Planning Commission - Special Meeting

Keep talking. How long do you want me to keep talking? And AJ, is it bullet like a tough low?

Recording in progress.

Good evening. I would like to call the January 14, 2026 special called meeting of the Milton Planning Commission to order. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

This is a special called meeting of the Milton Planning Commission. I am chairperson Judy Birds. This is a se seven member commission appointed by the city of Milton mayor and city council created for the purpose of holding public hearings and making recommendations on reszoning, use permits, concurrent variance applications, comprehensive land use plan and plan map and other related plans and amendments to the zoning ordinance. In attendance tonight, we have Commissioner Fred Edwards. Welcoming back Commissioner Stephanie Butler. Welcoming Commissioner AJ Bulo, Commissioner Brian Mcnes, Commissioner Sumi Shaw, and Commissioner Vic Jones constituting a quorum of this body. There is no one absent this evening. Um, first I'd like to go to consideration of and adoption of the agenda. Can I get a motion and a second regarding the adoption of the January 14, 2026 special call planning commission meeting agenda?

I move that we accept the um January 14th meeting with one addition. We're on the agenda, not the minutes. Sorry. Okay, you can keep going. Just say the agenda, not the minute. Okay. Of the adoption of the agenda. Second.

Okay. It's been moved by Commissioner um Edwards and seconded by Commissioner uh Mcnes to recommend approval of the agenda as presented. All in favor? I. Any opposed? That passes unanimously. Now, we will consider the minutes and actions of previous meetings. Um, can I get a motion in a second regarding the November 20th, 2025 regularly regular planning commission meeting action minutes? I move that we accept the uh November 20th, 2025 planning commission meeting minutes u with one correction on uh page starting on page four number two on uh chairperson Bergs and my second I believe that that should say defer this item to the next regular meeting.

I second. Any discussion? Anyone would that would like to recuse themselves from this? Just for the record, it wouldn't be recusal. Just if you call for the vote, um you take four and opposed and then abstaining. Okay. So, it would be an abstain. Okay. Um any discussion? I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? I I any abstain?

Okay. So, we have uh three voting in favor, four abstaining. The motion passes and that was moved by Commissioner Edwards and seconded by myself. Who was it? Seconded by yourself. Okay. And then I'm moved by Fred with that change on the and then who was passed the three of us voted because we were there. Okay. Three of

the rest abstain. Okay. We have no preliminary plats tonight to consider. Um so just another heads up. I'm about to read a very long script of the requirements as we get into the next zoning actions. If you would like to speak on that, do we have any public comment? General public comment? We do not.

Okay. Um, if you would like to speak on the item that's on the agenda, whether as a applicant or in a in favor or opposed or just comment, please fill out a yellow comment card and get it to Robin before I finish reading these two and a half pages. So, the petitions will be heard in the sequence listed on the published agenda. I would like to acquaint you with some of the rules and procedures for conducting this meeting. The applicant and all those speaking in support of an application will be allowed a total of 10 minutes to present the petition. The applicant may choose to save some of the time for rebuttal following the presentation by the opposition. The opposition will be allowed a total of 10 minutes to present its position. If time remains, the opposition will be allowed to rebut. Since the burden of proof is upon the applicant, the applicant will be allowed to make closing remarks provided time remains within the allotted time. The staff of the community development department will be keeping track of time and will inform you periodically of the remaining time for your presentation. Each speaker must fill out a speaker card before speaking and leave it with the staff member of the community development department. All speakers will identify themselves by name, address, and organization if applicable before beginning their presentation. When any opponent of a resoning action has made within two years immediately preceding the filing of the resoning action being opposed, campaign contributions aggregating $250 or more to a local government official of the local government which will consider the application. It shall be the duty of the opponent to file a disclosure with the governing authority of the respective local government at least 5 days prior

to the planning commission meeting. A violation of the relevant state statute constitutes a misdemeanor. Therefore, if you have contributed $250 or more to a council member and have not timely filed a disclosure prior to the planning commission meeting, the city attorney strongly suggests that you have someone else speak on your behalf. Each application has been properly filed with community development department. Signs have been posted at each site. The matter has been advertised and the notices have been mailed to property owners affected by the zoning as required by the Milton zoning ordinance. The planning commission's recommendation will be forwarded to the city of Milton mayor and city council for final disposition at a forthcoming meeting in these council chambers scheduled for February 2nd, 2026. The community development department has reviewed each application in conjunction with various agencies and departments both internal and external to the city if applicable. The community development department's recommendations, findings, and conclusions are here before us in written form which has been made available to all petitioners and to the public. Demonstration of any sort within the council chamber is prohibited. So please refrain refrain from any applause, dialogue with the person speaking or outburst. Please turn off all cell phones or place them on silent. All remarks will be addressed by the planning commission. Please show the same respect to the person speaking that you will expect to receive yourself. In addition, the applicant shall not submit material to the planning commission during the meeting unless requested to do so by the commission. All material you wish to be reviewed by the commission and consideration of your application should be submitted to the staff of the community development

department to be included in the normal distribution of packages to the commission. Finally, to the applicant, if your purchition is deferred by the planning commission in accordance with the Milton zoning ordinance, you are required to update or obtain a new sign for reposting. Failure to re update or repost will result in further delay. There are no exemptions. So, the use permit on tonight's agenda is for U25-03 VC25-01 by Deerfield CC Delaware LLC located at 13010 Morris Road and tax parcels 225441150423 and 225 5440 111150456 to request a use permit for multifamily section 8.3 1.1 or is that 1.0 L uh of the unified development code in order to accommodate I think that's 1.0 0 of the unified development code in order to accommodate a mixeduse development on 24.92 acres to develop multifamily residential units, townhouse units, loft apartments, and retail space along with two existing six-story office buildings and a concurrent variance to reduce the number of parking spaces required by section 9.1.2 of the UDC. I would like to call up our zoning manager, Robin McDonald, to present the staff report for U2503 VC23-01.

Okay.

Good evening, uh, chairwoman and commissioners. It's exciting to have our first meeting of 2026. And, um, I just want to do a little bit of a reduct introduction of this case. Um this is uh the first implementation of as you all know um a about a year ago and two years ago we started the Deerfield implementation plan and um it was a big um task to accomplish and I believe that between you all and the community that we interacted with um as well as our um consultant we came up with a really wonderful future for Deerfield area and not just a plan. Um there's lots of plans that sit on shelves and get dusty um or on computers and never get opened. Um but our next step that we had done was uh adopting uh part of formbbased code updating it to really uh reflect what came out of that uh deerfield implementation plan. So, this is like the third step and obviously uh we're appreciative and grateful uh to the applicant to work with staff for a very long time. um just trying to uh really make this a great um development for the city of Milton, but at the same time making sure that we're uh abiding by what the Deerfield destination plan and ultimately uh the Deerfield formbbased code requires of it. So just for people listening in um you know online I just want them and everybody to know that uh this is a pretty exciting point in time uh for the

planning staff here in Milton and actually for you all the opportunity to review it as well. So with that said um this is the location of uh the proposed development. You can see uh it is within the Deerfield area. We have Deerfield Parkway to the left, Web Road, and then Morris Road. And there are two existing uh office buildings um that are there. There's six stories in size. Uh this is a total of 24.92 acres and the applicant is seeking to develop multif family residential townhouse units, loft apartments over retail. two existing and there's like I said two existing sixstory office buildings and a concurrent variance to reduce the number of parking spaces. Um, as mentioned, this is in the Deerfield formbbased code. You can see uh this dark purple that is a T6 designation uh for the transex zone, which is our highest and most um intense uh use uh of any area in the city. Prior to the adoption in regards to the subject site um of the Deerfield formbbased code in April of 2013, uh the subject site was zoned OI office institutional um in Fulton County at a density of 15,951 square feet per acre. But just plain English that means for a total of 400,000 square feet within four sixstory buildings. So obviously you see only two were built um at a total of 265,514 square feet and they were completed around 2000. Currently uh these office

buildings are part partially occupied. This is the revised site plan we received on January 9th and then we're going to get into more detail as we walk through this presentation. Uh this is a colored revised site plan um just to give you some perspective on what the different buildings are and where the road system is, where the parking is. So um and you also have a hard copy in front of you as well. This is uh just a graphic showing obviously this is an existing uh development, but the blue is what they're proposing for new parking. So, I think it's good to see that uh they are preserving although it's a fair amount of parking. Um it's a very mature area. As we said, it was built in 2000, so that's 25 years ago. And if you've been to the site, there's some beautiful trees um in the parking islands as well as in the periphery. So, uh we think that that is a really a great asset to uh the property. In regards uh to the current requests for this mixeduse development, um we have this uh table that shows the different uses. We have retail at 20 new retail at 24,840 square ft and that is within the formbbased code in Deerfield. It's by rights. We have the existing office buildings as I've already discussed. We have 10 units of loft over retail. So that is literally what it says. We have a little bit of that loft over retail down the street here um over by six bridges and uh that is also a use that's by right. Um the applicant is as asking

