City Council - Regular Meeting

6:30. All right, it's 6:30. I hereby call this meeting to order. Please join me for the pledge of

allegiance. I aliance 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. We'll observe a moment of silence. Thank you. We have announcements, awards, and special recognition. We have a very special recognition and an award tonight, but I think some of uh the recipients are stuck in traffic. Chief, we're going to wait on that then. Council, with your permission, we'll go ahead and wait until everyone is here. Just give us the high sign. Thank you. Uh, that brings us to public comment. Do we have public comment tonight?

Yes, madame mayor. We have seven individuals signed up to speak. The first speaker is Joseph Smith.

Thank you. And before we start, I will reiterate a comment that I shared last um city council meeting. Thanks for your patience, sir. Uh, I just want to again clarify some misinformation that's been circulating on social media. Uh, we did authorize an annexation study for Peach Tree City to take an opportunity to look at all of our borders. I think it's important at this time now that the city is built out. Um, we will be analyzing potential annexation areas from a land use perspective. This study is not tied to any specific property development proposal or project. We've been talking about a boundary or an annexation study for at least three years. I know it started in 2023. So, the purpose of this upcoming analysis is to provide council with data and objective recommendations so that we can thoughtfully consider how to manage all of our borders in the future. Uh, we've all seen what can happen with poor planning. I'll say that out loud. And we see the results with the traffic coming in from Kawita County on Highway 54. We need a plan to make sure we keep a seat at the table. So I want to assure our residents that no decisions about annexation, zoning, development are being made and we remain committed to transparency and ensuring residents have accurate information. So the findings of the study will be presented in a future public meeting, I suspect by July. Thanks very much. Thanks for your patience.

Time to go. Time to go. Okay. Is this working? Come on. Okay. Hello. Okay. Just get close to it. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm Joseph. There we go. I'm Joseph Smith, Petree City, and I'm here to talk about electric power. Um Oh, you reset the clock.

Okay. Uh I'm here to talk about electric power. uh in the consideration that uh a new data center may be installed near Peaceree City. Uh there's the president of the United States and several all well actually all the people building data centers have make come to an agreement that uh they will provide their own electric power and the two types of power on the table are nuclear reactors and gas turbines. So we put a data center in Kuita County just other side of Lake Macintosh. The question will be first question is if we put a nuclear reactor in will it be on the Kuita County side or on the Faget County side and and the problem with the Faget County side would be the airport. You don't want to you really don't want any kind of a power plant at the end of a a runway and and so there's other kind all kinds of requirements for a nuclear reactor uh that will be in the vicinity of our city or possibly even in our city limits. The other option is a are gas turbines. They they're actually fairly loud. I'm a mechanical engineer, so the I know that these things are pretty loud. And um and they will also have to have a a large gas pipeline brought in to supply that supply that with gas. Same question. Will it be in the Faget County side or the Queen Kuita County side? Um, I think they're trying to take off the table the power lines like the fiasco that's happening in North Faget County right now with the current data centers being built uh, where it's causing tremendous damage to property and property values. And so that may not happen. But once again, if that does become an option, where will the power lines run? Will

they run in Quita County or they will run through Fyet County? And if they run through Fyet County, they will be running right through Petri City which would destroy our property values. Uh, of course, Kita kind don't want their property values destroyed either. So, there's options for electric power and these things use a lot of power. So, and we'll be maybe a beta site for some some of the first many nukes that are be installed on land instead of submarines. Anyway, thank you very much. Thank you. Next, please. Michael Kever.

Well, thank you. I'm Michael Kever. I live here in Peach Tree City and u I'm here to talk about uh uh something that's a hot issue in my neighborhood and we call it a curious convergence of events. I called Brian Jack's office uh recently. Haven't been able to get in touch with him yet, but um he secured 4.75 million uh dollar federal investment in Cal for for Kawita County about their water issue. I I I don't know that they're short of water and I can't imagine why that would would be. Uh but here's the uh curious convergence of events. In February, Brent Scarborough purchased,00 acres just across the border, just across TDK Drive. Uh, and a couple days thereafter, this council voted to study annexation. Is there any relation to that? And then if there's not any relation, how is it that all these things, this curious convergence of events happened at once? That is Brian Jack water, Brent Scarboro, 1100 acres, and then the Peace Tree City Council voting to study uh annexation. And this all happened within days of one another. That is to say, Bronjack Scarbor, the city council voting to study this and that is the issue on a

lot of people's mind and we're perhaps coming to the wrong conclusion but each of you on the council voted I assume to study this and I would ask do you know of any relationship between what I've mentioned and conversations you've had with Brian Jack Scarbor and others that are involved in this. I thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from some of you again.

Thank you. Next, please. James Clifton. James Clifton, Fielding Ridge Precinct. I'm here because I'm concerned about two things. A data center coming to Peach Tree City and Cross Town Drive in TDK Boulevard being expanded into Kawita County. I've been called a conspiracy theorist and liar for voicing these concerns. Tonight, I'm going to present all of the evidence. On January 29th and 30th, Peach Tree City Council held a retreat in Kennesaw, Georgia. The meeting did not appear on the main calendar and the agenda contained one line with no details. On February 10th, I requested meeting minutes from the Peach Tree City Clerk. On February 11th, the clerk provided an updated agenda that showed a presentation by Nikki Vanderlice, the head of the Faget County Development Authority. This is the same Faget County Development Authority that brought QTS data center to Fagatville. Unsatisfied with the details of the updated agenda, I requested any and all recordings of the meeting. Also occurring on February 11th, the developer who is currently developing the QTS site in Fatville purchased the 1100 acre tract of land adjacent to Peach Tree City on the southwest side of Lake Macintosh and Falcon Field Airport. On February 12th, before the ink on the deed to the developer dried, Peachree City Council voted on an annexation study to determine the best land around Peachree City to annex. The 1100 acre parcel is by far the largest property adjacent to Peach Tree City. On February 18th, the clerk provided 14 hours of recordings from the Kennesaw Retreat. The presentation by the Faget County Development Authority is the only part of the retreat that is missing from the audio recordings. However, I'm going to play a clip from the first recorded meeting following the County Development Authority

presentation. The speaker is Mike Hurahan who was facilitating a discussion on council priorities with our city council. Not sure if this is going to work over the um type of thing and the data centers. Just remember though that a data center is 700,000 square feet. It will employ 12 people. That's it because they don't need people in those state. And so having the data center, great from a property tax standpoint, from a job standpoint, zero.

Now, the good news is the data center say, "Well, we don't have to do anything with infrastructure because there's not going to be that many cars driving here." Okay, that's true. And yes, we can come up with that $400,000 homestead exemption, which, and the data centers know this, and Nikki was kind enough to not say this, but I'm not that kind, uh, is that your STPs, they will shut up if they get a free house. and they'll stop coming to your meetings.

For those that don't know, STP is a demeaning acronym created by our elected leaders that stands for same 10 people. They think the same 10 people come to council meetings to complain. Well, I have news for you, council. There are thousands and thousands of people in Peach Tree City that do not want a data center or cross town and TDK extended into Kawita County. We will not shut up and our voices will be heard. Excuse me. Excuse me. We don't do that. Thank you. Next. Larry Lighheiser.

Hi, my name's Larry Lighheiser. I'm from Peach Tree City as well. I live in the Gates neighborhood and I believe my neighbors have been here before to talk about our fence that encroaches into the green space. And so one of the reasons that first off I wanted to thank you for giving me the time here in front of you all. But one of the reasons that we came to Peach Tree City, we've been here for now over eight years, is because of the green space and the requirements that are required for people to build around the different neighborhoods and how all that green space is protected. Our fence follows the same general guidelines as neighboring fences. In fact, there's six neighbors that our fence line runs parallel to the green space. Unbeknownst to us, as we had the fence permitted and installed by a fence company, we extended that the fence line is out 10 feet into the green space area. We know that that's not where it's supposed to be, but it's been that way for the last eight years. The type of fence that we have is aluminum black rod that doesn't obstruct the views or anything around the green space at all. We've been maintaining the green space in and behind the fence line for over for that time period as has our neighbors. So it does we also do not block any access that interferes with any trails or public space. The purpose of the fence and the intent of it is simply to maintain a safe and usable backyard space for our family and pets and also I'll tell you to prevent the deer from coming into our neighbor into our yards and eating flowers and stuff. The green space itself remains open and unchanged beyond the fence line. I respectfully ask the council to consider allowing the fence to remain as it has been minimal impact on the green space and maintains consistency with other fences in the area. I've asked for your consideration in that. I know we've been here talking this for a couple different times. Um I

