City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call the North Dakota City Council study session for Monday, March the 9th, 2026 to order. It's good to see everybody. Thank you for being here. And at this time, we're going to turn over to our city administrator, Mr. Jim Clifford.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And as is our standard practice for our citizens, we'll go through a uh council agenda review for the things the council will be uh considering next week. Then we'll go through department details and lastly we go through focus items and the item we'll have here will be talking about an annexation policy. Uh and so uh Tommy Paradise will be the main presenter on that and James S and I will be in support. But with that I'll go ahead and move into the agenda review. So, we'll start with uh old business. Uh items number seven and 8 are linked. Item seven under planning and development ordinance number 2026-06 to approve the revised general development plan of the approximately 195.39 acre Hammonds Fairy Plan development located on the west side of Georgia Avenue between North Augusta Greenway and the Savannah River. Uh revisions relating solely to phase B of such revised general development plan. Uh first reading that's to remove from the table. So you have to consider and you as the council have to vote first to remove that from the table in order to even consider item number eight. Uh and item number eight would be um correction number seven is the you have your first reading you have to remove from the table and then you can actually debate that particular item. Uh so I'll go through what that looks like there. And so this is a as a reminder for the council, there had been some discussion in previous study sessions about a zoning action that involved the planning commission. The planning commission had uh heard an argument or a request from the city for the uh change of use of parcel D is in Delta which is uh down there in front of the stadium caddy corner from the front. uh the original use in the PD that is currently approved is for uh residential and a small amount of uh uh retail and so the request that was brought to the

planning commission uh was the uh change of use for uh commercial ostensibly for a cyber infrastructure project. Uh that item was uh recommended by the planning commission I believe on a 4 to1 vote. uh and then but ultimately they make a recommendation in this matter but they don't make a decision and they bring it to city council for uh final consideration. So ultimately what you have uh before you is the uh zoning action if you will or the change to the PD uh and if that passes at the next council meeting uh you'd have a second reading of that same ordinance and then at that next council meeting after that so after the masters you would have that to consider. you would also have a resolution uh to consider for the purchase of parcels B and D. So these are all linked. So ultimately if a motion uh from the council to pass a resolution fails for the the PD then there'll be no subsequent resolution for purchase. Uh it'll just because those are those two items are linked. Uh and so ultimately the first thing you'll have to consider is uh this option here for the change to the PD itself. and Tommy is also prepared to talk about the mechanics of what that looks like if required. So, I'll pause for questions because I know that's going to be u something that's been discussed and tabled and then potentially brought off the table next week.

Jim, I don't really have any questions on that, but just I guess really clarification for the public. Just just this is determining that we would move forward with purchasing the property. specifically what's going on there from size scope all of that is determined at a later date. So this is simply to re this one is particularly just simply to resz on it to public so that we can make subsequent decisions regarding what happens next. This is a PD change. Uh so this particular ordinance that the city council would consider next week does not involve the purchase does not talk about or does not consider uh cost or scope or anything along those lines. Uh but one is going to have to predate the other. Uh and so ultimately this is a a council action to change the usage of parcel D as in delta uh there which is the last um parcel that is up for consideration. So parcel I as a reminder uh is uh currently with the planning department for the 11 town homes or however many town homes it is. I believe it's 11. Tommy has to look that up. What is it? Sorry. 22 for parcel I.

All right, I did get that right. Parcel 11, parcel I would be 11 town homes. Uh, so that is currently with the planning department. And so really parcel D is the last of the Riverside Village parcels that's um in consideration for either private development or potential public development. Thanks, Jim.

Mr. Dr. Clifford, is there a is there a designation for zoning that would allow both of those like a mixed use or is it it's either office space or what was brought to the planning commission council felac was for uh ultimately for the city usage for commercial space. Uh what it would do though is remove the residential component. Uh so there would be no resident residential allowances uh on that piece of property. So my question is is there a designation that would allow both of those? It's one or the other. Correct.

I would say that what is brought to the planning commission so far was not that that was not considered by the planning commission. The action that the city staff brought to the planning commission was for the use of this cyber infrastructure. So if the city council had different guidance that would have to go as a separate action to the planning commission is my understanding.

Just want to make this real clear for public consumption so everybody understands because I think there are people definitely on both sides of the fence here. Um if we don't make this change in zoning ordinance then we're definitely looking at this parcel most likely becoming town homes at some point. Correct. I would say that's a fair statement, Councilman. Thank you.

Okay, moving on to the next item under old business, item number eight, uh, under planning and development, ordinance number 2026-07, amending table 5.1, use table related to telecommunication tower and antenna of the North Augusta development code, article five of the chapter 18 of the city of North August, South Carolina code of ordinances, second reading. So, this is an item that the city council has previously considered and voted on once. This is the second reading. And again, this is not about a specific uh project, although there is one in mind. Uh but this would allow for uh towers to be placed on public property. Uh the the project that this would most likely affect uh is a project with Verizon to put a tower uh somewhere in the vicinity of the Riverview Park Activity Center. uh based on some of the cell phone analysis of uh some of the neighborhoods and around there specifically Hammond Hills uh that there's some gaps and seams in the cell phone coverage. So ultimately this would allow for that for the city council to con to consider at a future date. But just just so you all know uh this would allow us to get our uh table correct in that we we tell people that are coming to the city that want to put a telecommunications device in or a tower that their first course of action is to put it on public property. but it doesn't necessarily say so in the ordinance to be able to allow to do that. So, this would marry up our ordinances and our policies a little more cleanly. And again, you'll have another opportunity as the council uh to consider an actual contract or action with a telecommunications company in the future. Any questions on that? Hearing none, we'll move on to new business. Uh, under administration resolution number 2026-17, approving a fourth rep prioritized project and funding list for capital project sales tax 4, CPSD4. I believe you have a hard copy uh Excel document. And so what I took was uh what I believe was the council guidance from the offsite and I married that up with uh projects that

