Love, Dallas Austin, Drummer Boy, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis. to create, collaborate, and inspire. And whereas, despite his remarkable professional success, Jaylak remains devoted to the values of family and community as a proud father, demonstrating that true relationship is measured not only by career achievements, but also by one's commitment to inspiring and uplifting others. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that on this 23rd day of June, 2026, I, Commissioner Robert Patrick, along with the governing authority of DeKalb County, do hereby recognize and honor James J. Lacklacky as the recipient of the 2026 District 1 African American Music Appreciation Month Trailblazer Award. Robert Patrick, District 1.

Thank you much, Madam Clerk. If you wouldn't mind, come up and say a few words.

Good morning, everyone. Unfortunately, my dad wasn't able to be here due to recording scheduling. So instead, I'm here on his behalf to accept this award. I'd like to start off by saying how much this award is appreciated, not only by him, but by me as well. I have watched him work very hard for where he is today. Success has not only been created through, my gosh, I messed up. Am I okay to restart? Okay.

You're doing fine.

Am I okay to restart?

You restart.

Okay, take two. Good morning, everyone. Unfortunately, my dad wasn't able to be here due to recording scheduling, so instead I am here on his behalf to accept this award. I'd like to start off by saying how much this award is not only appreciated by him, but by me as well. Since I was a little girl, I have watched my dad work hard for where he is today. Success has not been created through connections, but through restless nights, taking rejection with his head held high, and not being afraid to walk into any room. Not only does he have true passion for what he does, but he is dedicated, consistent, and committed, and it is shown through his craft. Over the past two years and a half, I have seen him grow so much and have watched my dad test the boundaries of what patience can bear and what excellence and success can demand. For my dad, the perfection of his craft has never been about just making it to the finish line. But it is a promise to the listener that what reaches you is real, intentional, and crafted with love, patience, and real dedication. My dad has shown that the patience is a form of courage, how to lose with grace and without noise. And that measure of success isn't how loud the world applause, but how success is knowing you are true to yourself and honest to your craft. He has taught me that the realest thing an artist can do is care. Care enough to start over, care enough to admit when the first idea maybe isn't the best one. And to accept criticism with open mind and care enough to be intentional with every note. He has produced hits like Get It Shoddy, Boyfriend, Looking for Love, Forever Young, and many more. My dad doesn't just make music, he's creating a new sound like no other. And I'm excited for the world to see what is coming next. So from the bottom of me and my dad's heart, thank you for giving me the opportunity to stand here on his behalf and receive this award. This is only the beginning.

And then I'm going to give you this as well. Don't drop it. Zach, if you could move this out of the way. Let's take a step back here.

All right, on three. One, two, three.

We have one more presentation that's not on the agenda.

All right, good morning, y'all. I know we have a really packed agenda, but I don't like doing this. You all know I don't like doing this, but today I would only really do this for one person. 25 years ago, a young lady came to DeKalb County to work. And she has been an amazing blessing to DeKalb County, and she doesn't even know what's going on right now. But we're going to ask Ms. Dionne McKenzie to stand up and come forward. She has been working for DeKalb County for 25 years, and she really doesn't like this. Come on up, Dionne. Because... We have her 25-year pin, you all. She has seen five CEOs come and go, five different administrations, countless number of commissioners, and you all, if you don't know her name, she has meant the world to DeKalb County. She has done so much for so many people, and she is a tremendous blessing, including me. When I came here as a young buck with Similac on my breath still, She was there showing me the way, and I'm so thankful and grateful to God for Ms. Dionne McKenzie. So can we give her one more round of applause, you all? And I want to see if she has something to say. Would you say something, Dionne? Please say something. She says I don't, but please say something.

Dionne. Of course I was not expecting this, but thank you, everybody. I appreciate it. I can't say 25 more years, but thank you. I'll be here a while longer. Thank you. Appreciate it.

There we go.

On three. One, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody. At this time, we will start our comments from the public. Madam Clerk will read in the instructions.

Comments from the public. The purpose of public comment is to allow the public to voice county-related requests, concerns, or opinions during the commission meeting. Speakers will only have the opportunity for one public comment per meeting. Each speaker must please complete a speaker card and present it to the clerk before the beginning of the public comment portion of the meeting. Cards turned in to the clerk from the time the general meeting is convened, generally 9 a.m., and by the beginning of public comment portion generally following presentations on the agenda. The clerk will accept cards on a first come, first serve basis. Prior to the clerk's call for public comment, speakers who are residents of DeKalb County shall be allowed to speak before residents of other counties are allowed to speak. Speakers will be allowed to speak for three minutes each, and public comments shall not exceed 30 minutes in length. When the buzzer sounds to indicate that time has run out, the speaker will be expected to immediately cease speaking and to yield the podium. Those who submitted speaker cards but did not speak because of the time allotment will be allowed to speak first at the next regularly scheduled commission meeting without regard to residents. Speakers should always talk directly into the microphone and begin by stating their name, full address, and the name of any organization they represent. Abusive, profane, or derogatory language, holding up signs, clapping, yelling, standing, or laying in the aisles to show support for or opposition to a speaker will not be permitted. But a show of hands or quietly standing in place will be permitted to show support for or opposition to a speaker's position.

Thank you. Did we have any left over from the last meeting?

Yes, ma'am, we do have a few.

Carol Hayes. Carol Hayes, are you here today?

Okay, I don't see her. Valerie Conque.

Valerie Conque. Conque. Conque. I don't see Valerie.

Joy Carter. Joy Carter. And Jackie Malcolm.

Jackie Malcolm. There she is. Good morning, ma'am. Good morning, how y'all doing? Doing well.

Okay, my name is Jackie Malcolm. I live in District 3 off of Bowdoch Press. I appreciate the moratorium being extended until September 30th, but we know it's not enough time within the timeframe for the cap water issues to be resolved. Let me give you an example. Since the beginning of this year there have been several water break mains in the area where I live and three on my street which is Rocknell Drive. Just last week, Thursday, there were two more breaks in my neighborhood and another one right off Boulder Crest. Let me remind you this is directly across the street from the proposed site. and Ellenwood. We were with extreme low pressure for about three hours. Um, the people there told us to run our water for five to 10 minutes to clear any particles that may remain. This was very, it is very sensible to extend a moratorium until the water system is fixed. There needs to be a complete study of our water capacity to determine if we have enough water to support any large-scale data campus without affecting availability of water with adequate water pressure to us, the residents. We, the residents, do not support this text amendment as it is written today. There is no concrete barrier listed in the text amendment to give us citizens of DeKalb County any type of protection. I agree with Commissioner Patrick. Mr. Patrick, pay attention, thank you. There should be a minimum of one year moratorium so all studies can properly be researched on a large scale data campus center around people. The second tax amendment that we are not in agreement with is the office space on cedar grove road and boulder crest road that tax amendment we do not no longer accept that too we're still working on a small area plan both commissioners of district three district six have given funds to see this project move forward we ask that this tax amendment be deferred until this small area plan is complete lastly According to our own CEO, Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, she stated at another meeting, and this is for DeKalb, y'all. If something should happen to our water system, we only have three hours. of clean drinking water. Do you think that a campus that's going to suck up all this water is going to make it worse or better? No, it's not. It's going to get worse. So please, please, I ask you, do not approve this project in Ellenwood. Because we know that our water system cannot sustain this. And have y'all ever had a meeting with the water department planning sustainability? Did they ever tell y'all that it will be sustainable or not sustainable, especially in our area of the cap, south of the cap and southeast of the cap? Please take note. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Cambrio Anguero. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear her say that again. Cambria Anguero.

Cambrio. Good morning, ma'am.

All right, good morning. My name is Cambria. I'm a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I'm also a resident of DeKalb County. It's been nearly a year since DeKalb residents were in stark opposition to a slew of data centers proposed to the county. And since last year, our community has taken to organizing ourselves, educating our neighbors, and showing up at each and every board of commissioners meeting, demanding to stop these environmentally disastrous and racist projects. It seems that our Board of Commissioners, our leadership across the state, and our current administration don't care to represent our interests as working class people. They promise development and jobs, only to siphon our resources, hike up our utilities, pollute our air and water, and ignore the constituents. This moratorium is currently set to expire on September 30th, has been expanded two times because of popular opposition and public pressure. They haven't been able to pass a permissible set of regulations on these data centers because the public demanded time and time again that if they are going to pass new legislation regulating these facilities, we wouldn't buy a measly 300 to 500 foot buffer zone from the 2 million square foot data campus in a highly residential neighborhood. We're not against AI itself. Technological advancement is essential to improving our lives as workers, but under capitalism, it can't. Those that own all the technological resources are the billionaires who actively are destroying our communities and our environment. Despite us showing up at every meeting and demanding a stop to these developments, they persist. The very nature of this whole process has been undemocratic. And we as working people and as residents of DeKalb should be able to choose what we want in our own backyards and not have to worry about our children developing respiratory illnesses, brown water coming from our sinks, constant buzzing when we go to sleep at night. We should have a say. And as a wave of new data center opposition sweeps the country, numerous towns and counties across the US have instituted temporary moratoria and other restrictions on the facilities. Four towns across the country have put permanent citywide bans on the ballot, including Monterey Park, California. Now officially the first city in the country to permanently ban data centers, and it's not too much to demand that we do the same here. And unlike California, in Georgia, the electricity and land needed for massive development is cheaper. Our communities look like an opportunity to increase the profit margins of the billionaire class at our expense. We're tired of DeKalb residents, particularly residents of South DeKalb, being given false promises of investment and instead being sold out to the highest bidder. And we're tired of politicians and billionaires not for the people. Let me be clear. This is how this board vote shows us whether you're in line with Trump, Elon, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Teal, and other billionaires, or if you're on the side of the people. We're tired of moratoriums. We're tired of debate. We want actions, and we want no data centers. We demand an end to all data centers in DeKalb County. Thank you.

Thank you. Please let me remind you that we are to not shout, not clap loudly. We can snap and we can stand in agreement so that we can make sure we are hearing everything that is being said out there. Next speaker, please.

Ralph Branch IV. Good morning, sir.

Good morning. My name is Ralph Branch. Good morning to the chair, commissioners, and county staff. I'm here today as a resident, District 3, 2377 Clifton Springs Manor. Business owner, taxpayer, community advocate who spent months working with stakeholders, faith leaders, business owners, and residents regarding the proposed redevelopment of the former Walgreens property at 5395 Covington Highway. Uh, I understand that this matter is not on today's agenda and my purpose is not to, uh, relitigate a vote, but to ask the board to carefully review concerns that many residents believe deserve further consideration. Over the past several months, our team has conducted extensive community outreach, collected more than 2,000 plus online signatures, and 210 physical signatures met with local pastors, business owners, community stakeholders, and presented a vision for reinvestment in a corridor that has experienced disinvestment, vacancy, and declining commercial activity. This project represents approximately a $5 to $6 million in private investment into South DeKalb, includes public safety enhancements, local business opportunities, job creation, and the adaptive reuse of a long vacant commercial property. Unfortunately, many supporters feel their voices were either overlooked or given sustainability less weight than opposition testimony. We also have concerns regarding certain factual findings and characterizations that may have influenced recommendations and public perception of the project. In particular, questions remain regarding the classification of a nearby child care learning center and whether that classification was treated in a manner that is consistent with Georgia law. State licensing definitions and the facts contained in the record. I'm not asking this board for a decision today. I'm asking for something way simpler. Fairness, transparency, and a willingness to review whether all facts, all community voices, and all applicable standards were given equal consideration. DeKalb deserves investment. DeKalb deserves economic opportunity. DeKalb deserves redevelopment that addresses blight, creates jobs, and expands options for residents. I respectfully request that members of this board review the record independently, meet with stakeholders from all sides, and ensure that future decisions are based on complete and accurate information. I would welcome the opportunity to meet individually with any commissioner willing to review the record. I respectfully ask that no applicant, resident, or community member be disadvantaged because they challenge the recommendation, ask difficult questions, or exercise their right to participate in the public process. Thank you for your time, your service, and your commitment to the residents of DeKalb County.

Jonathan Holy. Jonathan Holy. Good morning, sir.

Good morning. My name is pronounced Holly. I am here to talk about the data centers. I want to talk about what a data center is. A data center is a mechanical monster. It consumes your power and it makes you pay for it. That is what it promises to do if you let it near you. After it consumes your power and makes you pay, it will drink your water. And it will scream 24 hours a day, seven days a week at up to 92 decibels. 92 decibels is the volume of a chainsaw or a loud concert. That's how loud these can get. Imagine one of these monsters near your home. And why are these monsters here? It's all for AI. That is why the demand is there. And what is the AI for? The AI is there to surveil you and your family. It is there to feed itself your private data so it can develop itself into something that takes your job away. AI and data centers are here before you because of investment, because they have the capacity to replace human labor. That is why it's even of interest to anyone is its ability to replace human labor. It is part of an anti-human project. Please, under no circumstances should these data centers exist in any county where I live or any of these human beings behind me live, because it is working against the interests of humanity. Please do not let the monster in. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Deborah Wallace. Deborah Wallace, good morning, ma'am.

Good morning. I've been in DeKalb County. I'm a transplant from New York. I was here before, two years ago, about repaving roads. I was here last month about repaving Rockbridge Road that's now being destroyed by the Amazon trucks. My concern is about my little neighborhood right now, and I'm sorry. I do support everybody about the new data centers, just in case that doesn't get noticed. I came here to ask for you to repave after the county destroyed our neighborhood replacing water pipes. And after they replaced the water pipes, they never came back to repave the roads. I came back and I asked and asked and asked to repave. And you were nice enough to repave my personal road, but not the main subdivision's road, which was kind of like, we gonna shut her up. Not cool. I was away in LA for two years, and now I'm back to discuss it again. And I will be back every month to remind you that when you destroy my roads, you should fix it afterwards. It's like sewing a hole in your garment. Fix it. Now, what's interesting is that Lakeside subdivision, which is across the street, is younger than mine and they got a brand new repaved road down their main road. How does the younger, 15-year-old subdivision get a new road when the 39-year-old subdivision is panicking because I'd like to keep my car a couple of more years, not fall in a ditch, not trip while I'm walking my neighborhood on a crack from the water pipe fix. Let's be serious. We are slowly not taking care of our roads. We're definitely not taking care of our water. We're definitely not taking care of our environment. And as you as commissioners, you need to understand that we the people are in charge based off of my political science class 1101 that's what it says so please understand that we the people we don't want the data center we like our roads fixed we like our water clean and we like our environment checked thank you and have a good day thank you ma'am ross from mcintyre miss mcintyre good morning

Good morning. I'm here to share with you a poem that's based on the poem, And They Came for Me, the poem that was written during the time of Nazi Germany. First, the tech oligarchs, and I'll call them TOs, came for the water aquifers that to date have taken approximately two trillion gallons of water globally enough to quench the thirst of 600 million people. That's everyone in the US and 300 million more. But the DeKalb commissioners refused to acknowledge citizen concerns because they are not farmers whose lands are parched by drought causing no food to be produced. Their pools were filled and their grass wasn't brown, so they didn't care. Then the TOs, again, tech oligarchs, came for the power grids, to date devouring 448 terawatt hours of electricity globally, enough to power about 50 million average American homes for an entire year. But the DeKalb commissioners refused to acknowledge citizen concerns because their lights still flickered on and their personal AC units were still running. They convinced themselves that the warnings about a single AI data campus power use matching 100,000 households was just a little dramatic. Then the TOs came after the breathable air with as few as three data facilities pumping out 15 tons of greenhouse gases annually. But the DeKalb commissioners didn't acknowledge citizens' concerns because they did not live in the valley of exhaust. They didn't need to keep their windows closed or use air purifiers in their homes. And they did not suffer from respiratory diseases or cancers caused by emissions. Then one day, the grid collapsed due to an extreme summer heat wave caused by that non-existent global warming phenomenon. And there was not enough power or water for DeKalb citizens because data centers had priority over human life and no breathable air for the people in DeKalb neighborhoods to continue daily life activities. But thank goodness the data center algorithm stayed perfectly chilled at 68 degrees, safely generating data that was so desperately needed for for our lives to continue as the world is collapsing. But because the DeKalb County commissioners did not listen when citizens spoke in opposition, like the people in Coweta County who are now suing their commissioners, or use the data provided to show that construction to be destructive type of economic development investment, there was no one left to speak for me. And here I lie, dying from data generation. Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker. GS Mangum. Gina Mangum. Good morning, ma'am.

The people speak. And the people are speaking. So I ask you, what was the purpose of the last extension of the moratorium? I thought the moratorium was so that we could get it right. And what did we get? Another terrible moratorium? fast put together version that was just released a few days ago. This is the same thing that happened in January where we didn't even get an opportunity to adequately review the document. What's the purpose of a moratorium if we don't do the work? Here we are with yet another version that's gonna be voted on or could be voted on today. that has not met the needs of the people. The whole county, the state, and the world are now rethinking data centers. And what are we doing? We're living back in August when this whole thing began. Nothing has changed dramatically in this ordinance that provides the protections that you promised. So what do we need to do? We should ban data centers, not just because we want it, but because you haven't done your jobs. And the job was to get it right, to get a text amendment that would protect the people. So what happened to the health study that everyone agreed to months ago but refused to fund? We need a health and environmental impact study to protect the residents. We have studied everything else to death. We have more MARTA studies than the law allows. We could sink a ship with those and we still have no transportation in South DeKalb. We're getting ready to spend a million dollars on another transportation study, but we can't do a study to protect the health of the citizens? I say it's unreasonable. Not only are you, our elected officials, not listening to us, you're not paying attention to what's happening around you. And what we have learned over the last 10 months, whether you listen to us or not, is that these data centers aren't all they're cracked up to be. They're not paying what they say they will, and they are destroying communities. And yet we trudge on as if nothing is happening. Adverse health impacts brought on by data centers from noise, light, and chemical emittance are real. Access to enough clean water is real. We need to extend the moratorium for at least another year to complete these comprehensive studies if you continue to refuse to ban them illegally. It is not illegal to do so. We have shown that. And even though our legal department says it is, it's not. Thank you.