know, you know, we can go around and look at other neighborhoods and such that, you know, there are fences that extend into the green space, probably unbeknownst to code enforcement, but I just ask for your consideration of this for us. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Robert Ross. Hi, good evening. I'm Bob Ross. I've been a resident here since I guess 97. And uh probably the first time in a while I've had the opportunity to address the mayor and the the council here and happy to do so. And it's on uh two topics that we've heard about already, the TDK extension as well as the data center. And I welcome the mayor's remarks on uh the path going forward. and we'll uh diligently uh follow those actions and fully anticipate that they'll do the research uh the reporting and the transparency that we expect out of our government officials as I think your most important asset is the trust of the people that are here in the room and those in the other neighborhoods of Peach Tree City. I would encourage you to invite some of your most voseiferous opponents to either of these to hear what uh points they've got. Mr. Clifton here has done a tremendous amount of research and I hope the panels that you put in a place continue to do that level of detail and then open that up and let us see that not only in written reports but also uh in uh meetings and post it on the website. So, uh, Mayor, appreciate the direction that you've indicated in there, and we look forward to a complete fulfillment of that. Thank you. And I've got to apologize. I just got a new knee. I need to keep it elevated and iced. So, I'm going to take my leave at this point.

Good luck. Thank you. Next, please. Fintelli Golf Carts. Chester and Jesse. Hello, Council. U My, my name is Chester Sharp. I'm the store manager. Telly Golf Carts. We're right next to Fresh Market. Uh we just wanted to come and introduce ourselves. Um talk briefly about our company. Um Jesse's going to talk about our commitment to the community. Um so we're based out of South Carolina. Uh we've been around for about 25 years. Um and we're one of the top off off cart brands um available. And uh so

uh yeah, so this year uh we want to make a bigger effort to make a difference in the community. Um we we opened in the summer of 2023 and we have partnered with uh Macintosh High School and Booth Middle School and we've done golf tournaments, the Tunnel to Towers charity. Um we've sponsored a lot of events, but this year we want to make a bigger effort to make more of an impact with the local community and partner with Peach Tree City. Um so we're working with Maria and uh we're going to find some opportunities this year to get more involved. So uh we would love to meet every one of you guys. I see some I won't name any names, but I see some people out here that already own one or have already come in and met us and we appreciate you guys uh so much. Um but yeah, so we just wanted to uh introduce ourselves and and we're very appreciative to be in the location that we are. Um I think City obviously you guys would probably all agree is the greatest golf cart city in the world. So um we think we're in a great place and we are really excited to meet you guys if you haven't ever stopped in our store and uh we look forward to seeing you guys out in the community this year and uh we're just going to be a lot more involved. So, thank you guys for the time. Appreciate you.

Thank you very much. Next speaker.

The final speaker is Keith Larson. Good evening, mayor, city council, employees, and residents of Peach Tree City. My name is Keith Larson. I live in Sandown Creek in Peach Tree City and I am also a community advocate bike fet and I represent your interest for a lot of pedestrian issues. I got some great things I want to share with council and our residents. First, the Peach Tree City proposed public art master plan is long overdue, long overdue to show why we can have good stuff in our city. And I'm applaud the city staff for moving forward this initiative. I got a couple notes. I sent council and staff some details for specificity. But first, uh I I just want to say that bike parking rack is being recognized as public art. And that's a great win because that was a great collaboration effort with city staff to make that symbolic of our city. And why not put it all over our city? And on that note, when the city bought 30, not 15, but 30, uh the the city manager asked the transportation advisor group where to put them. So, we provided a recommendation, but we weren't done. We said, you know what, you need 33 more to spread across Petri City facilities and parks. So, I'm hoping that the city will look proactively and in invest in that as you're moving forward that plan. And also, the good for the residents is that if you don't ask for it, you never get it. The state of Georgia actually funds grants to communities for public art. So if you never have an art

council, you'll never get any of that money. So that's your taxpayer money going back to the city to make us a great place. So I hope you think about that and we'll encourage and support that. The second thing I want to talk about is Petri City ordinance updates. The transportation advisory group, which I was a part of last year, worked very hard to develop improvements to identify the safety needs of our citizens and residents on not only sidewalks, which were never addressed, but also natural surface trails that we find in our nature areas and the paths. And so with that, um, there is one part and I have a a a page in your inner package I gave you of the pedal assisted electric vehicles. It's an emerging civil class of consumer and commercial products. Amazon has announced a purchase of 5,000 pedal assisted carts to go across the nation to do home delivery that intended to be employed on your bicycle infrastructure, i.e. our shared use pass. But there's no consumer product safety code or Georgia code to define these. So I think it's behooves the city to adopt that to address and understand and control how these things might be employed on our system. And I've I've sent you a a slide on that. Okay. Uh next, the Gin Branch project, the trail approved by the city staff last June. We are we've got all 100 one mile and and a quarter open. We've got 300 volunteer hours already committed and completed on this project. We're looking to open at the beginning of May. So, we're looking forward to that. Last uh uh quick winds,

I sent you an email about quick winds. We need to address pedestrian crossings at 5474 as the as the city and state is completing the punch list. We have a legacy path that is just sitting there that needs to be connected to the sidewalk to connect. People are walking across mud and dirt and they don't need to do that. We need to be tolerant of of our residents and ADA concerns. So, I'm going to cut it off there, but we can do w better because we're a great city. Thank you.

Thank you. We're ready. All right. Wonderful. Uh we have a very special award tonight. It's called Excellence in Trauma Care for Region four. I'd like to introduce our fire chief, Clint Murphy.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, it's my pleasure to uh introduce uh two of the board members from uh Region 4 EMS. uh they're here tonight to um present a award to two of our uh first responders um that they won at the annual awards um they will be going forward to the state uh after this. So I'm going to turn it over to these two gentlemen and let them present the awards to Chad and this time. Good evening, madame mayor, council members, and uh Peace Tree City um firefighters and uh community members. My name is Sam Pulk. I am the region 4 EMS advisory council chair. Um with me is Frank Palumbo. He is our uh chairman for our awards committee. On Wednesday, February the 4th, Region 4 uh held its annual EMS awards. Um, if you're not familiar, region 4 EMS advisory council consists of the counties of Buts, Carol, Kawita, Fyet, Herd, Henry, Lamar, Merryweather, Pike, Spalding, Troop, and Upson counties. We presented the Excellence in Trauma Care Award. Um, and there were multiple nominations. Um, one of them being from Peach Tree City Fire. I'm going to ask Frank to read that nomination uh now. I'd like to read this nomination in its entirety as I believe it truly defines the level of care and excellence that the uh firemen from Petri City were able to display in their call. On November 8th, 2025, firefighter paramedic Chad Entric and Sergeant AMT Matt Bryant demonstrated exceptional clinical judgment and exemplary patient care

during a critical incident involving a burned patient with life-threatening airway compromise. Their decisive actions and professional expertise directly contributed to saving a patient's life. Petri City Fire and Rescue units responded to a residential structure fire where a homeowner had self- evvacuated was standing on the front lawn. While preparing to assist with fire suppression operations, firefighter paramedic Entric and Sergeant Bryant immediately recognized that the patient required urgent medical intervention. Without hesitation, they transitioned from their firefighting roles to provide a critical emergency medical care. Upon assessment, the crew identified that the patient had sustained significant facial airway burns complicated by smoke inhalation. The patient presented with hypoxia secondary to smoke inhalation and developing airway edema. Firefighter paramedic Entric and Sergeant Bryant immediately initiated treatment with high flow oxygen and saline for burn management. What distinguishes this crew's performance was their early recognition, advanced clinical assessment, and critical decision-making under pressure. Despite providing appropriate initial interventions, they recognized that the patients airway burns were far more extensive than the external presentations had suggested. Understanding the dynamic and rapidly deteriorating nature of inhalation injuries, they made the crucial decision to transport this patient to Pedmont Fyet Hospital rather than attempting a longer transport to a burn center in Atlanta. This decision pro proved lifesaving. Upon arrival at Pedmont Fyet, the patient required rapid sequence inhibation due to a progressive airway swelling. Had the crew chosen a longer transport to Atlanta, the patient would likely have experienced complete airway obstruction and route to creating a airway emergency in a moving ambulance with limited resources and options. Their quick thinking and sound medical decision-making allowed the patient to be stabilized at Pedmont Faget before being transferred to a specialized burn center later that day for continued

care. Without their recognition of the emergency airway threat and their decision to prioritize rapid access to advanced airway management, this outcome could have been catastrophic. Firefighter paramedic Chad Entricin and Sergeant Matt Bryant exemplify excellence in trauma care and represent the highest caliber of EMS professionals serving Georgia EMS Region 4. Their actions on November 8th, 2025 are worthy of recognition and serve as a model for outstanding prehosp emergency care. It's our privilege to present region 4 excellence in trauma care award winners Chad Intricen and Matt Bryant. Thank you for coming in for that award. I know you had some traffic to deal with tonight and we really appreciate it. Thank you. Council, any agenda changes? No. Uh minutes uh January 29th, 2026 retreat minutes. Fe uh B February 12th, 2026 special called meeting minutes and C February 12th executive session

minutes. Can I get a motion? Madame Mayor, I move that we approve the the minutes as submitted. Second. I have a motion and a second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Uh consent agenda items A through E. Can I get a motion? Madame Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve items A through E. Do I need to read them? Mor eight items A through E second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I.