to develop um 20 units of town houses and that again is by right and that was something that had changed a little bit in when we did our update to the Deerfield formbbased code. Um, and ultimately we're here tonight for the use permit for the multif family units of 140. And as you can see highlighted, it is required to have a use permit. So, um, as I alluded to earlier, uh, the Deerfield formbbased code was amended in May of 2025. These changes were based on the results of destination deerfield plan that included incentive provisions for mixeduse development. adjusted the required in that plan and in the um ordinance. We adjusted the required residential to commercial ratio from the byite 50% residential 50% commercial standard to a ratio below the maximum of 65 residential 35 commercial permitted within the T6 zoning district. And let me clarify when I state in this presentation or in the conditions of zoning we talk about commercial and you may say well Robin well what about office or what about a restaurant or all those um kind of subcategories. Uh what the beauty of formbbased code is exactly that you have a form it's the building and within reason you can put a lot of different uses in it instead of the traditional zoning where you had 10,000 ft of retail 10,000 of office a restaurant you can just the developer can be able to develop it as uh they wish and so I just want you uh to be reminded that the commercial includes things like the restaurants, the office, different types of retail whatever is

allowed in um the formbbased code in the use table. So just wanted to clarify that um the applicant has provided for the following incentives. Um he has cho they have chosen to uh add public civic space and public access trails and trail head discussed below in more detail. The calculated ratio for the project is 56.8 8% of residential and 43.2% of commercial which is within the allowable range when incentives are applied. So we hear here in regards to civic space uh the area that's uh colored in green is considered civic space and if they meet the requirement uh which is the proposal increases on-site civic space from the required 10% to at least 20%. um they can receive this 55% residential ratio increase or split. So the site plan actually indicates a total of 24% at 6.15 acres of civic space. So they exceed even the minimum required in regards to the public access trails and trail head. Again, uh the applicant can receive 5% residential ratio split um incentive. Uh the cons and by doing this or receiving this they are constructing uh a trail traversing the site and connecting multiple street frontages. So you see here in this brown it starts over this is Morris Road in the corner and they meander through the site and um adjacent to the stream buffer all the

way along over this is Deerfield Parkway. So that's their main um trail throughout the property. And then there's a designated trail head which um there is actually a um a trail head on one end and then over here as well as the um four designated parking spots um and a public restroom here. So um here are a rendering of the building that includes the restroom which is adjacent to a civic building. The civic building is not required to obtain the incentive but will be built by the developer and available for use by the city. So I believe that the bathrooms are tucked into this building here proposed. So in regards to the site plan um again it was the latest uh site plan was uh submitted on January 9th and within the Deerfield formbbased code multif family is only permitted subject to a use permit and as follows the it requires a mixed use is 50% residential 50% non-residential but development incentives can apply required non-residential functions shall be identified and approved by the city council as part of the multif family use permit approval and shall be built concurrent with the multif family uses. So along with um the use permit these are um the main issues that have to be met and as we discussed above they with the incentives they meet that residential

non-residential or commercial split. Now this is going to so a lot of people aren't really familiar with formbbased code and how density is calculated. So just bear with me. So in T6 this transct zone it is allowed density maximum by right is 12 units per acre. So you're thinking okay I get that you know if you have 12 units of residential per acre I understand that. But how do you calculate it when it's non-residential? Um well, first let me just give you the maximum that's allowed on this site. So 12* 24.92 is 299.04 density units. Okay, as we go down to the chart, the pink is non-residential, the green is the residential. So you see with the retail it's 24,840 and it says 11.04 units. Well, what in the world is that? Well, each unit equals 2,250 square ft. So, if you multiply that by um the uh number of units, you get the 24840 times um the number of acres. Okay. So, um then we have the office. they equal 118 units. For all the non-residential, that's a total of 129.04 units. And then obviously under residential, it's much easier to uh contemplate that that they have a total of 170 units for the total of 299.04, which is the density of 12 units per acre. Now, we look at the density

distribution. The non-residential as you saw um is 129.04 units which is 43.2 as referenced earlier and residential is 56.8. So that's how the split is uh is uh utilized. So, also there's different levels of um being able to look at this site plan and one of the areas we look at is the general Deerfield formbbased code regulations. And um the subject site and proposed development meet or exceed those development regulations contained in 7A section 7A of the city code of the UDC such as building placement, form and function, landscape standards, and architectural standards. again that I'm I wasn't going to go through pages and pages of how it it it meets and I just want to assure you that if this is approved at the time of land disturbance permit we go through every section of the code whether it applies to the storm water engineer or whether it applies to the to the city arborous or it applies to our department and zoning. So we're all looking at these rules and regulations uh what is uh required at the time of LDP. So um here commercial or retail is permitted by right and then the existing office that we talked about is permitted by right. Now we're going to break down the discussion of proposed types of uses within the development. Um obviously the multif family needs a use permit. The town houses do have development requirements but do not require a use permit as well as the lofts over retail. There are some development requirements. So let's walk through those. First is

the multif family units. So the applicant has uh presented these um renderings and elevations to the design review board. We'll get into that later. So this is the proposed one of the two proposed buildings along Morris Road. That's for the multif family. Um, and so we look at it at it's a threestory building uh facing Morris Road. Uh we at this point we don't have the elevation of the back but we know that if you look at this uh building in plan that there's like this appendage here and it's a type of tower that will go up is proposed to be up to four stories which is allowed in the uh Deerfield form base code T6. Okay. So, uh, the proposal of the applicant is to provide 84 one-bedroom apartments and 56 two-bedroom apartments. And again, I just stated that the front of the buildings will be three stories in height facing Morris Road and the four-story tower on the interior. So, here is the overall site the site plan showing the two buildings here. I also want to point out they do have a proposed service area that's in the back. I know there had been some questions about uh trash receptacles and service area. So, at least at this point in time, that's where it looks uh to be located. The proposed development meets all of the requirements of the UDC in regards to the multifamily uh form-based code requirements in section 8, which is the the use section um of the code. Staff wants to highlight one of the following requirements of those. We there's several different requirements, but it states that

required non-residential functions being built must be built concurrent with multif family units being built and the timing shall be determined at the time of the approval of the use permit. The condition is included in the recommended conditions at the end of the report. So we'll cover that at the end of the presentation. Okay. So that was uh just the development standards, the overall look of the multif family that that requires the use permit. And we're going to get into some more detail about the actual use permit later. Now we're just going to look at the town homes. So the applicant is proposing 20 um town homes rear loaded. So again, here is a um kind of a blowup of the view. This is um if you could remember, there's a stream that that goes um north to south. Well, not north, east to west or whatever. Up and down. And then to the west on the western side of the site is the stream. I'll just just keep it to that. Keep it simple. Um, and so this is this stream right here. And that is considered civic space. And so we have these you see these frontages of these town homes and that's what it's facing is the stream. Okay. And then we have an alley that is um serves as the rear alley and a rear loaded for these town homes which here we go. Here is the view of the rear alley and the rear entry. So where this little L is, that's the view of it. Okay. Again, there's a total of 20 units. There are 17 town homes that front the civic space right here. See, this explains it better than I can. Um, and rear loaded with lots 1 through 17 utilizing the alley. Um, staff has noted

and that the 60 foot easement along this area needs to be reduced um in size to 24 feet with 12 foot pavement. Also um no more than 20% of the total lots in the development may front on a civic space. So we have u basically 10% of the total units facing this civic space and then we have three units here that have a traditional alley and then so their uh their rear would be to here and they would front on this road right here. And then just want to note too um adjacent to the western property line stream and associated buffers is Lake Deerfield Town Home. So we have two similar uses backing up to each other. And after that analysis, the proposed town homes meet all of the requirements of section 8 of uses. So now we're going to step into loss. Um, again, there's not a lot of requirements for lofts other than um in uh in Deerfield in T6, you can't have more than 10 units per development. So, the applicant has chosen to do the maximum. This is um Web Road here and this is the view looking from Web Road um with flanking with two retail buildings on either side and they're proposing uh 10 units altogether. We don't know exactly what uh breakdown it'll be but it's by right. They can choose how they want to distribute it above retail. Again, here is a site plan view of it as well. So now we're going to go through some uh

kind of uh necessary items that are required uh for the applicant to submit. One of them is a environmental site analysis um in that report is sufficient and satisfies the requirements of the UDC. There are no steep slopes, no historical sites or sensitive plant and animal species on the site. It does contain wetlands, flood plane, and a stream with the appropriate state and city buffers. The site is located within the area to be serviced by sanitary sewer on the sewer map. So, we have a city sewer map and it lands within the appropriate place. Um site, the site is located inside of the urban growth boundary. So, this is a perfectly um appropriate type uh use uh for the this location. So, we're going to step into the departmental comments. The city arborist um states that at time of submittal for a land disturbance permit, you uh the applicant will need to provide a tree planting plan to meet tree canopy coverage and parking lot requirements. Uh staff notes that the T6 transsect zone requires a minimum of 10% tree canopy coverage. As you can see, it appears just looking at the site plan, it more than exceeds 10% based upon we count uh parking lot trees and the the buffers, etc., but a more detailed plan will be submitted at the LDP. Uh the fire marshall states that the access to the site is sufficient given the accessible routes from Deerfield Parkway, Web Road, and Morris Road. Um, a little bit more detail. A first alarm would send three engines, one truck, and two battalion chiefs, an ambulance and utility companies, approximately 20 people. A second alarm would be an additional two engines, one truck, and

