Boma - workshop

Thank you, Joey, and welcome, everybody. This is the work session for the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026. We're going to call the roll. Alderman Barnhill. Here. Alderman Blanton. Here. Alderman Caesar. Here. Alderman Peterson.

Alderman Berger. Present. Alderman Brown. Present. Alderman Potts. Present. Vice Mayor Baggett. He's absent tonight, and the mayor's here. Next are citizen comments. I have a speaker card for Alan Thompson. Mr. Thompson, come on up. And as you're coming up, if the Board of Mayor and Alderman or members of the Board of Mayor and Alderman want to register for this particular thing you're going to talk about, who do they see? Well, thank you. So that's your introduction.

Thank you, Adam. Thank you very much. Y'all have a good evening. Okay. We're going to go to item number one, event permit for the Pilgrims Music and Cultural Festival at the Park at Harlinsdale Farm to be held April 10th and 11th.

Good to see you, Kevin. Thank you, guys. Good seeing you all. Item two and three we're going to take together. One is the letter of agreement for the liquidation of RMS Forest Grove III. And the other is an action written by consent of the liquidation of RMS Forest 3. Christine.

seeing none we'll continue moving on we're going to go to item four which is ordinance 2026-18 in order to amend various chapters of the franklin zoning ordinance as part of an annual update including overlay districts first avenue district use regulations building types parking and transit signs procedures performance agreements and to amend the zoning map for certain properties on or near columbia avenue north of Granbury Street, Dyke Bennett Road, First Avenue North, Long Lane. I think I'm just giving your talk right now, right, Kelly? It's all right there. So I'm going to stop right there

I would like to see the pitch roofs, period, across the city, because we keep talking about upgrading our design. We keep looking at different places, and then sometimes that happens in your drive down, like Carruthers Boulevard, and we have a flat roof there. It's not anywhere, well, across the street you have the apartments, but at the same time it's just, I would support the pitch roofs throughout the city, period. Unless it's in an industrial area. If it's in an industrial area, fine. Let's do the flat roof for an industrial area. Let's do the pitched roof throughout the whole city. Let's

Alderman Caesar. Just to be clear and make sure I understood what Alderman Berger was asking. So right now we're suggesting that flat roofs could be in commercial. You're saying not commercial, just light industrial or heavy industrial? Or industrial, would you allow flat roofs? Because I think the aesthetic of a pitched roof is superior. But it also, if you put a pitched roof in the middle of an industrial area, it sticks out.

That's why I said industrial. So it could also be light industrial because I think that would be appropriate from what you're talking about. So it could be light industrial, heavy industrial. But we don't really have heavy industrial roofs.

All in five. Thanks, sir. Just had a quick follow-up question. As you looked at the proposed amendment, which is the second bullet point, 500 feet from the property line, a residential lot, did you check any proposed areas or... Was there a certain area, and the reason why I ask is going down South Carruthers, right there near Robinson Lake, when we had the rezoning and that small convenience store was going to have a couple of pumps there, they were trying to work with the neighborhood to create that pitched roof look and also blend into that environment. Were there some other areas that you

And we discussed this at the joint conceptual meeting as well, and there was a good bit of dialogue around where these data center locations could be. Right now, where are the existing data centers in the city of Franklin?

So there's the Eddy Lane and then there's another one in Carothers? And so both of those would be outside of the locations that we have highlighted in pink here. Neither of those would be considered light industrial. Eddy Lane might. I don't think so.

Alderman Blanton. Isn't there a proposed one coming for Columbia Avenue and Downs? That was me trying to be... That is not a data center.

So let me just reiterate or be clear... You're saying that they can expand, but they can't add property. In other words, they couldn't buy additional property near them?

So if they're conforming, they're not near residential, they could buy property and expand. That's right. Yeah.

Have we ever... How do I put this? Have we ever factually... identified the issues around data centers. I mean, first of all, we want our phones. We want our computers. We want medical technology. We want to drive our cars. And we want to do the data centers are coming. Data centers are going to be here. But you do hear constituents. You do have people in articles out there every day talking about quality of life issues. Have we factually identified these things? Because everyone and their brother can say whatever they want. You can read any article you want from any leaning opinion on these.

Also, we have not addressed the size of any of these, have we? That's correct. Or limited them, have we?

And if you look at the ones we have right now, the one on Crothers is not near residential. It's more in a commercial office area. Same with Eddie Lane. So, all right.