All oppose. Motion carries. New agenda item 32602 consideration of text amendment to sign the ordinance. Shayla Reed.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor and Council. This item is referencing um the need to have Can you hear me? Awesome. Um the need to have a potential text amendment for um a a particular request that we're consistently receiving. Um so businesses are asking for what we call halo backlit lights. Um if you drive around our city tonight, you're going to see a lot of those signs already installed. Um so our code technically does not allow for it. Um, so we're asking for you to consider the potential of initiating a test text amendment to allow for those um potential signs to be permitted. So that's what this particular item is. You have a sample included in your packet to show what those lights look like. Um, I will say if I can give just a little bit of an idea, it's not as intrusive as a sign that will be forward facing. That backfacing light is a lot dimmer than a bright light. So I just want to just add that piece in there as well for the aesthetic component. That concludes my report. Mayor,

thank you. I'm trying to find it. We're 246 pages deep in our packet, so it's taking us all just a second. Um, council, we're on page 246. 246. 246. Questions, comments, and we are uh they are asking for a vote tonight. Actually, this is just to initiate. Yeah, I think it goes to the commission, right? Thank you. Questions, comments? I'm fine with it. I have no questions. We need to get right. Anybody else? All right. Do I have uh do we need a motion? Motion to initiate the amendment. Madam Mayor, I'll make a motion that we initiate this amendment. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Yes, I did. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Work session discussion items. A. public art master plan. Chris Hobby,

good evening. Um, at your retreat, this was a topic that we discussed and uh working with my very talented colleague Jazz Jasmine, we have uh we've done what people do. We went and looked at other or other cities that have these policies and we copied them. And uh so we I can't claim that what is before you is necessarily an original work, but it is a compilation of several other places. So what you have is a proposed Peach Street City public art master plan which establishes a framework for incorporating public art into our parks, our pathways, the village centers, and other public spaces. The intent of the plan is to enhance community identity, celebrate the character of Peach Tree City, and create opportunities for local artists and community participation. The plan identifies several themes that reflects what makes Peach Tree City unique, including our golf cart culture, a natural environment, the aviation heritage, and the stories of our residents. It outlines a variety of potential projects such as murals and tunnels and the village center, sculptures along the path system, gateway art at key entrances, and temporary installations that can act that can uh be placed in public spaces. The plan also recommends establishing a public art advisory group to review projects and help guide the program along with identifying potential funding sources such as grants, partnerships, and voluntary developer or artist contributions. Finally, the document includes a bike rack program that would allow businesses to install the beautiful Peach Street City branded artistic bicycle racks to support active transportation and enhance our commercial spaces and also

meet that voluntary private contribution to the art program that we are seeking. Tonight's action is simply to introduce you to this topic. Um we uh we can move as fast or as slow as the council wishes to. Um eventually we hope to get to adoption of a public art master plan that would serve as a guiding uh document for the future. We are happy to answer any questions. two key things. Seven member advisory committee, a part-time employee within the uh recreation and special events department, and a $60,000 annual appropriation uh to fund public art in our public spaces. We would also ask developers to contribute voluntarily. is not a mandatory program, but that 2% of the total cost of the development be dedicated to the creation of art and also 1.5% of any city capital projects would include some sort of art. And so those are the highlights.

Again, we've taken this from a variety of different cities around the state, most notably Dun Woody. Um but uh it's not just them. We've taken the best elements, we think of several. I want to give a lot of credit to Jasmine. She helped put this together. She's much more talented than I am. And uh so we put it before you tonight for your consideration. All right. Should I start on this end? U first of all, what's the total cost you? I heard you say, you know, 60,000, a half a person, and all of that. What's roughly approximately the cost of that to start with?

Yeah, probably $80,000. Okay, good. Um, second of all, I think everybody here, at least on the staff know that I've been talking about public art for quite a while. Uh, at one point I wanted to do something for um Flat Creek Floyd. Uh, that was quite a while ago, but that's still public art. And I'm all, you know, being an engineer doesn't mean that I don't like art. And I think having gone around and seen things at other cities, I can tell you that we need to up our game. No question. So I think the in inclusion of a new public art committee, is that what you're going to call it? Yes, sir.

Uh I I have certainly no problem with that. I just want to watch the cash side and how much does it cost and also that portion that you talked about with the um uh private investors and CIP and all of that. Um I think we need maybe a little more of a dive into those just to make sure that they're the right numbers. Sure. And that's my comments, Madame Mayor. Thank you. M Brown, you want to comment? Um yeah. Uh Keith Larson was really kind enough to share a bunch of comments with us via email earlier today

and I'd just like to know that um all of those are going to be, you know, looked at and put in front of the advisory group with the next revision of the the policy. I think that he brought up several very important things. Then I have my own little question, oddly enough. Um, we will also be adding art locations or excuse me, will we also be adding art locations on our Navigate PTC app? Yeah, we we certainly could. I think that's I think we should come up with like a little symbol and that maybe then we could leave that up to the art advisory group that we could put on the map

and have some sort of like a little uh, you know, art around town kind of a a thing. The other thing would be to do it kind of like geocaching, which is very popular with a whole bunch of people. And it could also be done and and you could almost do it like a progressive uh treasure hunt where you geocache some information at one site that tells you where to go to the next site. So I I just think there's a whole bunch of things that can be added to this that really take it to a different dimension. And I I'm very happy to see this all moving forward. So

we we do have a big geocaching population here like we we have it on our visit Peach Tree City and all that stuff so we do have locations but I guess what you're saying is if we do art make some of those geo like put them in sites you know and yes we could do it with the nav app after I thought for a second may I add something on top of yours Suzanne sure

um on top of what Suzanne said you you've got all these sites that hopefully will be all over our cart uh path system or excuse me our multiath system And um I think that there would be also a place to put in appropriate benches and someplace to sit down in that area so that when they see the art they can sit down. Maybe it's going to be something, you know, that they want to observe for a while. So that might be wanted to add into that plan.

Yeah. And and that's why we have the we we're proposing this group that would act very similar to RAG and TAG and all of our other citizen groups. They would they would offer advice and and how we could allocate that $60,000 that would be budgeted. All right. Anything else, Susan? No, that's it. Miss Johnson. So, I remember when we went to visit Swani and they had an art program, they had some of their exhibits that were rotating. Is that we would You may have mentioned that. I may have missed.

That's part of the idea is that the temporary exhibits we would we would solicit local artists or regional artists and then have temporary exhibits. That might be an art exhibit in city hall or the library or it might be something a sculpture that comes and goes. There are a lot of different forms that can take. Okay, great. Um, and the bike racks were brought up tonight and getting more of those around the city. Is there a way that if a private business wants to purchase one of those now, do they have that ability? Are they available for

So that was not that that wasn't formalized. Um we still do have that's why in the program it mentions that we have installed 15. We have another 15 that have not been installed yet. And if council would like us to move forward, we can establish the bike rack program that's in the master plan to allow the sale of those with the last uh 15 and then purchase more when the full program is rolled out or for those other 15 to be installed in the sites that the tag group recommended in the future. Has there been an interest at all? Have we? We haven't. We haven't advertised it.

So, I think there will be an interest. It's very common. Um, we uh have seen it in other cities. Uh there there are a lot of programs that are established and so I do think that if we do some advertising there will be, but we just haven't really put anything out there. Yeah. I would just love if private businesses want bike racks that they look like ours. So, okay. Thank you, Mr. Polich. Thanks. Um, a couple questions and one I I just want to second Councilwoman Brown's comments about incorporating and reviewing Keith's comments in terms of the 2% I'm reading here 2% in private development incentives and percent for art and capital projects at 1.5%. Where's that modeled after? Is that other cities and how they do that? It is. Yep.

