Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. It is Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, and we're here for the monthly voting meeting of the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission. If we've not concluded business by 815, we'll have a 15-minute break at or about that time, and we're going to go ahead and begin with a roll call, so I'll ask Clerk Christine Howard to do that for us right now.

All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right. I'll go ahead and read the civility pledge that we've adopted, provided to us by the Georgia Municipal Association. That indicates that the way we govern ourselves is often as important as the positions we take, that our collective decisions will be better when differing views have had the opportunity to be fully vetted and considered, that all people have the right to be treated with respect, courtesy, and openness, that we value all input, and that we commit to conduct ourselves at all times with civility and courtesy to each other. First order o

So moved, but I would like to make an amendment to the approval minutes.

Yeah, please describe that, Commissioner Taylor.

There was an item that we voted on on June the 2nd for... 228 Fairview Street. I know we voted on it. How does that process go before we? I should have asked Bob.

So we can certainly do this at a later date, but one of the things you'll want to do is articulate the difference between what's in the minutes now and what accurately reflects the record.

2288. It was for East Athens Development.

So if you want to do this now, say, I'd like to approve the minutes but reconsider the Fairview item. And so then we will do that at the end of the meeting tonight.

And so given that Commissioner Taylor voted in favor of it at the June meeting, she is an opportune motioner for reconsideration.

Well, I would like to make the motion to approve the minutes but reconsider the 228 Fairview item from June 2nd. I'll second. All right.

There's a second for that motion. All right. All in favor, please say aye. All right. So we'll go ahead and look at that Fairview item at the conclusion of our normal business tonight. Okay?

All right. Madam Clerk, are there any written communications this evening? no there are none all right thank you i want to describe the process for public input tonight there are going to be several opportunities for public input tonight there will be public input on our consent agenda which is the first thing that we'll discuss here there will be public input individually on the six different sets of recommendations from our planning commission so we'll hear those individually The only thing that's unusual about these planning and zoning items is that regarding the property issues, somebody c

Is there anyone else who would like to speak to any item that is on the consent agenda tonight? Again, those are items 1 through 20. 1 through 20. Those are the items on the consent agenda, items 1 through 20. Again, your name, place of residence, and the item to which you're speaking.

Is there anyone else who'd like to speak to any of the consent agenda items? Again, those are 1 through 20 on our agenda tonight. Would any commissioner like to remove a consent agenda item for further discussion? All right. Seeing none, I want to go ahead and ask the attorney to read all the ordinances that are part of the consent agenda for us.

Thank you, Attorney Drake. I appreciate that. Do I hear a motion for approval of the consent agenda items one through 20?

All right got a motion from Commissioner Link and a second from Commissioner Taylor. All in favor please say aye. Any opposed? All right hearing none motion carries and the consent agenda is approved. All right we're going to move on to our six recommendations from the Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission. The first of these regards 1490 Witt Davis Road and so any member of the public could come to speak to this item at the podium. If you line right up we are ready for you. And again, just provide your name and place of residence. Hello.

Thank you. Could you spell your last name for me for the record? Burns, B-U-R-N-S. B-U-R-N-S. Thank you. I appreciate it, Mr. Burns.

Is there anyone else here to speak to this item before we move to commission action? Commissioner Davenport, this is in your district, so I'd ask you to place a motion on the floor for us tonight.

There's two votes. There's a vote for future land use and a vote for a rezone. All right, so make a motion for the future land use. Can I make a motion for the rezone first? Because there's conditions. Future land use first? Because there's conditions on the rezone. A motion for the future land use to deny.

All right. Remarks, Commissioner? No. All right. There's a motion from Commissioner Davenport. Any remarks, Commissioner Taylor? No, sir. Any others from member of the body? All right. We'll go ahead and have Attorney Drake read that ordinance.

All right, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed to the motion to deny? All right, please note Commissioner Link opposed to the motion. So motion carries nine to one. Correct. All right, Commissioner, would you like to make a motion on the rezoning?

Yeah, the motion to deny the rezone. all right i've got a motion to deny the rezoning from commissioner davenport second from commissioner taylor any remarks commissioner davenport it's this one was a very interesting um project and i respect the family for the work that they're doing um most can be achieved keeping it the pasta as it is it's a little bit more cumbersome but it protects the integrity of the surrounding area and and the neighborhoods. So if everyone takes a look at the condition that was placed on the property by the Planning Commission, the first one, the subject parcel of lan

So that's why I denied Commissioner Taylor any remarks Commissioner link.

Yeah, I I agree with the Planning Commission's recommendation on this primarily because um, you know by returning this to an AR property, it preserves the property. It is a historic home. It's historically a farm. The Planning Commission put these conditions on it to prevent it from being an intensive active farm that might disrupt the surrounding residential neighborhood. With that RS-25 zoning, future owners could come in there and bust up the property and turn it into a bunch of lots, tear down the house, tear down the other historic structures. I think this is a means of assuring that this

Yeah, I just want to say that I ended up spending a lot of time thinking about this today and listening to the the Planning Commission meeting as well and there were two members of the committee who voted to deny the rezoning really for a lot of the reasons that Commissioner Davenport brought up and I ended up getting to that point myself because I saw that there were other ways that the historic nature of the property could be preserved. And it seemed as if it was mostly from the landowner, from the homeowner, a concern about what could happen after they had the property. makes things a littl

Any other remarks? I'll have Attorney Drake read this ordinance.

