Commission - Special Meeting

we'll go ahead and get started uh we're here at city hall on july 21st 2026 for two meetings this evening uh we'll first have a brief special called session with five action items and that'll be followed by our regularly scheduled agenda setting session all right so we'll go ahead and begin our special called session with a roll call from clerk christine howard davenport

All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I appreciate it. All right, we're going to begin tonight with some recognitions. It's been a busy season, and so we are really lucky to have a crew of fantastic public servants who are filling previously vacant seats in our administrative team. So I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to County Manager Bob Cowell to introduce some folks.

All right. Now is the time for public input on the five items that are on the new business calendar for the special called session. Is there anyone here to speak to any of these new business items that are on our special called session agenda? All right. Seeing none, I'll turn to the commission. I need a motion for suspension of rules since these are having their first hearing tonight.

All right. I've got a motion from Commissioner Taylor and a second from Commissioner Link. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right. Formality that we need to take care of is adoption of the 2026 property tax rates, current property tax digest, and five-year history of levy. Can I hear someone to place a motion on the floor, please? All right, I've got a motion from Commissioner Wright. I have a second from Commissioner Fischer. There's an ordinance associated with this, I believe. I'll have Attorney Drake read that now.

Thank you, Attorney Drake. I appreciate it. Any follow-up, Commissioner Wright?

No, I think this is just housekeeping. Wrapping it up.

We're keeping between the lines here. Commissioner Fischer? Yes, sir. All right. Any others? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, hearing none, motion carries. All right, second item tonight is an ordinance to levy and assess taxes for the Clark County School District, which is part of our responsibility as a county government. Do I hear a motion regarding this tonight?

All right, I've got a motion from Commissioner Wright and a second from Commissioner Link. I believe there's an ordinance associated with this as well.

Thank you, Attorney Drake. Any remarks, Commissioner Wright? Ready to move. Ready to vote. Commissioner Link? Yep. Any others? Hearing none. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? All right, motion carries unanimously. All right, third item is our annual school resource officer agreement for the 2026 and 2027 academic year with the Clark County School District. Can I hear a motion regarding this? All right, I've got a motion from Commissioner Fischer, and I have a second from Commissioner Taylor. All right, Commissioner Fischer?

I just want the public to know that the Clark County School District is paying the full freight for this particular program, and our police department is part of that program, so I just wanted to make that public.

First, I want to point out there's a discrepancy in the number of days. On page two in the agenda item, it says the school resource officers will work 179 days. But in the Clark County School District's contract, it says 180. It's just a small typo that just needs to be clarified.

You're welcome. The second thing I had a question about is the total that's here, $470,000, is it going to cover six officers' salaries and a portion of the supervisor's salary, as I understand it, I'm curious if the officers that work in the school resource officer program, I'm not sure if they are different ranks, but I just wanted to make sure that their salaries were covered regardless of their rank and the $470,000 captured that.

Thank you. Any others? All right, there's a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, hearing none, motion carries. All right, item four is renewal of a small business enterprise agreement. This is an annual subscription that we apply to and receive every year, and this is just a time-sensitive matter since we didn't have a July voting meeting. So I'll entertain a motion regarding this.

I've got a motion from Commissioner Wright. I have a second from Commissioner Link. Commissioner Wright, any remarks?

I just found it very interesting, the history of our size growing and that item.

Any others? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right, final item is another one of these things that we would have taken care of had we met first Tuesday of the month. This is the Heard Community Center Accessible Parking Improvements. This is the bid award. I hear a motion regarding this item. All right, I have a motion from Commissioner Taylor and a second from Commissioner Link. Is there an ordinance associated with this, Attorney Drake? No, sir. I did not see one. No, no ordinance. All right. Commissioner Taylor, any remarks?

Yes, just making my facility and my district safe. Commissioner Link?

All right. Any others? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Hearing none, motion carries. All right. Can I hear a motion to adjourn the special called session? All right. Motion from Commissioner Taylor, second from Commissioner Link. All in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right. We are going to move right into our agenda setting session. We have a consent agenda, which are items 1 through 16. We have, count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 items that are recommendations from the Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission. And then we have old business items, which are 23 through 30. There will be opportunity for public input on the consent agenda. There will be public input opportunities individually on each of the planning and zoning items, and then there will be public input opportunity on all of our old and new business. Fi

Yeah, 12 and 13, just for a quick comment.