Jan Dunaway. Miss Dunaway.

Jan Dunaway, District 4. The new data center text amendment released on 6-17 is filled with inconsistency. Why are you rushing? You have until 9-30 to finalize a text amendment which would allow more than four days for the citizens to review the document. Any new text amendment needs to go back through the full cycle deferral back to the community council. You have changed the residential buffer to 750 feet, which still isn't enough, and left the distance from parks to trails 500 feet. Even though, I quote, it is critical to protect the at-risk uses such as parks, trails, schools, daycare centers, senior care centers, and other areas from intensive development that may pose adverse health and environmental impacts. Did you mean to do this or was it just another mistake? The amendment includes transitional buffers along all property lines used for zoned either for non-industrial. Is this an addition to the residential and park buffer? The BOC can reduce the buffers during the slump process. How low will you go? This version does not protect the citizens. The amendment reduces the size of data center campuses to one million square feet of disturbed area. But with no distance requirement between data center campuses, property owners could subdivide their property and build lots of one million square foot data center campuses side by side. For example, Shadowbox Studio expansion site at 155 acres could subdivide and could hold at least four one million square foot data center campuses. Have you considered that? Not to mention Shadowbox Studios received a half billion dollar tax abatement, yes, billion, from Decide to Cab authority for the studio expansions, which means the citizens could be paying for the data center. noise, water, water discharge pollution, generators running past the allowed times or hours. Still, there is no one identified as responsible for enforcement. Who do we contact at the county for noncompliance? Planning will have washed their hands after the sloughs are approved, leaving the citizens to fight on their own against the richest people in the country. Do not pass this rushed text amendment and extend the moratorium for one year to get the studies done to protect our citizens.

Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker. Steven Benny. Good morning, Mr. Benny.

Good morning, commissioners. I want to thank the nearly 17,000 people who voted in District 3 during the runoff election recently. The 15% turnout rate was much higher than the 6% I predicted, but it still leaves room for improvement. The childish behavior of this commission is unbelievable. I thought I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but it turned out to be a train instead. Regardless, I would ask Ms. Kiana Jones-Moore to attend as many DeKalb County Commission public, COW, and committee meetings as she can between now and the end of the year to observe both how the process is supposed to work and how not to act like a child when doing an adult's job. Who put the Mentos in your Coca-Cola two weeks ago, Dr. Bolton? I don't know who you got your info from, but it is incorrect. Commissioner Terry's ordinance on how to spend data center tax funds was proposed as a fail safe in case a data center was approved by four or more commissioners in the future. 50% to be allocated to the area affected by the data center. Who do you think should benefit from the tax monies if a large data center is built? Do not those who take the risk deserve the reward? You have known Mr. Sherry long enough to know that he is closer to being an eco-terrorist than a king of the data centers. You are better than that, Commissioner Bolton. Commissioners Patrick and Johnson, during PWI, you shot down a proposal to give property owners who live within three miles of the county landfill a break on their property taxes. by reasoning that everyone must pay the same rate throughout the county and the county cannot play favorites. The county has already played favorites by putting the landfill in South DeKalb to begin with. You are asking the wrong question. The question you need to answer is how many of your constituents would move their property within three miles of the county landfill to get a break in their property taxes? My guess would be close to zero. I live in District 4, Madam Presiding Officer, and I would not take that deal. Once again, do not those who take the risk deserve the reward? Ms. Davis-Johnson, you may have been poor at one time, and we hope that you remember what that was like, but you are not poor today. At $48,500 a year, the median income in District 5 is $4,000 less than the rest of DeKalb County, with a poverty rate of 17%. Your husband makes $174,000 a year as a U.S. Congressman. You make $74,000 a year as a part-time commissioner. That's close to $250,000 a year, not to mention the money you make as a full-time lawyer. Miss Marita Davis Johnson, you are not poor, but a lot of your constituents are and need your help to find their way to the American dream that we all aspire to. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Benny. Next speaker. Tiana Jones-Morg. Tiana Jones-Morg. Good morning, ma'am.

Good morning, I want to thank Mr. Benny for reminding me that I need to pay close attention and I have been and that is the reason why I am here once again speaking for my neighbors and myself in District 3. We have quite a few data center applications that are being considered for our area and you have heard all the reasons that we do not want you to approve the text amendment for data centers as it is written. It is in fact full of inconsistencies. There are no real protections for community members and there is no enforcement mechanism. The purpose of the moratorium, as has been stated by others before me, is to give you the time to complete the studies that you've called for. You all get up here, you'll say, oh, yeah, let's extend the moratorium, and we need a health and environmental impact study. But when is the study going to be done? And when are we going to pay closer attention to our deteriorating water infrastructure? You've heard about multiple water main breaks. But what type of protections are we going to have when it comes to our water? Our federal consent decree for violation of the Clean Water Act is not being met. How many times do we have to go back and forth about water in DeKalb County? What about the hundreds of DeKalb County residents who are still being falsely harassed for water bills that are not even collectible? DeKalb County is illegally trying to collect water debt that is passed. past the statute of limitations and there are liens on people's homes. Don't forget about Mr. Gregory Jones who sits in his home with his son who has cerebral palsy and needs clean water in order to be healthy and to live with a lien on his home for water debt that is not even accurate. Mr. Jones was a victim of the faulty water meter scandal. You have many other people who are still suffering. Don't forget about Sameev Garrett, who had an $80,000 water bill. How in the world could that happen? But in DeKalb County, because we have decided to give pretty words without action, we still have people who are suffering. We need a real water customer bill of rights. We need to have a RAP program, a water rate assistance program, that actually includes more people. Because as it stands, the majority of people who apply for RAP don't even qualify. When are we going to start putting the people first? Are we going to keep saying things and not living up to it? When are we going to show the people of DeKalb County that we really are here for them? It's not even about attacking the commissioners because we don't want data centers. No, we don't. But what we really want is for each of you to live up to those promises that you make when you say that your vote is for our voice. Thank you.

Thank you. Our last speaker, Austin Payal. Austin, this is our last speaker. Good morning.

I'm Austin. I live in Tony Valley.

Data centers and AI, as they are being developed today, could not exist without surveillance. First, the majority of capital earned by AI companies like Google and Meta is earned through ad tech, accounting for 55% of Google's 2025 revenue and 98% of Meta's. This ad tech is premised on creating detailed profiles of users to facilitate highly targeted advertising and can also be utilized to conduct what's called pattern of life analysis to better model and predict user behavior both online and off. In fact, a police data broker named Penlink provides police and ICE with geofencing capabilities through location data garnered via mobile advertising IDs, which uniquely identify us to platforms and third party advertisers despite posturing as being anonymized. This allows them to draw a boundary around someone's house and trigger home raids when they pass in or out of that area. Second, the assumption of the data center boom is that this architecture of AI is sufficient to achieve general intelligence, which means human are better than human-level capabilities across all domains. Under this paradigm, the only bottleneck is scale, thus justifying trillions of dollars of capital expenditure and debt to build ever more computing power. This is extremely far-fetched. AI exhibits what some reachers call jagged intelligence. meaning it might be able to prove a decades-old mathematical conjecture, but it can't tell you how many Es are in the word intelligence. No one understands clearly why this is, because the models largely remain black boxes, even to those that implement them. Yet we're betting the well-being of our communities and the planet on the slim chance of a few companies actually turning a profit. Finally, the expansion of compute power only matters if it's accompanied by a proportional growth in data, in particular, human-generated data. The synthetic data that AI is capable of producing is not high quality enough to train future iterations of models, even as the internet is increasingly flooded by AI-generated text. This has been tested. When trained on AI-generated data, the performance of large language models regresses infinitely. The current models have already incorporated the vast majority of the human text corpus in their training sets, meaning that they require a significant growth in user engagement to maintain the flow of training data required for continuous model improvement. As proven by a recent review of LLM privacy policies, AI companies indiscriminately log user engagement, meaning that AI chatbots are also necessarily tools of state and corporate repression. We don't need a text amendment that opens the door to data centers. We need to shut them out entirely.

Thank you. Now it is 10 12. So we will be moving into our public hearing section. Excuse me, madam clerk.

If you'll read the instructions, citizens may speak for or against an item that is considered by law to be a zoning ordinance. And each side will have 10 minutes to present its case. Citizens may also speak for or against the item that is placed on the public hearing agenda, but it's not a zoning ordinance. In that case, each side will have five minutes to present its case. In the event there is more than one speaker per side, speakers must divide their time in order to complete their full presentation within the 10 minute time allotment or the five minute time allotment. When the buzzer sounds to indicate that time has run out, the speaker will be expected to immediately cease speaking and to leave the podium area. Prior to speaking, a speaker shall complete a speaker card and present it when approaching the podium. If a speaker has any documents for the commissioners, the speaker shall provide 10 copies when approaching the podium. Seven copies are for the commissioners and the remaining copies are for the planning director, the county attorney, and the clerk. In all zoning ordinance and traffic calming cases, staff should make their recommendation for action to the commission first, followed by applicants or citizens speaking in favor of the item. Applicants in zoning ordinance cases have the right to reserve time for rebuttal. Opponents of a zoning ordinance item shall have no right of rebuttal. For all other items placed on the public hearing agenda, applicants or citizens speaking in favor of the item shall speak first, followed by opponents of the item. Once the citizens have finished speaking, staff shall make a recommendation for action to the commission. At this point, citizens are no longer allowed to speak unless called to the podium by an individual commissioner to answer questions or provide information. Speakers should always talk directly into the microphone and begin by stating their name, address, and the name of any organization they represent. Abusive, profane, or derogatory language will not be permitted. Holding up signs, clapping, yelling, standing, or laying in the aisles to show support for or opposition to a speaker will not be permitted. But a show of hands or quietly standing in place will be permitted to show support for or opposition to a speaker's position.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. First, from the Chief Executive Office, we have item 2026-1045. Excuse me. There's a substitute for this item, and that item is all commission districts. 2026, ad valorem tax millage rates and budget revision. Good morning, Mr. Seidler.

Good morning, Madam PO. Good morning, Commissioners. So this is our first public hearing of three on the 2026 millage rates. We'll have a presentation, which you should have received copies of just now. And as the Presiding Officer mentioned, there is a substitute for this item. I think we're just waiting for the presentation to get pulled up and I'll get started. OK. So I really want to start off talking about what is in this budget, what it is that we're actually paying for with the revenue we receive through the millage rates. So what we did in this budget was really put our money where our mouth is and try to fund a lot of the programs and services that we've heard the most from residents about needing. So that includes the comprehensive housing strategy, As well as expanded funding for economic and workforce development, expanded healthcare access, compensation and benefit enhancements for firefighters, as well as police, which were funded last year. And then expanded animal welfare services, food security programs, voter education outreach, and continued support for the arts. So the next several slides are not new information. This is information of what was funded during the original adopted budget. So first off is the housing and affordability, which was a $12 million investment in the housing office and programs and initiatives for both the unhoused and for housing affordability. Second is workforce and economic development. That includes $1.9 million for WorkSource DeKalb. That included $1.3 million in additional programming as well as an additional $600,000 for the summer youth program. There was also $100,000 included for the Chamber of Commerce and $75,000 for a land value and revenue analysis. Healthcare access. There's $1.4 million funded for MedCura Health as well as $1.5 million for Mosaic Health. And that was to expand access to affordable health care across DeKalb. Public safety and workforce investments. So last year, there was a big push to provide additional compensation and benefits to police officers in order to increase our recruitment and retention of police officers. And I believe I have my numbers correct. We started off at the beginning of 2025 with 573 police officers funded, or excuse me, filled. And now we've increased that by about 90 positions. So we've been successful in really increasing the number of filled police positions that we have. And this year's budget included some very similar enhancements for firefighters to also aid in the retention and recruitment of firefighters. And then these are just some of the other items that were included in the initial budget. So we have $1 million for the Arts Council, $1 million for voter education and outreach, $1 million for the tire recycling program, $780,000 for expanded services through the Lifeline contract, funding for two paralegal positions to facilitate court dog cases, 500,000 for food security initiatives, and then also the creation of a community inclusion manager within the CEO's office. So that brings us to the 2026 proposed millage rates. As proposed in the original budget, there is a half mill increase to the total millage rate for the unincorporated area. So last year and for the last, I believe, 10 years prior, it had been at 20.81 mills. So the proposal for 2026 is 21.31 mills. And so this slide just lays out what that rate looks like across the various funds, as well as across the different cities unincorporated in DeKalb. And then the following slide is just a history of what those tax millage rates have looked like for unincorporated since 2016. I'm gonna miss one, here we go. So the 20 point, or excuse me, the 21.31 mils, as I said, is a half mil increase over last year. So we looked at what that would cost an average homeowner in unincorporated to cab. So the average value of a home in unincorporated to cab is $364,000. So that additional half mill would be equivalent to about $69 on their property tax bill, which is an increase of 574 per month. So less than $6 per month. okay the other thing that's going to be different this year is the eho's credit so last year was kind of anomaly if you recall we had a eho surplus that had built up over the years so we applied that to the property tax bills which provided additional tax relief to property owners last year so without that credit last year we would have only been able to provide an 86 credit off the general and hospital taxes So this year, we're gonna be able to provide 84.57% credit. So that will provide less tax relief than in the past. However, if you compare it to 2024, prior to the application of the e-host reserve, it's actually gonna be $36 more in e-host tax credit this year than in 2024. So when you net all that out and you compare the tax bill for an average unincorporated homeowner in 2026 versus 2024, the difference is really only $31 higher than what they would have paid in 2024. So in addition to the amount that's being provided for the general and hospital funds, as I said, that's an 84.5. There's also the remainder of that e-host reserve that's gonna be applied to unincorporated taxes as well as the city taxes. So that's a total of $10.8 million. That's gonna provide a 9.74% credit for unincorporated residents on their police services millage rate. And so the total e-host tax relief this year will be $177.5 million. i said 166.7 million is applied to the county-wide millage rates and then the 10.8 million will be applied across unincorporated and city village rates and this slide just shows that breakdown of how it's applied for unincorporated in the cities so it looks at the gross homestead digest for each of the cities and unincorporated and uses a percentage of that to determine how much of the e-hosts will go to each of the taxing jurisdictions. And in that way, what that does is it provides the equal amount of credit for homeowners with equal value homes, no matter where they live in DeKalb. All right, so the next slide is just a comparison of what the tax rates would look like by home values, or the tax bills. So we have two highlighted here, 364, that's the average value in unincorporated cab. There you can see what it would have been in 2024, as well as 2025 and 2026. And then the difference between 25 and 26, and 26 and 24. And then the green is 450, because that is the average homestead value across all of DeKalb, not just unincorporated DeKalb. So as you look down at that final column, which is really kind of the best comparison, looking at 26 versus 24, you can see it ranges from about an $11 increase at the low end, and then for A house that's a million dollars, it's about $90 increase compared to 2024. And then that final line at the bottom is just showing what the increase would be for a non-homestead property. So that's the average value in DeKalb is $775,000. So that increase would be $155 for a non-homestead property. Okay, so in putting together the digest, or excuse me, the millage rates and looking at the digest, there were some changes to our fund balances, what we're projecting for the end of this year. I won't go through the whole list there, but the big picture is we are projecting to have 119 million at the end of the year, which is roughly 1.4 months of recurring expenditures across all the tax funds. All right, and the final few slides are just kind of information about property taxes, so what a millage rate is, which is just the rate that is charged for property taxes, which is expressed in mils, so that's 1 1,000th. If you think of a percent as 1 100th, a mil is 1 1,000th. And then the tax digest is just the total value of all taxable property within DeKalb. And when we look at setting the millage rates, we're looking at the assessed value, which is 40% of the fair market value. And then we're looking at the net tax digest, which is that 40% amount less any of the exemptions for property taxes. All right, and then this slide shows the change in the digest since 2018. The blue bars are the gross digest, so that's that 40% value before exemptions, and the green bars are the net digest. And you'll see that there was pretty healthy growth really from about 2020 through 2024, and in the last two years it's kind of leveled off. So the next slide just shows the annual change, and you can see that again. 2020 was kind of the last comparable year in terms of digest growth. That year was 3.9% of the net, that increase. But then if you look at the next three years, we're at 8.4, 10.1, 10.1. And then for last year was 3.8, and this year we're at 4.1. So we have seen values. not decreased, but they are not growing as rapidly as they had in the last several years. All right, this is just the timeline for the millage rate process. So we've already passed where the tentative millage rates were adopted. That was at the end of last month. So now we are here, 623, this is the first public hearing on the millage rates. As I mentioned, there are going to be two more. The second will be tonight at 6 p.m. in this room. And then the third and final one will be on July 7th, 10 a.m. during the BOC meeting, which is also when the scheduled approval of the millage rate will occur. All right, with that, that concludes my presentation.

Thank you, TJ. And now we'll go into the public comment. If you are here to speak in favor of this item, please step to that back podium. If you are in favor of this item, please step to that back podium. All right. If you are in opposition, please step to the back podium. Good morning.

Hey, Jan Littleway, District 4. We've listened to the presentation, which will result in property tax increase for the citizens of the county. Today, you will also vote to increase our stormwater utility fee rate and our sanitation rate in another 10 by 10, which is on our property taxes, which will also increase our property taxes substantially. I think it's time maybe we take a more conservative look at things because we're spending money on a lot of stuff. And you sitting there will be the ones that will be known for all the property tax increases in DeKalb for the next 10 years because you voted on it. We're watching. Be careful how you spend our money. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker in opposition. Good morning.