10 more people. And as you know, we have our um main fire station, 44, is one and a half miles away. uh the public works department had requested a traffic impact study of the applicant. The applicant submitted uh a satisfactory um all the information they needed to. Um again the vehicular access is provided via four existing driveways. Two full access driveways on Morris, one full access on Web and a ride in right out on Deerfield Parkway. and the development is projected to generate approximately 125 am peak trips and 163 pm peak trips. All inter all study intersections are expected to continue operating at acceptable levels of service in both the opening 2028 and horizon year of 2020 2033 and the Fulton County Public Works Department. So obviously Fulton County handles our water and sewer and they have an estimation of daily water usage of 74,936 gallons per day. And you can see the different lines that surround the property as well as I'm sure there's laterals into the property currently. And regards to sewer, it's um boy guys, I never get to talk about sewer in a com commercial development. So it's been a it's It's exciting. I'm sorry. It's a Big Creek basin. Yeah. Okay. It's the Big Creek treatment plant, too. And the anticipated sewer demand is around 67,000 gallons per day. Okay. And uh speaking to public works in Fulton County, um they rush they assured us there's plenty of capacity. There's not an issue with providing these services

to the site. So, I'm sorry. Get excited about that. Okay. on to Fulton County Board of Education. So, um it's a little difficult to read, but um based on the eval evaluation, the proposed development will not cause Manning Oaks Elementary School, Hopemail Hopewell Middle School, and Alpharetta High School to exceed their capacity. So, if you look on the right side kind of toward the top or on the left, so enrollment 2025 6 2026 um school year 782. now and it has a capacity of 850 and the estimated students generated is between zero and 36. That's a pretty wide range. So, you know, even at its worst, it still can um handle the additional students. And then that's how you read that as you continue on. I won't bore you with all the the numbers, but um again, there is capacity currently in the schools uh for this development. Okay, another exciting topic, money. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm trying to make this exciting for you. This is kind of a little bit long presentation. So, uh, the city of Milton um, collects impact fees and, um, we had it's all really worked out. we know how much something is going to uh the revenue that may be collected that would be collected and it's $1.9 million. Um and we have this chart that breaks it down. So if you look um it's not like it all goes to one department in the city. So parks and wreck gets the majority of it. So, they're looking at um $1.1 million is going to parks and wreck. Fire protection is 337,000.

300 what? You know what I mean? 337 300 300 I can't talk. Never mind. And then law enforcement is 38,000 and road improvements is another a third of a million. I'll just say it that way. And then obviously we have some administration fees. So you can see how um you know when it is built out this is what just the impact in revenue would be. Obviously we haven't calculated building permits. We haven't calculated the future tax base that would be produced by this but um this is uh pretty exciting. Uh in regards to public involvement the CZIM meeting was held on December 17th. Um, there were eight members of the public present along with the applicant and their representative. While attendees raised questions and concerns regarding specific aspects of the proposal, the general sentiment expressed during the meeting was supportive of the redevelopment and the activation of the partially vacant office buildings. Several participants acknowledged the benefits of reinvesting in the site and bringing new activity to this property. and specific concerns raised were introduction of apartments, traffic impacts, property ownership, development timing, impacts on existing landscaping, parking reduction, and development ratios. And just I I stated what issues were brought up, but staff was at the meeting to be as well as the applicant to be able to address those concerns to those uh community members. Uh it went to the design review board on January 6th and the DRB was supportive and complimentary regarding the proposed mixeduse development. Um they reviewed they really got into um the details of it. I think a lot of you have listened to it and they provided specific recommendations to the applicant for

such type of for each type of building especially the multif family structures. And one member of the public expressed concern about impacted wildlife and disposable disposal of trash. And I do want to make a note and I think you heard it if you listen to the meeting that each of these buildings um will go back to the design review board for individual review and just working with staff and with the city architect to make sure one it's complying with the uh Deerfield formbbased code but actually making a great uh project uh in the uh for Deerfield. uh the applicant is required uh to submit a public participation report in which they did. Um they held their mandatory meeting on December 22nd at the uh site at corporate center 1 and there were six attendees at the meeting and the concerns raised at the meeting were introduction of apartments, compliance with Deerfield formbbased code, traffic impacts, timing of development impacts on existing landscaping. So, now we're going to get into uh the meat of the use permit considerations. Um the UDC requires that each use that comes before the city council and for you for recommendation. There's 10 different considerations. So, I'm going to step through them. Um, and they're just really important because we need to kind of measure up the submitt to what the ordinance ask of us to look at. Okay, if that makes sense. Probably doesn't, but um let's let's see um how uh it meets or doesn't meet uh these considerations. The first one is whether the proposed

use is consistent with the land use or economic development plans adopted by the mayor and city council. Um again it's located in the T6 transsect zone. And so uh forbased code's a little bit different than AG1 or C1 because it is also not only the zoning um it's not just the zoning but it's also the future land use. Okay. So that's why I talk about T6 being the future land use for the site and the development is consistent with the description of T6 transact zone saying medium to highdensity mixeduse buildings entertainment civic and cultural uses attached buildings forming a continuous street wall trees within the public ride ofway highest pedestrian and transit activity with civic spaces making up parks, plazas and squares and median. and landscaping. A use permit is required um to be approved by the mayor and city council and um the staff outlines the detail in the site plan analysis above. But there's additional requirements which I believe I also mentioned that the multif family is only permitted subject to the ratio of a mixeduse 50 and 50 residential non-residential and that the city council that required non-residential function shall be identified and approved by the city council as part of the multif family use permit approval and shall be built concurrent with multifamily uses within the Deerfield formbbased code which was recently amended by the city council in May of 2025. Based on the applicant submitt, the calculated ratio for the project is 56.8 to 43.2 commercial. The proposed development is also

consistent with multiple policies within the 2040 comprehensive plan. In land use, it encourages mixeduse development, support appropriate residential and non-residential infield development and redevelopment. In the housing area, it encourages development of housing opportunities that enable residents to have easier access to commercial services and employment opportunities. in regards to sustainability, promote the production and maintenance of trees and contiguous green space, green open space and new development and retain, expand and create create businesses that provide a good fit for our community's economy. The proposed development is consistent with the destination Deerfield plan envisioned by envisioning the following key points. Create a walkable welcome district. support places to live, work and gather and activate existing office areas, connect through green spaces and pathways. And the second um question that comes up is compatibility with land uses and zoning districts in the vicinity of the property for which the use permit is proposed. And here I have a map of the surrounding area and it is compatible with the adjacent and nearby land uses since the properties surrounded the site are also designated designated as T6 or T5 or T5 limited and these areas are developed with the same type of uses of office, retail, town houses and multif family. So, and in the staff report, I I list out the different developments and their densities, whether the proposed use may violate local, state, or federal statutes. The proposed use does not appear to violate any ordinances or regulations um if approved with the requested concurrent variance for the reduction of parking.

Um based upon the results of the traffic impact study provided by the applicant and evaluation by uh the public works department the existing and proposed development will not have a negative impact on traffic flow vehicle and pedestrian along adjoining streets. Um, this is since there are four points of ingress egress on the site. And in addition, when Morris Road widening is complete, a four-lane road will provide access from the subject site to the new Mcinness Fairy Round Road interchange and Georgia 400 and into Alpharetta and Forsight County. Lastly, there's an existing traffic signal at Web and Road and Deerfield Parkway, and there will be an improved multi-lane roundabout at Web and Morris roads. The site plan indicates a total of 955 parking spaces on the site. The number of required spaces is 1,39 spaces in the traditional minimum requirements. Our code that when we amended the code recently, we updated the parking section to allow an applicant to utilize what's called the urban land institute ulli shared parking model. And so the applicant has utilized that and you see that big long chart on the site plan and um it resulted in a requirement of 1,194 parking spaces. So basically what that does by the title, it looks at shared parking. You have different uses. You have offices during the day, you have um you have residential mainly in the morning and at night and then you have retail during the day. So you have this uh back and forth with parking and when the needs the highest need is during different parts of the day. So basically it's um a calculation working with all those numbers to figure out what truly

is the most efficient way to use the ex the parking which is this 1,194. Well, the site plan provides a required 230 parking spaces for 140 units of multif family because remember that's what we're looking at right now is the use permit considerations just for um the multif family. Pursuant to the use permit regulations, the location of parking spaces are no greater than 400 ft away as measured along a pedestrian walkway from the door of the unit they serve. So the applicant has also showed a diagram of that as well as I've double checked and measured it and it meets that requirement. Uh the amount and location of open space the site contains 24% of open space and civic space 14% more than the minimum required. The location of the open space is distributed around the site on the periphery as well as where the public can utilize it in the central areas adjacent to various mixeduse elements. Uh the applicant provides a multi-use path connecting Morris Road and Deerfield Parkway along the the western property line, not southern as well as a boardwalk and trail along the rideway of Morris Road south toward the lake uh and north toward Web and Morris Roads intersection. Uh within this area of Deerfield formbbased code um uh for the use permit uh there are no requirements for protective screening. There is a large amount of open space as well as required stream buffers along I keep on getting wrong. It's the west property line uh providing screening to the s town homes to the south to the west here. Uh in regards to hours and manner of operation, there are no required hours and manner of operation for multif family portion of the development and any existing and new