have either already been completed or projects that will not be completed. Uh and so starting at the updated priority list uh where you had headquarters uh development for the public safety headquarters again that project is largely complete does not require additional funding. Um you already had a prioritized uh road reconstruction is number two uh based on the Bluff Avenue connector which is essentially the greenway connector is and then u number three being the Bluff uh correction the Georgia Avenue traffic cominging and then based on the council exercise you all went through at the offsite based on uh the big four and then the additional eight projects uh I've listed those priorities in those orders. Uh and then at the very bottom uh you'll see that there are uh projects that are starting from the bottom working up are projects that we don't believe that are going to need funding at all. So the new Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam because of the Department of Energy settlement money is not going to require additional funding out of CPSD4. The wastewater interceptor pipe project is very specifically named and actually says in the vert referendum the three interceptor lines that are to be uh rehabilitated and that project has already been done with ARPA. So those are projects that could not be accomplished in CPSD4 or should not be accomplished in CPSD4. So that's why you'll see those at the bottom of the list. So the intention is if the city council uh approves this rep prioritization that's you're going to immediately start getting uh projects that are listed in this and Tom Zeser would have the very first project which I'll talk about next in item number 10. Uh but if that resolution passes we'll have a number of council actions to consider for CPSD4 based on the guidance that we received at the offsite.

So number one's been completed. So two, three, four and five are the big four and then the next one is the eight or nine that we did uh we prioritize. So actually the sorry sir uh the actually the big Yeah, you're right. The big four starts at number two except that the order would be you would start with Georgia Avenue traffic calming and then you start moving

the Georgia Avenue traffic calming would be the the one of the priorities that comes down there. Um, you would also have uh storm water improvements and Tom Caesar has at least two projects for you all to consider uh for storm water, but the first stormwater project will be brought to council uh here in this study session for consideration at the next council meeting. Uh the downtown greenway connector uh is also one of those projects. So, two of those were stormwater projects. One was the Georgia Avenue traffic cominging and one was uh the stormwater projects or correction the the Georgia Avenue. So, road reconstruction, even though you've already partially funded road reconstruction based on Bluff Avenue based on the guidance we got from the city council about Bowling Road, uh that would also follow as a road reconstruction project. Uh and so that would move forward in the batting order as well. So, our staff right now based on the guidance we got from council at the offsite uh is preparing cost estimates and actually getting hard codes because my intention is to bring those as they become available for you all to consider. And so, you have one staff action to approve or disapprove. uh and allow us to move forward here over the next probably 180 days uh to move forward. And I would say that you're likely to get um actions to consider as a council for items number two through um item number 10. 11 is questionable based on some of the information I'm going to wait to get back from Dominion Energy, but you're going to have several uh actions to consider simultaneously through those uh through those priorities. I think I think Pat what you're what was saying is this list of 18 is what was passed in the referendum and this 18 doesn't look exactly like what we've done at the offsite. We listed the big four which is 2345 and then we prioritize like Bowling Road and whatever. Uh so that's what how it's listed on here. So it may look different but it's basically same thing

because I thought like the activity center improvements what you know we had up to eight sheets right remember that's up there that's up there huh activity center was two of the eight of the eight we had the big four and then we had the list of eight they were number two which is listed here at six yeah and please tell me how that is I'm concerned so we had the staff recommendation was that you had four projects we called the big four that were you talked about those four

right and that's Georgia Avenue traffic cominging uh there were two storm water projects uh and then there was the downtown greenway connector money and so ultimately the staff recommendation was for those four projects to be the next priority projects but then based on this the funding amount that we had available in the rest of CPST4 we laid out what we consider discretionary projects that should be funded the eight projects and that's what you run around the room for to to rank order those choices. So you start picking up those choices uh essentially at number six. Oh yes. All right. So um

so what's throwing this is just the fact when we talk in our mind headquarters development already been done but we still have because this is the referendum it's going to show on. Yeah. So, and maybe you can't answer this, but when are we talking six I mean four years from now? Some, you know, starting with number six. No, no, Councilwoman. What we're saying is the I'm intending to bring an action to the council for each one of these listed projects all the way down to number 10. Okay. Through this year,

this summer likely. And part of the reason uh for the the general public is that you know we also didn't want to spend money we didn't have in our hand. So ultimately you know there was some uh discretion that we took as far as the amount spent on public safety headquarters and other major projects and we approached those projects in a one at a time kind of serial manner. But we're getting very close to the end of our collection period for capital project sales tax 4. So now we're not talking about projections. we're talking about what's actually in the bank. Uh and so the staff feels very uh comfortable to be able to come to the council with the recommendation to say we can move forward on a number of these projects uh and actions for the council to consider because that money is sitting there available for use, not projected funds we think might be here in a year or two. So I think we're in a really good place to move forward on a lot of projects simultaneously here uh throughout the summer. Yeah, I think that's the key that we can do multiple projects like the community center improvements. That's not going to be a heavy lift. I mean, it's not like we got to we're going to have to not do anything till we do that. So, I think it's great that we're going to be able to do multiple projects

later. Not later, but now the green refresh my memory on the greenway connection downtown. That was the one that we do and come to East Clifton. Okay.