Stephen Benny, 1083 Seville Drive, Clarkson, Georgia, 30021. Now first off, I would like to ask that if the e-host is going to the cities and unincorporated, why is the millage increase only to the unincorporated areas? I think that the tax increase should be to all residents of DeKalb County. Don't we all share in the services? Congratulations, commissioners. You have been substituting a very progressive property tax with a very regressive sales tax for over 40 years. And now the state of Georgia has realized what a great idea it is. When the Republicans think what you have been doing tax-wise is a good idea, it may be time to reconsider what you have been doing over the last 40 years. using a regressive sales tax to pretend to lower property taxes is nothing more than a con game. If your property tax is $2,000 with the e-host, without the e-host, it might be $3,000. But the county doesn't need $3,000 from you. It only needs $2,000. So the county would lower your millage rate until your tax amount is $2,000. The e-host does not lower the taxes you pay, it only increases the millage rate you pay on those areas not covered by the e-host. The price of Coca-Cola is $4.99 at the grocery store. You go in one day and there is a sale on Coca-Cola, $3 off. A great deal, but then you notice that the everyday price has been raised to $7.99. So at checkout, you are still paying $4.99. e-host is a $3 off sign, but the amount of taxes you pay is still $4.99. Taxing poor people to make property owners believe the fallacy that they are saving money on their property taxes is a con worthy of Donald Trump. but we have been doing it here in DeKalb County for over 40 years. Stop this madness now. Drop the EHO sales tax and lower the millage rates of all property owners. It is the righteous and fair thing to do for all DeKalb County taxpayers. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Next speaker in opposition. Good morning.

Good morning, Gina Mangum. I live in districts five and seven. I just want to speak generally about how we're represented and how our dollars are spent. We seem to be really good at collecting money in DeKalb County. But as for South DeKalb, and that means Southwest, South Central, and Southeast, we have been disinvesting in these communities for years. We have, I know I harp on it all the time, but the smartest situation is now just gotten to the point of ridiculousness. We have been paying for 50 years and we don't have transit. 50 years and we are funding a system that we don't enjoy. But that's not the only thing. When you look at SPLOST, we not only get unincorporated dollars for SPLOST, the cities get their fair share, which is fair. But we're also paying for countywide projects, those things that the county is responsible for in cities. So the cities are double dipping. Now this isn't a city versus unincorporated issue. This is a fairness and equity issue. And equity doesn't necessarily mean equal. Equity says that's where the needs should be met. And so I'm just going to throw something out here that I've been thinking about for a long time. Maybe if you run for commissioner in unincorporated DeKalb, you should live in unincorporated DeKalb because five of these board members live in cities and they are not representing our interest. And so when we think about collecting money and how decisions are made and who is affected, I hear from my commissioner, Marita Davis Johnson, all the time, I'm affected, too. But that's not necessarily true because you live in the city of Stonecrest. And I'll give you an example. This last zoning snafu where without any discussion, A concrete facility was approved in unincorporated DeKalb, and now a Metro Green application is in for unincorporated DeKalb that came from Stonecrest. And so my point is this. You need to represent the interests of the people that live in your district. but the district also includes cities that are represented by city councils and other people on various issues such as zoning, budgets, and a lot of other things. So, we don't need to be divided, but what we need to do is to be equitable and fair in the distribution of resources, the distribution of services, and right now, equity demands that South DeKalb get more than North DeKalb and the cities because we have been disinvested for years. So while we're talking about raising rates and raising fees and raising everything else, we not only need to look at what we're collecting, but where we're investing and disinvesting and looking at putting, oh, by the way, industrial development, like data centers. So what you need to do is take care of your constituents in unincorporated DeKalb, south and north, but it affects us the most. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in opposition? Good morning, ma'am.

Good morning.

Jocelyn O'Neil. I double ditto what has already been said. I wish my mind could keep it all, because I couldn't write fast enough. But I just want to say, equitable, equal, and let us see where our money is actually going. I've been begging for a sidewalk on Glenwood Road for I don't know how long. I see sidewalks all around my neighborhood, but where it's most dangerous and deadly, I still have not gotten the results. Some of that e-splash money, we need to know how to get the grant money. Every neighborhood has something that they need. What do we got? Splash one, two, three, four, five. How many splashes we have? Do we have? Somebody tell me how many splashes we have. And I just want to see one splash go to zero before the next splash comes in, and it needs to be at zero so that we know that the money that has already been taken is actually being used. And if it's being used, then there's no money to go and splash two, three, four, five, six, seven, Whatever it is, we don't need that. But we need the equity. We need it to be equal all across the board, not just for the cities paying one thing and then we pay as unincorporated to Cal pay something else.

Thank you, ma'am. There is 50 seconds if there's someone else would like to speak in opposition. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning, my name is Jimmy Easton. I represent the Carriage Hills community, and I am respectfully asking the board to exercise caution before approving any increase in the millage rates or budget expansion without first demonstrating measurable outcomes from current spending. Many DeKalb residents are already facing rising housing costs, insurance costs, utility bills, and inflation. Property tax increases do not only impact homeowners, but they are often passed along to renters as well. Before asking taxpayers to contribute more, I believe residents deserve clear answers regarding how existing funds have been used, what performance metrics have been achieved, and what efficiencies have been explored within the county government. Ask the board to prioritize transparency, fiscal responsibility, and accountability. Thank you.

At this time, Mr. Siegler, if you'd come back up and give staff recommendation on this item.

Thank you. The staff recommendation is to defer the substitute to the July 7th meeting.

Thank you so much. If we can get our machines ready.

Yes. Motion to defer the substitute to the July 7th. Second. With a stop in FAB today. And I have a quick question.

Your button. Hit your button for your motion, please, sir. Thank you. Hit your button for your second. OK. Commissioner Terry, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President and Officer. TJ, can you, for the FAB meeting today, can we just dive a little bit deeper into how all the different rates are changing? Because I was having trouble following I see that the end amount, but I noticed all the different funds are kind of fluctuating. So if we could just kind of go through the rationale for each of those ups and downs and then just help us clarify the difference on the general fund 2026 and 2025. It looks on the one spreadsheet, it looked like it went down on the general fund for this year. So just something for us to talk about in more detail at the committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Patrick, you're next.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. TJ, could you remind us what the proposed new millage rate is intended to cover?

So really, when it was originally proposed, a lot of it was to go towards the general fund to cover the housing investment bonds and other programs for housing. That was sort of the centerpiece of it, as well as the other items I mentioned for health care access, food security, arts council funding, lifeline, animal services, everything that was at sort of the start of the presentation. So the difference now really is looking at kind of where we ended last year and where we might see some deficiencies going forward for this year. And this kind of gets into Commissioner Terry's question that one of the big shifts here is you'll see the The general fund proposed rate is lower than what it was originally, but the police fund is higher. And that's due to the fact that we filled more positions.

Respectfully, my questions are sort of narrow and tailored towards that additional ask. that you had mentioned and one of those things was the housing fund that was intended to address the affordability crisis that we're in the middle of as well as addressing the homelessness crisis. That is something that affects everyone from, and I've been down to Rainbow Drive and I've been up to obviously Dunwoody Club Drive and there are homeless folks everywhere and so this is one of those things I think that the CEO has intended to actually address a pertinent concern that everybody is experiencing right now. So that is ultimately what I wanted to hear you say is, yes, it's going up, but the rationale that it's going up is we're actually going to be fixing some of the issues that people come to us with concerns about. Again, affordable housing, like I said, affordable housing as well as the homelessness crisis. So thank you very much. I yield back my time.

Thank you, Commissioner Patrick. Commissioner Long-Speers, you're next.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. TJ, I know how hard this is for you. We appreciate you so very much. So thank you for being with us today and doing your very best and a good job at walking us through the presentation. I'll ask my easy question first. And that one is related to slide three, the housing and affordability slide. So it states here that the initial investment in 2026 is 12 million, but ongoing annual funding of 15 million beginning of 2027. Investment enables the county to leverage partnerships through housing investment bonds and maximize impact. My clarification question is just confirming this is for the affordable housing fund. It's just not explicitly stated in this presentation.

So I think sort of,

we call it the affordable housing fund but it is part of the general fund budget is the funding source so this would be right what we've referred to as the housing affordability fund okay so that affordable housing fund 12 million this year 15 million annually starting next year how i'm reading this is to fund the establishment of the new housing office

I mean, that's a portion of it, but that's a very small portion of what that actual budget will be. It's really to, yeah, what's been proposed is probably about $10 million annually that would be for debt service for any of the bond programs, and then $5 million mostly for programs, so things that we would not be taking debt on to actually provide, but just paying as you go. More like the day center is a great example of that. And then the actual administrative part of it is very small.

Okay. The point I was trying to drive home is the affordable housing fund, again, $12 million this year, $15 million beginning next year and moving forward. One of the concerns I brought to our chief housing officer is that the fund was never intended to pay for salaries. or people if you will and so we discussed this last week and doctor ferguson has affirmed that that is indeed correct that the funding from the affordable housing fund that we just referenced will not be used for salaries So I just wanted to make sure that you, sir, as our budget director, are aware of that. And Dr. Ferguson, if he's here, he can speak to it. I was looking, don't see him, but I can certainly ask him to put that in writing and make sure it's looped into you. All right. My next question is, I was going through yesterday the May 21st presentation. And as you always do, sir, in your presentations, you have your notice of property tax increase, and you provide the example that will appear in the champion. I'm trying to understand what was written there to what we have now is that in this one at the very first bullet point is that states that the governing authority has tentatively adopted a 2026 millage rate, which will require an increase in property taxes by 1.02%. And then you go down to that bottom bullet and it talks about, gives the example. If you have a $450,000 home, that's approximately $21.06. If you have a $775,000 home, that's approximately $36.20. The reason I am flagging this, and I know you will have the answer, is on page 17 of today's presentation it has $30 for a $364,000 house and that's a difference between 24 and 26 and then it has a $450,000 3882 is between 2024 and 26 and so if you could a that's part a explain that for me i know it might relate to e-host or just the changes of your analysis after we included the notice and the champion but a point i do want to make is that i understand why you are comparing 2026 to 2024. you explained to us why 2025 was not the best year for comparison purposes due to the eho's change however i just want to point out is that A normal citizen, when you receive your property tax bill, you're going to notice the 25 to 26 increase in it. And I think it's just important for you to know that, sir. Thank you.

To answer the first part of your question.

May he continue, Madam Pio? Yes, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Sarah, go ahead. And then we'll move to the next person.

So the advertisement that rounds in the champion, that is mandated by state law. And it's calculated just on a portion of the millage rate. So only on the general fund and hospital fund. So presentation today is looking at all millage rates. So that's one of the major differences. The other difference is that when we're looking at that, it's also looking at the rollback rate rather than what the rate was last year. And then the third part of that is there is no, when we're having to do those calculations, we can't factor in e-host at all. So that's not reflected in what's advertised. So really though, if you go back to what was advertised and what the rollback rate was and what's being proposed now, For the county-wide rates, there's actually, we're below the rollback rate. So there's actually, it's just having so many different millage rates and different requirements of how we advertise, it gets a little bit confusing to present it.

Thank you, sir. I yield back. Commissioner Mosiah?

Thank you so much, Madam PO. So just so that I am clear, and thank you, the substitute, what's the difference between the substitute and the agenda item we were already presented?

The agenda item previously was really just a placeholder. It didn't have any of the detail as far as what was being proposed.

Okay. All right. And then just to make sure that I'm clear, in terms of the proposed millage rate for unincorporated DeKalb, it's 21,310, is that correct? That's correct. Whereas a city, for instance, like Atlanta, it is 11,386. And the second highest, I guess, only being Stonecrest at 21,104.

Yes.

It's being proposed that unincorporated DeKalb County pay a higher millage rate than some of the other areas.

that's correct but the difference is in the services that are provided by the county in those areas so you know you pointed to the two extremes so one is city of atlanta where they provide their own fire service they provide everything except for the general fund and hospital funds so they are only paying the county-wide rates whereas in stonecrest We're still providing most of the services that they were receiving previously with the exception of parks. So that's the difference in Stonecrest millage rate versus the unincorporated millage rate.

And I completely understand that. I was just making sure that was made clear because there are folks, and the larger amount of land and property is in unincorporated DeKalb County for my district. And there's consistent complaints, obviously, in terms of services being provided. So I was just trying to understand that for clarity's sake and for the benefit of the public. The other thing is in terms of the reserves. And so there's less than a month in reserves or unincorporated, is that correct? I think I saw 0.6.

I believe that's for the bond fund, an incorporated bond fund. So we typically keep a little bit less there, as well as in the hospital fund, just because we know what the expenses will be. There's no variability really there in those two funds, unlike some of the other funds where, depending on staffing or any needs that come up through the year, it can vary more.

Okay, and so a million for the Arts Council. And then just to mention, I think you had shared that there is an expected increase of $31. Only $31, but as you know, $31 makes a difference to people on fixed incomes. So just to be mindful of that. With that, I'll yield for now and take the rest of my questions offline. Thank you so much, Madam PO.

Thank you, Commissioner Masai. Commissioner Bolton.

Thank you, Madam PO, and thank you, TJ. We do understand that this is complex and trying to do a really quick 10, 15 minute presentation does cause you to leave some of the details out. So we do have to ask questions for clarity. And I'd like to just start on page seven where it talks about additional general fund investments at the bottom. The last bullet is creation of a community inclusion manager within the CEO's office. Can you provide a description of that and the cost to stand that office up?

So I can provide the cost. I'll have to get back with you on that. But the description, I believe, that was in response to some just having more outreach to some of the minority communities and immigrant and refugee communities throughout the county.

And currently, what are we doing to reach out to those communities? When I say we, I'm referring to the administration.

And thank you, I'm going to jump in real quickly. And it's much more ad hoc. Currently, we do all that we can with existing personnel to be inclusive and such. But we don't have anyone who's assigned kind of the targeted responsibility of ensuring that that all communities know that DeKalb County is open and accessible. And so the intent there is to, with this position, is to assist not only with business programming where various cultures can participate as vendors, but also ensuring that there's an open line of communication, a more open and direct line of communication between the county, the administration, and the various communities.

And it sounds like they will rely heavily on relationships with departments and partners.

Absolutely, absolutely.

In order to execute. Absolutely. So following my next question is coming from page 15, where You discussed some e-host tax relief, and I just wanted to ask really quickly, will there be a sliding scale of e-host tax relief for those who have a home valued at 200,000 versus maybe a million, considering those who have homes with higher values may be able to afford the increase more readily than those like me who have homes that are not priced that high or valued that high.

So I don't believe there's a sliding scale. Everything is based on state law and how that's calculated. EHOST actually stands for Equalization Homestead Option Sales Tax. So the intent when the General Assembly passed it was to make sure that similarly situated residents throughout the county would receive similar benefits. So what that means is that everyone would receive the same 85% off their general and hospital tax funds. It's a little bit different once you get to the cities and the unincorporated where the dollar amount will be the same as far as how much relief they see on their bill, but the percentages will be different And that varies based on the millage rates that are charged in those jurisdictions. So what you would see there is if there's a jurisdiction that has a higher millage rate, then they would get a smaller percentage of that forgiven just because of the fact that they are charging more taxes versus a city that has a lower millage rate, which would then basically the amount of taxes going to, or the amount of e-hosts going to those cities would be able to offset a greater percentage due to the differences in millage rates.

Okay, so basically I'm understanding that due to state mandate, there isn't an opportunity for equity, it's literally equalization where everybody pays the same. And so it's out of our hands at this point. Okay, so moving along to slide 22, I did have a concern about whether this trend is consistent with other jurisdictions of similar size across the nation, and if this is not consistent in its trend, what's the correlation or causation that we're seeing in 2025 and 26, that it's significantly less here in DeKalb.

So we'll have to look into that. We haven't looked at other jurisdictions to see if they're experiencing the same sort of growth into the digest. And I think there's multiple reasons why this could be the case, but at this point, I'm not sure that I could speak to any one of those.

okay and that's the conversation we can continue offline when we've had an opportunity to look at those trends i think i had one more let me hear you for my time run

Thank you, ma'am. Did anyone need, excuse me, does anyone need to have a second round of questions? All right, seeing none, the motion before us is to defer the substitute until the July 7th meeting. Please open the machine for the vote.

Motion to defer carries. Thank you, Mr. Cesar.

We are now on the top of page 3, item 2026-0452, Commission District 3, Super District 6, application of Torrey Engineering Care of Amber Lee to rezone property from R75 zoning district to R60 zoning district to allow 12 single-family homes at 2697 Kelly Lake Road. Good morning, Ms. Brett.

Good morning, commissioners. The staff recommendation on this item is for approval with conditions. The proposal reflects the development patterns of the surrounding residential subdivisions and introduces a modest increase in density that provides an appropriate transition between zoning districts. At approximately three units per acre, the density is well below the maximum density for the character area, which is up to eight units per acre. The proposal also supports the suburban policies of small-scale infill, which expands housing choice while maintaining neighborhood character. Therefore, upon review of sections two to one and pursuant to section 27735, staff recommends approval with six conditions. Number one, units one and 12 shall have a direct sidewalk connection from each unit directly to Kelly Lake Road. Number two, all proposed units facade shall include a porch. Three stormwater retention ponds shall include at least two benches and will be landscaped. The applicant will supply proposed enhancements to the retention area prior to approving, receiving a rezoning approval letter. Four, to ensure compatibility with the existing development pattern, the applicant will supply proposed elevations prior to receiving a zoning approval letter. Streetscape improvements along Kelly Lake Road shall meet the requirements of Section 27543A, streetscape elements and dimensions, improvements on new streets, and improvements on existing streets. And finally, number six is approval of this rezoning by the Board of Commissioners has no bearing on the requirements for other regulatory approvals under the authority of the Planning Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, or other entity whose decision should be based on the merits of the application under review by each entity. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So now we'll start the public hearing portion. If you are here to speak in favor of this item, please step to that back podium. Do one more call. If you are here to speak in favor of this item, please step to the back podium. Seeing no one. If you are in opposition of this item, please step to the back podium. Good morning.