outdoor lighting will be required to meet section uh 7B lighting standards of the formbbased code of Deerfield formbbased code. There are four points of ingress and egress on the site which include Deerfield Parkway, Web Road and Morris Road. This provides sufficient ingress and egress to the property. Okay. So that was the conclusion of the considerations of the use permit. Now we're going to walk into the discussion of the variance to reduce the number of parking spaces for the entire uh development. So again, the applicant is seeking to reduce the number of parking spaces for the entire site from the required minimum of 1194 parking spaces to 955. So here we have a table that breaks down the requirements for the different um uses um and then the total for the ULI methodology and then the total parking spaces provided and then here is a total number of existing parking spaces shown by location we have you can read it yourself in the park the majority vast majority of it is provided in the traditional parking lot there's 164 in on street parking garage town garages in the town homes is 40 spaces and then the applicant is providing 23 spaces on Morris Road in the rideway. So I want to just clarify that that was not required in the code. Staff had asked the applicant to provide that. Um and so it is at their um expense that they will be uh developing those spaces. Again I just said all that the applicant has included those 23 on street parking

in their provided parking calculations. Staff notes that to claim the spaces to meet the minimum required parking for a site, the spaces are required to be adjacent to the site's property. This portion of Morris Road is not adjacent to the applicant's site and therefore cannot be counted. Therefore, if this concurrent variance is approved by Marin Council, it should be reduced um to 932 parking spaces to take into account those 23 spaces that technically can't be counted toward their parking. But at the same time, it's staff who's encouraging them to build them. So, we're totally um supportive of this uh variance. It's staff's opinion that if the reduction in parking spaces granted, it would not offend the spirit or intent of the zoning ordinance since the applicant has demonstrated that per ULI's shared parking calculations, the needed parking spaces are reduced. Um, this is the methodology that the UDC allows. Um, the greatest number of parking spaces utilized is at 9:00 a.m. Monday through Friday and and it's a maximum of,94 parking spaces. The applicant has stated in their letter of intent that this site plan provides adequate but not excessive parking areas for the proposed uses. Staff has also asked the applicant to reduce the number of provided parking spaces on the actual site itself to allow for additional green space to further enhance the public spaces. Also, as discussed above, the applicant is providing the 23 on street parking along Morris Road to promote pedestrian access not only to the subject site but to adjacent and nearby properties that will will be redeveloped in the future. It is staff's opinion that there are extraordinary and exceptional situations or conditions not caused by the variance

applicant which is there is a the 256,000qt office within the two towers based upon the office trends of the fast past five years. Many companies have allowed for work from home schedules for their employees which has significantly reduced the number of parking spaces needed on any single day. Further, a reduction of parking space is justified because mixeduse developments benefit from the shared use of spaces which occurs when residential and office workers utilize parking at different times of day. The reduction of parking to 932 parking spaces relief would not cause a substantial detriment to the public good and surrounding properties and that the public's safety, health, and welfare are secure. And substantial justice is done based on the fact that there will be adequate parking on the site. based on the analysis above. Therefore, staff recommends approval conditional of the concurrent variance to reduce the number of parking spaces. And in conclusion, based on the analysis of the subject site and the proposed 140 multif family units which are being concurrently developed with the appropriate percentage of non-residential uses and the request is consistent consistent with the 2040 future land use plan and policies approved by the mayor and city council and that the proposed multif family met all of the use considerations. Staff recommends approval of U2503 with the attached recommended conditions. Okay. So, what was published um before I keep on going um what was published in the packet uh staff has sent to you today that what was in the original packet is not the most upto-date. um I sent via email and you have a hard copy in front of you and this is what is also on the presentation uh the recommended

conditions. Um the basics of the request is staying the same no changes in densities or number of counts of units or anything like that. But we'll step through this uh one by one. So uh the recommended conditions is for a use permit for multif family uh subject to the owner's agreement to the following conditions. Um number one a 140 units of multif family within two buildings with each building and associated uses 56 twobedroom units with an average of 1,200 square ft. 84 one-bedroom units with an average of 800 square feet. Multif family building facades fronting Morris Road shall be no higher than three stories including basements if applicable. And then uh I wanted to make sure that in this site plan, even though this use permit is specifically for the multif family, I wanted to make sure that they would be allowed to do all the other uses that are allowed in uh the use table for Deerfield formbbased code in T6. So that's what 1B is, is all the different uses that are allowed either by right or by use permit if they come back or administrative permit. So this uh 2A is a uh general condition and it basically states that substantial compliance with the revised use permit package received by the community development department on January 9th whereby the exact layout of the project may contain minor deviations approved by the community development director provided the deviations remain consistent with the per purpose and intent of the council's approval of the use permit notwithstanding the contents of the site plan. The project must meet or exceed the requirements of the unified development code for the city of

Milton. All other applicable city ordinances and these conditions prior to the approval of a land disturbance permit. The site plan may be revised with the approval of the community development director in order to comply with city codes and zoning conditions unless otherwise noted therein. Compliance with all conditions shall be in place prior to the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion. Three, to the owner's agreement to the following site development considerations. No groundmounted mechanical equipment is allowed for multif family uses. No exterior or open staircases are allowed on multif family uses. Dumpster storage shall be internal to the multif family uses within the service area. Building permits for multif family must be issued at the same time or after 100% of commercial building permits are issued by the community development department. The first certificate of occupancy or CO for one multif family building shall be issued after the certificate of completion is issued for at least 50% of the new commercial buildings. The second certificate of occupancy for the second multif family building shall be issued after the certificate of completion is issued for 100% of new commercial buildings. Prior to the issuance of a land disturbance permit, the developer shall submit a development phasing plan for approval by the community development director. This plan shall identify the sequence of construction for commercial, residential, civic, and amenity development in order to ensure that all components of the plan are built in relative concurrency as the phases of the total project are developed. F. The developer shall be responsible for the cost construction and maintenance of the trails, boardwalks constructed of wood or woodlike materials, internal sidewalks, public restrooms, street furnishings, and other public amenities

as shown on the use permit package referenced in condition 2A and is outlined in the Deerfield urban design manual. Provide a trail and sidewalk lighting plan as approved by the community development director. G. Prior to the issuance of a building permit for the civic building, the developer and the city shall negotiate and execute a lease agreement in a form acceptable to the city and a nominal lease rate of $1 addressing lease term of at least 20 years and buildout condition. H provide 24% of open civic space. Uh I 40 foot linear park along Morris Road adjacent to multif family to remain undisturbed unless approved by the city arborist. And number four a to the owner's agreement to abide by the following requirements dedication and improvements. Provide a minimum of 23 parking spaces along Morris Road Road Rideway as shown on the revised use permit package as referenced in condition 2A or as approved by the public works director. B. The applicant shall construct a public publicly accessible multi-use trail within the public rightway and or within a permanent easement dedicated to the city along the entire Morris Road frontage of the subject property or as required by the public works department and extending southward along the Deerfield Monster Association's property line abuing Lake Deerfield as generally depicted on the use permit package as referenced in condition 2A. The trail shall meet city of Milton standards for multi-use paths, including minimum width, surface, and design specs, and lighting as outlined in the Deerfield urban design manual, and shall be constructed concurrent with the first phase of development unless otherwise approved by the city. And uh the concurrent variance which is technically apart from the conditions

state uh to reduce the required number of parking spaces to 932 on the subject site. And with that I will be open to any questions or does the commission have any questions for staff? I have a question Robin. Um on the traffic impact study is that I'm I'm sure it does. It takes the future condition of the the new exit from 400 into consideration. Um, I do believe it does, but have our traffic engineer address that specifically for you. Perfect.

Good evening. Uh the answer is yes. Uh so it not only takes into account uh growth for the property itself, it takes into account the widening of McInness to the interchange on 400. Uh also assumes widening of State Route 9 and also assumes uh further buildout and uh higher uh occupancy of the office buildings themselves.

I have one question since you're there on the transportation. Um will school buses um I'm saying uh you have uh three different schools or middle school, grade school, and high school. Will those buses be inside of this location or are they going to be parked or waiting on students on the major Morris road?

That's something that we have not received information for from Fulton County schools. Uh I for based on normal behavior that I see around Fulton County, uh most often we see them uh stopping on the main roads and not going internal, but I don't believe that decision has been made yet. That's something we would coordinate them with.

Um question for Robin. Um, you went through a lot of detail of how the density was going to be at the maximum allowable. Is the developer planning to use any TDRs for this development? No. No TDRs. If they chose to, could they?

No. Well, so the use permit is conditioned to a certain density and you know the ratio between commercial and uh residential and I think if they added more units I don't think I know if they added more units because of TDR if it's multifamily units they would be required to come back now if they wanted to build more retail if they wanted to build more office they can do that by Right. Okay. And then that would just add to the commercial side of the equation. But if they wanted to buy TDRs to develop multif family, yes, they would have to come back.

But if they wanted to use TDR to develop more commercial retail restaurants, they could do it by right. Yes. Or they could do it by purchasing the TD. Well, they'd have to purchase it, but as far as they don't have to the zoning process, it would be by right. I had a question about the um so I know you mentioned in the presentation multi- multif family the use permit for the multif family the split is 5050 commercial residential right

but then I know you know before that part of the presentation you were also mentioning I guess the change where it was 65 residential 35 uh commercial so I'm just trying to understand what the differences are because of the 50/50 and then you said 6535 just trying to understand and making sure that I understood why which is which.