Thanks, Attorney Drake. Madam Clerk, we'll go ahead and do a roll call beginning with Commissioner Davenport.

Yes to deny. It's a motion to deny. You're voting yes to deny.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I appreciate it. All right, we're moving on to item number 22 on our agenda. This is the special use permit in the CO for 357 South Millage. So if anybody would like to speak to this item, now is that time.

Thank you, Ms. Sphinx. Is there anyone else here to speak to this tonight? All right, seeing none, this is in District 4. Would you like to place a motion on the floor, Commissioner Wright?

Yes, I make a motion that we, let me check the notes here, that we approve the rezone and its request for special use is part of our ordinances related to the Greek use, and then the actual details will be going through the Historic Preservation Commission.

And so it would approve with the two variances?

With the two variances, yes. I'll second.

All right. Got a motion from Commissioner Wright, second from Commissioner Link. Commissioner Wright, any remarks?

No, I kind of already covered it when I did the motion.

I'm just glad to see this property getting restored and used.

Any others from members of the body? All right. I'll have Attorney Drake read the ordinance.

All right. All in favor of the motion that's on the floor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Hearing none, motion carries. All right. Moving on to item 23, which is 1960 Barnett Shoals Road. So is there anyone here to speak to this tonight? If you can, just provide your name and place of residence.

Thank you, Mr. Toole. Is there anyone else here to speak to 1960 Barnett Shoals? 1960 Barnett Shoals.

all right it's in commission district eight commissioner myers yes i'm i'm here and uh when i listen to this again i realized i just said the same thing to say that i had last week when i was two weeks ago when i was speaking from afar but since i'm here in the room and i have the you just said you'd take any questions um i had brought up the small detail providing shade on those on those tables like you do at other places and so I know I didn't make an amendment or anything but since I've just thought I'd ask you now for the people of the east side of Athens so we have some can use those tabl

That, that would be wonderful. That would be wonderful. But, um, But anyway, thanks a lot for that. That's the only thing I have. And in fact, for those of you who aren't over there, the change you made where you block the exit out onto the entry road has really made a tremendous difference in the flow of traffic. you would normally never think that customers were so loyal that they would go into an interior road to enter the fast-food restaurant but that seems to be the case and in this case I think having the green space rather than an abandoned building not changing the parking is is a bett

All right. There's a motion to approve from commissioner Myers. Is there a second second from Mr. Taylor? All right. Uh, commissioner Taylor, any follow up remarks?

Yes. Um, I'm excited, um, about. them turning this into a parking lot. I go into that shopping center every day. And so I see like Burger King is not working anymore. So I think that this would be a good transition along with the library that's about to come online. So it's going to be a whole thing on the east side. I'm very excited about it.

Yeah, I just want to reiterate Commissioner Meyer's concern about the trees. I want to ask the applicant to please add some decent shade trees in that little green space. Not just for shade, but, you know, the shade trees can help clear the pollution. It's on a busy corridor. It'll cool the air. I think it's just real important. It also slows traffic. There are legitimate studies that having decent street trees and shade trees will help slow traffic. So I think that can really benefit the whole corridor quite a bit.

Any further remarks about 1960 Barnard Shoals Road from commissioners? All right. We have a motion and a second. I'm going to have Attorney Drake read the ordinance.

Thanks, Attorney Drake. All right. Motion and a second is on the floor. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries unanimously. All right. Item 24 is regarding 1125 Newton Bridge Road, and we do have... Mr. Buck Bacon signed up for the 10-minute time, so I'll call Mr. Bacon and his kind of fellow 10-minute participant who we're going to share the 10 minutes to the podium.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Is there anyone else here to speak to Newton bridge road? All right. If we have questions along the way, we'll, we'll call you up. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Um, this is in, uh, district nine, uh, commissioner Thornton. Do you have a motion for this item?

I make, I make a motion to approve this item. All right.

I've got a motion from commissioner Thornton and a second from commissioner Taylor Thornton. Any further remarks? No. Mr. Taylor.

Um, 62 single family houses is what Athens needs. And so I feel like as long as it's in writing and that there is a guarantee that they're going to put the roundabout, that they should be able to continue to work to get housing on the ground.

Thanks, Commissioner. Any further remarks from members of the body? All right. I'm going to go ahead and have Attorney Drake read this ordinance.

Thanks, Attorney Drake. All in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Are there any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right, and we have on our agenda two text amendments. 25 is the first up regarding secondary dwelling units. If anybody would like to speak to this item, you can go ahead and line up at the podium. Good evening.

Thank you, Ms. Roden. Folks, we've got a lot of folks to get to, so if you just listen while you're here in the room, I appreciate that. Good evening.

Let me get your name again for the writer. Yes, Jonathan Parrish. All right. Thank you. Mr. Parrish. Thank you Good evening Good evening

Thank you, Ms. Morales. Good evening. Hello.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lalonde. Good evening.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Toddy. Good evening and

Ms. Roden, I've already got you this go-round, but if you step up during the next one, we can get you again.

They've taken three minutes, and you've had three minutes already this go-around, my friend. And we'll get you three minutes more in just a couple minutes. The line is short. And you're going to be in good shape, so don't you worry about a thing, darling.

We'll see you in just a couple minutes. Just a couple minutes. Just a couple minutes.

You get three more minutes in just a few. The line is short. Life is good.

Thank you, Ms. Stangle. Good evening. Good evening.