Okay. Is some cities do it as a mandatory part of the development permit process? We just didn't think that that was appropriate right now as we maybe we'll grow into that, but we don't want to start out with a mandatory requirement right out of the gate. Yeah, I agree. So, it's voluntary. And then the 60,000 and surplus carryover, that's just midyear savings that we have that we're identifying now in the budget reserves. Yeah. And that's right now. And then the idea is to annualize that moving forward.

Correct. and the 60,000 would cover kind of some of these projects and hopefully we get some other grants which brings my last question state and federal grants what is the process in terms of as a city this is part of that important component for us to be qualified as having this master plan okay yeah like like Mr. Larson mentioned there are a variety of grant programs out there uh that we would be eligible for and we would go after. Great. Thank you. All right. I have one more comment. Um

oddly enough, I'm feeling a little proprietary about our Peach Tree City bike rack and that it should be associated with our things. And I think we should maybe encourage businesses who should have bike racks to develop their own. And when we talked about this months ago, I had done some research and I had quite a few pictures that I had unearthed of really creative bike rack designs that you know like bike racks that look like bikes, you know, and you know, you can actually attach two bikes to it. And I I think I kind of like keeping the ownership of the peach tree. bike rack to city facilities maybe and let them come up with something else that would expand the art aspect of it.

Well, they're private businesses. They could do whatever they want. Yeah, I know. But as opposed to selling thing selling our design to, you know, other businesses, let's challenge them to come up with something else. That's part of art. All right. I think that we all agree we want to move forward and here we go. because art is subjective and we're going to get a committee so that the five of us aren't deciding what's art and what isn't. Can I ask about timing? Yeah. What's the timing on doing the master plan?

Well, I mean, y'all had a lot of questions. We want to incorporate some of M or all of Mr. Larson's comments if we can. Mayor would need to we would need to interview members of this advisory committee. So, maybe we'll have this at the next meeting in a finalized version. Well, I also would like if we're going to create a a committee or group, I would also like to codify it in the ordinances like we have with recreation and and uh transportation. Yep. So, we would do that as well. Um it wouldn't have to go through the planning commission and all that because it's not zoning, you know. Um so, it would be a quicker process with that, but I would like to codify it as well, the committee itself. All right, we're ready to move forward. Yep.

Thanks very much. Very exciting. Uh, work session discussion item B, chapters 70 and 78, ordinance amendments. Jonathan Miller, council, we're starting on page 268.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, I'm here to present the ordinance updates specifically for chapter 70 and 78 as it pertains to micromobility. This has been a long culmination with extensive work by the transportation advisory group. Um it's been about eight months to put this all together and bring it in front of you for your review and comments. Um the transportation advisory group gave a presentation back in September I believe. Um so you'll see a lot of the slides from there just to kind of review where they were going and what direction they were looking at as we go through this presentation. So their main purpose was to identify gaps and opportunities. So, specifically addressing concerns, safety concerns that they have either heard from other citizens or that they were aware of and how it pertained to new devices that you were seeing on the past and different, you know, as this plethora of skateboards and electric devices come on, you know, how do we address those as far as sh use path. So they looked at definitions, so the gaps and uses for the micromobility um how the devices were going to be used on paths, sidewalks, uh what were undefined in the ordinance. You know, a lot of things have changed since the original ordinance. also defining golf carts versus motorized carts. Really aligning things with Georgia code and state law. Um addressing low- speed vehicles, concerns that people have brought up with low- speed vehicles and the path rules. So definitions and gaps. You can see there are a lot of things that come have

come on the market that have no definition in our ordinance whatsoever and we don't address them. Incomplete definitions. things have changed. Electric bicycles have changed. Georgia code, Georgia state law has changed and our ordinances have not really been updated to address those. Um we did define micromobility which is kind of the umbrella term device for a lot of these things. So that is in the ordinance as a definition. But um as we proceed you'll see a lot of these devices that people uh see on the bike or on the pass um the e devices public wrist this was a big one. So the the allterrain kind of motorcycles scooters you know e-oto is kind of the defining term of those devices. A lot of complaints have come into not only the city, but other residents have talked to the TAG members and expressed their concern with these devices on the pass. They have very high speeds. They already exceed a lot of the 20 mile cap that we have on the pass system. So, some of the revisions because I can't put them all. If you saw, it's a very, very detailed long ordinance, but some of the revisions you'll see in there are brand new definitions. We define emoto, we define go-karts, personal electric devices, and even, you know, some forward thinking on a lot of the group is the personal delivery devices. You don't necessarily see a lot of them on our path networks, but it is things that people are developing that are coming down the pipe. So, it's an ever evolving market. some of the incomplete definitions. Electric bicycles were were not defined as they are uh with state code. So we we redid all of that. So you see the actual classes of electric bikes and the speeds they're

capable of and how they should be classified and they should have the sticker and everything affixed to them detailing what uh what class electric bike they are. So we did a lot of revisions and then golf carts versus motorized carts. So this was kind of this was really aligning with Georgia code. So Georgia code defines golf carts is they're actually used on a golf c course for golfing purposes. Whereas motorized carts or PTVs in Georgia code are really what everybody's using them for as an alternative transportation method when they're using our path network. So we we really defined and outlined those terms to align with Georgia code. Um also TAG was considering uh size limits on golf carts because you see them they're getting modified. Uh dealers sell them modified. So width was a big concern on the pass or pass are 10 foot wide. You know you start to get over five feet you're encroaching into the other lane you've got pedestrians. So, uh, the definition was rewritten for motorized carts to align with Georgia code, which is what most people are register. That's what they're using for transportation. That's what they're registering. And then we also added um a width not to exceed so that you know those modifications and all of that will fit within our path network without encroaching um into the other lane or pedestrians. Now low-speed vehicles there was some discussion of whether or not they should even be allowed on the path network or not. Um they did have those discussions and through that there it was there was a consensus to keep low- speed vehicles as an authorized

vehicle um and keep a lot of the same definition of it having the the ability to be restricted by speed to go into kind of a lower speed mode. Really through the discussions the biggest thing that kept coming up with the low speed vehicles are the sizes how wide they are. So that was really the complaint, not necessarily speed that everybody had heard is that they just take up a lot of the path. So we we updated it in quite a few places. LSVs are are unique in the fact that they technically have to be legally registered with Faget County. Like it's not just like the golf cart, our registration, they they have to be legally registered. So, we made sure that was in there under the registration as well as our registration that they have to get. Um, prohibited uses, we we just kind of updated the language every I think it was low-speed motor vehicle, but the true acronym is low-speed vehicles. So, we corrected some of that. And then in prohibited uses, since it has to be registered through fake county, the easiest way to kind of restrict that width was to put prohibited uses that we wouldn't have any vehicle other than emergency maintenance and authorized vehicles be over that 50 foot width. So that kind of it's it's a catchall at the end of it for many of the other devices. And then they looked at PATH rules, the regulations, special rules, hazard activities, um rules for specific vehicle types, and then liability. So for path rules, we you'll council already approved this, but we we updated the language in there to reflect what council approved with the decals being placed on the front and rear exactly how

it was approved. Um, and then operating regulations, we changed quite a bit. It used to only be over, along, and across. And there were a limited number of roadways. We actually went through and added more of the higher volume roads that we really don't want people to cross unless it's at an authorized crossing. And that's the first section, over, along, or across. So, they can't go on it, along it, or over. And then we created another section that's just over or along um such as hip pocket. So this was really an effort of some of those higher, you know, higher vehicle roadways kind of helping out PD too because they've always the same ordinance. We didn't change the ordinance of you have to use a path if there's a parallel path. So we left that in there, but just kind of got more specific on the roads. We really didn't want to see the carts driving along so that it's clearer to the citizens and easier for PD to enforce.

Jonathan, can we ask you questions as you go along? Yeah. Um, can you tell me the difference between over and across? So, if you can go over a road, but you can't go across a road, what's what? Well, over along or across was the original language I think that was used um in the original ordinance. Um you know, I'm not 100% sure why that language is still in there. I'm just saying I go over Robinson Road like every day when I go, you know, I think the intent was,

you know, I know the over and along we added um which was just to keep people from crossing. You know, you have those driveways where people shoot across and go onto the path. It's not technically an authorized crossing. So, I got I got I was Ted if he agreed. I think along is really referring to the rideway of those roads if there's no path is what we're like driving in the grass on Holly Grove like something like that. So along is not my question. It's because in first in the first one you have over along and across

and then you have over and along in section two I would say over is on the road. You're driving over the road. I don't know. You could say on. change that to exchange that word for on. I just feel like it's I think along is to the side of the road if there's no authorized path like in the grass and then across is across. Okay. I think we could if everybody's good, we could change that to on instead of over. Yeah. Make it more clear. Okay.