Okay. So, um, in the last iteration or the amendment we just made last year in May of 25, um, based upon the Deerfield destination plan, um, it was felt that, um, if a developer was going to do additional public amenities that they could receive a bonus of that 5050 split. So if you I guess if you want to throw this back up the okay so in the code in the formbbased code it allows we didn't change any densities or we didn't change any zone I mean no densities or anything but we did allow for these mixed use with multif family. Um where it says 5050, we allow a change um to be a maximum of 65 residential, 35 commercial if they choose to utilize an incentive. And this applicant has chosen two incentives, public civic space and public access trails for a total of an incentive of 10%. So technically they could go all the way 6040, right?

Well, they're actually somewhere between. They even they're not even utilizing their whole 10% because if you look here um based on their on the ground development, it's 56.8 residential 43.2%. So that's where the change from 5050 to the maximum ratio of 6535. But they're doing something in between which is 40% well 43.2% commercial and 56 an odd scent of residential. Does that make sense? So it is so it's 50/50

by Right. I mean, just to do if they decided not to add all the additional green space and if they didn't do the trail and they didn't do the trail head with the bathroom, if they were just going to do a vanilla development, then they would have had to meet it at 5050. So, that would have meant they could have it's it's, you know, they would have to have less residential a multifamily units. But then with the civic space, that's an additional 5%. the trails an additional five, right? Made it 6040 up to Yes. up to 6040, right? But then you had said, where's the 6535 third incentive

that you could add another one in? There's another incentive like if I think it's building a garage, civic space. It's civic space. Oh, they're only doing civic space. Civic building because they're putting up a civic space and constructing it, they'd get another 5%. Yeah, I'm sorry. Civic space and civic buildings. So if they put up a civic building then they would have gotten another 5% but they didn't need that. Now technically they are putting kind of a civic a use for the city but that's not getting count they're not getting an incentive for that. They're just doing it for us. But and that's the space. That's the space. Yeah. Okay.

Not the civic like physical ground like the trees and the the paths and stuff. So then it's so it's civic space that's 5% access trails and trail head is that one right that's one it kind of comes in a package the trail the trail head the bathrooms and the parking spaces are one package and then the civic space the additional percentage of 10% civic space like you know the outside civic space is another 5% for a total of 10% but they're not utilizing the whole 10% incentive.

Okay. Okay. Any initial thoughts on how we plan to utilize the civic building? So, I think it's up to the city from our understanding, but you can ask them that that's part of the condition about, you know, um basically a dollar lease and that they would build that building and then we can choose how we want to use it, whether it's a city museum or a welcome center or whatever. So it's there's nothing specific that's been planned for it other than the space itself. Got it. Yeah. But for example, could it be used as a east side city office, administrative office? It I mean it could be it could be like a curious if there's any limitations on

or a mini precinct for the police, although I'm not sure how much those are all applicable uses. It's up to council on what they want to do. The the bathrooms the developer has to build out. That's right. because that's part of the trail. That's right. But the actual space, they'll just shell out, give us an empty shell, and then it's up to the city on what we want to do with the internal, you know, makings of the space. Fantastic. Thank you. So, now were uh was there any discussion about condominiums also on the development? I know it's apartments, but like condominiums were were allowed are allowed here.

Oh, yeah. don't we, you know, if they chose to do for sale condominiums, they could and that was a discussion we had. We encouraged them to do that, but that wasn't the uh direction that they chose to go. So, um we don't dictate it has to be for rent or for sale. Um so,

okay. And then, um I know, you know, I had listened to um the DRB presentation. I know Bob had mentioned something about, you know, an idea where the there was, you know, for instance, if you had a golf cart path or whatever that plan is going to be, right? You were mentioning Cricut Creek coming all the way down. So, how is that coming into play into the development? Like, is that going to be a separate path that's in the development?

It is. So, as they uh as you approach the uh the different there's four access points, and each one of them will have golf cart size uh pathways that go into the development, and then you'll just use one of the parking spaces as golf cart parking, but every development that we do in Deerfield will accommodate uh golf cart uh areas and pathways to ensure that we get to use that because that's part of our overall loop plan to be able to have people do that. So, while we're building the main loop, which would a lot of that would be Highway 9 uh development, we'll ensure that that gets done. We've already put that into the plan on Highway 9. So, you will be able to go all the way from the north end of the county all the way into this u higher density area to do, you know, basic shopping and and when. And we encourage, we really want to encourage because that's what we got feedback from when we did all the citizen uh and community input was that you know they wanted walkability, they want golf cart paths, they want bicycle paths, they wanted more pedestrian connectivity. So that is all incorporated in here.

Now is there is that a separate path from like sidewalk? No, it's a shared shared path. It's a shared path. So, is there any

similar similar to like if you're if you're familiar with like the Vicory, all those communities around there actually every day, every morning, they're taking their kids to the schools. They're taking their um family uh into the actual retail area and they just co-share the sidewalks. You see them going back and forth and people are jogging, bicaran, golf cart. It's a multi-use trail. So now is there going to be any need or requirement for them to change anything like with the sidewalks surrounding in this development or is there going to need to be any changes to sidewalks or anything like that within the development or outside you know that uh butts web and Morris and Deerfield or anything like that. So, we do have a condition on Morris. That was one of the last conditions that I called out that that sidewalk needs to be improved because it's what only five or six feet if you want to. Yeah.

Yeah.

Good evening. So, um golf carts are allowed to be on roads that are 25 miles an hour or anything internal to the development. So once the golf cart gets to the site, they're going to be traveling through the the site roads, not on the the sidewalks or the the boardwalk. Those are going to be for internal pedestrian usage. So getting from other locations to the site, um the path along Morris Road, um the the improvements that they're going to make on the the Morris frontage, improvements the city's already going to make on Web are going to already have the infrastructure for that 10 foot width, 8 to 10 foot wide that would allow a golf cart to if you're coming from another um development or subdivision, um riding on that wider path until get to the site and then once you're at the site, the intent is to be on the on the roadways within the site because they're a lower speed and that's where you would want the golf carts to be versus the the walkers. Does that

answer the question? Yeah. So then you guys have made a suggested uh condition regarding the developer to widen that um I guess sidewalk or something, right? Yeah. Okay. to which would accommodate this which is the one on Mars the Mars. Yeah, the one on web is already contemplated. She's Sarah's group's already uh widen that one to a multi-use path because the one on web will actually connect you to the new green, you know, to the greenway. So that that was a big connection point that we've been working on for years. And um

and so nothing on the Deerfield side. Is there anything that has to happen on the Deerfield side? So one side of Deerfield already has a 8 foot wide and the other side is a 5 foot. So um and right now now Deerfield's a 35 mph road. So we would want if someone was on Deerfield and coming to the development they would ride on the side of Deerfield that is the wider width. Um and then Highway 9 will also as in that redesign. Um it'll look at choosing either both sides, one side of the road, look at crossing points to to make that connection all the way up to um the the county line and to uh Crooked Creek at the very north end of the the state route. Um

okay.

Um question I think for Robin. Um, while I'm I like the idea that we don't add any more parking than we have to and so it looks like that consideration was has, but I also don't want to be in the situation where it's wildly successful and we don't have enough parking. So, if we if city council was to approve the 932 uh parking space variance plus the 23 along Morris as part of a condition If it's not adequate, what's the process for then coming back to say we want you to add more parking? Did they come in and ask for a variance on the variance? Paul's ready to jump in.

You know, I know, as I mentioned, you know, we encourage them, you know, to reduce some of their on-site parking um to have more green space. I suspect if there was just a huge need for it, you know, the demand was there. Um the avenue that you would do it is called a zoning modification to the site plan. So where they would just um modify the site plan to show the additional parking uh but also well that would go in that that would conflict with the variance. So it would be a modification with a concurrent variance. It is and I was trying to find the variance in in the variance to reduce the development minimum number

right for the development. So if it I mean if if it's reducing the minimum number they can they're going to add to it. So they don't need to do anything other than to modify the site plan. I'm sorry I had to think through it. So, they're increasing the number and um we have an avenue or a process called a zoning modification to the site plan that um goes directly to city council for their review and decision to do that. So if they want if later they there's an avenue to do it if they need we need 20 more parking spots they there's an avenue and okay just checking

any other questions for staff before we ask the applicant and open the public hearing. Okay. Um, so I will now open the public hearing regarding U2503 VC2501 13 010 Morris Road. The applicant and those speaking in support of the application will have a combined time limit of 10 minutes unless a motion is approved by the commission to extend the time limit. We will now hear from the applicant for U2503 U25 VC25013010 Morris Road. Please state your name and address.