Good morning, distinguished commissioners. My name is Eric Peek. I reside at 2615 Candler Woods Drive. I have been a homeowner there for over 30 years. Many of the individuals within our community have been homeowners in this community for over 30 years. We are very progressive. We have great community meetings, great turnouts, and we're working for a more progressive, active, and meaningful community. And we vehemently oppose the area being rezoned for these R-60 homes. Many of the homeowners in our area have, again, as I stated, have been there for over 30 years. And many of us, if not all of us, are registered voters and we are productive citizens. We've had several meetings with regards to this rezoning issue. We made it clear from day one that we are in opposition of it. Now, if it was R75, we wouldn't have a problem. we're talking our 60 homes and that is something that uh we have uh voted uh as a community that we are not uh in agreement with this and we made again we made it crystal clear we're upset because we believe a meeting has occurred that encouraged this application with commissioners uh and it was a it was a meeting that was done in private that was something that was brought to our attention within the last meeting that we have We also, in the very last meeting that we had, we had a scratch in our heads, because we had a denial, then it changed to a withdrawal, Again, we thought that it was going to be withdrawn. And then shortly after, there was a deferral with 30 days to discuss this concern. Now, if the individuals that are members of our community are in direct opposition of these R-60 homes, why are we continuing to kick this can, continuously doing these deferrals each and every cycle? It's not productive. It's not going to change. I mean, we've already made our decision that this is not something that we want. We are definitely working against blight in our community. We're fighting against pad splits, illegal personal care facilities. Pursuit of traffic calming measures within our unit. And we've actually, we've had some success, again, but it's an ongoing process. We're in South DeKalb where it appears that it's the dumping ground for a lot of things that are happening within our community. And we are not gonna, the buck stops here. And we should, you should, it's something, it should not even be an issue if the homeowners in that area where they're trying to propose this change are in direct opposition. Why are we continuously kicking this can? Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Next speaker. Good morning, ma'am.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Delphi Yvonne Joe. I'm 83 years old.

I've lived in my home for what, 53 years.

I've been here at all these meetings trying to tell you we don't care what the homes look like. what they build them. Our issue is zoning. Why did that nice lady go through all of this telling about how they're gonna look? That is the county's department. My department is we do not want rezoning. We have worked hard in our neighborhood since I moved there in 1973 to keep the zoning that we've had. We have an R-60 zoning, but it has been a grandfathered thing from years ago. So I'm saying to you, listen to the community. We care about our community. We have stopped builders from coming in there doing crazy things like doing townhouses. We have stopped them changing commercial property to residential Because we need commercial. We don't even have a decent grocery store until Lorraine Cochran Johnson got in office. Now we will soon have a Publix. Thank you, Jesus. So what I'm saying to you all and to Messiah, we don't want zoning change it's r75 let's leave it now if these builders can't afford to do r75 then they need to go up the road and find some place else to build there are 60 houses and leave our neighborhood alone that's all we're asking build your homes you're welcome to come but leave the zoning along if you can't survive a decrease of two homes, then you're in the wrong business. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am. Good morning.

Good morning. My name is for Tony a Jerry. I'm at 2632 calendar was dry. Um, they say it all. They said it all. But let me tell you on a simple parent, they are coming into our house disrespecting us. We don't care if they be a houses just as long as they don't come in and start rezoning us. They are coming to our home telling us, we don't want your kitchen over here. We want it over there. They haven't lived in our homes. And Keller Lake is our home. Our community is our home. They are coming in our home telling us what to redirect, how to do it. This is that. And then they getting the board trying to say, OK, y'all will get more money if you get more housing, this. But what about us people? We are people, we have hearts and we are soul and we have our community. That is the only place we have here on earth for us to try to feel safe and sound in. We do not want no rezoning, our water structure is beginning to get bad, and it's just a mess. They stated that the first meeting they had only five of us on the line. The reason why that was was because they gave us the wrong information. And not only that, but they did not mail us the meeting instruction. until after the meeting. We had to find out they had the first meeting from another neighborhood whom they sent the papers to. So they just disrespecting us. They like, hey, there ain't nothing but dirt. We can do what we want to do. Let's try to get the commission to get on board with us. And that's not right. We've been there years. I've been in my home 16 years. And you heard Miss Jo, 53 years. We have our own homeowners there that's been there longer. And we don't want no rezoning. You could build houses as long as they are 75. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else is wanting to speak in opposition? Good morning, ma'am.

Hi, again, Rosalyn McIntyre. I just looked this up. faith institution is in this area. So I just looked this up because I've been in that area for over 40 years. And it says here, and I'm using AI, in Atlanta, closely packed homes are unique for fire risks. So my question is to planning, have you talked to the people with the fire department? They have given me information about Etheridge Street, where homes burn. This is in Northwest Atlanta. On Hill Street in Southwest Atlanta. On Boldecrest Road in unincorporated DeKalb, two newly built homes under construction in the Eastside Park area, they burned because they were too close together. It was a brush fire that started, but it destroyed those two homes. I mean, I'm just looking at all of this, these homes that are being built. You're rezoning, making more homes, putting more homes on smaller lots, and then they don't have that space between them when fires start. I just want to know if the planning department is in discussion with other departments, such as the fire department.

Thank you, ma'am. We have just over a minute for probably one final speaker. Good morning, sir.

Thanks, y'all. My name is Paul Glaze. I'm a resident of Kelly Lake at 2609 Yale Terrace. We have lived there for a few years now. And I just want to say that the area is developing and this community has worked very hard to help rally together, welcome new people, welcome new families, but protect legacy homeowners. And this has been a fight that has actually helped us do that. It is bringing people together. And so I would just urge you to respect the R75 zoning. We are right in the middle of a lot of commercial development. It is happening. It is going to be happening regardless. But this is one that has been good for us and that protects a very beautiful kind of natural entrance to one part of the neighborhood. And so just again, thank you so much for your time today. And we do urge you to preserve the R75 zoning.

Thank you, sir. There is 20 seconds left. All right, seeing no one else coming up to speak in opposition of this item, if Deputy Director Bragg will come forward.

The staff recommendation is for approval with six conditions.

Thank you. Is there a motion?

Motion to die.

Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Messiah has requested to speak. You have the floor now.

Thank you so much, Madam Peel. Thank you so much for the community for coming out. I'll tell you, my consistent concern for our district, for our community is applications such as this. I have colleagues on this Board of Commissioners who have presented agenda items to, by matter of right, reduce the R75, R85 square footage so that there doesn't even have to be an application in place, so that it doesn't have to come before us as a Board of Commissioners, so that the community doesn't have to give notice, so that there isn't an opportunity to be heard. and where an applicant doesn't have to communicate what the burden would be by just building in the character and the nature as zoned. Those are the things that I've fought against for the longest time. And these are the type of things that when I'm long gone, I need our community to continue to fight against because they will try to get them in. Pay attention to when there's cameras and people taking cameras and filming and when they're not. Pay attention to when people are standing up and fighting for and fighting against and not. And seeing who those individuals are aligned with. Pay attention and fight for your community. Fight for our community. I will be having empowerment. And providing resources and going out strong to make sure that our communities are equipped with all of the resources necessary, all the information necessary to know what we're fighting against and to continue to be able to do so in my stead. I thank you so much again for coming out and I'm happy to deny this.

Thank you Commissioner Messiah, Commissioner Terry.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to our neighbors and constituents that came out today. I know we were hoping to meet on Thursday, but a storm system came in and we had to cancel the meeting. But you're here today, and you've let your opinions be known. So I want to respect that. I think that the thing that the denial and the reason why I support the denial is that it does give a two-year cooling off period. So a denial does, if it's approved today, would prohibit any rezoning application for two years. I think that gives us time as commissioners as well as the Kelly Lake community to really ask the question of how do you wanna see your community grow? And set the terms now before any new applications come. We've been working in other parts of District 6 to do small area plans where we've, and we'll have another agenda item uh public hearing later today that is asking this question of can we move forward with zoning while we're trying to do a small area plan to chart the future over the next 10 to 15 years of our neighborhoods so what i would like to ask for from the administration and the planning department in the new on-call planning contract that hopefully will be approving later today for those small area plans to be inclusive of communities that are experiencing development pressures. When we have a community like Kelly Lake that hasn't had a comprehensive small area plan, sometime these sort of one-off zoning applications can feel disjointed from the larger plan. And because there isn't a dedicated long range plan for Kelly Lake, it feels like you're fighting things versus saying here's what we wanna see. And so all future applications will be based on what the community is looking to see in those development patterns. So I think this two year period gives us time to do that. I'm looking for a mid year budget, Zach, so that we can include the Kelly Lake community in the small area plan budget. within that contract so that we can start this process. Now the community has come together, which is really exciting, so I appreciate that sometimes those fights introduce us to people that we might otherwise not have met. And this is an opportunity of empowerment to say for yourselves, this is what we want to see. And so let's move forward with the idea that if we plan a future together, it can be smart, it can be sustainable, it can protect our legacy residents, but also provide that economic development that we are looking for in South DeKalb. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry. And just to clarify, the motion is to deny. Our screens are showing deferred.

Deny.

Okay. There we go. I see it now. Thank you. Seeing no further requests to speak, please open the machine for the vote. Motion to deny carries.

Madam Presiding Officer, before you move to the next item, we would like to have a motion to reconsider item 2026-1045.

Can I get that motion that we can explain? So moved. Second. You guys can hit your buttons for me. One more time, Commissioner Terry. There we go. I don't know. All right. And open the machine for the vote to reconsider. Thank you so much. At this time, I will call on Attorney Phillips to explain.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. We're simply trying to make sure the motion is precisely accurate. You didn't technically say the word for public hearing in the deferral to July 7th, so the deferral to July 7th should be for public hearing so the clerk's record is accurate.

Understood. Thank you. Commissioner Terry?

Thank you and apologies for missing that. So motion to defer item 1045 to the July 7th BFC meeting. The substitute. The substitute.

Second.

Thank you. For a public hearing.

Second. Motion and a second to defer the substitute to July 7th with a public hearing. And if we open the machine for the vote. that motion carries thank you so much and thank you all for keeping us on track and where we need to be so now we are still top of page three item 2026-0628 all the commission districts application of the director of planning and sustainability for a text amendment to amend chapter 24 pertaining to an excise tax on short-term rentals and chapter 27 pertaining to zoning For the purpose of clarifying provisions, this text amendment is countywide, and we were just handed a substitute. Good morning again, Ms. Bryant. Thank you, sir. Good morning.

So the staff recommendation for this is for approval of the substitute, which was revised on 6-4 and emailed to you on 6-18. The proposed text amendment clarifies the ordinance language to reflect the current operations by replacing references to a permit with a license, which is consistent with the business licensing process. The substitute removed several proposed amendments after a legal review because they were either redundant or addressed future practices not currently codified. including provisions related to chronic nuisance properties and residential entertainment so just very simply the ordinance really just changed the primary thing it does is changes every reference to permit to license thank you thank you deputy director bragg this is a public hearing item so if you are in favor of this item please step to the back podium

If you are in favor of this item, please step to the back podium. All righty, seeing nobody. If you are in opposition, please step to the back podium. Seeing, and one more call. Anyone in opposition of this item? All right, seeing nobody. Deputy Director Bragg, one more time.

The recommendation is for approval of the substitute.

Thank you. Is there a motion for this item? It's all commission districts.

Motion to approve the substitute.

Seconded by Commissioner Marita Davis-Johnson. Commissioner Terry has requested a speak. You have the floor, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Director Bragg, the Community Council District 5 recommendation wanted to add an amendment for under 4.2.15

adding felony sex crimes and crimes against children should be added to the list of reasons for denial revocation and suspension was that made into the final draft no so the original version of this was a little bit more ambitious but through the Community Council Planning Commission and then through this process the ordinance was streamlined to really only address the current operational deficiency of the ordinance which was changing the license the references to permit to licensing so we do expect we are currently implementing this ordinance and so we do expect to come back with a number of recommendations for proposed changes to the ordinance at a later date and that may be something that we look at at that time okay is there any legal reason why we couldn't just add that today um not that i'm aware of but i don't know if legal has reviewed that that policy recommendation specifically

okay county attorney phillips is that something that y'all need to research further um add a prohibition can you read that commissioner terry again yeah it just says under section 4.2.15 adding felonies sex crimes and crimes against children shall be added to the list of reasons for denial revocation suspension of the license

So the proposal would be to add that to the ordinance today from the dais. Was that taken out? No, it was never included. So that was a recommendation for one of the community councils.

OK. Commissioner, I would suggest that we give it time to research that addition.

I'm sorry. I would recommend that we had some additional time to research the addition of those proposed conditions. OK. OK.

Okay, thank you for that. Director Bragg, when, so for, I know this is more of a cleanup agenda item, so when would you all expect to bring additional revisions back to the board?

It's really going to depend on how the process goes. So we are also in the middle of our zoning code update. So at some point, we are going to try to stop having as many text amendments so that we can really focus on the zoning code update. And this could be changes that could be included in that process.

OK. One of the changes I think that myself and a couple other commissioners had asked about was once we've established the ordinance to basically set the ceiling for non-homestead properties. So does that amendment need further review? It seemed like that one was pretty, universally accepted by the community council and I think by commissioners. So is that something, I'm looking for, I don't want to go through a whole six, nine months when there's some things I think that have appeal and make sense that we could hopefully do quicker than waiting for the zoning update.

So I think that a substantive change to the short-term rental regulations would need to go through Community Council Planning Commission and back to you for approval and review, right? They have to? I mean, so I think that a substantive change to the legislation should go through that process.

okay well i'm thinking because i feel like we talked about a lot of these changes throughout the years long process they just didn't make it into the final version so my opinion is that we've talked about it it just didn't make it in for you know i guess logistical reasons and maybe other things to research but i think for you know adding that prohibition language setting the cap for non-homestead exempted properties i think is the best way to preserve the what basically has been a proliferation of Airbnbs and properties basically as a business venture. So taking single family homes off the market for purely rental purposes and if we cap it where it's at now, and then all future ones have to be homestead exemptions. We're preserving future housing stock for home ownership. So that one, to me, seemed like it was pretty popular. So I guess legally speaking, we don't have to go back through the full cycle to make these, what I think would be small amendments.

I mean, I think you could make a motion, and if it gets four votes, then it would be adopted, right? Okay.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry. Seeing no other requests to speak, please open the machine. I have. You're second, okay.

Yes, so Commissioner Patrick, would you accept a friendly amendment upon approval of this, request the planning department to come back with those additional amendments that they've been working on, they just didn't make it in this, within the next zoning cycle?

Just so I'm clear, the additional items that you read in, you would like those to be, as part of the motion, a consideration to have planning staff come back to us after it goes through the process?

Yeah, I think the staff would need the board direction on working on additional amendments. If it's just me saying it, then I'm only one vote. But if the board voted to request that they work on this, hopefully we can have it come back within one zoning cycle.

How about motion to approve with a ask of staff to come back to us within one or two cycles for additional text amendments? Can you live with that?

Yes, if Director Brack is good with that.

Yes, so we're learning things as we implement this ordinance, right? And so I just think that there will be a number of things that need to be addressed that may not be totally obvious to us within the next two months.

Okay, two cycles.

So that gives us four months.

If there's something to talk about. Is that an acceptable condition as well? If there's something to talk about, if they have something that they found, come back to us.

So I will also just say, as you're aware, we have seven items on this morning's agenda. Staff is working on a number of really large projects, so our capacity is reaching its maximum. So we can do our best.

i like that's the right attitude thank you well and just uh you know i don't want to like make a big deal about all i don't want to get too granular i think there were just two main amendments that i think have actually really been deliberated on um so one is adding that restriction language and then two just capping the homestead i think that's reasonable i don't think that's gonna throw off the whole system

So capping the number of non-homesteaded short-term rentals, and you said the second one was?

Just adopting the recommendation from Community Council District 5 to add felony sex crimes and crimes against children to the reasons for denial, revocation, and suspension pending law department review.

so currently we don't require a background check in order to register as a short-term rental owner so i would just want to look more into how the planning department is reviewing that issue and applying it okay great well let's let's add that to the list too that's a great idea rachel because yeah i mean they're operating in our i mean these are

rentals in neighborhoods broadly. And so I think having that level of review and background check and just ensuring that what happens at these locations aren't gonna disrupt the communities that they're placed in. So it's Commissioner Patrick, I think she's accepted two cycles, but I think we can do it a lot quicker than that, Rachel. So it's within two cycles. Is that fair?

I'm going to defer to the presiding officer to address how we talk about things here.

I think I'll touch on that after everyone else that has requested to speak has spoken, because I'm still trying to digest what is being asked. So Commissioner Davis-Johnson.

Yeah, I think that's.

Microphone.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good morning.

Good morning.

And I think that we should deal with really the issue at hand so that we're not piece milling this item and have to continuously bring it back. I think that any discussions as to tax amendments should be brought to the attention of planning and considered and discussed along with legal. and then should be brought back to us in a comprehensive, holistic manner than trying to piecemeal what we're saying from the desk today. So I'm for moving forth with this item. I do understand and appreciate that there will be tax amendments, There will be amendments that we will add, but I think it needs to be considered in a comprehensive matter, not piecemeal. I would suggest that any of us that have recommendations to be made to get with planning. And then you all can give us a certain, a time certain as to when you all prepare to bring it back after considering what the seven commissioners and the community may have an impact on. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Davis-Johnson, Commissioner Bolton.

Thank you, ma'am. And I just do want to iterate that we did previously, a few of us did have conversation with legal about capping the number of STRs based on homestead. And I was under the impression that it was going into the document as well. However, if all commissioners had not had an opportunity to read, hear, discuss, or contribute to that, I do think it's important that everybody gets that opportunity. But I do want to clarify that I was under the impression that after we had the discussion with legal that it would be put into the document and codified for this meeting to move it forward. And this was several months ago. I don't even recall precisely when it was. I yield back.

Thank you. Commissioner Messiah. Thank you so much, Madam PO. Yes, the consideration is in terms of ensuring that we had an opportunity to review it. that we have had an opportunity, those that want to speak with legal before we're adding in the additional verbiage. I'm always gonna err on the side of concern with that regard so that we can stay above board when we're writing some of the policies that we are doing. And I think to add that specific language on the fly here um can potentially create a bit of a challenge and would much feel much better if we had an opportunity to communicate with legal and with planning planning director and ensure that that's language we should be utilizing instead of just trying to throw things in hope that it sticks now understand it may be unpopular and create a challenge where only part of the information is provided in doing these things. But I think it's important for us to think comprehensive and for the county as a whole. With that, I yield back to you, Madam Pio.