All right. Any others? All right. 12 and 13 will move to discussion. Any others? No. All right. All right. Perfect. All right. So now is the time for public input on any of the items on the consent agenda. And so those are items 1 through 16, except for 12 and 13. Would anybody like to speak to any of those items? 1 through 16, with the exception of 12 and 13. And we do this every year, but please make sure when you step to the podium, you place your name on the record, let us know your place of residence, and then you'll have three minutes to provide input. There's a clock in front of Clerk H

Thank you, Ms. Roden. Any other public input on any items that are on tonight's consent agenda? Again, those are items 1 through 16, with the exception of 12 and 13. All right. Next segment of the meeting, we're going to have presentations from our planning director, Bruce Lonnie, on each of those items. And again, following the presentations, there will be individual item public input and then discussion by the members of the commission. All right, so technology is our friend tonight, and so Planning Director Lonnie is going to take us through the first of our planning and zoning recommendati

All right. Thanks, Bruce. I appreciate it. All right. Is there any member of the public who's here to speak to this item? If so, if you'd line up the podium at this point.

We do have Commissioner Davenport telephonically. So I think the clerk can operate the device. Okay. Commissioner Davenport, any remarks regarding this one?

We'll move on to the rest of the group. Commissioner, go right ahead.

Thank you, Commissioner. Any other input from members of the body? All right. We're going to move on to the next item, number 18.

Chair Greg Musil. All right. Thank you, Bruce. Is there any member of the public who's here to speak to this item tonight? Give us your name and place of residence.

Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Is there anyone else here to speak to this item tonight?

Thank you, Mr. Burch. Is there anyone else here to speak to this tonight? Seeing none, I know this is in District 4, so I'll ask Commissioner Wright to speak first.

It is. I just want to be clear. I inherited the dilapidated, boarded-up property with the redistricting mapping, and I have had to write numerous work requests for securing the property, the roofing, the tarping, getting it into compliance and I am thrilled that there is a dedicated group of men that are going to take this on and they have the strength of their national fraternity. Charlie said it really well about their commitment. This is a different kind of fraternity. The fact that their chapter meetings are on Sunday follows their focus on spirit and the church strength that they get. Som

Any others from the body? Commissioner Link?

Yeah, I'm grateful to see this property getting some stewardship. This was in my district once upon a time, and I'm pretty sure I wrote a couple of those work orders too. It's been a big concern for a very long time for historic preservation advocates. So I'm really grateful to see that it's getting rescued. I look forward to seeing what the HPC thinks about the design. I hope that it can pass with flying colors.

I have a couple questions. Well, I'll let my colleague go. Go ahead. I guess I'm hoping this is a new era of working with UGA and the local government and the historic communities. I appreciate the energy and the presentation from the young man and they did their homework. You got to do your homework. You got to go and talk to the neighbors. You got to go figure out where the concerns are before things come before this commission. So it's good to hear the young and the seasonally young be supportive of this project. I hope this is what the future of this local government is going to look like.

Thanks, Commissioner. Commissioner Johnson.

Hi, thank you. I just have three quick things. And I want to start by saying I didn't get a chance to review this. So if it's in the packet and if you've stated it in your presentation, Mr. Lonnie, I apologize. The first question I have is I noticed the staff did not recommend it, but the Planning Commission did. Can you speak to that?

Great, that sounds wonderful. Does that mean they have a contract with the Butler building to use 30 of their spaces?

And my last question is related to the variances. You spoke to one. The other one was the reduction in screening. Why was that supported?

Thank you so much. I appreciate the explanation.

So Commissioner Wright, if I heard you correctly, you do not believe this fraternity will be some sort of animal house.

That is not their style. Good to know. And I would say the strength in their national organization speaks to the longevity of their lifestyle, if you know what I mean.

Okay. Yeah, we've got enough animal houses. SAE comes to mind.

What's your address again? You said the animal houses, I believe, are in your district?

That's what I... And that's kind of... Let me see that mic. Thank you.

Yeah. Nice to know that somebody has taken up the balance of the smoking and drinking any others. All right. We're going to move on to item 19.

Thanks, Bruce. Is there any members of the public here to speak to this tonight?

Thank you, Ms. Minton. We'll follow up after the discussion period.

Anyone else here to speak to this tonight? We do have Commissioner Myers. She's on the phone. It's in her district, so I'll go ahead and turn it over to her.

Thank you, Commissioner Myers. Appreciate that. Commissioner Taylor, I know you were interested in a query from the developer, and I'll get to Commissioner Link.

Yeah, so Commissioner Myers' question, we had the same question. I'm excited. I use that shopping center every day, so I'm excited to see with the building going out, but that's it.

Thanks, Commissioner. Commissioner Lake?

Yeah. So it appears that the footprint of a building is getting replaced with lawn. Where are the trees? Are there any tree requirements here? They're for every 14th space. But in that vast lawn area, there's, I mean,

I mean, I would like to see, you know, considering that there is this available blank space, it would be nice to see at least a handful of healthy native shade trees go in there for the benefit of the environment and maybe suck up some of the pollution from the cars going by. So maybe Commissioner Myers and I can talk about that as a possible condition.