Good evening, Chairwoman Birds, members of the planning commission, Ethan Underwood with Underwood Scoggins. I am uh pleased to be representing uh this project Deerfield CC Delaware LLC. I know that you all and staff have spent significant time reviewing this. Staff did a great job of handling most the technical questions. So, I think rather than chewing up our full 10 minutes, probably our best thing to do is try to cast the vision uh so that you all can get a better feel of what we're seeing now and then what we're trying to move it into. So, um as shown here, we have the uh existing site. It is a underutilized office complex and so this is being this project is proposed to give it a shot in the arm and to reactivate this in accordance with your new Deerfield plan. Uh, as you can see the buildings, uh, this is a pretty good, uh, image of what this parking looks like today. There's just not many folks in that building. So, hopefully getting more people, pedestrian, commercial, uh, restaurant uses on there will reactivate this and reinvigorate this area in accordance with the plan that staff has worked on. So, with that, probably the best way they do is I think you've seen the renderings, but it's much better to see it in motion with a fly through. multif family units. But the most important part is the quad area, the community common space, civic area as Rob describes. Go back to the quartz area.

You can see corporate change in the background. So with that key to those demonstrations, I think you saw was the import the architecture that is fitting the uh the Milton uh ambiance. It's it's certainly pays homage to the historic uh equestrian culture, but also has modern architecture that's going to age very well and look great into the future. Uh so as shown here, we do have the uh phases here with the town houses. Whoops. There we go. Then moving into the uh keys is the multif family and then the the star of the show is the commercial and uh civic areas. The architecture that has been demonstrated as we said pays homage to the equestrian history of city of Milton but also creates a great gathering space where it's going to be activated and see uh more and more people bring coming into the site. I will stop or go back to any of the images that you want to discuss and get into more detail with, but I do think it casts the the vision for the area with high quality architecture. The town homes as discussed have very attractive uh front and rear facades, but this is what along the trail side where people be seeing the front of the homes and then the multif family. Uh this is showing the web road facade, but and that was this is really to point out the architecture, but what the streetscape will eventually look like uh is actually with these plantings and screening. So you can see the deviation

with the architecture highlighted here and then the streetscape with with plantings. So what did we hear from neighbors? We got really good feedback from neighbors. We did hear some concern about well we always do is multif family the right use on this but it does comply with the uh with the city's comprehensive plan. There most places in the city you'd never put this but there are some places that were were selected and staff did a really good job of describing why this is the right location for this. uh the ratios. I know uh Commissioner Shaw asked great questions about that. This does comply. We're asking for no variance to the ratio. It meets the minimums and also is providing all those additional incentives uh that allow a little bit more of the residential to commercial ratio. Uh as always, we hear questions about traffic, but these roads have been designed u such that the once this is constructed and fully operational, the study intersections operate at acceptable levels of service. uh vegetation. As much of the tree canopy is going to be preserved as possible. There'll be some that have to be disturbed, but as stated, you've got parking islands and a good bit of landscaping. And then staff has put specific zoning conditions in their recommendation to preserve those along Morris Road. Uh impact on schools that was discussed thoroughly, but we also want to state for the record, we're proposing no three-bedroom units. That helps to deter larger families that put more children into the school system. And then parking adequacy. Uh I think that was what we were heard the chair asking questions about. Um we do feel that with ride sharing with different modes of transportation that we'll be still be able to satisfy the demand with the parking that's being proposed. Now how was this calculated? Uh ULI analyzes your aggregate uses. So we have to analyze how much is each use going to have at certain times of the day and it determines your peak hour time. So what's the peak hour? as staff said um is approximately 9:00 am is when they we expect the most parking need and

then so you pick that we did have to ask for the variances stated we had ended up in that little bit of a weird situation where we thought we could count the 23 parking spots that are um here in fact you can see in the next schematic on the lower right you can see the lake frontage there are 23 on-site parking spaces along Morris Road that we thought would count toward the site staff half corrected us and said, "Well, we appreciate you building it and and everyone's agreed to continue to install it, but we can't count it." So, we had to ask for a little bit larger variance to take it down to 932 parking spaces. But with that, we're excited. As said, this we anticipate this is going to reactivate the center. It is complying with the uh uh the vision that the community and the uh the city officials cast, you yourselves, uh for this design, and we are excited to bring that to the city of Milton. Uh we do have uh all of our technical staff is here. We have Willow Bridge, we have Cooper Carry, we have AEC. Um we we brought all of our our big guns to answer those technical questions and uh we'll be happy to to do so. So with that, we'll reserve any time we have remaining and we'll uh appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

Does the commissioner have any questions for the applicant at this time? Otherwise, we'll have a chance to ask as well after general public or broader public comment. Any questions at this time?

I do. U Mr. Underwood, what is the intent of the developer um as it pertains to the multif family and the town homes? Are those I know that the city's not going to require an answer as to whether those are for lease or or for sale, but what is the owner's intent? The multif family will be for lease. Uh the town homes are fe simple units and um we we are still looking at at exact exactly whether there'll be a rental element or not, but we are they're being proposed as as fe simple units. Um and the lofts,

are those intended for people to live in?

They are. They are. There's only 10 units that are allowed. Um we we are proposing on that entire northern s side. We had actually uh thought that that that would be on all four buildings. So um though but we're not quite sure where on those buildings those would be placed. Obviously we work with city staff but our proposal was to be able to have up to 10 loft apartments. They'd be for rent um over top of any of those four buildings on the northernmost portion on web uh web road. And then um were there going to be any improvements to the existing office buildings? Um if they're sparsely occupied now, what is the projection for the occupancy once any improvements are made or is the intent just building all this and they will come?

Our our uh folks who are actually developing this are the owners of those buildings now. So I can tell you they would love for them to be 100% occupied. Uh I think since COVID we've always uh Okay, I sorry I'll let Gido answer that.

Hey, how's it going everybody? My name is Gido Baragalo. My family has owned the building uh since 2019 I believe. And to Stephanie to answer your question, uh the yes the they will go through improvements to bring them up to the standards of what it is that the development that we're proposing. Obviously uh one of the buildings has needs some substantial renovation. We've renovated the the one where we had our public participation meeting a couple of years ago, but we think that bringing this caliber of a project to Milton would require us to bring the also the office buildings up to date as well because at the end of the day, this is we're doing this to revitalize this asset that we've owned since we've taken the postcoid approach of of um occupying these buildings again, right? We need to create something that is works for the office and that is for creating a place that um the tenants can enjoy that we that multif family can can thrive that the retail can thrive and that the town homes can thrive as well. Right. It's all interconnected. So we plan to bring luxury multif family units and that means that the office need to be in par as well.

Got it. Okay. Um, I think that's all I had. Um, kind of as a follow on for that, since you used the word luxury, what is your ex anticipated expected price range for the townhouse sale or for the rent of the apartments and the lofts? So, um I believe that they would be around 2400 for the two bedrooms. Uh but I'm not too sure actually.

Come on.

Hi. Um, so we have not yet identified the town homes as we've talked about, but the multi would be for combined for the building would be uh 2700 around there in that range. Okay. And just for the record, if you could state your name and address. Uh, yes. Leah Pate Hardison and I work with Willow Bridge. The address I work from Atlanta.

Okay. Great. Thank you. I had a question um I don't know if Mr. Underwood or anybody but in terms of I know the discussion and the question I had asked before was there any discussion about actually having condominiums on the property instead of just apartments for the multif family. My understanding is that was looked at but just from an economic model it needed to be a a rental structure.

Okay. Um given the description of these properties as luxury, can you describe intentions for interior finishes? We've seen some of the exterior interior features. That may be a better question for architects if you all want to handle that. This way we get everybody a chance to

I'll have to fill out a card later as well. Hi Michelle with Willowbridge. Um, so yes, our intent is for these to be luxury multifamily uh apartments and so we are going to be as Willowbridge we we pride ourselves on only developing the best of the best. So we are going to have the top luxury. So we'll have um hard surface countertops, we'll have, you know, um hard surface floorings, you know, the best cabinets. So, you know, we are really going to compete with what you're going to see in some of your top developments such as over in Avalon as well as downtown um Alfreda as well.

Is there anything else going to be in the um the multif family buildings like um besides the apartments, are there going to be any other amenities for the people that are living in the apartments like within the building itself?

Uh yeah, of course. So, um we do have um I don't know if you can see, but there is um a separate amenity building that is going to be down here um where the cursor is. So, this amenity building is going to serve the multifamily buildings. And so, right now, we're planning about 6,000 square feet of amenity space. Our plan really is to continue what we're going to do with our retail space up here where we're going to go uh pull uh emphasize the inside to the outside. So, we will have a pool. We're going to have a little bit of a retail space down here, potentially some sort of coffee shop or a sandwich shop um that will serve not only the rest of the development, but also our multif family um residents as well. We will have some sort of co-working space, lounge space, um you know, definitely amenity space that's going to um really emphasize the residents so that they feel like not only do they have what's happening out here with this mixeduse development, but they're also going to have a little bit of space on their own. We'll also look into incorporating some bike storage areas within the buildings um themselves.

And then would any of those amenities like I don't know if the amenities are include gym or anything like that would that be available for the office tenants? So um we will have a gym um yes and that's something that we can discuss and we have discussed that internally amongst ourselves whether that whether or not that would be something that would be available to the office space. So, so we are working with um B de Development as well as them to really determine what's going to be that best best course of action, but it is something that we are considering. Okay.