And and while we're interrupted Yeah. Let me ask you a question kind of of council. the LSVS that require a license plate. Correct. Per Georgia state law. Yes. Okay. I was always under the impression that if you had to have a license plate to operate it, why is it on the cart path or why is it on the multi-use path? you know, if if it's eligible to be on the road, that's where it belongs on the road with a licensed driver operating it.

And those discussions were brought up and you know, the LSVs can't go on every road. It has to be under a certain speed limit for the LSV. And I think part of the decision making why there wasn't a consensus to totally ban them all together is they have been allowed. there are many residents out there that do have LSVs. So I think the concern there was, you know, they couldn't get a consensus on impacting did they want to impact those because speed wasn't really the argument that was being made with LSVs, right? That that wasn't really the complaint everybody was hearing with LSVs. It was the width. These things look like cars going down. they took up most of the path. So, I think it was, well, we'll keep LSVs, but we're going to prohibit the width. So, if you buy an LSV that's over 50 in, you can't use it anyways. You're not going to get it on the path. But, if you have an LSV that is smaller, um, you can, and there was discussion that the LSVs actually have safety features that the golf or the motorized carts don't have. And should we ban something that's technically safer? They have seat belts. They have a lot of features that actually protect people, you know, on the pass if they were to get in an accident. So, there were a lot of discussions. There just wasn't a consensus to ban it within the within the transportation advisory group. at the risk of bringing up something that happened before I even arrived in Peach Tree City, but it was a decision that was made that's impacting us even today. And that is the city council at a certain point in time had an option to ban the gas golf carts

and they chose to not do that. there was going to be some sort of I believe like a 10-year like phase out, right,

which would encourage people don't buy a gas golf cart because it's eventually going to be obsolete and not allowed. That never passed. And yet I have a lot of people who use golf carts all the time and complain nonstop about the stinky gas golf carts that make too much noise and disrespect, you know, disrupt everything that riding on the health system is all about. And I think we're at that point, not that it's the exact same issue, but I think we're at that same point with making the same kind of a decision about the LSVs. Do we ban them or do we not ban them? I'm not saying we have to make a decision tonight. I think we can all listen to what some of the people have to say. I think we can listen to what the the, you know, advisory group or, you know, the committee has to say.

But I think that we need to look very seriously at where do we want to draw the line because if the LSBs are going to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger just like the all of the carts have gotten faster faster and faster you know it's it's going in directions that we don't necessarily want to all go in so I think understandable

I think we need to be kind of like aware of it think about it talk about it and make an appropriate decision on This may be our one shot to make the decision. Do we ban it or not ban it? And I think I look back at the decision the council made however many years ago it was about the gas golf carts and I'm like I wish they had phased them out and banned them.

If I may just real briefly, I don't want to go down a rabbit hole here, but the conversation around gas powered carts f focused on two um two groups. One was seniors. Senior citizens love their gas powered carts because they can gas up and go for like two years. They don't have to haul a heavy charger. And we heard from a lot of seniors who are very protective of their gas powered carts. And the other group we heard from were the golf cart sales service and leasing companies mainly on Huddleston Road because visitors come to Peach Tree City, people staying in the hotels and they want to rent a a golf cart. if they have an electric cart, they tend to underestimate uh or overestimate the amount of miles that they can go. They get stranded and then who do they call? So, the golf cart leasing companies are very adherent to their gas powered carts for that reason. A lot of hotels don't have uh charging stations for multiple electric cars. I think that so that was the rationale behind that way back when. I think over time the lithium ion batteries are going to mean that you know I think we'll see gas powered carts phased out on their own but just wanted you to know what what was behind the conversation at that time.

Jonathan I have some questions but I think I'd rather before I bring them up why don't you go ahead and continue with your discussions and stuff and then I'll wait for the questions after.

Okay. So, so a couple other sections you'll see we updated the the authorized users. Um, just using those same definitions that were created, defining what is allowed on the on the path and what's not allowed on the path. um you know keeping the the speed under 20 just like everything but just specifying what devices are specifically allowed on the path. Um same for the prohibited uses went through and actually used those same definitions to spell out go-karts, you know, all the new ones we added, what's not allowed. um and just tried to make it as clear as possible for, you know, new residents or the average citizen to to kind of determine if what they bought is allowed or not allowed on the system. Um and then the hazardous activities. So, we updated a couple of things. The, you know, the Georgia hands-free use, put that in there. That wasn't in the ordinance before. um having so motorized carts having the requirement that they have to have headlights and tail lights at night um when they're out um because that's the actual that actually comes from Georgia state law for motorized car carts, which is how we're using it, that they need to be equipped with headlights and tail lights during night operation. Um and then just kind of updating some language on what to do uh when they get in accident or injury. Um there was some discuss discussion about possibly requiring insurance, but I don't think

there was enough time when that was brought up for them to come to a consensus. It was brought up towards the end. So it's something I'm sure there will the transportation advisory group is willing to discuss but it you know we didn't have a a change at that point for it. Um so just in you know summary I know it's a big big ordinance revision but um it's you know a comprehensive review done by the transportation advisory group and I just want to I want to take the time to thank not only the current members but you know this was done eight months ago so prior members and I know Keith's here and you have Paul as well they worked really really hard at kind of directing the direction of of the ordinance updates and It's gone through all of city staff and I believe Ted's reviewed it as well. So, it's really it's really just up to you at this point. We're giving it to you all for consideration, comments, any changes you want to make.

I just I just want to say first of all how much I appreciate this effort. This is what these citizen advisory groups are all about. You know, it sounds to me like we had a lot of citizens who provided input. The tag group worked on this diligently and now these are the recommendations and it's my understanding that the tag tag group went through this all and then it's been vetted by staff. It's been vetted by you. It's been vetted by our city manager and our city attorney. So that's an amazing job well done and a lot of work. I I wonder if um Paul Schultz is our tag group chair. Do you have any comment you would like to add? Sorry to put you on the spot. Is there anything else we need to know?

I think you just said everything I was going to say, which was very much a team effort. Thanks, Keith. He's here. He's very helpful. As we were getting everything put together last fall, we, you know, in in December, I believe, uh we as a city had a uh recommendation to Representative Bonner that we wanted to send for it to be considered at the state level that very much mirrored what we have in our own ordinance and what we're recommending. So, I think it was good enough to recommend to the state to have some action on. It's it's good enough for Peach Tree City. And uh about the insurance, um we brought that up at the last tag meeting. We're going to look at having uh I wanted to have all seven people there so we get a really good consensus discussion on it because we have talked about it and it's it requires a lot of thought because there's all kinds of pros and cons with it.

Thank you very much, council. Any questions? Yes, I have a few of them for you. Um, would you go back to the one that's the permitted slide?

Okay, this is the authorized items or vehicles that can go on there. What we don't have on here, and I'm not saying that maybe it's down below and I don't see it. It's line number 11, but is there a chance that you can put something in there? We don't know what the future of this type of transportation is going to be and I don't want to have to update this thing every year. Is there a place that you can put at the bottom if it's not listed above and it's new technology? Bring it forth to the tag and bring it forth to the city and let us decide if that particular type of vehicle, which is something we don't even know what it's going to be right now,

but can you bring it forth before we say, "Yeah, go ahead and use it." and let the tag take a look to see if it meets all of everything from safety to size to all of that because we don't know what the designers of these things are going to come up with in the future. But something in the bottom of that to say, yeah, before it's permitted, come and talk to us. Come and talk to the city. That's question one. I think that would really be a TED question if we can even add that kind of language. Um I will tell you that when there's been new technology, um the people trying to sell it in the city have not bashful about coming forward and asking council to get permission to list it as an authorized user. So you're going to let So we're going to let the market

market determine in other words it would end up going on the path before we No. If it's not an authorized user, it can't go on the path until it becomes an authorized. Okay. So if somebody comes up with something new and they buy it someplace else and they bring it here, they can go and use it on the path until we catch them. No. not an authorized use. So, as an example, I gave I gave the mayor an example today. The emotos, even though we're defining them here and we're actually listing them, do you have the unauthorized ones? Yeah. So, emot is added up there in red under four.

