Remarks by Melissa Link
58 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
- Play at 2:50:09
“Okay. Also, I want to ask, if you own a home in an HOA and an HOA has a rule against ADUs, you would have to abide by your HOA's rules, correct? This does not supersede any HOA rules.”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:50:38
“This has come before us before, and the last time it came before us I offered up a CDO that added criteria. None of those criteria, I don't believe, have been included in this process coming back to us. If anything, the Planning Commission was directed to not add complexity and conditions to this text amendment. This is a very complex issue. that definitely warrants conditions we also have a planning commission that um nearly half of them were absent so we have a five to one vote with four planning commissioners absent you know if anything this definitely needs to go back and and to have that…”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:16:07
“yeah i mean i want to speak to the concept of adus within existing structures i feel like that's where you can get some affordability um you know it's a lot more affordable to convert your basement or your garage or a couple a wing of your home into a small studio apartment Building a standalone, whole new standalone structure is, even if it's a teeny tiny thing like that, it's gonna cost you at least 100 grand. Maybe converting a shed, especially a shed that might already have plumbing or an outside garage, that might be more affordable. But I feel like we should kind of treat existing…”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:26:05
“and i think you're right i'm going to move to commissioner lincoln yeah just one more thing i i don't know if anybody saw um we were sent um gwinnett's adu coordinates and um i want to encourage everyone to take a look at it they have about a dozen items the criteria i mean i feel like we could go you know two or three further than that especially considering the pressure we have from the student market But Gwinnett has a nice, straightforward ADU ordinance that has very specific criteria and limitations that we could mimic and get something that I feel like, you know, a good portion of our…”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:34:53
“Yeah, I mean, I hope we can move forward with this. I live in a house surrounded by sub-1,000 square foot homes, you know, and some of them have full families in them. The house across the street from me has four adults and two kids in it. This is how people lived for most of history. And if you have a piece of property, you want to build a home, why should you have to build more home than you need? And there's a long history of building these small homes and then adding on to them or adding the secondary home. I mean, you travel through the countryside and you see the little cottage and then…”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:48:48
“Yeah, I just wanted to remove it to point out that, yet again, we have items that deal with parking in our older inner neighborhoods where the streets are super narrow and many homes don't have driveways. This is something I hear about every other day. It makes it necessary to yellow curb in those neighborhoods just so a fire truck or a bus can get through. That's the reality of the world we live in. People have cars. Even if they don't drive them all the time, they have to park them somewhere. Just wanted to make that point. I'm happy to put it back on the consent agenda, both of them.”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:04:22
“Can we put that tier banding income on consent?”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:10:36
“Yeah, I mean, I have a problem with the number two. What is the definition of a public area? I mean, I totally get, you know, preventing people from laying down and sleeping on the sidewalk and even on benches where, like, you know, that are supposed to be accessible to the general public or in a building or, like, within the right-of-way in an intersection. Those can be dangerous areas. situations but what is the definition of a public area Commissioner attorney Drake worked on this but Commissioner links question is what discerns a public area from private area I mean I get what I get what…”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:11:44
“I mean, you know, is it okay for someone to lay down and take an afternoon nap propped up against a tree in the post office lawn, you know? Like, I don't see why that should be a problem.”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:13:06
“Yeah, I mean, I just don't feel comfortable with that vague language until we do have somewhere for people to go. Like, I would prefer that we leave off that, you know, very broad, vague, no person shall camp in a public area until we have a clear plan on where we're gonna send people who... are in these situations.”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:13:30
“Well, and I think there's, like you mentioned, there's a good reason that some of these folks are out in very visible area because it's safe. Yes. Having eyes on you. Okay. Next slide.”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:17:20
“Yeah. I'm really happy to see this, because it offers a long list of very specific steps and situations that can be pursued. particularly the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. We've got empty buildings all over the place, plenty of them, Athens-Clarke County owns. I remember years ago reading an article about an empty Walmart that was opened up as a camping facility, I think in someplace cold like Minneapolis or something. And the tiny home, this addresses tiny homes, which I feel like can be tiny home communities that might even have shared bathing and kitchen facilities where folks just…”
Commission · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 15:24
“You mentioned the airport enterprise fund. We recently purchased a $1.5 million piece of fire equipment. Was that out of the enterprise fund or was it supplied?”
Commission · Jun 9, 2026
- Play at 20:15
“yeah I know we had quite a bit of public input on the special events issue and I just asked the mayor to consider appointing some kind of task force so we can kind of reevaluate how we approach that and where funds come from and how they're distributed for next year so we can write the ship a little bit and maybe open up opportunities for other organizations and other locations to access local funds to put on special events.”
Commission · Jun 9, 2026
- Play at 22:15
“I have one more comment regarding the flock cameras. I'm wondering if the manager's office could offer us some kind of memo or something letting us know the terms of our contract. And what kind of assurances there are that any information that's taken in from those cameras is only accessible to our local law enforcement officer, except maybe in special cases of a warrant, a particular warrant from an outside agency?”
Commission · Jun 9, 2026
- Play at 22:56
“I mean, my concern is, you know, that accessing information that is intended for use by our own local law enforcement being made available to other agencies for purposes beyond local law enforcement.”
Commission · Jun 9, 2026
- Play at 47:39
“Yeah, I mean, I have a little bit of consternation about the commercial downtown height regulation going above 10 stories. I feel like... developers are don't take advantage enough of our inclusionary zoning downtown because they can already get away with you know so much density within that 10-story limit so I hope that the Planning Commission will kind of do the math on that and and I mean I'm open to seeing flexibility and some of these and density regulations when it comes to funds coming into our affordable housing fund or affordable units being included in projects. But I don't want to…”
Commission · Jun 9, 2026
- Play at 31:07
“Yeah, I'd like to know where in the budget are the parking revenues? Yeah, because I am interested in taking a look at that to supplement the CEP fund and see if we can increase that $50,000, maybe get it up to $75,000. And I'd like to take a look at the parking revenues to find that money.”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026
- Play at 32:11
“I mean I know in the past we've gotten kind of creative with those parking revenues to fund things that kind of come up at the last minute and it seems appropriate to fund you know community events with those revenues.”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026
- Play at 38:34
“Yeah, I would like to explore increasing parking revenues for the long-term parking in the decks. In the past, we've increased it for on-street parking. But from what I understand, are we charging $80 a month for parking?”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026
- Play at 39:17
“I mean, this may not happen for this budget, but those are untapped revenues there. And from what I understand, a lot of our parking decks, which we've spent a lot of money on, are basically serving as car storage facilities for students.”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026
- Play at 40:28
“Yeah, I mean, I do believe we should, and this is, I guess, would be directed through the ADDA, like, we really need to look at that long-term parking.”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026
- Play at 42:00
“I mean, I also want to initiate a discussion about the neighborhood leaders and, you know, seeing to it that we can assure that that program is fully funded. The economy is in dire straits. There are three families on my block in Boulevard that have seen job losses due to developments in AI and the economy. A wave is about to crash, and we are going to see families that are in dire straits that we wouldn't typically have expected. And these folks have their hands full as it is to cut that funding. There are people who have never, ever had to ask for anything who are going to need those…”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026
- Play at 58:07
“Yeah. I mean, I just want to point out that $380,000 loss from the Neighborhood Leaders Program is a 35% budget cut. Right.”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026
- Play at 58:18
“I mean, that's astronomical. And I really feel like it's just really unethical to ask them to take that kind of cut all at once. Yeah.”
Commission · Jun 4, 2026