Thank you, Commissioner Messiah. Seeing no one else requesting a speak, Commissioner Patrick asked me to weigh in on this one. As I understand it, Commissioner Terry, you're requesting that language be added to the original motion to approve the substitute that would give us a shorter timeline for the planning staff to revisit and bring information back to us in a potential more text amendments.

yes um i believe the things that were left over that we have not done in this agenda item is mainly addressed the homestead exemption cap so that would be the main request the other one was something i just saw from community council district five and i thought made sense understood so if i get to give my preference i would like to

soften that language of the friendly amendment because as deputy director Bragg is saying stated they're just starting to implement this program I think they would need a minimum of six months to really understand what's working what's not working and I lean on them to be able to bring forward additional amendments on top of what other commissioners are mentioning today so I would I would prefer at least a six month or also just some language that acknowledges that we are requesting them to bring back to us once they've had time to do some implementation.

I like the way you phrased that. It does give some flexibility. We believe in our planning staff, but I believe we don't want to run them out of town with a short timeframes that we may put on them. So I'm comfortable with what you suggested as the friendly amendment.

As long as someone knows how to write that down, what I said, and make it into the motion. Commissioner Longsfears.

You threw me the softball. I was going to ask if Commissioner Patrick would restate the motion so I'm clear on what we're voting on.

Make a motion to do whatever they just said. Make a motion to approve the ordinance as is. Substitute. The substitute as has been presented. And then ask planning staff to come back to us within six months. with any modifications or after a six month implementation period after a six month implementation period

in which homestead will be evaluated. Is that right? Okay, thank you, Ms. Bragg. They will consider all elements.

I would like to not narrow down what's reevaluated. I think all of it.

I just think that's one important piece of that. All right, thank you. Yield back. All right, thank you, Commissioner Long-Spears.

I think we are clear on the substitute with the friendly amendment. If we can open the machine for the vote.

Would not narrow any in on anything. No, no, no.

Motion to approve the substitute carries. All right, so I'm going to do a time check. It is 1133. We are only about halfway through our public hearing items, so I'm just going to caution my commissioners. I am wanting to get through public hearing before we take any breaks.

All public hearings. Thank you.

Next, we have item 2025-0972, and we were just handed a substitute. Application of the Director of Planning and Sustainability to amend Chapter 27 to establish a definition regulatory guidelines and development standards for data centers in M, M2, OI, and OD zoning districts. This text amendment is countywide.

Welcome back, Deputy Director Brown. Thank you so much. So what you're being handed is the substitute that we emailed out last night. It is not substantively different than the version that you saw last Thursday, but legal did have an opportunity to review and provided some guidance in order to clarify and correct some errors on the text amendment that was sent out last Thursday. So after the June 2nd CAL, staff reviewed again all the commissioner comments and have proposed the revisions that you see before you today. These revisions appeared to have a majority support based on our conversations. The most important thing to understand about this text amendment is that there are currently no regulations for data centers in DeKalb. There is not even a definition. In order for staff to regulate this use, we recommend that there be an adopted definition and regulations, and that's what this text amendment proposes. So what you have is draft four. It requires a slip for any data center larger than a minor data center. This removed the redevelopment SLP waiver. So even if you're redeveloping a previous industrial use, you'll now be required to have a SLP if it is considered a data center based on our definition. It also increases the buffer from residential uses or zoning districts from 500 feet to 750 feet. it also limits the maximum size of any data center to one million square feet of improved land that includes not only the buildings themselves but any improvements roads parking areas substations etc additionally any data center with a substation would now be classified as at least a major data center we have included a provision for more efficient cooling systems We have included sound measurements for infrasound that will be necessary to be included in the noise study that is submitted at the time of the SLEP application. And we have updated the definition for accessory data centers. So given these updates, staff does recommend approval of the June 22nd substitute. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Director Njuku, did you need to add anything?

Oh no, I was just here for moral support and to ask any questions, but good afternoon, Commissioner. Good to see you. And good to see all of you guys too.

Thank you. All right, now we will open public hearing for those who are here to speak in favor of this item. Please step to that back podium. Again, in favor of the data center item, I don't need y'all hurting each other if someone steps up at the wrong time. Anyone in favor? Okay, now orderly, anyone in opposition step to the back podium. To the text amendment that creates a regulation and a definition.

I just wanna be clear that you are actually asking the public to comment on something we have not seen, right? Because it was emailed to you yesterday. We have not seen it. So what are we commenting on? Have you even read it? is the real question. This is absolutely unacceptable. We have come here for months and months and months and worked with you and done research, and what do you do? You drop something the night before that we haven't seen, and then you want our comments on something that we haven't seen. You may be willing to comment on something you haven't read, but we're not. And so since you realize that we don't want data centers in DeKalb, since you asked for evidence, since we have made our positions clear, not one person has come up here in favor of this text amendment. We do not want data centers in DeKalb County, period. And since you will not listen to us or the evidence or all of the things we've learned over the last eight months, we have invited a guest on behalf of the DeKalb Citizens Coalition, to tell you what it's like to actually have a data center. So in my time, I yield to Keyshawn Pearson from Memphis, who is working with the Memphis Group Against Pollution and Environmental Justice. Keyshawn.

And just so we're clear, it is a collective time, so continue.

We understand.

First, I want to say thank you, Ms. Gina. Thank you to everybody who is a part of this coalition who got me here. Y'all, first I got to say, the distance between the people who voted to elect you and yourselves is ridiculous. There is no reason these folks should be yelling out toward the people that work for them. We have to get into public service that involves servitude first, not secondary or tertiary. I came all the way from Memphis to tell you, you do not want a data center. A data center is so much more than what they tell you about on the news. They told us that they would come in with a small business that would employ hundreds of people. What we got was tons of pollution and a pain in our community that will continue to persist for generations. You do not want a data center. What you are witnessing right now is the lack of transparency that continues to follow Mehta, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and every billionaire, once trillionaire, who believes that the oligarchy has the right ideas about what our civilization should be and should look like. It looks like one where you put forth corporations over people. You put profits above the poison that they are spewing. You do not want a data center. If I can tell you anything, I can tell you that the loss of Sam Knox and the loss of Mama Collier these past two years is still within my heart and still breaking our community. I don't want to see any family suffer as we have. We have had Harvard epidemiologists to confirm that the most social vulnerable communities are the ones who will suffer first, but they will not be the only to suffer. Air doesn't understand buffers. Air doesn't understand a wealthy community from a poor one. Everyone will continue to suffer at an extreme cost if you allow these data centers to be brought, because they won't come alone. They will start with one. and they will continue to expand. It started with XAI and now we have Google and Anthropic who are in our city. Do not follow the failed leadership of Memphis, Tennessee. The South deserve better. Black people deserve better than environmentally racist projects that continue to perpetuate a system that puts us last, that does not consider our futures. Do not follow failed leadership. This is a moral moment of clarity and it is your responsibility to meet this moment. The people here have made their voices heard and demand a just decision. We all deserve clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment. That's non-negotiable. Stand up for the people. Stand up against the oligarchy. Thank you all.

Next speaker.

Hey, my name is Jimmy Easton. I'm speaking on behalf of the Carriage Hills community. Over the past several years, studies have been conducted, moratoriums have been extended, and discussions have continued. At this point, many residents are no longer asking what data centers are, but we're asking what will they do for the people of DeKalb County. Residents have raised concerns regarding water consumption, energy demand, environmental impacts, infrastructure strain, and the potential for increased utility costs. If communities are expected to absorb these impacts, then the public deserves clear answers regarding what they receive in return. How many permanent jobs will be created for DeKalb County residents? What direct community investments will be required? Will there be legally enforceable community benefit agreements? Will operators contribute to infrastructure improvements and workforce development programs? And how will taxpayers share in the economic value generated by these facilities? Innovation should benefit the communities that host it. And the question before us is not whether AI should exist. The question is whether the people of DeKalb County will see meaningful, measurable benefits that outweigh the costs. I urge the board to prioritize residents, taxpayers, and community outcomes before approving any pathway for future data center expansion. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

My name is Faith Park and I am a candidate for Congressional District 13. If you all have not been informed of the special election, early voting begins July 6th and voting day is July 28th. I live in Clayton County and I'm experiencing in real time how decisions made in these rooms are reshaping every one of our communities. I am running because I looked around and saw no candidates stepping up with a real plan to protect our communities, so I decided I would.

And we need you to keep it to what's on the board and not a campaign.

That's next. I want to protect my son's future and every child's chance at the American dream. Because right now, that future is being traded away. And for what? I will tell you what. It's being traded for data centers that are swallowing up land that should be used for housing families, building schools, supporting health care facilities, and strengthening our community. And it seems that local government is ignoring real warnings about utility and energy strain. I have been listening and learning from individuals like Ansley Brown and groups like DeKalb Water Watch and DeKalb Citizens Coalition. I have listened to residents who feel shut out, dismissed, and ignored in decisions that will define their lives. Are you listening? Because the residents of District 13 are already stretched thin, the last thing we need is to be subsidizing Big Tech's bottom line. We need a hard stop on placing data centers in or near our neighborhoods, schools, parks, and other areas that should be strongly protected. And each of you should be moving to ban data center development too close to residential areas. I'm standing here with my two year old son asleep on my chest because our government is not protecting his future. and when government refuses to do its job moms have to step up moms run for office moms show up fight and gather together and i refuse to raise them in a state or a district where communities are sacrificed for corporate build out i refused to tell him one day that i saw what was happening and did nothing so if no one else in office seems to be willing to fight for his future or our children's future, then I will because our future is worth fighting for. End the data center development in District 13 and all of Georgia. Thank you.

There's 38 seconds left.

I'll make it quick.

These data centers are- And please yield to a DeKalb County resident. Our residents came out here to speak. Please allow DeKalb County residents to speak. We'll give it back. They took your time.

I live in District 2. So these massive data centers are detonating atom bombs to light a campfire just so a small handful of billionaires turning into trillionaires now can pass fake money around in a circle. Localized models can do 80% of this work and run on a Mac Mini. The future of AI is on a chip you own and not colossal data centers poisoning the lives of everyone around it. And if this passes and these ordinances are violated, will any of the fine officers in this room be arresting anyone?

Madam Chair, motion to extend public hearing by 10 minutes.

Second. Can you restate that motion? I could not hear.

Motion to extend public hearing by 10 minutes.

Seconded by Commissioner Long-Speers. Please open the machine for that vote.

I have a friendly amendment if we restrict it to DeKalb County residents only.

Yes, that's fine.

The speaker lives in Clayton County.

Attorney Phillips.

She's not campaigning. It's for DeKalb County residents.

Attorney Phillips.

I just wanted to offer to Commissioner Terry on his motion. You didn't have speakers for. You may want to designate all of the time to those against.

Yes. Thank you, Attorney Phillips. Yes. The motion is to extend public hearing for both sides for 10 minutes.

My second stands. Do you accept the friendly amendment?

Yes, and the friendly amendment for DeKalb residents is accepted.

Thank you. Please open the machine for the vote. Hands, all in favor of extending 10 minutes for DeKalb County residents only. That's fine, I'll go with that. All opposed? I think the majority gets it. So we will go another 10 minutes. It's gonna be a long day today. Jermaine to the text amendment about defining a data center and setting regulations and being a resident of DeKalb County. Welcome to the podium, ma'am.

My name is Claire Sheck Snyder. I am a DeKalb resident. I have been for 40 years of my life, the majority of my time here. I just want to point out to people that you should not be gaslit by this commission and this county. If they pass the text amendment today, then they can raise the moratorium immediately thereafter. So they'll sit up there and they'll tell you, oh, I've extended it 100 days. Oh, we've extended it a year. As soon as they pass this text amendment, that moratorium gets lifted. And tonight, or today, we just saw that they submitted one last night, a substitute that none of us have read. I bet they haven't read it either. And here it is, they're gonna vote on it, and you watch that moratorium disappear. So just be aware, be eyes on. Next speaker.

Good morning. Good morning. My name is PJ Lemuel. I live at 4365 Wesley Way, Decatur, Georgia. I live in South DeKalb County, Decatur, Georgia. I would like to speak on why data centers should no longer be considered data centers but surveillance centers. Why is there such a rush and so much pushback from our elected officials to ram these centers down our throats? The proposed changes being recommended are a sham. Just in the few meetings that I have attended and the limited research I have done, and there's a ton of research, tells me the decision has already been made and that you're just waiting on the right time to spring the trap. You have heard from the community that they don't want these facilities in our neighborhoods, yet you double down. Do any of you live in the proposed site areas? In researching this topic, I am curious as to why there's been no mention of any type of alternatives for cooling and providing electricity to these massive natural resource guzzlers. for coexistence in spaces that are in close proximity to neighborhoods. Why no mention of the developers putting the upfront cost of being completely independent of the community's power lines and water supply? DeKalb already has a water issue that has not been completed. Special circumstances had to be employed to supply water to a local business so that they could have water for their restaurant. And these centers haven't even been built yet. So some argue, well, this is the wave of the future. I agree. The expansion is and should be on the table, but not the risk of human life. Why such massive information gathering centers? DeKalb County already is the most surveilled county in Georgia. There are at least eight cameras on every corner. Who needs this data? Who are you selling it to? This is another boom in the country, and we're experiencing all of this. Like all other booms, this will be no different. Get in, take the gravy, and leave the poop for us to clean up. The most humiliating part of this is that you expect us to pay for it. Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

My name is Deborah Wallace. I was here before on repaving, but now I'm going to talk about the data center. We don't need one. From what I can see, the current text that you stuck in on Thursday, 750 feet is not enough. The infrastructure will deteriorate the area and upset the homes that live around it. also water will be destroyed we have a water problem and water is one of the most precious commodities we have and the world is running out of it so let's be real also electricity our bills are high already and we gonna land up paying for that data center's electricity because the last one kind of snuck in underneath and got their electricity siphoned from somebody else We don't know that's not going to happen here. So let's be real. If you destroy our water, take our air, take our environment, then our health care is going to go up. You guys don't even want to pay for the health care issues that we need to get done. So remember, it's a sliding scale going down. So no data centers. This... Tax amendment, uh-uh, no. Got to get rid of it, find a better way to satisfy your constituents. Thank you. Oh, Nixon 5.

Next speaker, please. Okay, Christy Reed. I've lived in DeKalb County since 2002 and only started coming to these meetings and so I've been to every single one of these data center meetings and I remember seeing one person positive and all he talked about was that he liked AI. because he's having a personal problem, but he doesn't want data centers. You guys have not explained why you keep pushing this. You have not shown us any benefits. We have given you facts over and over and over about the negative implications. And the current little behavior that just happened about allowing who's gonna testify, we brought in somebody who actually lives next to one, and you don't want that? I don't understand why you keep doing this. I don't understand why you keep giving it out the night before. It's just nothing that you're doing follows any of the procedures that we elected you to do, which was informed and transparent. The last time one of you said you hear in your offices public comment that it's positive. Well what facts how many is it one person does what they say I'm a developer and I'm going to give you something. Why aren't you being transparent about why you are pushing this.

Next speaker. Kiana Jones Moore, 3635 Broadview Court, Decatur, Georgia. We want to know why the whiplash. Why do we get a moratorium extension one day and then we're pushing through the text amendment the next day? We want to know who is considering the fact that if there is a data center to be built, they are all in District 3. That is South DeKalb. We know we already deal with landfills and a couple of other instances of environmental racism, including Cop City. Do you want to make this another bad decision, like the land swap that you did with Ryan Millsap? And we're still not getting any benefit from that. And what about the value of the people's homes that will go down? Because you know, inevitably, if data campuses come, then Georgia Power is going to get, by eminent domain, some people's property for high voltage power lines. You know the facts. For some reason, somebody wants to spin things and make it a little bit different because they take two words and piece them together and then they make it a whole ass lie. But what we are not going to keep doing today is kicking the can down the road because we are definitively saying we don't want this. You got stuff on an agenda from 2024. And you trying to push this through? Don't think we're dumb. We're not. And yes, the cameras are rolling, but guess what? I do this day in, day out, in season, out of season. Cameras, no camera, in the church, on the street, in the Capitol, wherever I go. So you got it.

Next speaker, please.

Similarly, coming back up for a data center comment, Paul Glaze, 2609 Yale Terrace, District 3. I know it's tempting, I've been involved in a lot of county policy fights and city policy fights across the state, and we live in a state where anytime we wanna do something good, people above us tell us that it's not allowed, that it's not possible, that that power gets taken away. In the first six months of this year, $130 billion of data centers have been stopped by people and by county commissions just like you across this country. We are at a moment, this is a time to lean in, this is a time to lead, and if you take this step, you will be seen as people that really push this state forward and be leaders across this space and across the country. That's what we want for you. Thank you.

We are at 30 seconds.

So I just wanted to leave you with a couple of questions for your consideration. So if these facilities consume significant amounts of land, water, and power, what is the average measurable benefit for DeKalb residents that they'll experience as a result? And if residents are accepted to accept the impacts, what guarantees exist that they will share in the rewards?

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we are out of time. That was those who were against, and we did, the motion was for both, so I do need to extend the question for anyone in the audience who was in favor, because that was the motion. Anyone in favor? There was another 10 minute opportunity. Anyone in favor? All right, thank you so much. All right, now we, Deputy Director Bragg, if you will come forward again.

The staff recommendation is for approval of the June 22nd substitute, with the note that it would go into effect on September 30th, which would give staff time to get our applications prepared.

All right, is there a motion? I need a motion before we can have conversation.

Yes, Madam Chair, I have a motion. The motion is to defer this text amendment for nine months.

You said nine months?

Nine months, and I have a comment.

Second for discussion.

All right, we have a motion to defer for nine months, seconded by Commissioner Bolton. Commissioner David Johnson, you requested to speak first. You have the floor now.

Thank you, I think it was mentioned and the public mentioned that it was no options were discussed. I did ask about three to four weeks ago about the data centers providing their own private power source. And I didn't see that And that was my request.

So there is, in this ordinance currently, there is no requirement that the data centers provide their own power source.

Well, that was, then I would make an amended motion that this item be deferred for two weeks. So that we can, and I say that so that we can see if considerations from the public and from the commissioners are placed in the ordinance.