I would just recommend that we double the distance from property lines of residential. There's some that have bought, you know, some pretty heavy residential areas, and I'd like to give them that additional relief. And based on my analysis, it looks like 1,320 feet is a quarter of a mile. And I think you said it took 15 minutes. or so on foot. That's a pretty slow pace for a mile. I'm not fast, but 15 minutes to walk a quarter of a mile would be pretty slow. But for that reason, Kelly, I would ask that we look at doubling that so that we're, you know, maybe a 10- or 15-minute walk from residen

Because Google said five minutes for your distance.

There's irony to that. Let's keep on then with the stimulating conversation.

Alderman Caesar. I mean, Alderman Burger. Yeah, that AI comment just has frozen my brain. Go ahead, Alderman Burger.

So I'm the one that brought this forward and really helps out a lot of our businesses. I have one little issue with this. It says located in the rear yard. Actually, there may be an appropriate place on a side yard or a side of a business where it could be totally secluded or enclosed, where it might be enclosed by vegetation. So I drove past one place, and I'm trying to remember exactly where it was. It was a few months back. And I thought, well, it's a side area, but you really couldn't see because all the evergreens, it was totally secluded. So I might want us to add something and not just

Thank you, sir. I know that there's, I've had an email thread going, I think, on one of these properties here. Just so that we're all on the same page, the The proposed addition, the dark green, and if you would, the one that is kind of in the center. Yes, that one there. Just to make sure, is there the dot that's right there, that black triangular shape? Oops. We'll all be back online here momentarily.

While they're pulling that back up, I know we have one speaker card, and I don't know if it's a specific property they're interested in. If we're talking on that one right now, it might be good to have them speak also after you finish.

Yeah, and I may ask a question and then follow up after the speaker, but I just wanted to get clarification. When we were looking at the slide, there was that triangular, I guess rhombus-shaped section right there where your mouse is. Could you identify that for us, or do we even know what that is? What is that?

Can we have them come to the podium? Yeah. Mr. Beauchamp, why don't you come on up and give us, you've got a couple of minutes.

And thank you, Mr. Beecham. Thank you. And also, Mr. Beecham as well. Thank both of you for being here, and thank you for meeting with our city staff, engineering and planning, as you've brought this to our attention. This is over in Ward 3, and we've been watching this. Obviously, you know, we're focused on South Carruthers and its future expansion, and we do appreciate the existing farm operations as they have not stopped, and you have no intention of stopping your operations. And so I'm wondering, and I'll bring this to staff, if we need to... how we should proceed with this so that they ca

It does. It's a good summary of this email thread that we've had ongoing. And for those that aren't familiar, this particular elevation is 910 feet, which is, I think we said it was 60 feet shy of the top of Roper's Knob. So it is, you know, for this area, it is a significant hill. We've also had conversations about if that was the eastern property border there, that if it did move forward, what that would potentially look like as far as removal of any type of hillside. But that's far in the distance.

Right. And we've even looked at an alternative plan as well. But that's, again, far in the future. But for now, staff is recommending that we not apply the HHO at this time.

And so in closing, we want to protect property owner rights, but more importantly, this is an ongoing farming operation.

It's a lot of B's here too, remember? So when can we see this coming back to us to have our final input and vote?

So it's coming back to us for our first vote then October 27. That's Tuesday, the last Tuesday of the month. And I was just reading the code here. It looks pretty clear about that code. It's pretty straightforward.

Very straightforward if it's ongoing agriculture.

Yeah, that's ordinance 2026-2022, which is item number five. So we're ready for item number six, which is City of Franklin Contract 2026-052 with Hazen and Sawyer for Southeast Clean Water Plant Design Services, the amount of $17,609,000.

So what percentage of the total project is this right here?

Anybody else? Okay, item seven is resolution 2026-69 to approve the use of paid parking on private property located 202 Bridge Street and choosing option three as proposed.

Any questions? Okay. Next is resolution... 2026-83 resolution approving a tree planting project is recommended by the City of Franklin Tree Commission at a cost of $14,199.40.

I didn't see the trees for the area near the college in here. Is that separate?

And the college. The college. That's one of the things. We have a lot of heavy pedestrian with no shade at all. Absolutely. Yeah.

We needed it. Any other questions? Any other business? Alderman Potts?

I had a question regarding the trees, actually, not other business. Not necessarily directed to this project, but I would ask, As we are working on the Pearl Park Southeastern water plant, et cetera, that entire area there, there's been a lot of tree removal. And that's been planned. It's been part of our process. We knew we're following that process and all the steps. As we look at... tree banks if you will and having you know growing their own trees and having them available if there's any opportunity to maybe use that area to help to grow more trees in the future it could also be a natural

Absolutely. And I'll go ahead and say that, uh, scout troop, uh, two, six or scout troop number 16 is also looking to do some volunteering. So I'll put you in contact.