I have another question. Don't laugh. Have you considered like a dog park? Uh yes, we actually have one right here um in this little area which will we have it placed in between. So, this will be we're calling it a public dog park, but it will uh be for the use of actually all of the residents, but really we've placed it in between both the multif family and the town home and we've also placed it over here along the boardwalk as well. Um, we feel like that's the best location where it's going to, you know, benefit everybody that's going to be at this place. But yes, there will there will be a dog park, but as as we've mentioned, I mean, we have a lot of green space here as well. So, um, we really are anticipating that it's going to be a very dog friendly and pet friendly environment.

I calculated at least 100 dogs. And then for the um where the town homes are going to be that alleyway, is it just one alleyway and how wide is that going to be for the number of cars that can go through that alleyway?

So I know that there were just some updated recommendations that our civil can answer here, but but yes, the alleyway is going to be along here where the the garages are going to be on the back side. Um Steve Row with AEC can answer some better questions about what that that depth is. Uh Steve Row with AEC 50 Warm Springs Circle Roswell. Uh right now we're planning on that to be a full width road, a 24 foot back of curb to back a curb. Um we will be adjusting that slightly so that it meets the alley requirements within the city and then on street parking is not allowed off an alley. So we're having to work out some creative solutions to get that. But the idea is to be able to have two-way traffic through that that part of the site so that nothing is is kind of locked into a one-way cycle. And then the driveways for those town homes would just be for two spa two cars.

There's there's two cars that are able to park in the driveway itself plus two in the garage. The two parking spaces outside the town homes were not calculated into our overall parking so that the guests for the town homes would actually have sufficient space within the development itself. Got it. Okay. Any further questions be I do have one. Um Mr. Underwood um trash problems um with 40 units. Who's going to be responsible? Cuz I know this was discussed at the DRB. I believe

we did discuss that the uh I believe there's a condition that staff put forward that there would be uh trash that has the trash colleation has to be inside the facility so you wouldn't have large dumpers outside and then also would have to be on the interior side so that you're not seeing them within um from Morris Road. As far as the collection goes, Steve, you may want to

Yeah, there most likely they'll have some compactors that'll have to be be used within these and then they'll probably be possibly daily pickup if not, you know, every other day. So, there'll be more more pickups than once a week. Uh the commercial areas will utilize the office uh the office dumpsters uh for the most part. The residential multif family will have their own and then the town homes will be a traditional can pickup. So it will be your those responsibilities of the developer. Yes. Okay. That is correct. And the and the lofts trash the trash for the lofts

that would probably be combined with the commercial. It's going to be a very nominal amount of trash for for just town 10 units. And is the person that could talk about where the storm water goes? Okay. Where does the storm water go? Uh, right now the the existing lake accommodates the storm water for this development. When you say the existing lake, Deerfield Lake, that's that's at the southern side of the development at the bottom of the page.

Yes, ma'am. Um and and the good news is is the development when the storm water was designed it was it was intended for a full buildout of this site. So it was intended for four offices with all off surface park. So so our intensity development is probably slightly less than what was anticipated. The only thing that we're going to have to work through are some of the changes in the storm ordinance that have happened over the last 20 years. Well, as you talk about that lake, how large is that lake basically? Oh gosh. Uh, I don't have it off the top of my head, but it's a fairly large lake.

So, the responsibility, excuse me, of taking care of that weeds and banks and so forth would be the developer. I don't believe the work would serve. So, what would happen is the the water would be detained on site and then discharged. Is it discharged on site or does it go straight into the lake? uh because of the new stormwater ordinance, there'll probably be some level of pre-treatment before it gets to the lake, but the lake was fully intended to take undetained flow at the time. I I'll just jump in that the lake is maintained by the deerfield association.

So, there is an underlying deer field sort of like an HOA for the area. They're the ones that put all those pretty flowers in the medians every year. And when you drive around Deerfield Parkway, it always looks so pretty and the medians are always being maintained. They also maintain that lake. Yes. So they'll be maintaining all that. Thank you. From a topography standpoint, which is okay. Um it appears that while relatively flat, the property does drain high to low. The lake is below the property. That That's correct. So no need for pump houses. Yeah. Okay.

I have some more questions, but I'll wait. I'll hold that. Anybody else for right now? We'll have some more chances. We'll let you take a break for a second. Um the So, I'm going to open the public hearing for you. 253 VC25013010 Morris Road. Um do we have any public comment?

The public comments that we have submitted are all from the um applicant side. So, we've had Guido, Mr. Gho speak, we've had Mr. Underwood speak, Mr. Row has spoken. Uh, the other two I have are um Scott Fairing. There's no Adam and Chuck. And it's all so they're all with the So we do not have any members of the public that wish to speak on this item. That is correct. Okay.

Can do we have time for her to fill out the card or do we have a motion to allow her to fill out a card and speak? I'll make a motion that she can fill out a card and speak. I'll second.

All those in favor? Hi. Peace. And just as a reminder as you approach the podium um please identify yourself by name, address, and your organization and whether you are in support or opposition.

I support I'm a resident Liliana Medina 43 437 Pemrook Circle and Milton. I live at the Deerfield Villages right across the diagonal from the new property that's going to be built. My concern as a parent uh is the roundabout that was mentioned that's going to be built for a web bridge in Deerfield. The last time I was here, I requested a traffic signal for turning only because it's a highly busy road because everybody from who lives in this area and has to catch the expressway. We take Deerfield down to Winward, make that left and get on get on the expressway, right? We get on 400. I don't know if a roundabout is really going to be safe only because a lot of the children, a lot of the teenagers who come from Cambridge High School, they'll they they're like on the track team or cross country and they'll come down Deerfield all the way down to winward maybe up to the Avalon and back. So, if you have uh 50 children, you know, like that roundabout, I'm not sure how it's going to slow traffic enough or if there's going to be like I I'm requesting like something else they can push a button to like blink to make sure that they stop because when people are rushing to get to work and you're looking at the traffic this way and the children are crossing that way, you're you're looking at the opposite direction. You know what I'm saying? So my concern is that roundabout that's being mentioned for web and Deerfield. I would prefer safety first traffic signal to make everybody stop. That's it.

And then the trees. One more thing. Uh the tree line that I mentioned the last time. I see it in the drawing but it's not. I hope it's gonna stay because right now there if you stand facing that intersection and you look towards opposite of the Chevron gas station. All right. So the Chevron gas stations in the corner. There's a tree line. I'm just requesting that it not be cut down. If anything, add to it, but don't cut them down because as you walk up and down because that path on Deerfield, everybody exercises on it. everybody, children, bicycles, moms with their strollers. You don't see a building when you're walking up and down. All you see are trees. You know, that's the whole atmosphere and the beauty of Milton. You don't know. It's so well preserved. And when you walk down that way up and back, you you'll never know there's a sixstory building there because that tree line helps. That's it. So, thank you.

Uh, if I could just address some of those concerns really briefly. Um, the intersection at Web and Deerfield is signaled and will remain signaled where maybe there is a misunderstanding. There is no roundabout for Web and Deerfield. The roundabout on Morrison Web is there already. It might be a modified slightly when they do some improvements on Morris, but that one already has a roundabout on it already that's functioning today. But the the one I just want to make sure it's clear that Deerfield and Web will will remain to be a signaled intersection the way it is today. Great.

Does the applicant wish to present a rebuttal or closing statement and then we still have questions?

Okay, great. Um, so that will conclude public comment. So, does the commission have any questions for the applicant, the speakers, or the staff? I have one and it somewhat follows on to um our guest u citizen uh comment in in looking at this and I'm very excited about the attraction this could be but one of the things in looking at the surrounding area whether that be the potential future development to the south eastsoutheast east or the existing development to the north and where the crossings are. Is it possible to consider a and I don't know if this is for staff or the applicant midblock crossings like from the north across web to where the main what I call grand entrance is or from across Morris where the sidewalk goes between the apartments and then up to the center of the activity of the civic space. Has any consideration been given about midblock pedestrian crossings there? Anyone? Here comes our traffic person, Rob. So, it's a good idea. Um, it's something we can look at. It's not something we've currently planned for. So, we're underway. will be underway uh very shortly later this year on a new multi-use trail along Web itself along the south side of Web from Cogburn over to Morris which this property fronts. Um

we do have a safe crossing at the intersection the signal at Deerfield and Web. We also have a safe crossing at the roundabout of Morris and Web. Is there a possibility for us to look at crossing between those two? Uh maybe. It's not currently in the plans, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be advanced. I'm just thinking of the existing developments that are to the north that are looking for that are directly to the north where it's like, I'm just trying to get across the street. Guess what? They're going to fly. They're not going to go down. I agree. Human behavior. They're not going to walk down to either of those crossings. They're going to look both ways and run.

Yeah. And then Yeah. And then likewise with the potential expanded development or even the existing office workers at the H building to the east souththeast, they're going to want to come over to the retail for lunch. Um maybe they'll live in those apartments and want to get to work. So, I'm just thinking making a good connections from I think we refer to it as the H building development into this development because otherwise they got to go all the way down all the way up or they'll just run across Morris Road which is not good. Call up. We agree. It's something the city will look at.

Okay. while you're upper. I think that uh we need to study or have interest with Fulton County for the school because of the those buses uh if anyone's familiar with Hopewell Road um when those buses three of them from different schools backed up that traffic horrible. So I think it's our responsibility to be talking to department of Georgia DOT or the schools as to how they're going to handle those school buses.