I just need your name for the record, sir. I just need your name for the record.

Is there anyone else here to speak to item 25 this evening? Commissioners, would you like to deliberate or take a break? All right. We're going to go ahead and do a 10-minute break. We'll be back in our seats about 8.15.

everyone glad to have you here we're going to go ahead and proceed with the rest of the evening thank you for waiting through the break everyone we'll go ahead and get started all right everyone we're going to go ahead and get started with the rest of the meeting all right everyone we're going to go ahead and get started with the rest of the meeting hope you're doing well we got we uh we're gonna go ahead and uh have deliberation on item 25 uh consideration of the last of the planning and zoning items and then old and new business and then as always at the voting meeting we'll have any residen

I'll move to accept the option presented to remand this to Planning Commission with some direction. I'll go ahead and read the direction. We've had a lot of back and forth discussion, and the mayor has presented us with some of this information as well. Allow secondary dwelling units in new subdivisions. Allow secondary dwelling units in existing RM and RS zones on homesteaded properties, that is owner-occupied properties only. and that if properties transfer to a non-homesteaded owner in RS zones, require that the definition of family is met on the parcel. Limit secondary dwelling units to no

There's a motion on the floor from Commissioner Link. Do I hear a second?

A second from Commissioner Myers. Commissioner Link, any further remarks?

Yeah, I believe these are some reasonable criteria to start with. And, you know, when I heard the folks at the podium, you know, over and over again, I hear folks who are in support of this ordinance talking about family, giving families the option, talking about putting grandma in the backyard or the boomerang child in the backyard. And that's... where I feel like ADUs can really benefit this community. The last thing I want to see is the student housing profiteers take advantage of our code, because they already are. God knows they already are. I mean, take a drive down Pope Street or Pearl

Arch Street. I mean, it's creeping into Rock Springs now. We've got to accommodate our families, our working-class community, our lower-income community. I believe in housing options. I believe in multigenerational neighborhoods. I heard that word come up. You know, and smaller housing. And, you know, by limiting these to one bedroom, we are encouraging those smaller housing units. You know, and I... I feel like we can find a way to do this. We can find a way to make these legal and increase affordability. There's definitely increased opportunity for affordability when you're talking about the

Yeah, following up, I'm glad to support this. I am supportive of us moving forward with some of these zoning change options. These are things that I've been on the commission six years, and this has been referenced again and again year after year, addressing As one tool, the zoning changes that add one option, one way of increasing housing options, as we've talked about here before. We discuss this in a work session, and I know what happens. I mean, we all know it. People get... alerted to issues as they come up closer for a vote. But it's been out there. It's been out there to discuss. I made

I've got a few folks lined up. I've got Commissioners Davenport, Hamby, and then Thornton and Fisher. Okay.

So, yeah, I was just wondering, can we just send it back to the Planning Department and just look at it holistically instead of having clear guidance? Because Commissioner Byers hit on something that I was thinking about, like when it comes to existing, when it comes to lot sizes and pervious spaces and then pervious spaces that are allowed on, and if we allow ADUs and you already have an accessory to do well in, you know, what would that look like? You know, maybe banning them in our zone existing and maybe only allowing them. So, you know, we're talking about tools in a toolbox. Can we... ge

I noticed, to a large degree, when we have a text amendment, it's enormously beneficial to send it back with a punch list of things that we want them to look at, rather than just in the abstract saying, take more look at this. I don't know if you want to follow up with any remarks, Manager Cowell?

And we've occasionally done a joint session with the Planning Commission, so that wouldn't be a novel endeavor here.

Commissioner Hamby? Sure. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the chance. You know, I'm listening to, I think there were 47, 49 people talk. Everybody made some good points and made their case. I do, however, kind of am thinking in my mind about why we're even having this conversation, especially if they can be built as guest houses right now just without a stove. I'm wondering, too, once they are built, and if a homeowner with a homestead exemption is not a homestead-exempted property anymore, how are we going to enforce that definition of family? We're having trouble doing that right now, y'all.

Okay, I appreciate you saying that because I think that causes me pause for concern. But what I would like to do is I'd like to make a substitute motion to deny. And I'm going to make that motion because I think there's a lot of things at play here that we haven't thought about the consequences on. one of them you could already do it two of them the second one is that you know we haven't thought about the the neighborhoods people are going to go to and and and i don't i don't want to say the right the sky has fallen sort of things because it may not but i don't want to set us up for that so i'

Substitute motion to deny. There's a second from Commissioner Culpepper. I'm going to go ahead and return to Commissioner Thornton afterwards, but Commissioner Culpepper, just as the second or substitute measure, I want to give you an opportunity if you have any remarks.

I agree with Commissioner Hamby. There's too many things that we're having to discuss and too many things up in the air about it, and I don't think it's going to move the needle as much as we think it is. I think it's got more of a negative effect with investors coming in and buying up houses and then putting ADUs in the back, and then you have two rental units. It'll probably, I feel like it's gonna make property values go up, make it less affordable.

I wanna return then to Commissioner Thornton and then Fisher.

I appreciate Commissioner Hamby and Culpepper for making the motion, and I support that. At our agenda-setting meeting, and the reason why at our agenda-setting meeting, I think I sounded like... I didn't understand what our planning director was presenting, and I didn't. Because all of this and everything I can think of has been around unhoused folk, single mamas trying to find a place to live, and veterans, people with mental health. So how do we move to ADUs as a solution for those folk that I was thinking about. I am glad that the speakers brought their personal stories and agendas. I get

Commissioner Thornton, I need to move on to Commissioner Fisher.