So, in batting order and you already sent this to county so they're aware of this. they are. So, I've sent this to uh elected officials and appointed officials in Aken County. Uh because that's a this is a county tax, not just a you know, we execute our portion of this county tax. Uh but I've been in coordination and consultation with the county after the city council did their uh priorities in rank order and have not received any negative feedback. Just talked to chairman Bunker today as a matter of fact. Uh and so as long as we're within and execute uh through Kelly's guidance as our city attorney that you know that we do things through a legal way uh that there was no objection from the county in this rep prioritization. Uh and so again, we we do all of these things in a very public manner uh because these are public funds. And so you as the city council are going to make a determination about whether you want to repportize uh these funds or not. And that's the first vote that has to occur before you move forward on these other projects to to move the the bowl on some of these.

All right, moving on to the next item. Uh item number 10, engineering and public works resolution number 2026-18, Crestview Woodlon uh drainage improvements. Uh and I know that uh and we'll consider that as part of the big four council carpenter of the you know the the the big projects that we wanted to move on immediately. Uh and so uh Tom has already gone out to u done engineering work and has gone out to bid and we have a low bid. That low bid actually came in on the day of the offsite. Uh and so we are ready to move forward on that project. So again, that's one of those projects by making a prioritization change allows us to immediately move funding into storm water uh projects and we'd be able to move forward on this uh Crest View Woodlon ditch. I know uh Tom Ceser showed you a number of pictures associated with that ditch. It is uh sits kind of in the Hammond Hills neighborhood. It's a ditch that is deteriorated. It runs along uh some fence lines in people's backyards. Uh and we've had numerous complaints from citizens uh that live on both sides of that ditch about the u the runoff and the problems there. And so ultimately uh that's one of those projects that was in CPS4, a name project within storm water. There are eight uh projects total in the storm water uh line and this is one of those projects. So this would allow us to move immediately on this. I would defer to Tom on start times of the projects and whatnot, but this would allow us to very quickly uh get out the gate and certainly see something moving. I would hope for a Memorial Day, but I would defer to Tom on that. Any questions on that particular item? Okay, item number 11, and chief may want to weigh in on this as well as he was part of the drafting of this. Uh, so resolution number 2026-9, natural

hazards, uh, mitigation plan. And so ultimately, um, my understanding is that we have, you know, a regional group that goes in and looks at u hazards associated with, uh, natural disasters and ice storms or any number of other kinds of things. Uh and so ultimately uh by adopting a regional uh plan allows us to be able to be eligible for uh FEMA and CEMD funding uh in the case of a natural disaster. And so obviously with our recent experience with Hurricane Helen uh being able to be eligible for federal and or state funding uh from a disaster recovery perspective is critical. Uh and so my understanding and chief can certainly correct me if I'm wrong is that you know if we don't participate in a regional u uh mitigation plan that we may or may not be eligible for uh federal or state funding due to a natural disaster. So Chief, I'll turn it over to you because I know you took part in those meetings. Uh and who's hosting all that?

So we're required to have a hazard mitigation plan and five years ago in 2021 we adopted one through solely Aken County. Um, and this one here is done through the Lower Savannah Council of Governments, and it covers a wide range of disasters, uh, natural disasters and technological disasters as well. Uh, so that it can cover it. And that's what we're want to get it approved so that we're eligible so that we meet qualifications for FEMA. All right, moving on to our last item uh under administration resolution number 2026-20 authorizing funding allocation recommendations of the accommodations tax committee for the redistributed revenues from the accommodations tax year 2024 2025 and I would defer to Jamie uh on that particular topic as she has the most expertise.

Thank you Mr. Clifford. Mayor and council, this resolution is going to be a recommendation from the ATA tax advisory committee for the redistribution of of almost $41,000 that the council approved back um from the committee uh at the February 2nd council meeting 268. The a tax committee doesn't meet until Wednesday. This Wednesday, March 11th, at 10 a.m., they're going to interview, review, and recommend the dispersement of funds for the five organ organizations that submitted and then will the resolution will come to you with your packet that'll be be out in the packet on Friday

for Yes, sir. So, there was a recommendation um money to be distributed is right around 41,000 and the requests came in about 565. And do they have the final say on that or would we even though you presented to us what they so what they want to do with the 41,000 correct what they say goes no it's a recommendation to council as to what amount that they will provide for each submitt and then that will come to you along with a copy of of those applications as well we can say no we don't want that one

I mean that that would be up to the up to the council because it's a recommendation Lord, okay. Uh, so any questions? I'll go ahead and turn it back over to Jamie for uh, department details.

All right. Department details. First up is finance director, Linda Williamson. Good evening, council and mayor. Uh just a quick update for our cycle 1 customers. Um we will begin disconnections for their February outstanding balances beginning Tuesday, March 17th. Also, their March 10th bills are due on April 6th. Um, cycle 2 customers, um, we will have their February bills will be due on March 23rd and disconnection for their February outstanding balances will begin Tuesday, April 14th. That's all I have for you tonight. Now, things looking better down there with the water bills. Yes.