Yeah. On that same, just to continue a little bit about what Commissioner Link was asking about, Bruce. So with the tree per parking spot, are those Needing to be within the line of the parking or or can they be they could be in the island?

okay and then so um i think you had some images that we don't have in the packet can you send us as a follow-up what the two parcel current traffic flow looks like and then isn't didn't you say there's gonna be some improvements besides the building being gone right for the traffic flow right out

Okay. And then also going out towards Kroger is staying. So the only change in the driveways is this one down here. Is it being eliminated?

And then this one is either or, depending on how risky you want to draw the crossing all the way over? Okay. Okay. Well, that answers it for me. Thank you. All right.

Is that everybody? All right. We're going to move on to item number 20 on 1125 Newton Bridge Road.

Okay. I guess I better pay attention, huh?

Thanks, Bruce. I appreciate it. Is there any member of the public here to speak to this tonight?

Thank you, Mr. Bacon. Is there anyone else here to speak to this item tonight? Good evening.

All right, we'll come for discussion. Commissioner Thornton?

This project has long been on the assembly line for a long time, and I do think giving them the additional time to make it right. We want it to be right and not rush through. We don't lose anything. There's no money or waivers on our part. It's just about time. This is probably the first subdivision that has been built in a long, long, long, long time. So we struggled with the dollar amount early on, but It is what it is. I do think that they've taken in consideration the traffic studies and they've tried to work with that. I see Dexter pointing at me, but I think that because the districts ar

I appreciate the fact that we're going to be getting more housing stock in that particular area. Also, the improvements there, because we have had probably about four fatalities there in that particular area, and it's a dangerous intersection. So I appreciate the builders and developers taking care of that from that perspective. It is going to add a little bit more traffic because right up from Capwood is another subdivision going in about 100 plus homes. So it is going to add a little bit more traffic coming down Capwood into Newton Bridge Road. So I'm hoping, again I'm not sure what type of

I think we can address the question about the signal. If you could just come to the mic, so that way we can capture it on the record. Thanks for signing up.

yeah um this used to be my district once upon a time um yeah and and it's long been a treacherous stretch of road like i'm i'm always sketched out going through that area um so it's good to know that you know there there will be some of this infrastructure going in that will certainly help calm traffic i'm concerned about a light i would love to see a light there i feel like that is like the main solution to um making that road safer and slowing down speeds on that road I'm wondering if Athens in motion has weighed in on this at all. We have this citizen body tasked specifically with bike and

What would be more appropriate than Athens in Motion is our staff. We have staff that is responsible for working on, TPW should have done a traffic study. We should be looking at T-splash money for traffic calming. So let's let our staff do what they get paid for. And I am the first one that is concerned about traffic safety. And I do not understand why we have not had a traffic light at that corner of Newton Bridge and Cathwood, maybe? That don't make no sense to me. But maybe, Mr. Bob?

There are a couple of forthcoming projects

And so if we have a list of that, but to say that AIM has to give us their blessing, I'm struggling with that.

Just to identify some things that y'all will see in the coming months, there will be a report either late this summer or very early this autumn about the stretch. coming out of that kind of unusual intersection where Dairy Pack, Chase, and Barbara and Newton Bridge all come together and stretching outward. You also have on the coming T-SPLOS program that the voters have now approved, a roundabout that will be at Cathwood and Newton Bridge. And then there is in the approved plan a bike and pedestrian connection directly from the neighborhood to Holland Youth Sports Complex. So just know that th

Mayor, I know when we had several accidents on 29 and Harvey Mathis, we did that R curve, which has been a tremendous help for people coming out on Harvey Mathis and 29. So again, I think that I'm glad this has come up because safety should be a key issue. But all the projects that are coming down the pike and maybe, Mayor, you could share with the rest of us some of the things that we can be looking for. Anyone else? Commissioner Lake.

Yeah. Has our bike peg coordinator taken a look at this as part of the evaluation? Yes. OK. Good. Thank you.

All right, we'll see this in a couple of weeks.

Thanks. I noticed that the Planning Commission departed from the specific protection, financial protection of requesting by the Transportation and Public Works Department. Their original request was they were in support of Placing money equal to the construction cost in escrow. The Planning Commission changed that from cash escrow to a performance fund, and I was wondering if someone, if you could speak to that, please?

Okay. The second question I have is the staff report says the request includes no design changes, and the developer's report does not say the same thing. Can you speak to that?

Yeah, that's clear. And my last question is, this is in a TAD zone. The developers not requested any funding, but they have the right to. They can. Do we anticipate that down the line to supplement their costs? I mean, they would know. You can come to the front. Thank you. Thank you.