Commissioner Thornton took some of my thunder, and that's always my question. who would these ADUs really benefit? Are they benefiting people that's unhoused? Are they benefiting single moms who got children? And the answer to me is no, it wouldn't. To Commissioner Thornton's point, people not running, you know, and it was interesting, not many people that looked like me stood up and talked about ADUs, and that's interesting to me. Folks don't come up, and maybe they don't want to speak for themselves, but to Commissioner Thornton's point, we get calls personally from people in our community w

Commissioner Davenport. Okay. I'm going to try to be a compromiser here. So here's the thing. We heard from constituents, residents, people in the audience who have stated that they want to help some of those people who are homeless. They want to help some of those single families, some of those mothers in our community. This is just one tool of the toolbox. I can't see... i can't see a mass you know everybody getting thousands of permits in the next two or three years for 80 because they are going to be costly you're literally building another home in your backyard you have to get permanent s

Yeah. i mean i i can tell you who these people are going to help they're going to help the people who when when you can build an extra unit in your backyard to put grandma in grandma's not taken up an apartment in brookside senior housing or denny towers um you know you spread the wealth around a little bit um And I do feel like we need the guardrails. We certainly need the guardrails. And I would like the Planning Commission to discuss lot size as one of the criteria. We certainly have in-town neighborhoods with really small lots that are not going to be able to logically accommodate these. B

Again, I am one of those people you are describing. Again, I do plan on having an ADU. I'm not going to no retirement home, but I am saying When we started talking about zoning, and especially when we tack on that GIC, which I was a part of, we talked about access to home ownership. That was our group, right? And we promoted zoning. And the reason why, and I think Commissioner Fischer kind of alluded to it, Our zoning laws had not been changed since 1991, and they were intentionally race discriminatory. And I met with Kelly, I think I saw Danielle and Matt, racially discriminatory. So I though

Yeah, I just want to bring this back to a larger discussion away from the personal here in that this use of ADUs, and if we don't want it, we don't want it, and we can knock it down. But we also need to look at all the other things that were put forward by the committee and such. These are all things that are part of a, we could call this meeting up and spend all our time looking at all the affordable housing initiatives and studies online And we can all divvy that up and read them because there are tons and tons and tons of them on there. But I will tell you, there are local advocates here. I

This is very complicated and very involved, and I remember when we had the seven, I think it was seven, GIC topics. We're doing a couple of them in waves. The next item, 26, is another example of things that we want in the toolbox, as Commissioner Davenport said. And I wanted to vote on them at that time a la carte. And I was assured, Mr. Mayor, that I would have my chance to vote singularly on these after there was time spent on the Planning Commission, the Planning Department. I personally don't like people to waste their time on topics, but this topic is so complicated, as we've seen with t

All right, I'm gonna have Attorney Drake read the ordinance.

Really quickly, I just wanted to say that if it passes or not, one of the things, if it's reconsidered, one thing I haven't heard anyone say or state is how it's going to be taxed with the school and with the property tax. If that could be embedded into some language if it passes, the consideration of that.

I don't know if Manager Cowell or Deputy Manager Saunders, if you want to discuss.

Would this be a burden on our tax assessor?

Thank you. Substitute motioner is Commissioner Hamby, so we'll go ahead and do a round robin, beginning with Commissioner Hamby.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, motion to deny carries. We're going to move on to item 26. So if any member of the public would like to speak to item 26, which is the text amendment regarding minimum dwelling unit size, now is that time. Again, just make sure we have your name and place of residence.

Anyone else here to speak? Item 26 tonight. Attorney Drake, I'll have you read the ordinance as we begin.

All right, Commissioner, place a motion on the floor, please.

I've got a motion from Commissioner Davenport and a second from Commissioner Myers. Commissioner Davenport, any remarks? No remarks. Commissioner Myers?

No, I think this makes sense and allows more housing options.

Any others? All right. Ordinance has been read. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? All right. Hearing none, passes unanimously. All right. Thanks, everyone. All right. Next opportunity for public input is now on any item of old or new business. And so those are items 27 through 32. So if anybody would like to speak to any of those items, rules of input are the same. Just make sure we hear your name and place of residence and then reference the item to which you're speaking.

I've been a 37-year resident, raised a family of two. I'm a small business owner.

So we came up with that agreement, and we are really happy about it, and we know Ms. Barnett would be more than happy to be on the bridge with Mr. Weaver.

Ms. Barnett, we'll work with you. We'll give you a call.

Thank you, Mr. Richardson. Good evening.

Thank you, Mr. Perry. Good evening. Good evening.

That's it. Ma'am, I just need your name for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Commissioners, you've been at your seats for three hours. Do you want to forge through, or would you like to break?

I'll push on through. Yeah, that's getting so long. Can I just ask Sandra one quick question? The next agenda item deals with that.

Well, we'll get there when we get to that agenda item. Let me determine. Are we going to take a quick break or not? No. All right. We're moving on. All right. That's the story. We're sticking to it. All right. Item 27 is the bridge item. In formal terms, I guess the question is does this need to be held or not?

Well, Bob, after tonight's revolution, yeah, it is 1130, so y'all have to work with me. So do we hold it to change the language to address the partnership between Weaver and...