Cooling down a little bit. They're cooling down a little bit. I think also Linda's coordinated to make sure that we're not doing shut offs during Mast's week. Uh so I know we got a lot of people that are renting their houses out or going to be out of town or any number of different uh scenarios. Uh so we did not want to have disconnections happen during masters. Yes, we did get that settled today. And I and I don't know how you put this in a nice manner, but we almost people need to realize even though we're not cutting off or we're not late fee, you still have to pay your water bill. That's correct. But we now are doing late fees and disconnections. So Okay. no longer should no longer be a surprise.

Thanks. Next up is human resources manager Cayla Ferguson.

Evening mayor and council. If you look on the back of your department details, you will see our list of employment opportunities. Thank you. Thank you. Engineering and Public Works Director Tom Caesar.

Good evening. Just a quick update on the NRCS NRCS grant. Um we did award a contract several weeks ago, a partial contract for debris removal. Contractor has been underway. Uh he's completed four of the five sites. Uh they will be working at uh Walnut Lane. uh area in the vicinity of know is the boardwalk. Um that is probably the largest site with the most debris. So he will be there for at least uh two weeks I'm sure. Um and then uh the the remaining two contracts were on hold pending the outcome of a extension request that we made to NRCS. We learned last week that that extension request had been approved. So we have a revised uh project completion date now of August 31st gives us we believe plenty of time to undertake and fulfill the the requirements of our obligations under that grant. So, um we soon as we're wrapping up contract uh execution both those contracts and we will uh issue notice to proceed just as soon as we are able hopefully within the next few days.

Awesome. Great news, Tom. Thank you.

Next up is public services director James Sutton. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh this week, uh the city's utility contractors will be in town uh replacing 568 ft of corrugated uh metal pipe that runs between uh the activity center at Riverview Park over to uh River Oaks Drive. Uh there will be some activity from the contractor at various times along the trail just to drop off a piece of equipment and there will be some pump discharge pipe just up near the trail but not on top of the trail, but they will be able to see some of the activity along uh the wood line. It's going to be a good project. Actually, it's going to conclude all of the interceptor pipe uh for the grant that was uh initiated back uh couple years ago. This project's been ongoing since January 2025 and as soon as they finish uh there'll be over 29,000 ft of uh the interceptor pipeline replaced. It was along the river over to the east side of uh town on to uh Wrath Road. We're looking forward to uh completing that project and got few manholes left about 10 manholes to rehab and about 16 manhole covers to conclude that entire project. So that's uh contracts been doing a great job. Uh in addition, uh utility crews will be working in extended water service line. DOT is adding a turn lane up around Knob Cone at West Martintown. Uh they will be out starting Tuesday until Friday working uh on lane number one. There will be uh temporary lane closure during hours of uh 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. again from Tuesday to Friday. And we do ask for uh

people who will be traveling through the work zone to use caution, slow down, watch out for the equipment, watch out for the workers, and drive safe. That will that be with the high school traffic's coming out? Do we need to not notify Mr. Rogers? Uh we can notify him, but we'll be on the uh kids coming out. Well, that that the work's going to be above that on eastern upstream around the strawberry patch in front of there. Oh, yeah. So we won't be in we won't be directly in intersection but we'll be close maybe let him know so he can maybe announce I'll have somebody contact

okay next up is planning development director Tommy Par um the planning commission is going to meet next Wednesday week March the 18th and also So, it's getting summertime, which is the busy time for code enforcement with all grass and bushes. And as part of that, we redistributed each code enforcement officer's assigned a district. And I've reallocated that to try to even out the workflow going forward. So, if you're familiar with code enforcement work in a particular district, that may have changed. So, just let you know. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Tommy. Next up is public safety Chief Johnson.

Good evening. Some of you were there last week, but uh for those of you that weren't, we were able to unveil two historical markers uh at headquarters. If anybody has some time to learn the history of that property, feel free to come by and read those. Also, uh, public safety is hosting a planning session of the Bridging the Divide Youth Justice Initiative Thursday evening, and this is being done in partnership with the NAACP Aken Youth Council. Uh, and this Saturday, the CAT team will be participating in a believe in Belvadier event.

Well, Junior, why you I mean, Chief Johnson, why you up here now? And Jim, you somebody asked me and I said, I'm sure city does not want to be annexing the city some they said well can y'all annex the school so we can get a resource off just the school itself I mean is anything like that possible it has to be a contiguous property in order to annex it can't you can't just pick a piece out and get it

it council woman it's not there are uh something actually we have looked at there are four uh the minimum amount of parcels to get to Bel Elementary is a four u and so ultimately that would there would have to be a voluntary uh option there. And so there's no there are no current plans to annex uh Belvadier Elementary into the city right now. But now um uh Sheriff Marty Sawier, he said, "Pad, I have not forgot you. Hopefully the first of the school year in July, we'll have a resource offic." All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is park and recre recreation director Rick Meer. Little train little train. Good evening. The warmer temperatures have brought out the folks on the greenway and we're happy to announce that all the water fountains are in working condition on the greenway. We actually replaced the one below the municipal center parking deck with a brand new fountain and we have three more brand new fountains in stock ready to go for wherever we need them. I will add that the dog park uh the the doggy bowls are working but the but the drink

Yeah. Yep. And u we'll be working on around the parks to make sure all those but we we've got Yes. Well, you're you're a little bit ahead of us right now, but u Yeah, we're working on a project there. Yeah. Yeah, you're a little bit ahead of us. We're good at that. Yeah, we're Yes. Well, piggybacking off of that, is that part of the maybe a sidewalk type there as well that we talked about? Um