And since Commissioner Johnson brought up the TAD dollars, again, you have not requested anything thus far. Since we're talking about this traffic light, and I do know the Newton Bridge TAD group has, I think they're the only group that has come before us with a plan, which is on infrastructure, so that might be another option if we wanna put that on our radar for that safety on that Newton Bridge and Cathwood. I hadn't thought about that.

And you'll see, I believe, some recommendations coming out of the analysis, again, late this summer, early this fall. Anyone else? All right. We have two items that are text amendments. You might remember early in this calendar year, the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing, which is a resident body, came forward with a handful of conceptual recommendations at a work session. This body then forwarded those conceptual recommendations to the planning staff and planning commission to put some meat on the bone, so to speak. And the first two of those are coming to us tonight.

I appreciate it. We'll go ahead and get public input and then commission discussion. Any member of the public? Again, make sure you state your name and place of residence and we have a three-minute opportunity. Good evening.

I appreciate that folks may have thoughts about other speakers, but if you would just listen so we can move on through the litany.

I think that was from the prior speaker, yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Staber. Thank you. Good evening.

Thank you, Mr. Fortier. I appreciate your time with us tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right, y'all, we have come by the point of our typical break in the evening of maybe 8.15. Friends, we'll go ahead and take a 10-minute hiatus, and then we'll turn for discussion. We appreciate it a great deal. I'm going to go ahead and move the commission discussion and then we have one more planning item and then we're going to do old and new business. All right. Y'all, as we get going back again, I wanted to begin just for everybody's benefit, having Bruce Lonnie just explain process-wise, given that this is a text amendment and we'll come to the commission sort

Just a point of order to make clear, though, too, this body could either remand it back or we could just deny it when the time comes. That's right. So thank you.

All right. We'll go ahead and get substantive input from the body. We'll begin with Commissioner Link.

First of all, I just want to ask Bruce, this ordinance as it stands does not distinguish between owner-occupied or non-owner-occupied properties. Is that correct? Okay. Also, I want to ask, if you own a home in an HOA and an HOA has a rule against ADUs, you would have to abide by your HOA's rules, correct? This does not supersede any HOA rules.

This has come before us before, and the last time it came before us I offered up a CDO that added criteria. None of those criteria, I don't believe, have been included in this process coming back to us. If anything, the Planning Commission was directed to not add complexity and conditions to this text amendment. This is a very complex issue. that definitely warrants conditions we also have a planning commission that um nearly half of them were absent so we have a five to one vote with four planning commissioners absent you know if anything this definitely needs to go back and and to have that

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I think so. My colleague's point, Mr. Link, you know, one thing we talked about when we first started talking about our future land use We should not be piecemealing our zoning stuff. We need to do an overall zoning for this community and what does that mean and what that does look like in the future. I would not vote for this. I think we need to deny it. I think we need to go back to the drawing board, take a look at what we got, and really understand, because our zoning orders have not been changed in over 20 years. And we need to start fine-tuning some stuff to M

I was going to save my comments for item number 25, which to me is directly related. No, I'm not going to support this even though I do believe that folks should have the right to do what they need to do on their property. The reason I'm not going to support it is because I have asked, since I have been on this commission, to be inclusive in our discussions. But yet and still, it seems that the meeting, that's when everybody comes from whatever side they are. The project with the fraternity house, and I mentioned how they reached out. how they included people in the conversation, how people of

I just want to make one clarifying point to that, which is,

I'm going to say this about what was clearly spelled out in private conversations. And maybe they should have been more public. Let's do low-hanging fruit. Let's work on those little things such as smaller lot sizes or blah, blah. Which is the second one. But I get that. But I'm saying, you took the big piece and started, I would have assumed that this would be a, so forgive me if I misunderstood how this should have moved. I really was excited about changing the rezoning for manufactured homes, you know. Benny Coleman made a good point and said that to the committee, because guess what? I was

So a lot. OK. I haven't spoken a lot, so I have a lot to say. First off, Bruce, you're absolutely right. Mike brought this up. when Bruce presented it to us, Mike brought up all of the points that this community has brought up as well as the reality of riding through Mike's district and my district and a part of Ovita's district is the fact that you see the reality of what ADUs do in single family residential neighborhoods and the fact that Characteristics of communities change. Art Street, when I grew up on Art Street, we didn't even know these many houses could even go in one little small sp

I've got Commissioners Davenport and Myers, I believe, are on the phone. So we'll start with Commissioner Davenport. Go to Commissioner Myers.