We're having a unique moment. Would we like to hold this one until the end of the discussion so that...

Patrick has more information than I do with this bridge being in my district. I guess it's a bridge between your district and mine, right? I did appreciate the information that came forward from the two entities that we've been learning from, so I would make a motion that we put it on hold so that additional information can be nailed down about proper signs and the ability to do what was asked.

All right, there's a motion from Commissioner Wright to hold it. Second.

Yeah, to table it for the time needed to bring it forward appropriately. That's the part that, since we don't know the steps, you know the steps.

We'll bring it back when we've done some research and made sure we do the proper public notice for naming. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. 28 is the Intergovernmental Agreement with the University of Georgia for the North Coney Access Road extension to Bailey Street. Is there a motion regarding this?

Motion to deny. Commissioner Johnson. Second from Commissioner Link. Commissioner Johnson, any remarks?

I got them written all over the place, but the takeaway that I heard tonight is out of 115 people that spoke tonight, more than half of them talked about how UGA has impacted their life as it relates to increased prices, living costs, options and now this, what I don't particularly like about this scenario is the fact that the University of Georgia would not meet with the residents. There was no heads up and I think the statement, the nervous man, and I'm nervous too, stated was it slipped and snuck in and it feels like that and I don't support it because the lack of transparency.

I agree. I mean, the fact that the university will not meet with the community is enough to put the kibosh on this and demand that there is some transparency and some outreach from the university. Also, the traffic study. That's a lot. That is a lot of traffic going through a neighborhood. If that was going through my neighborhood, hell yeah, I'd be upset. So there needs to be a lot more outreach, and the university needs to engage the community.

We've got Commissioner Myers and Commissioner Davenport.

Yeah, I'd like to make a substitute motion to approve. Second. And I just want to address this a little bit here in this. This did not come out of the blue. This was on the agenda in June. At that point, I asked for it to be tabled so that UGA, and asked UGA to reach out to all the residents. I believe they sent about 50, 60 letters to them all. In early July, I followed up and knocked on the doors of all the homeowners. as well, not every resident but all the homeowners, and talked to about four of those residents and left letters with copies of the UGA letter in case they had not received it

Thank you for that and I believe that they were shared or the traffic engineer, one of you all, it's getting late here, my head is buzzing a little bit, replied to Dr. Allen with those.

Right. I do want to say also that I did meet with the Neely family back in June, and that was a very helpful, productive conversation. I appreciate that. That was after I had made the motion to hold it and ask the university to reach out, and I did. Until tonight, I had not heard from any residents, and I had asked the Inner East Athens group to please communicate if there were things to reach, either send them to me directly or to give people my email addresses. So anyone who is in my district over there, I just sent out a newsletter, and I had a whole thing on there. I please ask you to find

I've got a motion from, a substitute motion from Commissioner Myers. The seconder was Commissioner Wright. Commissioner Wright, any further remarks?

Yeah, this used to be my district and that dead end was problematic safety-wise. And then part of the reason, just to be clear, that this additional access point is because of the issue we had with our bridge and there being only a one-way in and out. how that repair and an automobile malfunction could also block the traffic so safety wise it seems appropriate to have this in here and it shows you can see on the in our document here that it's our property as far as having it like the manager had said if we need to put a barricade on it say then nobody's coming through here that the blue area i

Commissioner Davenport, did you have a remark? I thought I saw your hand.

Can I just add one more remark to you? If the situation does arise where there is a lot of traffic, there's also a process we have where we have neighborhood traffic management that we'd evaluate the data and that could go onto the list of projects to get some traffic calming if that does become an issue. I think that's perhaps what Commissioner Fischer was gonna add in there.

Commissioner Fischer. Yeah, I was gonna mention that we need to be real specific about adding, looking at doing traffic calming in that area, and also to keep 18-wheelers out of there, about putting up a structure saying 18-wheelers can't come through. So I think that would be one of the items that we also should be a part of this process.

Yeah, I'm really surprised that people are hoping that this moves forward with all the we don't know the answer to that we heard from our county manager. Traffic calming is great, but I have a project that's waiting on traffic calming right now, and I can't get it. I asked for information. Nothing is promised. This is disrupting a neighborhood. And, you know, if UGA can call every single commissioner, They can call and get in touch with the residents that will be affected. Whatever happened three years ago, last year, when we have a 67-year-old gentleman that came in this evening to talk about

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Link?

Yeah. Commissioner Fisher offered preventing 18-wheelers, but What about RVs? You know this is gonna be used for game day parking. Do we have any say over limiting the kind of vehicles that will be run through there?

And we're responsible for maintaining the road.

Commissioner Myers, you had a follow-up?

Yeah, I think just clarifying the language, perhaps someone who worked on it, because I thought in the resolution, in the agreement, game trade traffic would not be directed in that route. So, I mean, as a person who goes through there, with the RVs, that's the game day traffic. It wouldn't be routed that way.

All right, so we've got a substitute motion from Commissioner Myers and a second from Commissioner Wright. We'll do a round robin.

All right, motion carries. Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, 29 is the rights-of-way use ordinance. I'll entertain a motion from a member of the body.

So moved. I make a motion to accept the ordinance.

Mayor? Motion from Commissioner Hamby to accept. Second. Second from Commissioner Fisher. Commissioner Hamby, any remarks?