Miracle field. Yeah. How how about a potential facility shelter slashwater fountain slash restroom maybe here in the future. Yep. Working on that. Uh this uh kinder kicker soccer ages four and 5 year olds will begin play on Saturday, March 21st. All other spring sports, baseball, softball, and your other soccer leagues will begin on Monday, uh March 23rd. This week, Thursday through Sunday, uh the activity center will host the Nike YBL Scholastic Conference Tournament uh in gym 34. Will not affect our our members. It's a free event. Uh public can come and watch for free. And also, it won't be on your sheet. And and oh, by the way, I put a link there to the schedule for you, but the Wrecking Crew begins their 2026 baseball season this Saturday on Miracle League Field number one. And last thing, and I won't steal the thunder, but we're awful Parks and Recreation awful proud of the U alumni through our parks and rec basketball program because most of the young people that played Saturday in uh in the state championships are Yep. come through. So that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Rick. Thank you. And to conclude uh department details is tourism manager Carl Wallhower.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um our trolley program uh kicks back up this Friday. The trolley is going to run uh Fridays and Saturdays from 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and third Thursdays from 5:00 pm to 8:00 p.m. So, it's a little bit extended hours this year. We had good success with it last year and that's going to run through January 2nd. Uh Chamber of Commerce going to host the Good Morning North Augusta breakfast uh this Thursday at the community center. The program starts at 7:30 and the subject this month is workforce development. And uh lastly, Explore North Gus is hosting our first concert of the year with Christian Rock and country artist Rhett Walker on Friday, March 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the Sharon Jones Amphitheater. And uh Rhett's a local touring artist. We're lucky to grab him before he goes across um across the United States for the rest of the year. That's right.

That's a wonderful program. Yes, ma'am. We're glad to be able to host stuff like that. Certainly. you say about the app about you got you got all the all the events listed for the year. Did you mention that? A good chunk of them. Yes, sir. Yeah, we've released a good chunk of them. Um we have a couple more this spring. Uh Tom Petty tribute band on Friday, May 15. That's you got a Journey one. Journey. A Journey and Foreigner on May 30th and we've got a couple others after the summer. Billy Joel John Elton John. Yes sir. So we're excited to have all that out there. Have a good season.

Thank you. Thank you. I'll turn I'll turn that back over to you, Mr. Glover.

All right, council, for our focus item tonight, uh sore capacity annexation uh briefing. So, uh Tom uh Tom Card will be the the lead briefer on this. I would ask uh to allow him. There's we're seeking guidance. There's really two key questions that we're asking here that we'd like to get some guidance on from the council. We've given you at the end of this uh briefing uh you know some recommendations and so that's your kind of steering guidance. So if you would allow them to get through the briefing and then hold all questions to the end and then we'll get kind of kind of our amplifying questions and guidance at the end of the presentation. So Tommy I turn it to you.

Thank you Miss Mayor and councel. Um Mr. Sutton and I is going to be tag teaming this one a little bit. The up what you see before you now is the current policy. This is section 2-6 out of the city code or or a portion of it. And basically it says if we give you water or sewer or both and you're contiguous, you have to annex into the city before you're given the services so that you build to city standards and and develop to those standards. If you are not contiguous, you have to sign an annexation agreement so that when you are contiguous, you're annexed in. And that is pretty much what we have in place right now. Next. All right. From the municipal handbook or from the municipal association handbook on annexation, the best interest of the municipality, primary concern should be whether a proposed annexation would be in the best interest of the municipality and its residents. Next, city of North Augusta originally purchased a total of 8.672 million gallons a day capacity uh from the Horse Creek wastewater treatment plant over time. This was purchased back in the 80s and 70s. So, out of that 8.672, 672. We do a little math. We've got 6.136 that is currently permitted flow going into Horse Creek Valley that they permitted. We've got 1.467 million gallons of permitted flow reserved for existing pipeline developments. What I call pipeline developments. It's things that we know

are coming. It's in the planning phase, development phase, and um as I say, they're in the pipeline. Now, what are those? The Hive, Allade, Blueg Grass, Shannar, Martintown Ridge, Hammond at Five Notch, I think y'all took the roads last meeting, and Forest Bluff. And I'm sure there's others on that list that I could add to. So when you take that out of the uh the system because we want to I think the policy is to look out for those that's already got in in in line that leaves you 1.07 million gallons a day available for new projects. Next. So, another little bit of math problem is Department of Environmental Services, which dees what we used to call part of DHECK. Uh they require permitting capacity of 275 gallons per day for each dwelling unit and the commercial industrial capacities based on the use. Well, what does that mean? Well, for a 400 unit subdivision, that would mean that you'd be allocating about 10% of the unallocated capacity that we have left. And 300 unit apartment complex would be about 7.5% of the unallocated capacity. So, it's close. It could it could you could burn that capacity out real quick. So to what's the best use of the remaining 1.07 uh million gallons a day capacity? Well, something that we would recommend to you is that you limit using that development that capacity to certain developments is one that development has to be inside