Sorry, the original motion was to defer for nine months. You're making an amended motion for two weeks. Is there a second on the amended?

Well, I'll tell you what, what about four weeks?

Substitute, is that a substitute motion? A substitute motion. Okay, is there a second on the substitute motion?

I don't think so.

Okay, I'm going to come back and make my motion. So you were drawing your substitute motion?

For right now, yeah.

You still have the floor, are you yielding your time to speak?

Yeah, I would like to see that all of the considerations are considered before it comes back. Well, there's two weeks, four weeks before it comes back. And I will make an amended motion after, a substitute motion, after everyone has spoken. So if you have me for my- For your service.

Yeah. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Commissioner Messiah, you are next.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

Again, my ask has been to ensure that in this legislation that there are certain components that are there, and I continue to seek that. I appreciate that we've added several of them. But I think it's important for the community to understand right now, words, data centers do not exist in our zoning ordinance. And the only way that we can protect against something is to properly identify and call it what it is. Absent that, there are opportunities for people to put in applications and potentially get applications approved seeing we don't have anything in place to stop it. So I understand and we have heard what your thoughts, what your opinions, what your voice is, more importantly, about wanting a data center. We're talking about the text amendment. We're talking about having something in place to even identify what you're saying that you're wanting to stop. If we don't do that, then we have applications that are put in under the pretense that it's a storage unit. And then if that happens, then you're going to blame us, saying that we didn't do our work, we didn't do our job. So what is productive, I will say for myself as a commissioner, is to understand what additional regulations specifically you are asking for. To understand when there's a recommendation that's being made by legal, Again, speaking for myself, there's actual concerted efforts to understand whether we're in the confines so that we could protect the community. I'm not waffled. I've not gone back and forth. There are folks that have wanted to approve the ordinance as is and has said so. multiple times when I've heard from you day in and day out that you don't believe that it's ready yet. I'm here, I stand open for suggestions to the text amendment. I understand that it is gas fueled and there's gas lighting, to be quite frank. um there are surveys that have been done specifically to ask about what your feelings are on data center making it a polarizing and a singular issue amongst um the community we're just wanting to work together speaking for myself working together as you know my time here is limited there is no pro no pluses and no negatives against just working together which is my only aim and has been in spite of the misinformation. So I remain in service to you to do the work and the protection. We have to have a text amendment. It has to be identified in the ordinance. Identifying it does not mean passing it. With that, I yield back to you, Madam PO.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So first off, the reason why I motioned for the nine month deferral is with the expectation the moratorium would align with that nine months. And so while it is true what was said about them being two separate decisions, we don't want to defer this and then have the moratorium lapse. I motioned to make the moratorium a year and then we did a friendly amendment for nine months at the last meeting that failed, but I would like to see that moratorium extend at least until past the legislative session. I think there's a couple of things happening this year that are really crucial. One, data centers are an important topic in the elections. And right now we are an all Democratic County Commission. The Democratic Party's leaders, whether it's U.S. Senator Ossoff, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Democratic nominee for governor, other members of Congress have said we need to put the brakes on data center development. And the reason why is because we are seeing all over the country, urban, rural, suburban, every part of Georgia and every part of America is being touched by this issue. and the moratorium quite frankly has been a success thus far because what we're looking at here is the fourth draft if we had moved forward with the first draft in august of last year a lot of things would have turned out sideways there's a lot of things that we've learned and as we've studied this issue and taken our time we've learned that the regulations are very, very important to get right. We don't wanna pass something and then realize after an application's been submitted that we found a loophole or there was some issue that we hadn't learned about. The two things that have come out just in the last six months that I think are important, first off is the recent studies out of Cambridge as well as Arizona State that have studied the heat island effect. So the issue with cooling data centers, and I'll get to the water part, which is important, but the newest information we received from those studies, from those other communities that have data centers, massive data centers in their community, have seen anywhere between a two and four degree increase in ambient air temperature within the third mile radius. So that's 1,750 feet. So when we started out with 500 feet from our residential neighborhoods, people said, well, that's too close because it's gonna be noisy. Well, now we know if it's within 1,750 feet or a third of a mile, you might actually have a hotter neighborhood. I'm from Florida, so I'm used to the heat, but about two weeks ago it was 100 degrees and it's June. August used to be when it was 100 degrees. So now we're getting into the territory where the heat waves are not just uncomfortable, they're actually deadly. The number one leading cause of death related to climate issues is not hurricanes or flooding, it is heat death. And so that in and of itself really dictates that we should further study the heat island impact of large scale data centers. We need to measure the difference between a 500,000 square foot one, a million square foot one, and so forth and so on. The other issue with the water is, I think, important. So we have addressed the fact that we're mandating closed loop water systems. However, even within a closed loop system, we're looking at anywhere between 180,000 and 550,000 gallons of water per day. We know that the three data centers that are being considered in DeKalb would be in South DeKalb. Our drinking straw is in the Chattahoochee in North DeKalb. And we've heard from time and again at the PWI meeting that pumping water from North DeKalb down to South DeKalb requires a tremendous amount of pressure. And we know for a fact that the older neighborhoods in DeKalb County, South DeKalb County, have aging infrastructure, public side but also private side. So what we literally are seeing is... Homes that were built 40, 50 years ago don't have the pipe, have old pipes or they just don't have the right pipes where the pressure is causing them to bust. If they break on the public side, well, we all got to pay for it. If they break on the private side behind the meter, then that's up to the homeowner. These are like hundreds if not thousands of dollars of repairs that they would be liable for. I am concerned that just the water capacity issue has not fully been said. It makes more sense to me to have a cap on water usage versus a water plan, because a water plan just says what we're going to do with the water. I see that we've included the special land use permit for all applications. I think that needs to be clarified. If it hasn't, I'll come back for my second comment. But I think the staff should just clarify that. Madam Chair, if Rachel doesn't mind, just clarifying the extent of the special land use permit provision in the fourth draft.

You're asking her to do that as a response right now? Okay, thank you. Deputy Director Bragg.

Yes, this draft requires a special land use permit for every data center over the minor category.

Director Njuku, you wanted to add to that?

I wanted just to clarify a point. I just did some quick research to Commissioner Johnson, so I can wait to speak as far as her request discussing the electricity. Georgia has laws and it's through the Georgia Public Service Commission. They have rules that already regulate the data centers pay their own electrical fee and for electrical infrastructure. The ordinance that's important of you is the definition and the land use regulation. But I just wanted to let you know for your staff if they want to, or just to put it on the record, that there are several rules that already exist regarding energy and power. governed by the Judge of Georgia's Public Service Commission. They have a rule that says Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved a rule to force large power usage to pay the cost in full. They have a House bill that supports that as well and a Senate bill that supports that as well. So each one of these things have been looked at through the commission. But pass or fail, this ordinance cannot regulate what happens with power and energy. It will come out of that commission. But in our application for zoning, we require electricity for any one of our buildings or commercial buildings to be obviously housed within them and paid by them in existence right now when they're going through any of their zoning process. So I just wanted to just let you know the regulatory body, the regulatory laws that are out there, and the fact that the ordinance that is in front of you is defining data centers and defining general regulations for land use. All right.

And just to briefly add to Director Njoku's comments, the text amendment before you it requires any applicant to bring a letter saying that they have agreement for power to be offered and also they have to bring a transmission power line impact assessment that would show if any impact was planned to be if there was going to be any impact to transmission lines that were proposed as part of the development. So you will be able to get a full grasp of the scope of the project when we have an actual project to look at.

All right, thank you. And before I go to you Commissioner Bolton, two points I would like to make. Commissioner Terry, you asked for nine months, but we can't do nine months because we haven't started setting the schedule into 2027. So the latest we could do is December 15th, 2026. And then to Commissioner David Johnson's point that she was bringing up, she might be more interested in four weeks. Four weeks puts us in the middle of our recess. So I would say the soonest would be August 11th. So just level setting, getting that information out there. Commissioner Bolton, you have a point.

Thank you, ma'am. And I just wanted to, before I get into some of my questions and comments, get into something that was just iterated by one of our colleagues and by Director Njoko, that the decision that we make today, whether for, against, or deferred, is heavily dependent on what's currently allowed in the state. He indicated that there might be legislation coming forth, but also since we're looking at regulations today, we have to base the text amendment on what's current today. I think a great example of that is short-term rentals. I live in District 3. I also live in District 3. And our communities have been saturated by short-term rentals. And you guys, just like you are doing now, you've come up here over and over again, letting us know what your concern was. But because we did not have an amendment for short-term rentals, it could not be regulated in DeKalb. So we had to come up with an amendment first, and then we can put caps on short-term rentals. We could tax short-term rentals. We can regulate them in all sorts of ways. An amazing example, same thing with data centers. They do not exist in our code. In order to say no to a data center, We have to define them, they have to exist first. You can't regulate something that does not exist, and that's what this text amendment is about. It isn't about wanting data centers, it's about defining data centers, which is what the state of Georgia requires us to do, and currently, That and regulating land use and zoning is the power that we have been given locally. So we're gonna exercise that power by defining data centers, by saying whether we will allow them whether that's campus size, accessory, whatever that is, we have to determine what that is in this legislation. And so I do want to commend the planning department for hearing us on June 2nd. There were quite a few things that you stated, that we stated. that have been adapted here. Not exactly, but we have seen those amendments, some of which you have already indicated. Community members said they want to slug, and we see that you guys have that in the amendment. where every time an application comes forth, the community can come and say, nope, we don't want it, or whatever the consensus is. So the text amendment allows you to say no to data centers in your communities because of the special land use permit, the SLUB. Also, the cap on developed land for campus centers, The cap that is indicated is at one million square feet, not quite what I asked for, but I see what you're trying to do there. Previously, I did request for a cap for developed land and undeveloped, and the reason for that is we do want to preserve our undeveloped land, and I have heard community members say over and over, we don't have a whole lot of it, so we want to be very careful on how we use it, which is why I requested a cap on undeveloped land as well. The increase for the buffer, I do see it was increased to 750 feet. There were a couple of us that asked for more, community members as well asked for more that we at least doubled that from what it was previously. I have one minute left. I did want to quickly go through this document that was sent over by Watershed. They made some comments and recommendations for community members that did not receive it. I know there was a question during public comment earlier, have we talked to Watershed to see what their concerns are, what they would recommend, how they would regulate it? Yes, and they sent over comments. And I just want to make sure that the planning department has had an opportunity to look through some of these things. There were seven specific recommendations. and then four additional ones that could be addressed. I have about 30 seconds and just for the sake of the public having an opportunity to know what those are, I'm gonna try to breeze through some of the highlights. To require developers to disclose projected makeup of water flow, to require disclosure of pretreatment or discharge permit requests, require the owner operator to monitor and record keeping, requires submittal, of a closure and disposal plan, consider inclusion of a water usage effectiveness target. And my time is up.

Thank you. Commissioner Patrick for your first opportunity.

Thank you Madam Presiding Officer. If I could call Director Reggie Wells or Special Director Maria Hauser to the podium. And the rationale that we're asking the water folks to come and speak to this is there's lots of conversation about water, water quality. And so my first question to either of you is going to be, with the volume of water that's being asked, does DeKalb County have the capacity to manage that?

So, good morning. Good morning.

We haven't had a formal number presented.

Good afternoon. So... For every potential development, there's requirements that you submit the demand that you're going to need to serve the particular development. And that includes water usage, what you'll consume, and then ultimately the capacity on the sewer side, what you'll discharge. And at no time will we allow any one particular customer or potential development to exacerbate the system. If the current system as it stands doesn't have the capacity to serve the new development, those upgrades that are required to serve, to continue serving the existing customers and the new proposed development, the cost will be incurred by that developer to ensure the system is adequate.

So you just said if DeKalb County's water and sewer needs upgrades, they got to carry the cost of the freight to get that service level delivered to them. And that's not just data centers. That's anyone that comes to the county.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And at no time will we allow, there's no mechanism that will allow a new development to come online and ultimately deplete all the resources from existing. That will not happen.

Put another way, a data center or any specific user would not get ahead of the people or the hospitals or the houses that are in the camp or the businesses that are already here. Absolutely. Absolutely. Another question that I've heard or another statement I've heard discussed is potential contaminants or pollutants that go into the water after a potential closed loop system has been used. So it draws whatever water it needs and then tell us what happens when they're done with water. What's the process?

So With every industry, we have what is called industrial pretreatment program, which is a federal and state requirements. So ultimately, you can't discharge back into a public sewer anything that's deteriorative that will impact the integrity of that sewer and ultimately break it down and cause ultimately a spill or any release into the environment that will impact the environment.

Put another way, whether you're a restaurant, a residential user, any type of business, particularly data centers or anyone else, they still have to go through your pretreatment program. And you have, as I can attest for one of my businesses in District 1, you have a very effective and very aggressive process for making sure that the water that goes in for treatment does not destroy or harm the water treatment system as a whole. Is that correct? Absolutely, sir.

Absolutely. There are a number of industries that do have very low pH that's a greater concern to us than, per se, a data center, which is use water for cooling and things of that nature. But there are specific requirements that won't allow any particular industry to diminish that. the public system, from serving the public. All right, thank you.

I've got like a minute left and I want to pull Mr. TJ up to the front if you don't mind.

Thank you.

Thank you both, directors. TJ, I've literally got seconds left over. You know, any new development, I'm not going to focus on data centers. We've had airports, we've had a large soft drink bottler come before us. Is there a way to calculate the economic impact of a user that comes into the community? And then really what I'm saying is I think when we approve some developments we're also having an eye on the economic impact for the budget for the county so we don't have to turn around and go back to the residents and ask for more money. Is there a process by which you or perhaps you could work with Decide to Cab to come up with a economic indicator as to what a particular development will bring to the county before it goes through review process. I yield back my time and hopefully you can answer my question.

There is no process in place now, but we can work with the side cab and see if there's something we could develop.

Thank you. Commissioner Terry, your second opportunity.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So Director Bragg, the Engage DeKalb website, which has been the main portal for the administration to receive feedback, will you all be sharing the survey results from the Engage DeKalb portal?

We can. We can post them on Engage DeKalb.

OK. I think that's important, because I appreciate everyone who's out here in person. But just know that there are thousands of people who have responded. to engage DeKalb, I think other commissioners' surveys, my own surveys, I think we should be transparent through all the survey collection data. So I'll be releasing my survey data as soon as possible. But I'll just share that we did receive 1,600 residents in support of a one-year moratorium. So that was in context of whether we should continue studying data centers and basically take our time. But we'll release the full results. But the majority were in support of further study extending the moratorium. I do want to comment on the Public Service Commission. So the Public Service Commission, the Republican-led PSC, has consistently said that data centers are paying their fair share. However, in the hearing on the fuel rate docket and Hurricane Helene recovery docket, it was revealed by the Southern Environmental Law Center that, in fact, residential customers are paying for the data center infrastructure. and it's causing our power bills to go up so even though the psc may say it's happening the evidence is showing that over 100 million dollars of our money is paying for data center infrastructure in reference to the legislation this is exactly why the moratorium needs to go into next year because there were 30 different data center bills that went nowhere in fact i was at two of those committee meetings where the republican chairs by the way republican chairs who get a lot of money from georgia power spent literally five minutes on these data center bills. And they ended it saying, oh, I guess we still have to study it, ironically. And so they passed no data center regulations whatsoever. So the Republicans in the State House and the Senate, the Republican leadership in the state that paved the way for the tax breaks. By the way, Georgia is a hot spot for data centers because of the massive tax giveaways. So just as Democrats, as people that are interested in progressive policies, we should reject the GOP's catering to big tech monopolies at the expense of our communities. So we need to be leaders on this. The last thing I'll point out is later on the agenda, there's two items I've introduced, 0244 and 0245. Those resolutions would require an environmental health study, and then the next agenda would fund it. So hang around for that agenda item, because what we should be doing in this deferral, and I'll be happy to amend my motion, Madam Chair, to a six-month deferral to the December 15th meeting, since that's as far as we can do it, and approve those two items to conduct that independent third part of study, use this time to complete the study, and extend the moratorium. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Masai, for your second opportunity.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm hearing an extension of the moratorium.

Oh, Madam Chair, was there a second on my amendment?

Excuse me. No, one second, Commissioner Messiah. So you were just amending your original motion. So Commissioner Long-Spears is your second stand.

I did not initially second, but I just did. So second is in place with the friendly amendment. Thank you.

I'm sorry, you said with the- The six months instead of the nine.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

So that is not a new, he's amending his original because we can't do a nine month. So I'm accepting that as just an amendment to his original motion. So we're on the original motion. Commissioner Masai, you can continue.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, because I'm hearing the extension of moratorium and there have been a lot of communication regarding the same in spite of what the advice was from both planning and legal. I think it's very disingenuous to consider and say that we need a year moratorium when I'm also hearing a constituent in the back say that it could be lifted at any time that knows that even with lifting any moratorium, whether we have it for four weeks, we have it for four years, whether we have a year or six months could be lifted. At the same time, I think it's very important that What has not been introduced by my colleague is an agenda item to reject any applications for a data center altogether, specifically since that's what the community is calling for and I support. So why don't you put forth an agenda item to reject wholly any data centers here in DeKalb County. I'll tell you, these are also the same of the, Some of the same suggestions in terms of rejection that, again, support wholeheartedly. I'm looking forward to you putting that forth and you'll have a second here. But also that there is an application that is placed presently without the need of the Board of Commissioners to approve it. The same application, there's two letters. where there's an approval May 22 and February 2024. That is the same item that Commissioner to my left here wanted you to believe that had been negotiated as a deal that actually doesn't even require the Board of Commissioners to come before the Board of Commissioners to get approved. Again, as we are doing our research, as we are not gaslighting but focusing on the facts, as we're focusing on accountability, there are some folks in the back who are fully aware of it. I welcome us all to get the facts, get and do your research, pay attention to what people are actually saying. suggesting in play and in politics versus in reality. Again, to my commissioner colleague to the left, he puts forth an agenda item to wholly reject any data centers here in DeKalb County. He'll have my second. With that, I yield.

So moved.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Davis-Johnson.

Second.