Sure. I've got just a few, and I know it's late, so I won't keep everybody. But, you know, we had a lot of folks down here to talk about this, and it's very encouraging and very encouraging. appreciated, and certainly if we take all this energy that was in this room tonight and help our homeless population, then I think we can make some headway on doing some real good for all of this community. I will point out, I thought It should be pointed out on our next issue with the resolution. It talks about all the things we've done, and I'm surprised that we didn't hear that from some of the provider

Commissioner Fischer, then Commissioner Thornton.

Thank you, Mayor. It's a long day, long night, 11.49 right now. I'm going to try to get out of here quickly. And I agree with my colleague, Commissioner Hamby. We have invested a lot of money in our homeless population. And let me say, and I was on the committee on this right-of-way, and we had a service provider on that committee with us. when we was talking about this, so this is not a surprise. We knew it was coming down the pipe. A lot of our service providers that deal with our homeless population, they do a good job, but everybody got to step up big game. We got to really bring these ser

It's a complex situation what we're dealing with when we deal with our homeless situation. And we're not the only community that we're dealing with. I was with the incoming mayor of Gainesville, Georgia. They have a heck of a time in Gainesville dealing with the same thing that we're dealing with. So this is a regional thing, and we've got to do better. But we've... I'm going to ask our service providers, I'm going to put this out there, that you work with all the service providers that help our homeless population from a mental health perspective, from a social abuse perspective, so we can pu

I've got Commissioners Thornton, Myers, Lincoln, Davenport. I got you. Commissioner Thornton.

I totally support our business owners downtown, and I do think that this, what is it, item 29 does contradict item 30. It shows that we are. not organized. We should not have had two different issues around homelessness. I struggle now. I'm trying to figure out and I have sent all of you emails about some concerns that I have had This should have, both of these should have really been led by the Homeless Coalition. So my question is, well it's not even a question. I'm not gonna vote for this, but I understand and empathetic with the business owners, because nobody wants to step in there busine

Commissioner, I need to go ahead and move on to the other folks here.

No, I've still got a minute. But my fellow commissioner already told you how much resources we have put into this homeless issue. But I'm not going to support it because I don't think that it's not the Christian thing for me to do. But I do think we all can do better. And Mr. Bean, I appreciate you adding that, but it really wasn't necessary.

And... We'll move on to Commissioner Myers.

I have a couple questions, clarification, because I listen to the business owners, and I know they're dealing with some issues downtown that they talked about. that there need to be boundaries put up because people are shooting up, they're being mistreated physically, prostituted with sex, offered sick mental health crises. What they didn't talk about was people camping downtown. And so I do want to ask our legal team here to um oh let me get the wrong glasses on to explain i'm assuming that the ordinance would be applied to the um i really want to know what it will and won't prevent downtown

So if you're lying on a piece of cardboard downtown and sleeping in the middle of the day at night, it doesn't make a difference the time of day or anything? No, there's no difference. The time of day does not matter. That's correct. If you were on that piece of cardboard and sleeping, could it be applied?

These are my questions. I guess I'll have to come back for my comment. In terms of the ordinance being enforced, and this is from the manager's office, really, so . . . Am I excused? In this case, there's a warning that goes first. If the warning is not, is there gonna have to be like a warning each separate time or like if I'm sleeping there today and then tomorrow night, I mean, there's that, but then when does it go to a citation and what happens if I don't pay it?

Is it OK? Can I have one minute to finish this up? Yes. So these questions are there. I was on the committee. I'm glad it came to the larger floor, larger discussion and everything else. I'm not gonna support this because I don't think it really addresses the kind of problems that I'm hearing. And with the resolution, the resolution, as we've pointed out in resolutions before, they really don't have any teeth until there's specifics and funding. And so until we add this, and we have a place for people to go other than whack-a-mole. They go from one place to another. I really can't support this

Commissioner, I'm going to go ahead and turn to Commissioner Link.

Yeah. I'd like to make a substitute motion that we table this until staff can come back to us with a clear plan for low barrier emergency day shelter where folks can actually go. It is useless to pass an ordinance like this when people literally have nowhere to go. At the very least, it's putting the cart before the horse. Not to mention all the cruelty and the ineffectiveness of such an ordinance. Honestly, we should not have seen this until we already voted on our resolution. The resolution offers some clear solutions that might direct folks to some help. And like so many people who stood up

Commissioner, as a process question, what I'd recommend is that if you don't want to support this, just vote against the motion given the sort of lack of really sort of linkage between what we would do as an organization and some future activity.

The real practical thing would be to bring it back up in the future. I want to make a substitute motion to deny.

All right, so substitute motion to deny is from Commissioner Link. Second is from Commissioner Johnson. Johnson is a seconder of the substitute motion. I'll go ahead and turn to you next.

Just two months ago, I heard a commissioner say, why would we vote for this? That would be pointless. There's nowhere else for them to go. We need a solution first. I'm not hearing that tonight. We need a solution. They asked for a solution. It is inhumane. There is also threat and liability that you are applying to the police department to ask them to make a determination based on interpretation and discretion, because everybody is different. Every single officer is different. Good days, bad days, short days, long days, and we're asking them to do that. I mean, I know they're professionals at

I haven't gotten to you yet, Commissioner Davenport. Okay, it's Wednesday. So, you know, I'm trying to, you know, I was trying to find that middle ground because I do, it's not just for downtown because we keep saying downtown. It's for, you know, I'm I've gotten a lot of phone calls from business owners and residents concerning. So when we drafted this, when we crafted this piece of legislation, talked to people in our community and staff and went back and forth from legalese and all that fun stuff, even our police officer said they're already asking people to get up and leave. This was craft

Commissioner, just to kind of give you some context of my thinking in this moment, should this fail tonight, what I would seek to do in conjunction with all the work enumerated in item 30 here is some more narrowly tailored assignment. I can't describe for you exactly what that would be here in this moment on Wednesday morning.