Thank you. I appreciate the feedback because it's very strong. that the people who have their place now are seeing bad examples of the current version of an accessory dwelling in their neighborhoods and to open, I think it would be a floodgate, but part of the details, like Commissioner Link started off saying that the details that are missing one of them would be that i could see that a new subdivision could be built in accessory dwellings in the description that we saw tonight in that description could be in a new unit and with a new place when you buy there you know it's there you you might

Anyone else before I return to Commissioner Lake? Commissioner Johnson.

Thank you. In September 2025 and in August 2024, the AJC reported that Athens Habitat for Humanity and Future Foundations respectively was constructing 160 square feet tiny homes. They envisioned using the units to address the homelessness crisis in Athens, Georgia, but the current minimum dwelling has prevented the concept from moving forward. I'm not saying at all that Habitat caused this amendment, but it is sufficiently connected and it's worth me asking Was this amendment requested by Athens Area Habitat for Humanity, Future Foundations, a developer, or other specific applicant?

Thank you. Number two, for more than 15 years, residents have flooded this room and begged for tiny homes for the ordinance to be updated. I've sat in small conference rooms with leadership and comments like, we'd never do that. We don't want that here. We don't want those communities. I find this interesting because those individuals are no longer coming to the meetings and they told us we're going to have to move. We can't afford to stay here. We need to be able to afford where we live and I'm comfortable in a tiny home. That option was never afforded to the scores of residents that came bef

CHRIS RODGERS, I'm going to return to Commissioner Link.

yeah i mean i want to speak to the concept of adus within existing structures i feel like that's where you can get some affordability um you know it's a lot more affordable to convert your basement or your garage or a couple a wing of your home into a small studio apartment Building a standalone, whole new standalone structure is, even if it's a teeny tiny thing like that, it's gonna cost you at least 100 grand. Maybe converting a shed, especially a shed that might already have plumbing or an outside garage, that might be more affordable. But I feel like we should kind of treat existing struct

Bob, I want to respond to your comment. And I most definitely don't want to throw the planning commission or the planning department under the bus. But we had all this discussion tonight from my colleagues. So what bothers me then is we send something over to the planning commission, and they really didn't send us nothing really back that had any teeth. So I think that's a frustration for my colleagues. What I'm hearing is, yeah, OK. It might have been vague, but that's the experience. Let's really take a look at this, see what the impact is gonna be on this community and how we can come up wi

And so just as legislative process, some of that detail can happen at the resolution stage when you say, hey, you know, these are some contours around the marching orders, or it can happen at this phase where we say, hey, you know, we appreciate the work you've done, but you didn't hit the mark on these three items or these 14 items, Commissioner Lake.

I will be sharing my notes. Again, again, you know, There has been a former, and we've had several, so you don't know who I'm talking about. A former manager said, when I would flip about something, well, this is what the commission said. And I'm like, no, that's not what I meant. And so, yeah, I get it. What might have been... a green light to go did not look like what I thought it was going to turn out to be. So I want to give staff credit for at least putting, you gave us something to work with. You gave this commission and this community something to work with. I am so, I would like to see

All right, I've got Commissioner Johnson, then Commissioner Link, then we're gonna move on to the next item on the agenda.

I was just reading the minutes from the March 3rd, 2026 meeting where the resolution states the Adams Park County Get Committee identified six areas for modification. Is that what you were speaking about? Yes, yes. It says of local ordinances that could that could enhance the availability and affordability of housing, which included allowances of accessory dwelling units, greater use of single family attached units, smaller and less expensive homes, such as manufactured dwellings, reduction or elimination of minimum and street frontage requirements, smaller lot and home sizes, and reduction of

and i think you're right i'm going to move to commissioner lincoln yeah just one more thing i i don't know if anybody saw um we were sent um gwinnett's adu coordinates and um i want to encourage everyone to take a look at it they have about a dozen items the criteria i mean i feel like we could go you know two or three further than that especially considering the pressure we have from the student market But Gwinnett has a nice, straightforward ADU ordinance that has very specific criteria and limitations that we could mimic and get something that I feel like, you know, a good portion of our co

All right, Bruce, we're moving on to the encore.

We're gonna have to go ahead and take any public input on this item, so we'll go ahead and move to that at this point. All right, go ahead and move to the commission discussion. I've got Commissioner Culpepper. Oh, I'm sorry, we do have one opportunity for public input.

Thank you, Mr. Morris. All right, Commissioner Culpepper.

Never mind. I thought this had to do with the size of ADUs, and I was like, why in the world are we talking about that?

Commissioner Lincoln and Commissioner Wright.