They already were not permitted on the path. The way our ordinances were written, they were not permitted even. No, not they just did not follow the 20 m per hour. Like under the general definition, they were not they're not allowed on the pass. But what we did is went in and or what TAG did is they went in and actually defined what those things are and to make it very clear to people in the city. They specifically list them right here even though they were banned already. Okay.

Right. And I think one one discussion point that did come up in tag which may kind of address what you were talking about is we we talked about actually incorporating this ordinance into some type of possible annual review. There may not be a change but yes the devices do change very very quickly. So is this something that TAG should look at every year, every two years and possibly, you know, recommend some changes so that it doesn't get so far dated that you're coming and bringing this massive document of updates at one time. So that's that's a possibility for some of those news things too as well.

I think that's great. That's a good way to do it. Just look at it annually or semi every two years.

Any other questions? Yeah. One more and then I'm done. Two questions. Sorry about that, Mayor. Um, we didn't I didn't see anything there about one of the things I brought up constantly is enforcement and citations. I did see a little bit in there on citations, but I obviously we don't have the authority yet that what that bill was going to be helping us out at the state, but we don't have any enforcement of any t anything in there other than vehicles. You can be allowed uh we can be allowed to restrict vehicles. So there's no other enforcement. as far as well like for instance if they violate um the things that are are prohibited and they end up on the path

and we catch them they're not allowed on the path what do we do get off the path or do we confiscate it and bring it to something what do we do with it it's an ordinance PD can write a citation they could issue a citation for a prohibited vehicle on the path okay they can they can do a citation or driving along along a driving on a road that they're not supposed to be Okay, that was part of identifying those roads like that's why you changed all the roads or drinking alcohol while they're on a golf cart or you know there's prohibited by state law you know they can enforce so it's so it's basically embedded oh yeah it's basically embedded the enforcement is embedded in

if it's not on that list it's in violation and you can have a citation written for you and take it off the road and as Keith brought up I believe the the parents can also be cited if it's the underage violations. I didn't hear that for the underage violation was is the parents can be decided for the underage operation violations they can decided. Okay. For the same. Good. I I have one that's the only questions I have. Thank you.

Good. One more thing. Keith brought this vehicle up, the P AEV that's not listed any place on here. Should we It's not, but it's also not a prohibited use either. So, I guess it wouldn't be allowed until I mean, we know that these exist, right? So, so that that becomes the issue, you know, that kind of sort of that Clint was talking about as things develop, but we know these are out there. So, we either need to put it on as authorized or prohibited. So, go back go back to authorized

permitted. What were we looking for? It's not I guess it's not explicitly listed in here. You're correct. But it's also not explicitly unauthorized. Well, since they're out there and we we know some of these are in town already. Yeah. I think this is something that needs to be added. I mean Okay.

I think I mean we can when they do the liability or the insurance discussion, we can bring that up as well. Um well, we could also if you really want it in there, we can do like Ted Ted and I can do a definition of it and put it in the list of authorized You know, we have two weeks before we're asking you to vote on this. Is that all? Two weeks you can get that you had enough. Is that enough time to do everything you need to do? Yes. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Yep. I have a couple. Um, for the for the ebikes with the different classes, they're supposed to have a sticker on them. Correct.

If a if a Where is that sticker supposed to be? If a bike doesn't have it, how do they get it? Well, I believe Georgia code actually requires uh dealers of those ebikes to put the sticker on there and have them if they're sold in in Georgia. So, I guess the issue would really come into um if they're buying them offline or something like that, uh it could become an issue, but it is written that they should have the sticker fixed in our ordinance. So, I guess that's exactly I guess at that point when they would stop somebody and they didn't have that sticker, that would be a violation of the ordinance itself.

So, I bought my electric bike offline. I don't know what class it is. I haven't used it in a while. Um, but if I don't have a sticker on it and I go out and use it, how do I Paul Schultz is shaking his head. I can't ride my bike. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. But, do we have like are there is there a way to to qualify it somewhere? I don't believe there's a way to to qualify one that doesn't have it. Um, so it wouldn't I mean it would technically be in violation of the ordinance. Wouldn't it be by the motor wattage because it says in here 750 watts.

It does have 750, but that doesn't necessarily I don't think that determines it. I think a class three could have a 750 watt motor. Okay. and it's not allowed on the path. So, um because it's really the classes are how fast they can they can go. Um Mr. Larson's about to jump out of his chair. Is there a comment? Can you take the microphone for me, please? Microphone for me, please.

Good evening. Uh uh Council, uh Johnson, you you asked a great question. The Georgia code since 2014 have required all electric assisted bicycles distributed in the state of Georgia since 2012 to have a class designation sticker. It the Georgia code does not define what it looks like. So you you can see some bikes will have a sticker that's along one of the tubes. It says class two or class one. Some of them have a very neat little sticker that's on the down tube where the seat tube is that says class two and the power which is what the Georgia code requires. Okay. Now, if you have a bike that somehow that was slipped, you as a consumer can go look at the specifications and also you can go online and you can actually buy decals.

Okay. Okay. So, so that can fix or heal an individual. Okay. But the problem is we have deceptive marketing by emoto distributors. They're calling them ebikes. And that that's the tragedy. And this is the safety issue that I really concerned about that someday we're going to have some really serious crashes because these kids are only 12, 13 years old are running these emotos down Robinson Road which is 40 miles an hour doing wheelies.

Doing wheelies. There there are already I mean there are already tragic crashes in Faget County that you'd only hear about if you hear about the parents complaining because they took their kids to the emergency room. These are lifechanging crashes. Thank you. But you know you can get decals. You can go to the local bike shop and they can help you out. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um

Okay, great. And then just a a slight typo on the Oh, there was one that was path rule site. Um, it said a read light on the back. It should say red light on the back. So, just um and then I just assume that we will update like the Navigate PTC app with like the flyer that goes out with the the new rules and everything so we can Yes. Um, we actually distributed all of the remaining multi-use path brochures. Um, so we would actually be in the process of creating new ones and we also did talk about when this affects so many residents, we would want to have an educational campaign. So that would be included as well as we talked about a town hall as well. So that way our residents could uh give some feedback either before or after adoption.

Right. And I know it was um stated earlier, but I would also like to give my thanks to everyone involved in in putting this together um the tag committee. I'm grateful for the knowledgeable people that we have on there and y'all's work in in doing this. So thank you. Thank you. All right, Mr. Paul. No questions. Just thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. What's our next step? Bring it before you uh at the next March meeting. Okay. Approve. You'll get it in two weeks. Yes. Okay. Great. All right. Uh work session discussion item C, storm water utility rate presentation. Dave Borowski.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh I'm here tonight with uh Hope Lissy from uh ISC. She's our consultant working on this project and we'd like to uh do a presentation about some recommended changes to our stormwater utility rate structure and whatnot. And uh with that, I'll turn it over to Hope here to get us started and we'll kind of tag team this a little bit. Thank you.

Good evening, Madame Mayor, Council, resident, staff. Thank you for the time you're giving us tonight to go over the storm water rate analysis that we did. Um, real fast in 2024, so two years ago, the city asked us to analyze the storm water utility fee and the rate structure. What that consisted of was going through all of the existing customer accounts you have, evaluating what the equivalent residential unit is, eru, that's the term of the night for a single family residence in Peach Tree City. Then calculating what the fractional factor is of one ERU for the attached residential class, comparing that to the existing rate structure that we have, doing a full review of the credit program that the utility offers, and then looking at the cost of the storm water management program and coming up with the rate that would be needed to balance the cost that the that the program has. So, starting at the beginning, looking at the customer accounts, there are over 12,000 detached single family residences in the city. There are 32 attached residential properties. There are 41 city properties. And then everything else gets put into this last little bucket. This NSFR that stands for non-s single family residential. And I don't want to be deceiving at all. Non-S single family residential. Even though it sounds like it's not residential, it does include condominiums. It includes apartment complexes. Includes um senior care facilities, assisted living homes. So basically, if

you're not a detached single family residence or you're not an attached residence, which is duplexes, triplexes, town homes, you're going to fall into this last Whoops. This last little category, the NSFR category. So, we looked through the whole housing stock and we found a few things that were um unexpected. Um the current structure charges a sir charge for city properties and streets and it also charges the residences that live on private streets an additional fee. And so we would expect a utility that has basically three classifications, detached, detached, and non to have three codes in their billing software. Because of the special search charge and the private streets, the software is set up with 63 separate codes in the billing software. And so administering that accurately has been a challenge. and we are recommending that you look at simplifying the rate structure because of that. Um, some of the things we discovered in the account review, the new Booth Middle School had not been receiving a fee, and that's quite a large property with lots of imperous area. And the um, Clayton State Southern Crescent Technical College that's located the Old Booth Middle School, it was receiving the 75% education credit. However, the way the credits are written in Peach Tree City, it is not applicable to colleges or universities. And one of our recommendations is that you expand it to be available to colleges and