Could Link amend her motion to send it back to committee?

I would do that in my role as chair. Commissioner Link.

Yeah, I mean, I just want to point out that Athens-Clarke County owns 30 acres of land, like two or three blocks north of downtown. At the very least, we could set up, you know, a sturdy banquet tent and some lounge chair seating and partner with some of our nonprofit organizations to at least give people like a safe shady place to hang out. you know just at the basic most basic like accommodations at the problem is people don't like seeing homeless folks downtown well let's give them a place that's near downtown it's easy to get to you know offer some basic accommodations some water and a lit

We've got Commissioner Thornton and Commissioner Hamby.

Again, I'm not going to support this, but I do think that item number 30, the support, maybe that should be the first thing that resolution tackles. I worked on that committee with some folk, and I really wanted them to put teeth in it, but we made it informative with education and data, but the next step would be to come up with a plan, like a plan. And I've also strongly suggested that our business people be a part of those conversations. Because I don't think our business people are so insensitive. They're just trying to do business.

If 29 doesn't pass, can we make some kind of amendment that would be the first thing we would tackle?

I think what we'd want to do is probably take a step back and contemplate kind of how we take an approach to kind of people's core challenge. We can have some further conversations. Commissioner Hamby?

Yes, sure, Mayor. Thank you. And I'll just make a few more points and hush. But, you know, one of the points to what we're talking about here today is, you know, I guess – I've been on this commission for a long time, maybe too long, but I have seen this government do things to help people and to help our homeless population as, as an example, just this, I think, uh, it was probably either commissioner Taylor commissioner Thornton argued for this homeless flex fund that homeless flex fund, uh, has helped keep 482 families from being homeless. And that was with just $264,000. So I guess what I'

Quick question. This is also included in the library. Probably specified it, but here we go.

So... I think the library is a park space. Is that correct? There have been issues about the nature of the library property in the past. I can't tell you off the top of my head. We can get some information about that.

All right. We do have a substitute motion on the floor from Commissioner Link. We're going to go ahead and go around the room. Attorney Drake's going to read the orders. Thank you.

Thanks, Attorney Drake. Substitute motion is to deny from Commissioner Link. We'll go around the room beginning with Commissioner Link.

Motion carries. Y'all can do the math. All right, moving on to item 30. Somebody place a motion on four? Motion from Commissioner Wright. I second. And a second from Commissioner Thornton. Commissioner Wright, any remarks?

Just quickly, this captures... We're trying to do our best, and we're trying to capture that and move forward. If we're not getting things in the right order, we need to get them in order, literally. But anyway, ready to vote.

I'm ready to vote, too. I think it speaks for itself, and after tonight, I think there's a lot of marching forward to do.

All right, I've got Commissioner Lincoln, Commissioner Johnson.

Yeah, I would love to incorporate the suggestion we had from one of our homelessness providers to add a bullet point to that, whereas, you know, implementation of evidence-based practices, add the bullet point. pursue intergovernmental, regional, and business partnerships to prevent and reduce homelessness. Well, let's put it in writing. You know, let's put it in writing.

I think that's in here. I think there's something. Is it in here? Look at the first sentence. I think it's in there.

My computer has died. I'd suggest Commissioner Link go talk to the surrounding commissioners.

I mean, this does not mention, doesn't mention UGA.

Mr. Link, why don't you go talk to surrounding commissioners and come back to us and tell us what's said.

Commissioner, what I would note is that really kind of the operative section is that last couple of stanzas, and those are effectively what we might consider the marching orders.

Well, this says, you know... it says let me read this evidence-based practice that including but not necessarily limited to i just know that in savannah college of art and design savannah college of art and design funds their downtown day center which was crucial to them being able to implement their no camping ban. They went by this compassionately. They established a day center where they could compassionately steer people towards rather than simply arresting them. We don't have that infrastructure.

Thank you. I heard someone earlier say that nobody's going to oppose number 30. I just wanted to clarify some things that I read into number 30 that are not clear, and I want you to know that they aren't clear because I want you to demand some specificity when it comes down to it. So I'm not voting, but I'm abstaining because of my volunteerism, but I wanted to share. So, okay, here's the thing. This resolution, like someone said earlier about not having teeth, that was real, and it is real. But this item resolution, it recognizes the homeless problem, so we feel good. It authorizes further ex

Anyone else before I return to, I'll do Commissioner Myers and then return to Commissioner Thornton.

I think that actually the second part of this therefore addresses both some of the things that Commissioner Link and Johnson referred to, it says, There's only two. There's not that much in the therefore part. And the second one says, Athens-Clarke County shall continue striking partnerships among governmental agencies, nonprofits, organizations, health care providers, behavioral health organizations, educational institutions, businesses, home developers, housing philanthropic organizations, faith communities, and residents, and will cooperate in defining local homeless reduction needs and the

I'm gonna get Commissioner Taylor who hasn't spoken yet and then Commissioner Thornton.