Yeah, I mean, I hope we can move forward with this. I live in a house surrounded by sub-1,000 square foot homes, you know, and some of them have full families in them. The house across the street from me has four adults and two kids in it. This is how people lived for most of history. And if you have a piece of property, you want to build a home, why should you have to build more home than you need? And there's a long history of building these small homes and then adding on to them or adding the secondary home. I mean, you travel through the countryside and you see the little cottage and then

Yeah, I also hope that we can move this forward because I think it aligns with the setbacks, right, Bruce? It would be our infill setbacks. It already has the parameters around it. It's less complicated. We have lots that... because of that minimum sizing, can't be habitable. It's an empty lot. And we spent, what, 18 months on the infill details for infill housing, and this fits under it with it being a smaller one, as I understand it. So, again, I hope that we can move this one forward.

How do we regulate it? I probably missed it. How do we regulate it to make sure that it does not turn into a short-term rental or a party house? I have a red tiny house over on Winterville.

Old Winterville Road. Yes. And it's, and it did get hit by a car. God, that is so not funny. I'm so sorry. But anyway, and it is unproblematic. can't say that I'm against the ADUs and say that I'm for tiny houses, but I do see one in my district. My major concern would be how do we ensure that tiny homes, I mean, because we can't even make sure regular size homes go to families. So how do we, you know, because it could serve all of the things. It could serve missing middle, you know, and it could fit a small family, but when this is allowed to be built, there is already a notion in Clark Count

Bruce, do you want to talk about kind of how this correlates with our STR regulations?

Commissioner Taylor, I guess I'm just thinking in practical effect, you might have a 500 square foot home that's smaller than what current code allows, and every football game weekend you decide to go stay with your sister and rent that out. So that would be allowed under code? Commissioner Thornton.

Yeah, I want to just go on record. I do like this text amendment. And I keep thinking about places that may be built in the future, being able to build those smaller size houses, and I'm not referring to ADUs or backyard cottages per se, but I could see where this provides housing for our vulnerable veterans that are unhoused. um maybe a small family it also and again i'm talking about new development and new buildings it also probably decreases the cost of building so builders can still make a profit but maybe not as you know make enough as equal to a smaller unit so i do like this um because

Thanks, Commissioner. All right. Everybody ready to move on to old and new business? Yes. All right. I'm going to relocate so that we may do that. all right everyone uh we had uh two items removed from the consent agenda to move to discussion those were items 12 and 13. so now is the time we're taking public input on 12 and 13 and 23 through 30. so if any member of the public would like to speak to 12 13 or 23 3 30 now is that time Good evening.

Thank you, Mr. Morris. Is there anyone else here to speak to any item of old or new business tonight?

Good night. Thank you, Mr. Stephen Tripp. Is there anyone else here to speak to any item of old or new business tonight?

Last call for older new business public input. All right, we're gonna go ahead and come to discussion. And Commissioner Link, you asked that items 12 and 13 be removed for brief comment, and so I'll hit you up for number 12.

Yeah, I just wanted to remove it to point out that, yet again, we have items that deal with parking in our older inner neighborhoods where the streets are super narrow and many homes don't have driveways. This is something I hear about every other day. It makes it necessary to yellow curb in those neighborhoods just so a fire truck or a bus can get through. That's the reality of the world we live in. People have cars. Even if they don't drive them all the time, they have to park them somewhere. Just wanted to make that point. I'm happy to put it back on the consent agenda, both of them.

Any other input on 12? Everybody okay with that back on consent? All right. I guess that summarized your 13 input as well? All right. Any other comment on 13? Everybody okay with that back on consent? Let's do it. All right. Moving forward to old business. We have a couple items of old business. 23 is the oft-discussed naming of the East Broad Street Bridge over the North Coney is the Weaver Dees Bridge, automatic for the people. Any input on that item? Commissioner Wright?

Yeah, I'd like to put it on consent. I would also like in the follow-up email if we could get the number of Dexter Weaver's petition signatures. I know it had to be the 1,000 threshold, but if y'all would share with me, I suspect he got over that with the timeline that he had.

The consent is fine with me. Quick question. In order for us to name, he had to have signatures, right?

Yeah, he does, but I just wanted to know how many, because I know he had the minimum, but he might have more, being as how he is.

All right, 23 is hitting consent. All right. Item 24 is an intergovernmental agreement with UGA regarding the North Coney Access Road, and I know there's a meeting of residents that's coming up regarding that. Any input on that one?

Well, it's already pulled. Okay, that's fine.

I just wanted to share that when I had Bailey Street in my district, I had a lot of comments from the residents at that dead end. They were concerned about things happening back there because of the dead end, the safety of it. They were concerned about the coming and goings.

Commissioner Myers, Commissioner Wright speaking and I'll call you right after that.

And so I would like to know in the follow-up, not right now, but in the follow-up email if there's any feedback from the fire department or the police department because it seems to me that the dead end of that point is the opening that up and having it to where emergency vehicles can come from two directions would be helpful because an emergent ambulance wouldn't make it in if there was a situation. And also just to remind everybody that the university came forward with this idea as a solution because our bridge was down and had to be repaired to get out to College Station and so then they ha

We hear her. She can't hear us. Commissioner Myers.