We can add a motion or item on the floor. You all are very much aware of this. Commissioner Davis-Johnson.

Yeah. I'd like to make a motion for substitution to defer this item to the August 11th, 2026 meeting.

With the public hearing.

With the public hearing.

And also, Commissioner Terry, your original was with public hearing, correct? Just so we're clear on the record. You're December 15th with public hearing. OK. And this is also with public hearing.

Public hearing.

For August 11. Yeah. Is there a second?

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All right. We're still going through discussion. Is that all you had on your second opportunity to speak, Commissioner Davis-Johnson? Yeah. Okay, so now Commissioner Bolton has requested to speak for her second opportunity.

Thank you, ma'am. One of the concerns that I have is we're weaponizing moratorium and not addressing what the community actually said they wanted, which is an environmental study. I hadn't heard that come up yet. And to be quite honest, if as a board, rather than simply extending the moratorium in order to position ourselves to look like we're helping, if we vote to deny any approvals of data center applications until after an environmental study is completed, analyzed, presented, and accepted by the board, I think you will get a quote unquote moratorium that extends up to a year or beyond depending on how long the study takes. So when I say we are strategists, not just activists up here, we have to think through what responsibilities we have and the capacity that we have to work within the confines of those responsibilities to give you what you want. So I would argue rather than just asking for a moratorium without any real action or resolution to address specific concerns. We just heard you all iterate both in public comment and public hearing. it would be better to actually address the environmental study, which could give us the moratorium that you're asking for based on how long it would take the study to be completed, analyzed, presented, and accepted by the Board of Commissioners. And I yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Bolton. I would like to ask a couple questions on this item. So I'm going to yield the gavel to you so I can have a little bit of discussion for my first opportunity. Thank you, everyone, for the healthy discussion. I know this is taking a long time, but it is very important that we do this. I think a couple of really key and important things have already been discussed, but I would like to reiterate them. The importance for me personally of making sure that we have a definition and some regulations so that we can do what the public is asking us to do. I think when we brought forward these other communities that have not had good outcomes at all they didn't have the regulations in place first and that is what i am trying to do to make sure the regulations are in place and then every application will come forward and we can deny every application but if that's what we hear from the community but we need the definition and we need the regulations because that gives us the power to do that um i like i appreciate commissioner patrick bringing up director wells i think that was one of the first opportunities in this data center discussion that we've been able to do that i think that speaks to some of the many questions that i'm still hearing from the community that we really cannot address in the text amendment so my And I don't know if this is for planning and sustainability. It might just be for the administration. Is there a way that we could publish a SOP, standard operating procedure, for whenever a data center application comes in so the public is quite aware of all the steps, what every department would look at, how would the water department deal with it, What do they look at for air permitting? What is the stormwater discharge? Just so that is very, very evident and clear that outside of the zoning regulations, because again, this text amendment is only for the land use and zoning regulations. but knowing that if an application were to come forward, all of these things need to be looked at. And I don't think that we've made it very clear to the public what that actually would look like so that everyone is aware as well as any developer who might come forward and try to put an application. These are the steps you will clearly have to go through if you're trying to get a data center here in DeKalb County. So that is my ask. And I think that might help answer some of the questions that we have or that we continue to hear from the public. But that just simply won't be able to be addressed in a land use zoning amendment. If we get the SOPs and there's a procedure or a policy that we think needs to be tweaked or needs to be enhanced, that's another step. That's another process. That's another action that we can take that is outside of the text amendment. I just don't, I personally don't believe that holistically everything dealing with the data center can be accomplished in a text amendment. So that is my ask. And again, I don't know if that's planning a sustainability or for the administration.

So what we could do is we could coordinate with the various reviewing departments to request their review checklists. And we could compile those into a document because those checklists will be the same no matter what type of business that you have or what kind of development that you're proposing.

And then that is something that we can? We could post that on the website.

Absolutely. We could post that on Engage to CAB. And I know this is your time, but I do have a couple things whenever your time is done.

Those are my main points. I think there's a lot of other great points that were made today. So regardless of which way the vote goes, I would like to see that SOP procedure. I think that would help inform the public in a way that we have not done so far.

Absolutely.

I yield my time and will take the gavel back. Thank you. And Commissioner Patrick has requested to speak for his second opportunity.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. Just to make the pitch to the public as well as my colleagues, the benefit to the deferral to, I believe it was August 11th, is it brings it back. Again, the things that we've talked about here today come back here, and we're going to listen to you all and hear what you think about it. But I ask also that you do read the full document. There are a lot of good things, as Commissioner Bolton has pointed out, in the document that address a lot of the concerns, not all the concerns. And to PO's point, this document will not handle every issue. And to the gentlemen that spoke about the fears of AI, agreed. I share your concerns. But this document doesn't speak to those issues. and those are issues that are fights that we need to have, but it might be at the state legislature or at the federal legislature for that. With that, Madam PI. Oh, and then as soon as possible, could you update the website one more time with whatever changes that have come from this discussion as well as whatever we anticipate coming up from the August 11 meeting? Thank you, Madam PO.

All right, thank you, Commissioner Patrick. So the substitute motion on the floor is, I know, makes me think of Magnum P.I., which makes me sound way cooler than I actually am, but I was gonna try and let that slide.

I'm not Higgins, okay, just so we're clear.

We have to have a levity sometimes. The substitute motion on the floor is to defer to the August 11th meeting with a public hearing. And that was seconded by Commissioner Patrick. So please open the machine for that as a substitute. Yes. With the public hearing.

And that was a deferral of the substitute item. Yes, of the substitute with a public hearing. For a public hearing. Thank you.

deferring this until August 11 with another public hearing. All right, that motion to defer to August 11 carries.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. It is 1240, and we are now on the top of page four. Item 2026-0995, all commission districts, application of the directive of planning and sustainability for a public hearing to consider approving a resolution to accept the planning process and development of the 2055 unified plan update. Welcome back.

It's good to spend all morning with me. So this item is... is the required initial public hearing for the five-year update to the comprehensive land use plan. The comprehensive land use plan is required by the state to be updated every five years. It is a foundational policy document that establishes a long-term vision for the future land use, housing, economic development, sustainability, and community investment. This is the real work of the planning department. The state requires that our plan be updated every five years, and it is time. It is actually great timing as we work to finalize the comprehensive housing plan and work towards updating the zoning code. All of these initiatives will build on the recommendations and policy framework of the other plans that are in progress. Our key policy target areas include sustainability, economic development, housing, transit-oriented development, health and wellness, and arts and culture. More than a visioning document, the plan will serve as an implementation tool to help guide future development public investment and policy decisions across the county the community input is essential to this process participation from residents and stakeholders will help shape the framework for future growth and development and we do ask that you please visit our engage to cab page to sign up for updates and to keep out an eye out for our first engagement opportunity So although this item officially kicks off the comp plan update, there will be a public meeting that will be more fun. That will be scheduled in the near future. This is fun. What are you talking about? And we do hope that everybody who has been so invested in the planning items up to this point will engage in this comprehensive plan process, because it really does form the basis of all of our planning recommendations on all items that come before you. So with that, the staff does recommend approval of the substitute.

Is there a substitute on this one? I don't think we were handed a substitute. There is. Substitute is coming.

It's coming. Just the substitute, there were just a couple errors in the resolution. The law, thankfully, corrected for us, including the presiding officer's name. So we appreciate their review. I know. I take personal responsibility.

I don't know if it's presiding officer or PI. I might like that PI. I like the PI. Thank you so much. Now for public hearing, if there's anyone in the public who would like to come to that back podium, speak in favor of this item. Anyone who would like to speak in favor of this item, the substitute for updating the development of the 2055 Unified Plan? Seeing no one, is anyone in opposition to this item? Welcome back to the podium. To the update of the 2055 Unified Plan, okay.

So I appreciate the work that's gone into the 2055 Unified Plan because decisions made through this process will shape DeKalb County for decades to come. My concern is not simply about growth, because growth is inevitable. The question is whether the growth reflects the needs and priorities of the people who already live here. Many residents have expressed concerns about increasing housing costs, traffic congestion, infrastructure strain, environmental impact, loss of green space, and development that feels disconnected from community needs. As we plan for the future, I encourage the county to prioritize affordability, home ownership opportunities, environmental stewardship, infrastructure capacity, and preserving the character of our neighborhoods. I also encourage the board to ensure that community engagement remains at the center of this process. Residents should not feel like decisions are being made behind closed doors or after plans have already been finalized. The people who live, work, and raise families in DeKalb should have a meaningful voice in shaping its future. As this plan moves forward, I ask the board, how will success be measured? How will residents know their feedback is reflected in future decisions? And how will this plan improve quality of life for current residents, not just accommodate future growth? A successful plan is not measured by the number of projects approved, it's measured by whether families can afford to stay, whether communities remain connected, and whether residents feel that DeKalb's future is being built with them and not around them. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in opposition of this plan update? Seeing no one else, Deputy Director Bragg.

The staff recommendation is for approval of the substitute.

Thank you so much. Is there a motion?

I'd like to make a motion to approve the substitute.

Thank you. And I have a comment. Seconded by Commissioner Davis-Johnson. Commissioner Patrick, you have requested to speak. You have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. You know, someone who's worked in many years in a planning office, comprehensive plans, small area plans, LCIs, That is how we drive engagement. That's how we come out to the public. It is probably one of the funner parts of working for government, in my opinion. I am a former bureaucrat. But touching base with the taxpayers, touching base with the people who are in control and have a preference as to what they want to see in their neighborhoods, that's the whole purpose of government. And this is the mechanism or the vehicle to make sure that we hear from y'all. as we make our decisions going forward so i'm absolutely proud to support this uh i gotta say to the young man if he's still here he almost made the argument for why he should be yes not in opposition to that one but um but understood we all have a different take on the world but uh thank you very much madam presiding officer thank you commissioner patrick commissioner terry thank you madame pio um rachel i know this is a pretty standard

but it kind of reads that we should be presenting the process and taking public comment on the process, but we don't really have a process in this one page.

That's correct. If the commission would like a more detailed explanation of the process, we would be happy to present it at a committee hearing.

Okay. Well, I would suggest we just because I'm fine moving forward with it, but you didn't really present anything today. You just kind of said we're going to start it, but I think it would be good just to say here's what the process is. I know we have a $75,000 in fiscal impact, so where does that money go to? Yeah, I'd be happy to talk about that. But not right now because we don't have time. So can we just do it at committee?

Yeah, Commissioner Terry, to that point, maybe we can schedule it for a committee of the whole.

Oh, yeah, that's fine.

That'd be great. I'm out of texture. Committee of the Whole? Yes. Absolutely, that'd be fantastic. We'll get that scheduled.

You want to take a friendly amendment? A friendly amendment for just deferral for two weeks and have a Committee of the Whole presentation on the process?

I think we go for it and then as we've done in PWI, get the information as it becomes relevant. So I would say let's move forward

And then go ahead and schedule either the pecs or the cow to get her moving.

OK. Well, I might take issue with that because I'd like to know what the process is before I vote on it. And I think the intent, I mean, the reading of the law, I mean, it says right here, it says the purpose of this hearing is to brief the community on the process to be used to develop the plan, opportunities for public participation and development of the plan. and to obtain input on the proposed planning process. So if we're not going to defer this, I'd request that the planning department go through the plan right now. Because otherwise, we're not really upholding the spirit of the law, which is to say, here's what the plan is. We're asking the public for input. We got one person to input, but there was nothing really to get input on. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yep, and again, we'd be happy to present whenever you would like us to.

Okay, but the point is that before I vote on this, I think it would make sense for us to know what the plan is. I'm sure it's fine, and I know it's kind of sort of formularic, but there is a $75,000 fiscal impact, so I don't know, I mean, if the board is saying they want to move forward today, would you mind just giving us some more details on what we're voting on?

Sure. So specifically, I'm really excited. This will be our first time in a long time that we're going to be undertaking this process in-house. When we did this update five years ago, we spent approximately $300,000 and subcontracted this project out. But now we have the professional staff and the capacity to do this in-house. So that $75,000 will actually be a value add. So the fiscal impact will largely go to printing, marketing, refreshments, translation support services, technology, and on-call services. So our team is still putting together the specifics of the full public engagement process. We wanted to make sure that we had your support in order to undertake this process before getting into the details of that public engagement plan. But that's where the fiscal impact is going, and that's our plan. So our primary project manager for this project will be senior planner Tricia Prevost, who you're familiar with from some of her other excellent work, but she'll be supported by our GIS specialists and our other planning staff in order to update maps, demographics, and also see how all of that will fit into the update of the comprehensive plan.

And Rachel, how long will the planning process take?

So the goal is to have it completed by the end of 2027. So hopefully, we'll be able to come before you and ask for approval of both that and the zoning code at the same time.

OK, so $75,000, is that budgeted right now in this year's budget?

No. So we are requesting that as additional funding.

OK, for this year? Mm-hmm. OK, so Zach? So if we approve this agenda item, is this also a budget amendment?

This is not.

OK. Well, I mean, shouldn't we just go ahead and make the budget amendment? Because are you going to come back in mid-year for this money?

Yes. So our plan is to include this as part of our mid-year budget request for the planning department.

Okay, so Zach, does that make sense?

If you were to approve this and there's a cost, what we would do is first see if there's money that can be moved around within their departmental budget. And if not, we would come back to the board if necessary. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no other requests to speak, please open the machine for the vote. Motion to approve the substitute carries. Middle of page four, item 2026-0875, commission districts three and six, resolution order and declaration of taking required temporary easement for Constitution roads, freight corridor improvement, cost to the county $97,505 at 3327 Woodstock Road. And we were just handed a substitute for this item. Director Peters.

Yes, we had a minor scrivener's error previously on this item. And through the documentation, the attachments were duplicated. And so just to clean it up, I did the substitute so that there's only two attachments and the agenda item. Thank you so much. So this is a situation where negotiations have stalled and we would like to proceed with this to try to get the property owner to the table to negotiate again.

And so the staff recommendation is approval of the substitute.

Yes, the substitute dated June 23. All right.

Thank you, ma'am. This is still under public hearing. So is there anyone here to speak in favor of this item? Anyone here to speak in favor of this item? Seeing no one. Is there anyone here to speak in opposition of this item? Anyone in opposition? All right, seeing nobody, Director Keter, if you will restate staff's position.

Staff recommends the approval of the substitute dated June 23, 2026. Thank you, ma'am.

Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Thank you. The substitute. The substitute. Commissioner Terry seconded. Commissioner Masai has requested to speak. You have the floor, ma'am.

Thank you so much, Madam PO. Just a quick question, Ms. Skeeter. In terms of that time, since it's a temporary easement, what is the length of time for that easement?

It's through the construction process. I'd have to look and see what the, That will be identified as part of the negotiations. But we'll need it through the construction process.

About two years.

Jesus. Sorry about that. He's saying about two years, but it depends on the construction time. And this is a $4 million project, so it's going to take a minute.

I just wanted to know the length of time that the county is requesting that easement. Thank you so much. I appreciate you both for that answer. With that, I yield back to you, Matthew.

Thank you, Commissioner Messiah. Commissioner Bolton.

Oh, I think the response to my question was alluded to. I was looking at the amount, $97,505, for just 0.79 acres. But for two years, a temporary easement, I understand.

Well, just to be clear, it's 0.179 acres of right of way plus the temporary easement.

Oh, I got you. Yes, ma'am. OK. Thank you for the clarity.

And the temporary easements, 0.099 acres of land.

Understood, I yield back.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one else requesting to speak, please open the machine for the vote. Motion to approve the substitute carries. Bottom of page four, item 2026-0876, convention districts three and six, property right-of-way exchange Stone Quarry Road, land lot 144, 15th district. Welcome back.

Commissioners, this is a right-of-way swap initiated by the property owner um there's an unapproved right-of-way a 10-foot unapproved right-of-way that we're swapping for 25 feet of right-of-way that is in a better location for the south river trail and aligns more with the vision of the trail and where we want to the trail to exit on moorland so we recommend approval

All right, thank you so much. There's still public hearing. Anyone here to speak in favor of this item? Anyone in favor? Seeing nobody. Anyone in opposition of this item? Final call. Anyone in opposition? Seeing no one. Director Kuehler, if you will restate staff's position.

Recommendations for approval.

Thank you, ma'am. Is there a motion? Are you making the motion?

Yes, a motion to approve with a question.

Thank you. Seconded by Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Messiah, you have the floor.

All right, thank you so much. I wanted to understand, again, as we're talking about land exchanges, wanting to understand, is it just for the land and there's nothing else additional with it? There's no monetary value? Just an exchange of land.

Well, we're exchanging a 10-foot path of land unapproved right away worth $113,300 to a 25-foot path of unapproved right away worth $202,900. So we are, I don't want to say winning, but to the county's benefit.

And so what is the actual need versus the square footage that we have, the land that we have? What prompted the need for the exchange?

Well, the 10 foot unapproved right of way splits the property owner owns both sides of the road. So the 25 foot would take us closer to the South River. for the trail between Custard and Moreland and would also take us further north on Moreland where Georgia DOT is placing a pedestrian hybrid beacon for the near Linwood or I can't call the street right now, but it's gonna cross Moreland. So instead of having the path come out to the south and then parallel Moreland, we would go more across country and be a better path location in the future.

OK. All right. That's it for me. Thank you, Madam PL.

Thank you so much. Seeing no other requests to speak, please open the machine for the vote. Motion to approve carries. Top of page five. A couple more items, and then we will take a lunch break. Item 2026-0943, Commission Districts 3 and 6, traffic calming petition, Tarion Drive between Clifton Springs Road and Tarion Way at no cost to the county.

Commissioners, this is to approve the traffic calming plan and begin the 90-day petition process for Tarion Drive. Staff recommendation is for approval.

All right, this is our final public hearing item. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak in favor of this item? Welcome to the podium, sir.

I think you're coming up.

Yes, welcome to the podium, sir.