Yes. First question. How much is in the homeless flex fund? Do we know? I can wait. I'm not sure if I'll go to school. I can wait. Yeah. Also, North Avenue. We own a sliver of land beside the day center. Let's build on it. Add wraparound services. PLR people living in recovery. They can all get what they need. It's in the central area. This is me thinking out loud. I just want to go home. What's a home? Oh, oh, 240 for me. I love you, too. But I'm all right. Oh, yeah.

We're going to move on to Commissioner Thornton so we can get resolution with this resolution. It's hard for these old ears to hear with all the crosstalk.

Commissioner Thorpe. I was just going to try to respond to Commissioner Johnson's comment. I think Commissioner Myers probably did it better. But the reason why it's a little loose like that, because we wanted to get more input from folks. So I know with me being involved that we would get exactly what you're talking about. One of the other things Commissioner Fischer and I have talked about is how do we, let's start making sure, even though I'm not going to be here, but start getting those reports from these nonprofits so we'll all know what's going on. So I think a reporting process, knowing

All right. I know Commissioner Johnson's abstaining. We've got a motion and a second. Other than Commissioner Johnson, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. All right. We do have one item of new business. I need a motion for suspension of rules. So moved. Second. All right. I've got a motion from Commissioner Fisher and a second from Commissioner Davenport. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. Can I get a motion for reappointment to the Athens in Motion Commission? All right. I've got a motion from Commissioner Wright. I've got a second from Commissioner Myers. Any remarks? Commissioner, right?

Commissioner Myers. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries. Now is the time in the meeting as we do every month. when there's opportunity for public input on any item that was not on tonight's agenda. I'm back. Monteverde, let me. Yes, thank you.

Is there anyone else here to speak to any item not on the agenda tonight?

All right. I do have one committee assignment tonight. assigning to government operations committee the task of working with ACC staff and the Athens Downtown Development Authority parking operation to develop a process for valet areas in the loading zones for off-peak hours. That's a comprehensive opportunity there. And I am now moving to see if the manager has anything for us tonight. Mr. Auditor? No, thank you. Mr. Attorney? No, thank you. All right. And we'll go ahead and go around the room with the Coalition of the Willing, beginning with Commissioner Davenport.

All right. So, Kelly, I'm looking forward to the next step of this long, arduous conversation with the agenda item 29. So I'm looking forward to the next steps on that. Thanks, staff, for all y'all have done. Thank you, colleagues, for coming back healthy and safe and alive from our much-needed time off. I hope and pray that all the kids from kindergarten to doctors, whatever, have a wonderful school year. And, you know, education is power. That's it.

Yeah, I'll reiterate, Commissioner Davenport. I'm eager to see us get seriously started on the items in the homelessness resolution. I've got plenty of ideas, and I just feel like we need to hit the low-hanging fruit and solve our most obvious, offer some respite for our most obvious issue, which is folks visibly homeless, chronically homeless folks, if we can at least offer them a place to go during the day. Also, I'm really disappointed that our ADU ordinance seems to have gone down in flames. I would kind of ask staff or the Planning Commission or somebody to reconsider it as merely an issu

I want to commend the residents of Athens-Clarke County for coming out the way that they did tonight. I think that that represents The diversity of Clark County, as well as, you know, I know they were galvanized. Like, I saw the post, so I know y'all. I know y'all got off a pizza. But, hey, I probably came for pizza, too. As well as First Happy Day of School to all of CCSD, as well as all of our nonprofits who did back-to-school events these last year. couple of weeks to meet needs of families who need back to school stuff. So I think Athens-Clarke County is a unique place where people want to

I don't have anything. It's too late for extra comments. I'll be right back.

I do want to echo Commissioner Taylor's point. We do have a lot of diversity. In this community, and we live in a democracy, and I love how we can discuss things, disagree, and still, you know, we can leave here and still have discussion among ourselves. So, you know, it's okay. I do want to highlight on yesterday's I had the honor of attending the funeral of Miss Geneva Cross, who was 100 years old. When she turned 100 this past December, I was privileged to do a proclamation for her, but she passed away. What a wonderful woman. I got a chance to get to know her. Even until she died, her mind

Oh, thank you. I think I have four things. The first one is the second town hall for the Mall Redevelopment Project update is going to be on Thursday, August 13th. And I'll be sending out an advertisement tomorrow or the day after, but within the next 36 hours. The second thing is I was able to find a contact through a great resource for someone that serves on GDOT's board for the state. to actually partner with me. And I'm going to host a town hall for all of the folks that are asking, what's going on with Atlanta Highway? When are they going to finish? What's going on with the 10 loop? I hav

comes and serves and devotes time to helping people for free and i forgot what the fourth item was so that's it commissioner no comment oh you're too fast um we i i want to um just uh say we had a great wonderful celebration on the east side with the library groundbreaking last week that was a really positive experience, and in case anyone hears this, that there will be a public groundbreaking, which won't be a groundbreaking, but a celebration on Saturday, August 22nd, 1 p.m. at Hillsman Middle School cafeteria. also want to thank all the people who came out we've been here a long time but th

Commissioner, I need a motion to enter into executive session on the purpose of property discussion and then adjourn.

Okay, I was hoping, well, I didn't think that was gonna happen, but I'll motion to go into, to adjourn and go into executive session, and then a motion, then we will adjourn after that for the evening.

The morning. The morning. Let's be clear.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Yeah, quickly. Hearing none, motion carries. Yeah, quickly. All right.