All right, we're gonna have her follow up via email. All right, we're gonna move on to item 26. This is the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing.

Commissioner, I'm about to move on to the next item, unless you want to go ahead and begin speaking.

Thanks, Commissioner. I appreciate it. We'll leave that off consent. 25 is a proposal from the local Georgia Initiative for Community Housing group that would clarify the way that affordable housing funds that come through the Athens-Clarke County's general fund are provided based on family size. Any questions about that?

This is what I was waiting for, which I do believe indirectly or directly connects to the text amendment. And our committee was to expand access to home ownership. And when we came up with the banding income limits, That was clearly not using federal dollars. It had to be community dollars. This looks like, the way it's written, that we are kind of looking at the AMI from the federal money. Now, I just need clarification because that AMI, the way it was presented, is not going to be, be able to be used with the federal dollars. Steph, can you clarify?

So then, I think then, when we word this, you really need to explain, that needs to be clear that we do not follow the same regulations with this banding AMI. And it was really addressed because of the housing trust fund money. That's kind of where we were looking at. So this, if you wanna use that as a baseline, that's fine, but.

Okay, and so, and my next point, Mike is up here looking at all my notes. When we were talking about the ADUs and affordability, and this to me, and that's another reason why I'm not going to support that first text amendment. Expanding The general, the people who most likely can afford or want to do ADUs, they are nine times out of 10, and I'm not putting, and I guess after tonight, I'm 100% sure that they will not be attracting those families that I'm concerned about. They're not going to be attract, so when we talk about expense, there is nothing here that I think, again, I know Bob was bei

Well, it doesn't make that much sense to me. Because again, if ADUs are primarily for renters, Where is the connection to home ownership?

And maybe this is where I'm just like on this narrow road. I'm thinking about the people who call me. I'm thinking about the folk that call the Homeless Coalition. I'm thinking about a mother right now who is in, their dog Ken, caring for her brothers because her mother died and the young man is blind. I don't have no place to send them other than trying to give them money each week until we, so those are the folk that I don't think the group of folk are, we're talking about almost two, three different groups of people.

And Commissioner, just so we don't belabor this, I think what you're recognizing is that you need a whole toolbox of solutions and of course we're gonna get to that in just a little bit.

Well, I will also say, and I know Kelly's trying to move forward, I am definitely on board with the text amendment and this housing initiative being addressed next year i i i because it's too it's too it's too cloudy for me so i know it's cloudy for everybody else and i do think um you're talking about the adus i'm talking about it all now because there are definitely some misunderstood miscommunication And I do hope that you and the mayor-elect will plan on having a work session or training at the very beginning of the year so we all know, or y'all will know, and we'll all be on the same page

So do you think the text amendment should include, if we revisit it or whatever, should spell this out a little bit clearer or not? Or is this totally different? That's totally different. OK. I'm good. I'm good.

26 is partnership application to GDOT to collaborate with the University of Georgia regarding roundabout at the entrance to the botanical gardens. Everybody good with consent there?

Can we put that tier banding income on consent?

Another prospect is the Jefferson River Road multi-use right-of-way.

Yep. All right. Longstanding SPLOST or TSPLOST project. All right. 27 is consent as well. Appreciate that. All right. 28 and 29 in some ways take two different tools toward the same challenge of homelessness. 29, excuse me, 28 we'll get to first. I want to thank Commissioners Davenport and Myers, who are not here with us in the room tonight, and Commissioner Fischer, who were on the right-of-way committee. Sometimes you find that plans that you initially make need to be revised somewhat, and so this body adopted some ordinance update language a few months ago that, through working with the att

I just have a comment, if you don't mind.

I appreciate you doing this. It sounds like it's kind of moving towards the Savannah model that we've talked about. Yes. So I appreciate you doing that. And, you know, I've said this a few times that we've had a lot of different, a lot of different spectrum of local ideology here tonight. And, you know, in order for us to really move forward in doing some of their homeless population. uh the folks on the left need to understand that what we're doing tonight is something that's uh i think gonna help and is compassionate but we just can't let people sleep outside on the sidewalk like that there'

So, questions about 28 before we get to 29. Commissioner Wright?

Can we suspend the rules and vote on that tonight, 28?

No. Let's give it a moment, just so that everybody can absorb it. No, I'm tired. We'll be back here in two weeks, taking care of business.

I just wanted to point out some safety issues with that. If you guys remember, we had a car fatality that went through the light where Barnett Shoals does a 90-degree turn in Gainesville, and often a person sleeps at that corner, and it's very fortunate that that person was not there when this car lost control. When that woman lost her life, it could have been a double tragedy.