universities, not just schools from grade 12 and under. Um, we found seven properties that are vacant that have no imperous area yet they were receiving a fee. And then we found properties that had burned down and because of that destruction, their storm water utility fee had been suspended, although they had been rebuilt in many cases for many years and they were not being built. So, it's kind of nice that staff took the time to do a review of everything we had right now. So, those are a lot of numbers for counts of accounts. And I like to put up pie charts that kind of give you a picture of what you're talking about. Most of the accounts in the city are going to be over here in this green bucket. These are your detached residences of your over 12,000 accounts. These are your all other accounts in the red. The NSFR, the 41 city accounts don't even show up. They're so small. And then the 302 attached residents. That's the current classification, but not just looking at number of accounts. It's kind of h how much of the fee is burdened in each of these classifications. And you look at on this side, this pie chart is showing your equivalent residence units. So you've got your detached are over 50% you can see, but over here, my gosh, it looks like Pac-Man over 75%. And so what you see is these non-s single family residential properties. Those are going to be your multi-dwelling unit properties. It's also going to be your schools, your churches, your shopping centers, your industrial facilities. I mean, it really is a catch-all category. If you're developed piece of property with an

impervious surface that is not a detached single family resident or an attached resident, you're going to fall in this bucket. And this is where a lot of the fees come up even though it's a small number of the accounts. May I ask a question there? Does that include commercial properties in that red part or is that a total separate section? The red category includes commercial. Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Good question. So looking just at that the category of the detached single family residents, those 12,000 accounts, those 12,000 homes we have out there. What we did is created a histogram of the imperous area and you just look at buckets. These are divided into a 100 different categories. And the smallest property had 730 square feet and the largest had nearly 35,000 square feet of imperous area. That's really b really large. But you just plot the frequency of occurrences to create this histogram and you get this nice bell curve right here. Now, you definitely have a tail out here, but when you see a nice normal distribution bell curve, you would usually see just one rate. And the current structure, the utility has three tiers based on the amount of square footage on the property. And so, tier one you've got in the orange, tier two is in the green, and tier three would be all of these yellow and this red. What we're recommending is the rate structure be changed to a flat fee for every one of these properties that's in yellow, green, and orange. And that the large that are three times the the median or more that they be treated just like that red category of non-s single family residences. So when the original utility went in the there was a statistical sampling done of the properties in the city. Not every

property was done in GIS and at that time the median for the detached single family residences was 4600 square feet. But since then the city's developed their own GIS department. and it's very robust with the staff and their capabilities. They have delineated every imperous area in the city and we see now that the median has actually dropped and it's down to 4,200. We don't expect that number to really change much in the future. You would have to have, you know, a lot of micro homes go in to change that number much smaller. And with the city built out as much as it is now, it would take a lot to move that anymore. But we're recommending that you change one eru defined as 4600 square ft down to what we found as 4,200. Um, so similar to that, we did the same analysis with the attached residential, those 207 properties, and it's not nearly the same as far as a normal distribution, looking at the different buckets, but we found the median was 2300 square feet. And so that would be 55% of what the detached property is. And so we're recommending right now the rate structure is doing 47%. And we would recommend that you change the attached residential customers instead of being 47% of one that they be charged at 55% of one. The next thing we did was we looked at the user fees that we have. Um, user

fees are great because they give the community um, not the fees, the credits are great because they give the customers the opportunity to decrease their bill by doing something. Um public involvement is a um the most common credit that we find in the city that the residents are taking care of. Several hundred residences are doing that every year. Um you can remove imperous surfaces. We've seen that in many communities that a church may say, "We're only using the parking lot on Sundays and Wednesdays to maximum capacity." they might put in some pvious surfaces instead for, you know, most of the time and get a big credit on their on their bill. It's going to go down because doing things like that. So, we compared Peach Tree City. We looked at your current credit program compared with seven other Georgia communities. We looked at what types of credits are given, the percent reduction in the credit, is it 10%, is it 50%, what was it? And the duration period by the type and just comparing all the different programs, all the different factors. We recommend that you revise the rain barrel credit to be up to 10%. Right now it's just a flat 10% and you may have just one rain barrel on the property. You may have four rain barrels on the property. They may be different size rain barrels. And we thought it would give engineering a little bit more flexibility in giving a credit to what the actual decrease in demand that the property was placing. We're recommending that you add a no direct discharges credit. If you've got a property that's on the edge of town

and it doesn't drain anything and you may consider doing a no direct discharges credit. It's not 100% at all, but it's giving that property owner some benefit of the doubt. So, they're still paying for a storm water fee for all of the environmental compliance regulations that the city as a whole may have to follow, but they're not putting a demand on infrastructure that has to be inspected and maintained. U the education credit that I spoke to earlier is currently 75% but it is limited to school systems that are grade 12 and younger and to school systems that are a thousand students and more. In Peach Tree City, the only customer that qualifies is the Faget County Board of Education. So we recommend that you expand that credit to be not just schools but colleges and universities and that you change the amount of students and looking at a school with 200 students or more. Then finally we looked at a new credit being offered called the inspection and maintenance agreement. This is going to be for those NSFR customers. It's going to be for ones that have a storm water facility that was constructed prior to December 6, 2012 because the state requires in your MS4 permit that everything from December 206, 2012 forward, they are already required to have an inspection and maintenance agreement. But the older facilities that were grandfathered in, they're not required to do that. And currently we've got basically

132 ponds that were constructed prior to that date that the city is not required at all to have an inspection and maintenance agreement. We've seen other communities put in as a credit and if they'll enter into an inspection and maintenance agreement with the city, then you can go in and actually look at that pond and see if it's working properly and it gives you some teeth. to bring it up to code. So you're really you're talking about uh detention ponds here if they're built into the properties. Is that what you're really talking about? And how they're monitored and how they discharge. So you got to look at a number of things.

That's correct. And so it would in it could incentivize the owners of some of these facilities to go ahead and apply for the credit if they're willing to enter into an inspection and maintenance agreement. And who does that inspection and maintenance agreement? The city does an engineering. Currently they do every storm water facility. We can call it a pond.

The term is storm water management facility that was constructed after December 6, 2012. So the city's already doing that for the properties that developed later. It's just the earlier properties. So basically no one is required to or is inspecting the facilities prior to December 6, 2012. Like they were grandfathered in or something.

Yes, they were grandfathered in through the in the way the NPDES permit was written and I think it was in 2008 when it was written that anything constructed in December 6, 2012 forward. So they had a few years to know it was coming down the pike. And how do we incentivize that? What's the incentive? Credit. We're going to offer them a credit on their storm water utility fee. That's the That's why we're making the recommendation. What kind of credit? What percentage?

The inspection and maintenance agreement. Let's see. Good question. Ryan, can you open this memo, too, please? Thank you. Let's go down to the last page. Keep going. And then while you're looking, this would be an annual inspection then. It would not. I would say it would be once every 5 years to be on the same schedule as the other the more modern storm water fees. I see. How many facilities?

She said 132 detention ponds were built before 2012. I didn't write that down. Holy moly. Okay, thank you. We were looking at what kind of credit we were looking at this the percentage.

Oh, I think so. That's going to part of the project if the council decides to um adopt recommendations and revise the utility and fee. One of the projects is to update the storm water technical credit manual and that would go in that it hasn't been developed yet because why do the work if you're not going to do it? It seems like the um it's subjective when you have things like and decide uh if this could assist the storm water uh the SWMP that's almost very subjective. Two engineers are never going to agree on that.