My name is Ernest Bush, and I live on Tarrant Drive. I've been there since 1975. And for the last few years, a new subdivision was put up near our community. So the traffic is much heavier than it used to be. And the speed People's coming down Terry, seeing like they're going 40 miles, 40 miles per hour. And the speed limit is 25. So we want to slow the traffic down in our community. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. And thank you for being with us and making it through this far. Anyone else here to speak in favor of this item? I see no one else speaking in favor. Anyone here to speak in opposition? Ma'am, are you wanting to speak in favor? OK, come on up.

My name is Melody Riggins. I have lived on Terrian Drive since 1973. I have a sign right by, a little bit past my driveway, that says 25 miles an hour. There are cars that come down and are doing more than 45, including school buses, because I have reported the school buses. And I used to ask the people to slow down, but since people are so Crazy now that she just stopped saying slow down. If I'm out there in my yard, I just try to keep doing what I'm doing. But it is going to be where they race up that street, and if you're going up the street and you're going slow, they will pull off behind you and go around you. So it's pretty bad over there now, and it's been going on for a while.

Thank you, ma'am.

good morning ma'am good morning Beverly Dabney and I shared this same complaint I guess about a month or so ago where they're speaking of is really we're neighbors and the area is continued we know that the majority of the people are renters we submitted the same number we have tried four times for speed box to avoid the slowdown of traffic. We've had houses that have been hit. And so maybe this is an opportunity for some changes since it occurs to more than one community. I think to try to help us get some opportunity to make the community safer, we also experience the speed from school buses as well. Thank you, ma'am.

Good morning, ma'am.

Good morning. My name is Debbie Smith, and I've been a resident of the Monterey community for about 25 years now. And we had the studies that were done that looked at how much traffic we have, how fast people are going up and down the streets in our subdivision. And this particular street that's being considered as Terry and drive and it feeds into Clifton Springs Road is the main conveyance in and out of our subdivision to Clifton Road. And we, again, as people have said, we have had so many buses, DeKalb County school buses that go very fast down the street. So it is a problem. It's a safety issue with school children who are crossing the street. It's a problem with people who are walking up and down the street, people coming in and out of their driveways. So we have been working on this issue for a while. Annette Eason, I just want to thank her. I don't know if she's here. She's a senior engineer and she has been so very kind and offered us great assistance with this. So we just want to make sure that it's passed through. We've been talking about it through community meetings, person to person, and we have agreement and people are approving that we do this. So we definitely want to have this to move forward for the benefit of our entire community. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. A few more seconds if anyone else is in favor. Mr. Benny.

Miss PI, I think that if these people were willing to sit through this hurricane of chaos, they must really want their traffic control, and I hope that you provided for them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Binney. All right, seeing no one, well, seeing 10 seconds, no one else coming forward to speak in favor. Is anyone here to speak in opposition? anyone in opposition to this traffic calming item. All right, seeing nobody, Director Keter.

Again, this is to approve the plan and start the 90-day petition process. Staff recommendations for approval.

Thank you, ma'am. Ma'am, is there a motion? Motion to approve. Thank you. Is there a second? Thank you, Commissioner Terry, for your second. Commissioner Terry, you requested a speak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I think I heard that maybe there were some initial struggles getting to the first petition level because of, I guess, absentee landlords or investor-owned homes. Does that apply for this one?

I don't believe so, but I don't have that information from him.

But it has been an issue in other petitions.

Well, the first initial interest petition doesn't have to be signed by the real property owners. It's when we set up the special tax district that has to be signed by. Okay.

So we don't know yet. Okay. I want to renew my request for the law department to work on an amendment to the traffic calming ordinance that would provide an either or. Either you get the majority... super majority of signatures from property owners, or in a street that has a high percentage of investor-owned homes where landlords are just unreachable, that we create an either-or and make the or elector-based. So if they're registered to vote, they live at the address, they could be a renter, they can sign the petition. Or just some guidance from the law department on how we can the traffic calming tax districts for purposes that may be related to health and well-being and safety of the residents. I understand under Georgia law that the special tax districts have to serve a purpose. And in the past we've taken the petition based on the property owners, but because we have some neighborhoods with a lot of absentee investor owned homes, it's just not practical for them to get to that threshold, but there still are life and safety concerns. And so if we had to resort, to a legislative fiat decision for a special tax district. And we know that the majority of the electors support it. I think we should have some guidance from the law department on how we could implement that because I'm sensing that it's come up with a previous one. It could come up in this one and it probably will continue to come up in some communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Bolton?

And I'll be brief, just because I know I've had that conversation with Ms. Dabney, but I did want to also say, on behalf of Super District 7, we are looking for language as well, because we have a significant number of renters, and we'd like some support for an alternative. So that is something that we would support as well.

Thank you so much. Seeing no other requests to speak, Okay, Commissioner Davis-Johnson. I saw her reaching for the button.

And I'm gonna be brief. I think that we spoke in the past about registered agents in DeKalb County that we can serve that would be the agents for the owners. And I don't know where that is. I know that we presented, I think it was something that had to be passed in the state legislature, is that correct? Because registered agents would definitely solve the problem in many situations.

Madam Presiding Officer for the sake of efficiency commissioners I've heard the concern I understand it's a multi-layered issue that touches a number of spaces so why don't we speak off offline I've heard the request from Dr. Bolton Commissioner Terry and Commissioner Davis-Johnson is correct that issue of using registered agents has been a part of the discussion over time

Thank you. You yield, Commissioner Davis-Johnson. Commissioner Masai, you are requested to speak for the second opportunity.

Thank you so much. And to that point, receiverships, you know, and considering if not a registered agent, then a receivership where it might be able to get done. With that, I yield back to you.

Thank you so much. Seeing no other requests to speak, please open the machine for the vote. That motion to approve carries. We have three more items that are decision only and do not have a public hearing. So let's get through these three and then we will break.

Okay, thank you.

Middle of page five. Item 2026-0941, All Commission Districts Home Rule Ordinance to Amend the Pension Code of DeKalb County, Georgia, 1962 Georgia Laws 3088, as amended, to add a death benefit for beneficiaries of certain planned participants who die in the line of duty as officers, employees, or deputies of DeKalb County on or after September 1st, 2026, and to provide for compliance with certain updates to federal tax law. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam Siding Officer. Hey, Chair.

Good afternoon Madam Presiding Officer, Commissioners. We are asking for a deferral to your August 11th meeting. In your inbox you will see an amended home rule ordinance as well as a substitute agenda item for the August 11th meeting. The pension board lawyer asked us to make three revisions and those three revisions are reflected in the amendment and we'd like to share that on the August 11th meeting.

for decision only.

If I may. Yes, attorney Phillips. We'd like you to accept the sub and defer the substitute to the August 11th meeting. We're not asking that you wait till August 11th and then consider the sub. Please add it today, defer the item till August 11th, and we'll deal with it then.

All right, thank you so much. Can I get that in a motion?

I move to accept the substitute for item 20260941.

Second. And defer to August 11.

All of that is one motion or two separate motions?

Well, it doesn't have to be a motion to accept the sub. We just want to make sure that the motion to defer is deferring the substitute.

I got you.

So can I just go ahead and make my motion?

Okay, I move to. Defer the substitute to the August 11th meeting, and that's item 20260941, the substitute.

For decision only or public hearing?

For decision only.

Thank you so much. Commissioner Davis-Johnson, you have seconded. Commissioner Bolton, you had a question?

No, ma'am, he addressed it. It was about the substitute.

Thank you. Please open the machine for the vote.

I think you may want this for public hearing since it changed.

For public hearing?

Yeah.

You're good with that? Since you made the motion, it is for public hearing.

I amend my motion to defer the substitute for 20260941 to the August 11th meeting for public hearing due to the amendments.

Thank you so much. And the machines are open for the vote. That motion carries. Thank you. Two more. Top of page six. Item 2026-0443, Commission District 3, Super District 7, application of optimal consulting LLC to rezone property from R75 to RSM zoning district to allow residential homes, and we are being handed a substitute.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Staff recommendation is for approval of the substitute that's now being handed out. The application is to rezone from R75 to RSM to allow single family attached residential homes. You last heard this on the May 28th meeting where you deferred it so that the applicant could make some revisions to the site plan in order for the site plan to be more community oriented. So since that time, the applicant has included a community pavilion, a dedicated recreational park, enhanced pedestrian connectivity with a loop sidewalk system on the southern portion of the site, larger lots along the northern portion of the site that directly access internal access roads. And the goal of those larger lots on the north side is to provide more compatibility with the lots that are adjacent to this development. There are also now 10 additional visitor parking spaces. So another note is that all three neighborhood schools do have capacity for additional students. Therefore, upon review of section 735, it is a recommendation of the planning department that the application be approved with the following conditions, which I will read. Number one, there should be a maximum of up to 14 single family dwelling units or single family attached dwelling units, there should be a maximum of up to 14. Dwelling units, let's go with that. Number two, maximum building height of two stories in general consistency with the submitted conceptual elevations. Number three, provide a minimum 20 foot undisturbed buffer along the northern and eastern property lines. Within the transitional buffer, the natural topography of the land shall be preserved and existing growth shall not be disturbed except where necessary to remove dead or diseased trees. undergrowth or to enhance the buffer with additional landscaping in order to provide a screen so as to prevent view of the higher density development from the lower density development and number four the approval of this rezoning application by the Board of Commissioners has no bearing on the requirements for other regulatory approvals under the authority of the Zoning Board of Appeals or other entities whose decisions shall be based on the merits of the application under review by such entity Once again, staff recommendation is for approval of the substitute with four conditions.

Thank you, Deputy Director Bragg. Is there a motion?

My motion is to deny.

Is there a second? Can I at least get a second so we can discuss?

Second for purpose of discussion.

All right, Commissioner Masai has requested to speak.

This is just another example of what I briefly spoke about before. I've spoken to some folks here in the community who have not and did not have an opportunity to come down here today. We went from four applications of reduction in square footage in five years to all of a sudden three out of the four a rezoning request being in district 3 to reduce r75 r85 and concentrated in south dekalb county um you know if it was something that was widely widely sought throughout the county, you would see it as pervasive in other areas of the county as well. However, we do not. They're all concentrated and all specific to District 3. This is the second one that has taken place just today alone, and so it's not by happenstance, it's not by coincidence, and as a part of my commitment to protecting the culture, the fabric of the district, of the community, and listening to residents, whether they have an opportunity to come down here or not, is why I am denying it. There should be an opportunity to build within the specifications as stated that are able to meet both a developer's needs, but also, and more importantly, the community's needs. And to the extent that does not have the ability to happen in District 3, that presents a problem. So again, my responsibility is to listen to my constituents. to ensure that I'm paying attention to the fabric and the future of the community, but then also looking at the, since we've heard it numerous times today, the equality and the equity of what's being provided and offered throughout our neighborhoods and in District 3 as well. With that, I yield back to you, Madam PO.

Thank you, Commissioner Bolton.

Before I give my comments, if the applicant is here, can you come to the microphone and just state what improvements that you guys have committed to, whether that's right-of-way, sidewalk, turn lanes, et cetera, that would be made in that area?

The corridor actually has poor visibility at the intersection. So the setbacks in setting the houses back, having a through road takes the traffic considerations into constraint. Excuse me, public speaking isn't my thing. But just to be brief, the Columbia Drive corridor has been identified as a revitalization. As you can see, there's other RSM zoning areas in the area. I've met with community leaders. I haven't had any opposition. I had multiple meetings with different members of the community, took insight, had feedback, incorporated it into the design. And over the last eight months, I personally reached out to Commissioner Messiah trying to get meetings. That has gone unresponsive. I have not had a meeting with her yet. Her chief of staff reached out to me to try to calm the situation when I sent an email to Planning and Development saying that I'm not getting support. What I would like to do is just focus on the facts that the Columbia Drive corridor was identified as the area of revitalization, the 2055 comprehensive plan. The community wants this. The community needs this. If this gets denied, you're going to push other developers to do large scale homes. That's gonna price people out in the community, which is what people don't want. And I urge the rest of the commissioners to hold each other accountable because it's supposed to be ethics and as, excuse me, I'm sorry. This is very difficult because it's been a long process and it's very frustrating to come here and to go through all of this and meet with community, put effort and meeting with planning and development. and try to beautify the area in resolving the issues that that corner has. And for it to get denied, Commissioner Messiah, what do you wanna see? You wanna see Million Dollar Homes go on a corner that blocks the visibility of that intersection? Does it account for stormwater management?

I'm sorry, I only get five minutes, baby. Okay, I'm sorry. And you took three of them, okay? So I would like to ask, when you met with the community about how many folks were either present in person, online, can you estimate how many folks you engaged with?

There was over 200 members that was in that email chain that I was corresponding with that has the updated site plan that send me emails that I had correspondence with that I met with. So over 200 community members in the immediate vicinity. And my email list.

Can you estimate about how many responded? I know specifically Mr. Tolliver, you've mentioned before, I think you've mentioned Ed Williams. Can you estimate how many has responded or has been engaged in the process?

I'll probably say I've met with at least 17 to 20 different people on site and through various meetings, face to face and over teams.

Okay, and I would just communicate in our meeting, I did share after we went through the final version, I was happier with the outcome. I did have a few concerns that we discussed and for public knowledge to know what some of those were. You've already addressed the right of way. I think you mentioned about the right turn, I believe, either left or right turn. I don't remember at this point. But I also asked about the upkeep of the amenities for such a small community. How will they be able to afford the dog park, the pavilion, there was something else, I don't recall at this moment. and also um in the plat being sure to define whether the marquee or monument that is placed at the front of the subdivision outline who that land actually belongs to because in other areas of district 7 that's now a concern when that gets knocked down you know from traffic or whatever a hazard occurs and then it's um it's uh demolished or whatever the case Whose responsibility is it to repair that?

So everything within the community will be maintained by an HOA. The monument sign will be designed here in the LDP phase between the county and myself to determine the optimal location for it. And if it's placed in the right of way, then it will fall on the county. But as far as the stormwater management system and the amenities, the HOA will... maintain that and there's a cost analysis that was done to make sure that the homeowners can afford it.

All right, thank you so much, Commissioner Bolton. Commissioner Asai, for your second opportunity.

Thank you so much, Madam Peor. I appreciate it. I appreciate Commissioner Bolton for those questions. And again, sir, for me, we responded back and let you know that based on our conversations with the constituents that we were taking, my chief of staff actually did. again this has been an eight-month process unless she asks you a specific question this is her opportunity yes and again and we advise you that based on the constituents concerns because we delay we deferred it the first time to allow to make sure that's exactly exactly that's the point last meeting you said that you would reach out and coordinate with me you did not Excuse me, let me be abundantly clear with you. We actually communicated with the constituents, and I'm going to reiterate the same thing I'm reiterating now. They were concerned. We communicated. We were concerned based on what they shared with us, and that is my position. I allowed for a deferral last time to make sure that we had an opportunity, that I had an opportunity directly to reach out to those constituents and have the conversation, specifically what you're mentioning, Marvin Tolliver. And based on that, And the conversations that I had had, because you presented something different. Excuse me, sir. You presented something different the last time you were before us. And I wanted to allow for you to have an opportunity to have a conversation with those constituents so that I can hear from them and hear their voices to give you the benefit of the doubt. Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. I'm going to ask you to sit down if you interrupt one more time. Excuse me, sir. So at this point, based on my communication with constituents who had not had, and their concerns that they've been very clear about, and they're in opportunity to come here today to speak against this, and following what my constituents are wanting from me. I am in a position, and my vote is still to deny. Sorry it's disappointing, but that is my position. Now you're back to you, Madam PO. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak? All right, seeing none, the motion on the floor is to deny. Commissioner Bolton, your second stands.

You put me in an awkward position, brother, because you was responding to the other commissioner. I will say, because we received approval with condition from Community Council and Planning Commission, I would like to move to approve this item.

Second. So that's a substitute motion?

Yes. A substitute motion for this item.

Second. Commissioner Terry is approving the substitute motion.

Thank you.

Please open the machine for the vote. Commissioner Patrick, I'm sorry, you were requesting to speak.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. Is there any chance of a middle way? And I hate to ask that, but.

I'm open to it.

It is, I think, good form that we've had over the years where the super and the general have found some way of agreement versus the commission having to pick sides. We have our challenges, but I do think we have a good working relationship, and so my question really would be to the commissioners if there was a way to get to a middle path, and I don't know if that means another deferral, but if either of you thought that there would be a benefit to that, I would encourage that just so that the commission doesn't have to get into local district business. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Patrick. Commissioner Davis-Johnson.

This is not my commissioning district. And really, I try to stay out of commission districts that I do not represent. But it's so close to my commission district. I know where it's located. I know the need. I see where the community council is. has approved this with conditions. I also see where the Planning Commission has approved it with conditions. We have to look at certain communities where we are and be realistic as to what's going to benefit that community. Now, I do hear you saying that your constituents came out. The community council approved it. The commission planning, I mean the planning commission approved it. You know, we need people to come in and to be that buffer that we don't have in our communities because every community is not going to have a million dollar home. And every community, I mean, you know, even though I listen to my constituents, I also listen to our developers and I listen to people come in so that I can get a broad understanding and look at both sides and then make a decision. Now, if the motion for approval stand, I know my second will stand, and this is an extraordinary for me, but I think understanding that community, knowing the community, seeing that the council and staff, I mean, and planning has approved it, I would have to go with approval rather than a deferral. Sometimes we're not gonna agree. I mean, sometimes we're not gonna agree. I think sometimes my district seven commissioner have the audacity to disagree with me, you know, but we still cool. You know, we still cool. But yeah, I would have to go in support of this. I think it's a good project and I think it's been vetted through the council and planning.

Thank you, Commissioner Davis-Johnson. Do you yield? Thank you. Commissioner Bolton, your second opportunity.

I will say, and I appreciate both of you speaking up, to Commissioner Patrick, I am amenable to deferring this to give me time to connect with the residents that you indicated had concerns because I didn't hear from any folks that had concerns, which just means they may have just reached out to their district commissioner as opposed to their super. So if you are willing, I can amend my motion to a deferral so then I can make those connections.

I'll second that.

All right, so you are amending your substitute motion to a deferral. 30 days.

Do we have 30 days?

I need the calendar. So I think we'd have to come back August 11th.