Yeah, I get the spirit. I wholeheartedly get the spirit. And I know that we have unhoused individuals that sleep downtown. And I know that it is a situation. But I'm curious to know, where are we going to put them? Are they going to go to jail? Are we going to arrest them? And the reason why I say this is because I know that unhoused individuals end up in jail and a lot of unhoused individuals would prefer to be there because they're safe and they don't have to worry about um being attacked or any other things that they endure out in the street but a jail is is not the place that's not why we

more options and better options than just going to jail or to the hospital because they're going to end um right back out on the street what you're identifying commissioners 29 and just to make it clear that i don't believe there's anybody from pd here but it's my understanding that this would not compel initial enforcement as jailing

I mean, if they don't move because they're terrified at something that happened to them, which is why they're downtown to begin with, because that's literally a thing. And so, and also another reason, our unhoused people, they're not all Athens residents. They're not all families that have just been evicted. These are individuals who have mental health issues, which again, to the spirit of 2020, which is given to the spirit of it, but I also don't think we should leave it up to just the non-profits to also come up with it. And whether we are or aren't, I just want to make sure that we aren't.

Yeah, I mean, I have a problem with the number two. What is the definition of a public area? I mean, I totally get, you know, preventing people from laying down and sleeping on the sidewalk and even on benches where, like, you know, that are supposed to be accessible to the general public or in a building or, like, within the right-of-way in an intersection. Those can be dangerous areas. situations but what is the definition of a public area Commissioner attorney Drake worked on this but Commissioner links question is what discerns a public area from private area I mean I get what I get what C

I mean, you know, is it okay for someone to lay down and take an afternoon nap propped up against a tree in the post office lawn, you know? Like, I don't see why that should be a problem.

Since I was on that task force, let me comment. I think the intent was, to Commissioner Taylor's point, is not to arrest a homeless population if there's a violation. I think we did have our public safety officials in there with us, and we had a solicitor in there. We want to be empathetic. We want to make sure that we use compassion when we ask the folks to move on, but it's not the intent to arrest people, send people to jail. Now, to your point, I think it's a very good point. As a matter of fact, I talked, had a conversation today with some housing advocate about the Whatever happens downt

Yeah, I mean, I just don't feel comfortable with that vague language until we do have somewhere for people to go. Like, I would prefer that we leave off that, you know, very broad, vague, no person shall camp in a public area until we have a clear plan on where we're gonna send people who... are in these situations.

Yeah, because I guarantee you they'll go in Barber Street before they sit downtown. They'll probably traverse down.

Well, and I think there's, like you mentioned, there's a good reason that some of these folks are out in very visible area because it's safe. Yes. Having eyes on you. Okay. Next slide.

All right, so moving on really to kind of another facet of the same conversation, 29, I want to give a lot of credit to Commissioner Thornton and certainly a lot of our homeless service providers, some of whom have been in the room tonight and some of whom aren't here tonight, for recognizing that really there is this keen unmet need uh it's a need that i know i've talked to a couple of service providers about for probably a decade or more and that is that we don't have some of the specific kinds of spaces that we need to transition people into healthier lives and healthier environments very s

COMMISSIONER THORNTON. Yeah, this was a Yeah, this was good. And I want to make sure I respond to Commissioner Taylor and Commissioner Link. I think the concerns they raise should be a point of, if this passes, which I hope it does, that we address immediately, just immediately. Because to have the top, the earlier ones, it looks like we don't care. But when we did the homeless study, we probably should have done a resolution right then to back up the study. The resolution, again, is not specific, but I did, one of the biggest things that I like to think that I reminded everybody, we need to n

All right. Thanks, everybody. Commissioner Link?

Yeah. I'm really happy to see this, because it offers a long list of very specific steps and situations that can be pursued. particularly the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. We've got empty buildings all over the place, plenty of them, Athens-Clarke County owns. I remember years ago reading an article about an empty Walmart that was opened up as a camping facility, I think in someplace cold like Minneapolis or something. And the tiny home, this addresses tiny homes, which I feel like can be tiny home communities that might even have shared bathing and kitchen facilities where folks just

Number 30, last item on the agenda tonight is very different subject, water line upgrades. This is approval of construction plans to upgrade those water lines. Consent. Consent. Everybody feel comfortable with 30 on consent? I like clean water.

I think that all just to just sort of highlight it is to highlight it. All right.

Yeah, we have two commissioners not here.

All right. 30 is on consent. They like clean water as well. All right. Oh, you're done. You're adjourned. Please. They're second. Yes. All right. Motion from Commissioner Fisher, second from Commissioner Link. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. Thanks, everyone.