the city. In other words, you don't use it to annex other places for the most part. um to use it for infield development, your doughnut holes or something that is already in the city that can be developed. And then commercial opportunities and that's where you may use uh some of your reserves or unallocated capacity to help incentivize and bring that commercial into the city. Next. So, do we require out of city developments? You know, what do we do with them? We require them to purchase the additional capacity. And our recommendation would be yes. Uh for residential anyway because residential you tend not to make your money back. And any questions? If you can go back two slides, please. There you go. So the the first piece of this is from a council perspective is you know do you agree with these recommendations? There are other obviously there's other uses you could use some of this uh 1.07 million gallons per day to offset annexation requirements. You you could do a number of different things but I think now as Tommy's laid it out with James uh on what's really left for the the sewer capacity. I still feel very uh comfortable in saying that I think we can handle the things that are in the city limits and but we are going to see some developments that have not yet come but we think are coming uh that are that are in the city limits uh and so we definitely want to have some reserve capacity to be able to deal with that. And so I think if you take the developments that could potentially happen in the city limits that are not not property we have to annex in but things that are physically sitting in the city today. If you look at opportunities to fill in the donut holes, uh, and we look at that mostly from a public safety perspective, uh, and again, we're not talking about eminent domain. We're not talking about forcing people to be in the city, but if

there's an opportunity, so like in the case of, uh, like Hammond Pond, uh, that's not in the city, but it's a donut hole for us. And so, as they come into the city, it's beneficial for us to have that from a public safety perspective, so the, you know, sheriff's department doesn't have to respond to something on the river. Uh and then from a commercial perspective, there are certainly some potential options uh on, you know, the Jefferson Davis Highway. Uh and as Tommy talked about, you know, residential development does not pay for itself. Uh commercial does though. Commercial actually is a net positive into the city's general fund, you know, through business license tax. And so ultimately, you know, if you have put a sideby-side comparison of, you know, one acre of commercial versus one acre of residential, um you would have more money brought into the city through the commercial and less services required versus a residential uh plot which would require more services and provide less funding. Uh and so ultimately when we look at that remaining just over a million gallons per day, you know, this is this is a strategy that the city council could choose to pursue and say, "Okay, for these last million gallons, this is where we want to prioritize those million gallons because we're going to have other folks that are going to come to us here, you know, within this year of asking to do development that's going to be annexed in or request for annexations, uh that are going to fall outside of this and mostly residential. Uh and my recommendation to you along with the staff is that we would not use that 1.07 million gallons per day for those purposes. That if we have new and exciting developments that are outside the city limits that are residential that want to come in uh that we ought to fence this remaining 1.07 for what we have left in the city limits itself.

I think it's good for council to know the infield development piece that is a top priority in our comprehensive plan. So that is uh as you talk you mentioned a lot about that infield development. I like it.

So I guess what we're looking for as a staff is do you does the city council and again there's there we're not putting a resolution in front of you right now. There's no hey you're you're on the dime to make a a decision. But it would be helpful for us as we go through the parameters of dealing with uh various developments and various builders uh that you either agree with all of this, agree with some of it or agree with none of it. But we can at least uh take some of your feedback today from the dis uh and you know start to really kind of work our you know formal policies that we could potentially bring back to city council at a later date.

James, Tommy or Jim, the infield develop the donut holes. Are we saying we gonna not make people but say we want you in the city limits? We're saying is that it's a cheaper cost to for this 1.07 million gallons. The other two I agree but I'm and I do agree with that but go ahead. It's cheap it'll cheaper to bring them in at a at a cheaper rate uh if they're in a donut hole space. If we say if you as the council say, "Hey, if you want to annex in as a residential component, if it's outside the city limits and then it's kind of like a bumpout, um then they're going to have to pay for, you know, Aken County's, you know, Horse Creek,

you know, capacity at a much higher rate. What this really comes down to is what do you as the council want to incentivize moving forward?" And so if you want to incentivize infill development and filling doughnut holes, this would allow in a voluntary way, not a compulsory way, for people to enter into the city that are in the donut holes and operate at that rate. So they would still have to pay the tap fees. They still have to do the things that everybody else has to do to come into the city, but at the same time, they're not going to have to go out and buy capacity from the county. But this does not we you know with all the people that are using our water but they're not city limits now this does not

if they are if at some point in time they become contiguous to the city limits they're required to annex inent but if but we're not going this is a strategy to because that's not infill development that's that's expansion and annexation we're talking about looking in from the city limits and looking inside and going we have a lot of county property uh that we surround

I think a great example is right up east Avenue. I mean, East Buun Vista up the top of the hill. Uh there was a a couple big lots. They maybe one old house that was in the county. Don Adams bought that came to us the annex in. He's bought built four beautiful homes, upgraded the lifestyle of that area on that little block when you leave there. So, I mean that that to me is a perfect example of we have a ton not a ton, we have a lot of done and holes like that. So, it does make sense. That's a good example.

Yeah. And I think Jim covered it, but just so you're aware, it's still up to that property owner to request the annexation into the city. There's been a lot of attempts and talks about what they call enclave legislation, uh, annexation when you totally surround a piece of property, but that is not one of the procedures for annexation. It's still up at this point, it would still be up to the property owner in that donnut hole to say, "I want to come into the city." And what Jim is talking about by preserving some of this uh capacity that they don't have to to buy that they basically get from us. That's an incentive for them to come in. But

what if they don't want to? Then they just stay there. Is there a recommended amount that we should keep in reservation from say state or federal guidance out of this 1.7 million gallons a day? Like is there a reserve amount that we should just say hey I mean is I'm looking for like an invisible ceiling here more or less council we're allowed to go up to that