It would it for hope specific to Hope Road and specific to this area. Uh it would be Fulton County schools. It would not be the state DOT. I actually coincidentally um have a call with Fton County Schools tomorrow morning on a separate issue, but I can find out a little bit more information about what their standard procedure is for determining uh whether a bus stays on the main road or whether it is able to enter, pick up kids, make a U-turn, come back out, and then and then continue on their way. Good. Thank you. Yep. Um I have a question on the trail and trail heads.

Actually, let me ask let me ask one more question on the I know you had mentioned I think you using the word like safe safe walk or safe something uh where like for instance Deerfield and where Deerfield and Web is outside of any other suggestions like is there going to what improvements are going to be made just at that traffic light intersection to walk over you know into this development? or are going to be

part of the trail that we're building. Uh there will be the for us trail and and a wide sidewalk are pretty synonymous. We're talking about an 8 to 10 foot wide concrete that's built along that side of web. There will not be any additional turn lanes or anything for vehicles changed at the traffic signal. we would just be providing uh a safer crossing uh the the federally compliant ramps for the sidewalk to transition down to the road on both sides. If you can see my cursor not on the screen, we're talking about the crosswalk across Deerfield Parkway here. uh with again pedestrian pedestrian scale improvements at that intersection but nothing uh as far as uh additional turn lanes or or operational improvements

at the Okay. So you but you said so if you're coming across from the where the park is right there on the corner of Deerfield and walking across into this development you know where the gas station is and then you're coming into this development that walkway there. So the the the planned active park on Deerfield or are we talking about something? No, no, that the park that's already the the little um park that's right there on the corner of Freedom Park. Yeah, Freedom Park. Yes, that's right on the corner. For instance, if if you're on that side, you know, and then now you're coming over crossing where that traffic light is to come into this development. Is there going to be any improvements right there outside of, you know, adding anything else? But

outside of the trail and the ramps at the intersection, uh, connection to the park and, uh, based on the site plan, you would have a path down to the entrance either on Deerfield or a entrance at their existing access at web. No, there's no other improvements.

No. Is that something that I mean, is there any other ideas for something like that? because not only Freedom Park, but then, you know, I don't know what's going to go on with the development. I mean, with the um where our old, you know, where the old city hall was over there, that whole development, right? If that's going to get redeveloped and, you know, people are trying to come over here, you know, just making sure that we've come up with some safe pathways for them to come from that side to this side

as developments get proposed. We're not sure quite in what order they're going to be, but yes, it's something we're looking at. Um, back to the Deerfield implementation plan. One of the big successes from that document was a public interest in trails and a map that was in that plan that we're going to be looking at not just as the as the only connections we're looking at, but uh making sure that as developments come in that we're going back to that source document and understanding uh what that plan recommended and where those uh connections could be. Okay. Um, kind of related to that, and I don't know if it's a question for you, Rob, or the, um, applicant, um, we talked about the trail that would go between the stream and the town houses um, and that there would be some trail head markings along there. I know when we had the destination Deerfield vision, we had some idea that there would be a presence that announced here's a trail, you know, take a left, here's a map where you're going. Um, have we had any proposals? We've talked loosely about trail heads here. Are there any detailed designs of what that would look like? how that would

So, I'm gonna let Bob uh follow up on my answer that I'll give you uh Commissioner Birds. Um it is a topic that is ongoing uh with staff. I've had several conversations with our trails advisory committee on that very topic. Uh it's something we will be doing, but the details on it aren't decided yet. But the idea is there would be a hey, you can take a left here and go this way. Part of the urban design manual requirement for the trail would be a identifiable trail head. Okay.

Um way way wave way finding signage, you know, maybe markings that say where you are on the trail, you know, things of that nature, so people would understand when they're on the trail that it is a trail and where they are on the trail. It even has uh we put in you know the conditions just to make sure but you know some general low-level pedestrian style lighting you know low low level so it's not you know in intrusive um but yeah that the urban design manual does lay out sort of that we want all those items in order for them to qualify for the incentive 5%.

Perfect. Great. What other questions do people have for applicants, speakers, staff? I have a general comment and I guess it's more for staff, but um Milton has a look and Deerfield doesn't look like the rest of Milton. um which I think this is a tremendously exciting project that that we're getting and um I just want to make sure that we keep that look of Milton consistent with this development any future developments that we have in that area. So because all the municipalities around us I think look up to us like oh Milton you know it it has a look um and I know that you staff will take great care in making sure that um the look of the town homes um the look of the multif family um will um be consistent with what we've done and how we've developed the city over the last 20 years and it's it's marinated very well. Um so I just wanted to make that general comment.

Can I say thank you worked so hard for 20 years to make that look look. Um, and we did bring this in front of the DRB for courtesy and the renderings and the drawings aren't reflecting their comments yet, but they did have a slew of comments of, you know, ensuring that we maintain those looks and there was a lot of nice suggestions and the applicants agreed to incorporate them all. So, um, and then each individual, uh, permit as they come in, we'll have to go back to the DRB specific for that building just to make sure. But we we're not just looking at this development. We're really looking at the whole corridor all the way going up Route 9. Um because we do have some as of right developments going in there with like Stone Creek Church coming in and we have the 10 acre parcel that uh Anamoran owns just north of Deerfield. So there's quite a bit of uh development that's occurring and we're going to ensure that each and every one of them u maintain that look. So, I appreciate that comment very much because we work so hard to maintain that.

Great. Um, I have something more of a comment and I really want to commend the applicant. Um, it I feel and I'm excited that this was the first one we got to see because I really do feel it was in line with what we saw in our destination Deerfield plan. both from the look but more importantly I like the balance the balance of office of retail of restaurants of civic and the balance of residential too some town houses some lofts and a multifamily that wasn't humongous you know among a multifamily that is a scale that I think will be manageable and in keeping with this you know it wasn't 400 100 units, it was 140. Um, and so I really just want to compliment the balance you brought to the plan and it's very evident that you spent a lot of time and thought and developing this. So, I really appreciate it. I appreciate staff for their work with the developer and the property owner in uh bringing this to us.

I second I second that even though it wasn't a motion. Are you ready for a motion? Are we ready for a motion? Not quite because if we have no more questions, then I will close the public hearing and I will entertain a motion. Let me ask one I just wanted to make sure about Robin that point where you said it was in the recommended conditions about the um on the Morris roadside. Yeah.

Which which one was that? is um number four 4B says uh the applicant shall construct a publicly accessible multi-use trail within the public rideway andor within a permanent easement dedicated to the city along the entire Morris Road frontage of the subject property or as required by the public works department and extending southward along the Deerfield Master Association property line abuing Lake Deerfield. field as generally depicted on the use permit package. Um the trail shall meet city of Milton standards for multi-use paths, including minimum width, surface and design specs, and lighting as outlined in the Deerfield urban design manual, and shall be constructed concurrent with the first phase of development unless otherwise approved by the city. So that's the specific uh discussion that we had about improving the existing sidewalk and making it a multi-use trail.

But did it need but did it need to be a specific um increase of the width? So that's all baked into the um Deerfield manual and the regula like we have um basically the uh recipe book to all these different types of you know the the trails. So at the land disturbance permit we'll make sure it meets all the required widths and construction standards. So yeah. Okay. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Now I will close the public hearing and take a motion.

Before you take before you make a motion, I want to check with Rum. Um, was it my un looking at was the presentation the conditions you presented slightly different in a couple of instances from what was in the packet that was on my desk. Correct. We just need to make sure that it's if you reference that were presented presented on January today, you should have gotten a copy of Yeah, this is the hard copy. No, that's the Oh, the old one. Okay. I just want to make sure they make the appropriate reference. It's distributed to the count January 14th on with the little red on the bottom.

Yeah. I'd like to make a motion that we approve use permit U25-03 and the concurrent variance VC25-01 with the updated recommended conditions as presented on January 14th. Second.

Okay. It's been moved by Commissioner Mcnes and seconded by Commissioner Butler to um recommend approval of use permit U2503 with concurrent variance VC2501. That's in relation to 1301 0 Morris Road and tax parcels 225441 1 50423 and 22544111 50456 with the conditions as presented January 14th 2026. Is there any discussion? Okay. Um, all those in favor?

I. Any opposed? Your recommendation is approved unanimously. Do I need to have I covered everything? poll. Uh, just confirm there's no text amendments, no compl item goes. I'm good on that. That covered everything as far as I understand.

Okay. So, there are no text amendments. There are no changes to the city of Milton comprehensive plans. Um, there is no old business item. Um, there are no new business items. I will just remind folks that um I'd in we do have the comprehensive plan update coming up. There's a briefing to city council on January 21st if you want to come or listen to it live or in replay. And then our next meeting this the state of the city will be January 28th. That's a Wednesday. Um, you should have gotten an invitation. Um, please plan to attend uh if possible. And our next regularly scheduled meeting will be Thursday, January 29th. And then we've got a meeting in February to kick off the comprehensive plan update. Did I get all that right?

Okay. With that, I'll entertain what motion. Make a motion to adjurnn. Okay, we have a motion to adjurnn from commissioner Shaw with a second from Commissioner Edwards. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you all very very much.