there's there's no I mean we're watching other you know counties or basically water authorities people that have uh utilities you run it right up to the you know to all their capacity. I wouldn't recommend that as your administrator. I would say I would feel much more comfortable uh you know if we got down to I hate to pick an arbitrary number but like half a million or a quarter of a million MGD and you know the city council could certainly make that as a decision to say hey we're going to vest with you the staff you know the opportunity to take it down to this certain level as far as how much capacity is is left but then beyond that point the city council wants to be involved directly about whether you're going to actually want to allow that capacity to go out the door or Thank you. That's perfect. Uh I'm going to say as somebody who has spent a substantial amount of time in one of these donut holes and and it's not something that we can do anything about right now because of the structures that are there. I know it creates a burden on public safety. I know it creates a public a burden on on co code enforcement. Sometimes it's just hard to see when you have a person that you know is living in substandard limits. you know, they're not getting the enforcement from the county because the county is so far away. If they were to send an enforcement officer all the way over behind the bingo parlor, it may take an hour and then whatever they're going to enforce, that situation may no longer exist by the time they get there. So, I like the infield development because it encourages places to upgrade their standards and it gives us more of a watchful eye over those communities. Um but I I would want to know what the recommended like what is the real number that we want to cap at going forward and and say no this is what we want to keep in reserve in case god knows what happens.

Jim, my only feedback is in general, um, at least, you know, listening to the presentation and at first glance, I I support these priorities for the remaining capacity. Um, don't really have any questions. I mean, again, I think it makes sense that we we prioritize what's already in the city or what's already physically located within the boundaries of the city. um for the excess capacity. I as the mayor said, I've I've been pretty vocal and and wanting to continue to prioritize infield development as much as as we have the power to do so. So, I think it, you know, makes makes sense to continue to hold that capacity for that. Um and again um you know from a commercial standpoint because of the return you get on that which is so clearly um positive compared to the negative return you get on residential it would certainly make sense to continue to prioritize it for that. So you know all that to say I think I think again just giving it kind of my initial thoughts here that these priorities make sense.

I agree as well. So on the um just for some clarification the 1.467 that number included all of the developments that we toured. That's correct. Does that number also include the Kellogg tract or the Holland Springs tract?

It does include the Holland Springs track because that's also known as Allade. Uh that's gone through several name changes over time, but it does not include the Kellogg track because the Kell tract is not in the city limits. And then just out of curiosity, as if we have new development outside the city limits that want to come in, what what is that cost look like to the developers?

It's a high cost. Uh the the cost of buying in additional sore capacity. And so, you know, quite frankly, the cost is essentially the same. I don't say exactly the same, but it's essentially the same because whether you get your water uh from the city of North Augusta or you get it from Breezy Hill or you get it from somewhere else ultimately or the or capacity I should say. Uh ultimately that that has to be collated there at the wastewater treatment facility and they're you through the Aken County authority is selling that at that rate. So you you could shop it around, but at the end of the day, whether they connect to Breezy Hill or they connect to us or wherever that works out, but geography is essentially what drives those connections. Uh and so some pieces of land, it's not going to make sense to bypass North Augusta and try to connect to a different uh you know, authority because of the way that the geography is. Uh they're not going to get that much of a better deal uh going to a different uh authority because ultimately it's still going to go to Horse Creek. So it's basically pay for sewer or do septic systems.

Correct. Uh gentlemen, a question on um commercial property that is currently vacant. So or for example, the LLE store hasn't been functioning for a year or so or the old Ryan store um hasn't had a hasn't had a a tenant there for 10 years. Is their capacity still part of the limit that we have?

So I would say councilman that that would file uh under the first bullet which is development and city limits. So that's, you know, we want to make sure that if you're already in the contiguous city limits of North Augusta and you you flip a building, you do something, you take something that had, you know, a certain amount of capacity requirements and it goes up a little bit because you build a a bigger house or you go from single family to multif family or you have a commercial use that went from one type of commercial use to a different type of commercial use. We want to make sure that we can service those requirements and I would view that as development in the city limits. I guess my my question is is that or that is that already committed space? It is not if there if it that would go into that 1.07.

So once a building is vacant or once a commercial space is vacant, their sewage capacity is removed from that. I would defer to James on I think that's kind of a case by case basis. Um right now probably speaking. Okay. So, yeah, that is part of what we have committed. And and and to echo the rest of the council, I I mean I I would agree with these. This makes great sense as a service to our community and what's what's best for North Augusta. Do we agree on the next page? We talk about that.

We can go to the next slide. just just so I think what I'm hearing from the council is there's there's some question about what's kind of that cut line before it goes into like hey we're not going to or we need you know some other council action to do that but is there broad consensus that those three items within the remaining 1.07 7 million gallons a day are the proper uses for those u that remaining capacity. And then the next question uh and Councilman Fredus to your point about the Kellogg track that's probably the next large development that will be coming uh to the city for consideration and it's outside the city limits in the county. It's behind for those of you who aren't tracking where Kellogg track is. That's directly behind fire station 3 uh on the west side of Interstate 520. It's a large piece of land. uh there's been some interest from a developer to do something there on the Kellogg track. Uh but again, they're talking about a large de you know residential development. Uh and so the question that the staff has for the council before we enter into further negotiations with any developer about something outside the city limits is hey what are we going to are we going to service them with our existing 1 million gallon per day or are we going to go and tell them hey you got to go out there and go uh work with us on getting additional capacity from the county you know at a higher rate. And our staff recommendation is uh based on the growth patterns we have here is if a residential development wants to come into the city for service purposes that we would request that they uh purchase that additional capacity through us uh to the county.

So Jim, what would the if we prioritize those three and we're saying we're going to keep the 1.07 MGDs for the three priorities that we've already made, what are the other options at that point? I mean that's that either they they is there is there another option other than them buying additional capacity? There is I mean you could always go if if the city council said hey you know what we like this idea of this development the being in this location uh you could go with a hybrid option and say hey you know what we'll help defy uh you know and like let's say 200 just the ball and say hey you could say 200,000 gallons you know uh a day could go out of the kind of the existing fund that we have or the the bank but then you'll still have to buy x amount of capacity from the county that could be like a hybrid option uh but I wouldn't recommend that my recommendation would be, you know, hey, if they want to come in badly enough that they should pay for the upgraded sore rates because otherwise we're going to take the the cost of the annexation and try to spread that peanut butter across all citizens across the uh the sewer rates and I don't think that's going to be super popular uh to to add in a new new development. So, I think that hey, if a developer wants to come in, uh that's to us the staff recommendation, but there are other options. Again, there's there's a hybrid option or you could just say, hey, we're the city could just opt to purchase additional capacity from the county uh and then, you know, take that and either I think, you know, other folks have used either bond funding or uh other you know, financial mechanisms to get to those funds.

And I agree and I I wouldn't advocate for certainly not buying bonds even to purchase additional capacity for outside residential. Um, so yeah, I mean I guess that is an option, but certainly not one that I would I could see myself supporting. Mr. Clifford. So if if if they buy the capacity, are those citizens in that new development are they build their sewer rates are are higher than what's in the current city limits?

No, Councilman. What their sewer rates would be the same, but it's it's the purchase of the capacity. So essentially what you'd have is a pass through. You know, if the developer has to pay, you know, again, just picking random numbers and they got to pay a million dollars uh to get sore capacity, they're going to take that cost and spread that across, you know, the houses that they're developing in that development. And so that's going to bump up the price of the the houses themselves. But the actual rate of uh what the sewer cost is uh and James will correct me if I'm wrong would be the same as any other you know residential component in the city of North Augusta. Thank you.

Just want to review for public consumption, Mr. Clifford. So the the rate we bought in at is kind of like almost 10 times less as the current rate. That's a roughly Yes. And do you ever see that rate coming back down going into the future for us to purchase in the future at a cheaper rate? I do not.

Perfect answer. Thank you. So, I've certainly heard questions from the council, but I haven't heard a consensus of, hey, if we had a residential development that came to us, would our strategy be to uh basically advise them to pass along those costs? I think that's what we're saying. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay. Well, I think we have enough uh to work with. You know, I think we'll have a future action that we'll bring to council for uh discussion. It won't be at the next council meeting because again, we've got some homework to do on uh you know, cut lines and whatnot. But uh I did want to put this in front of the council. I know we have these, you know, discussions kind of at a micro level where you'll have an annexation action that comes to you, but I really wanted to take a big step back for you as the council uh and just kind of show you what the staff considers as we go through these uh deliberations. But I wanted you to be able to set steering guidance for us as we do things here on the staff. Uh and I think we at least have uh the guidance that we need today. So

well and I think that is just like the gentleman that came the other last week and spoke about that. This will maybe relieve people's minds also for us. All right, gentlemen. That's it. Great job guys. Thank you. Good information. Mr. That's all I have from the staff for this evening for uh the study session. I turn it back to you.

I don't only got one thing led by another downtown merchants will have a sham a sham a shamrock stroll from 10 to 5 downtown. Trolley will be running. So, uh that'll be fun. And Pat, I'm going to let you be the one in case everybody doesn't know what happened on Saturday night in Columbia, South Carolina. Why don't you just shout it out?

History's been made. they and I'm 75 and of course I don't that high school is what 1906 or something but there's never been two sports basketball that girl boy has won state never. And now boys almost made it last year but they by a few points. Yeah. But this is such a honor for North Augusta that I and not only that and some things I Britain you'd sent me. There's a young lady in North Augusta, Lydia Harris. She won state. She's a wrestler. Wrestler. She won state by herself, you know, and it wasn't publicized that much for that child, but she went through the great North August Elementary School. And it it makes me so proud to see that. And and I just want our young people to know this city is about young people. That's what we are. and that we're so happy that they can you imagine 20 years from now, 30, 40, what's going to be in their heart? That's going to be a night they'll never forget long as they live. Now, I did talk, you know, the mayor

Lydia's information. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that and our ROC, they have out. Yeah. I'm telling you that I I'm I'm talking to Casey tomorrow to give me a list

of all because a lot of times, you know, you hear football, baseball, basketball. There's so many other sports these ch children are doing. But I'm uh and I know we can't do things through the city because, you know, you get in a get in a bind. But I've still got in my head I'm going to do something if it's me alone. But I know I have a lot of support in this city that we're going to honor all of these young people that have stepped up to the bat. Uh oh, wait a minute. Not the bat cuz that's baseball. Stepped up. But uh I just think our young people, you know, people talk about all the time, oh these young people are horrible. They are not horrible. They're wonderful. Wonderful. And it's our jobs as as adults to and junior. I mean, Chief Johnson, I can't I'm sorry. I can this what you're doing is sat with the NAACP. How wonderful. God that just I want them to know we as adults love these children and young people.

Okay. Amen. But just praise North Augusta High School. Oh, we stand high school too.