That the the bottom line of that section where the inspection and maintenance agreement goes along there. It talks about then decide whether this could assist the SWMP in ensuring all post construction facilities are being effectively maintained and that can be very subjective. I think that mirrors the language that we have in place now that we've been using without really any push back

and our engineers normally have actual criteria as if there's an issue with a pond that they go out and inspect under one of the existing maintenance agreements. We can detail what the shortcomings are and get them remedyed. And also uh in that agreement it references the blue book which gives the standard so that there's no that's the standard question. Yeah. The inspection forms come straight out of the blue book. Got it. Okay. Do we need to keep going? Y

thanks for the diversion there. So this is the existing rate structure that the city has and one of the um unique things is in addition to the flat fee of 1.0 for the tier 2 properties, there was a sir charge that was brought in in 2013. And so we're recommending instead of having three different tiers where tier one's paying 0.93, tier 2 is paying 1.36 of a rate and tier 3 is paying 2.07 that all of these properties would be paying one eru. Get rid of the search charge. The way you do that um fair and equitably is you let the city properties be looked at as a cost. So instead of saying I'm going to have this city this amount of the city property, you're going to pay for this much, you're going to pay for this much, you're going to pay for just put it in as a cost. You're already doing that with all the other costs of the program. And it'll it helps simplify the structure so it's not as confusing. Not as many residents are having to call with questions about the bills they're receiving. And we do recommend that the residences who live on private roads continue to pay for the impervious surface of those roads. So, the recommendation for the rate change would effectively bill all the DSFR, the detached single family residences that are on public roads at a rate that's just less than this tier

three rate. Currently, we're looking at $14 a month, which is going to be where is it? Next slide. Um be before we go into that um it's going to be the tier three customers that we said were the large customers that we would have treated as NSFR. Those customers were recommending it's anyone that's three times the impervious area of the median or more. Those customers would be paying a minimum of $54 a month. And those are going to be, you know, the customers that have 12,600 square feet or more impervious area on their property. And maybe I should have put this up earlier, but the utility went in in 2006, so it's now 20 years old. In 2007, storm water bonds were issued for just over three and a half million dollars for the capital improvement projects. In 2013 is when the structure was revised and they went to this sir charge that has made it a little confusing to administer. That was the last rate increase. And when I say the rate went from 395 to 689, that would be for one eru. That doesn't include the sir charge. So people are actually paying more than the 6.89 a month because of the search charges. And they're different depending on if you've got a private street or not. And

those are all based on a monthly payment. Well, the I believe the bills come out every six months for the residences and they come out every month for commercial properties whose annual fee is more than $600 a year. But these numbers you're putting up of 689 is monthly. Yes, sir. Okay. So, basically, we're recommending instead of 689 being for one eru that it would go to $14 plus a search charge without a search charge. No search charge. Eliminating the search charge.

So, in 2013, storm water bonds were again issued for $7.5 million. Currently, the utility is funding a portion of the annual stormwater management program operating cost. We have gotten into a backlog of pipes that have severe corrosion that need immediate repair or replacement, which was the driver behind looking at doing a fee study to find out what rate we needed to cover all the cost that we're looking at. Currently in the city there are over 35,000 linear feet of metal pipes with severe corrosion. And this is just an example. This is from Southern Shore. And you can see this joint is completely broken in the pipe. And

I don't know where in the pipe that is actually located. Our storm water manager may know. We hope it's not under the road because if it's under the road, then you definitely have the possibility of the sinkhole developing, the pipe failing. And it's one thing if a road has a sinkhole, but if it's a road that's on a culdeac and that pipes the only way in and the only way out, then we're concerned about emergency responders getting there if the road collapses. I have a question. What's What's the average age of that pipe right there? Or of the 35,000? I You said 20.

I don't know the average age of the pipes. They are they will sell them to you and tell you they're going to last for 30 years, but our soils are too acidic and we see them lasting for 20 years. And the city has begun requiring anything under the road be made of the HDPE or the reinforced concrete which have much longer lifespans. Thank you.

Um, but I'm bringing this up just the first point is that proactive maintenance is much less expensive than emergency repair. We don't want to be in that situation. So, we haven't had that happen in Peach Tree City. You lord. But these are examples from two other metro Atlanta suburbs that did have this happen recently. There was a 12- foot diameter partial culvert collapse that you see in this picture. It cost the city $2.5 million to replace. You can line and repair so many pipes with $2.5 million. And this was just one road. In this case, this was a five and a half foot diameter pipe. So, it's a pipe a little bit taller than me. The city had a rehab estimate from the vendor to fix it for $200,000, but they just didn't pull the trigger on it. I don't know why. And when I say they didn't pull the trigger on it, it was six or seven years they didn't do it and it collapsed. It was on a major on on a a nice size road in a subdivision similar to say Kedran Drive. It was a $2 million repair. And so I look at that as it was a waste of $1.8 million in storm water fees because they could have spent the $200,000 and gotten it rehabilitated.

This one uh this is a a city example of what she just basically said. Uh 214 Southwick. This is a a pipe that is uh right between two homes within the you know few feet of their foundation. Uh we had to replace it. Uh was about 120 ft $160,000 project and if we could aligned it it would have been only 32. So So are you telling us that with these fee structure changes and these fee changes we will be able to be proactive on these projects? And the reason that we were not proactive is because we didn't have enough money in the bucket. Yes. Correct.

Okay. What's your projection on that now that you're going to be raising the fees from 689 to $14? I mean, it's going to take you a while to bring that all in and you need to repair what? 35 35,000 miles. Not thousand miles. Hundreds of miles. It's seven miles. Yeah. Seven miles. Seven miles. Okay. Uh, whatever it is, we we uh, you know, you want to get that done as quickly as possible. And if you don't have the money or it's going to be coming in over a period of time, how are you going to get that done quickly? I recommend you use a GIFA Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan. Yep. That's what I recommend. Bond.

Well, you can do a bond. Yeah. And and and that that falls into finance and they know the way to get the least expensive amount of money. And so for the rate model, what we used was the current GE for loan rate for 20 years. Rates are going to change this May. I wish I knew if they were going to go up or down. I would have said down a few weeks ago, but now who knows which way it'll go. It may stay the same. But, you know, that was the model we used and we looked at funding $13.5 million in projects. Currently, David's project list is $20 million. Do we have a prioritization schedule in place?

Yes. Yes, ma'am. We do. And they all need to be done immediately or can they be can be spread out? We won't be able to do them all immediately, but yes, we do have a prioritization plan for them.

Basically, all the pipes, um, they're assessed. 20% of the city's assessed every year. And so, the city's constantly out there doing maintenance and repair, but right now the project list has just gotten larger and larger and larger. I believe the prioritization is looking at the ones that are severely corroded that are under the roads on one way in one way out streets. Those are the highest priorities.

And I I think it's just me asking. I think I know the answer, but the reason a lot of this stuff is getting this way increasingly faster and at once is because a lot of the city was built in the 80s and the early 90s. that like a lot of the a lot of stuff was built around the same time. So, it's aging around the same time. Yes, that is correct.

So, existing the annual budget is right at $2.9 million for storm water and that's coming with the one ERU at 689 a month. What we looked at is upping that budget to 3.9 million at a $14 monthly rate. It's going to allow you to add two more storm water field employees. Adding some heavy equipment so the city can do some things inhouse instead of outsourcing. Um reallocating that search charge of the city properties into the cost. That just helps on the accounting side. and then doing a more limited CIP implementation. Right now, we're just not have not been able to tackle some of the big CIP projects.

What do you mean limited CIP implementation?

Well, we're not going to be able to tackle all 20 million unless you give me more than $14 a month. Um, now, of course, you only get what you ask for. But, um, this would allow us to finance. It's going to be 13 and a half million. And let's see what the G for rate. It was a 20-year term at 3.39% with two payments a year. I don't know if you can beat that with something else. Those aren't that's not my area to do, but that's for y'all to look at. That's awesome because the the more you can finance get financed staying at this $14 rate, the faster you can start attacking some of those projects that list. So the way the rate study works is you look at all the erus from all the different categories. You look at the operating costs that you have. You look at delinquencies because the truth is not everybody pays their bills. You look at the credits, the people that are going to take advantage of the credit program. And then fund balance offset, that's just a fancy way to say it's an enterprise fund and the funds carry over from year to year or the deficit carries over from year to year. Um, we used 4% inflation for personnel cost, 3% for all other cost, and we inflated the billing units at 1% and we ran it out for 15 years. and looking at what makes it balance $14.

What does that mean? Fees for the top 10.

So fees for the top 10. We also looked at your top 10 um biggest customers and we'll get to that. That's coming up in a few slides. But who are your 10 biggest payers and how would that affect them? So the first thing we looked at, how would it affect our detached single family residents? So instead of having tier 1, tier 2, tier three, we would have a flat fee for anyone that had less than 12,600 square feet. So there it is, $168 annually, $14 a month. And for those customers that have more than 12,600 square feet or more, it's going to have the minimum of $504 a year because it's three times by definition. They're three times that 12,600 is three times that median of 4,200. Following me? So, how would their bill change? This is what a bill looks like currently. This is for a private street and in village on the green, a detached single family resident. Just so you can see, this is what the customer is getting. They get this storm water user fee, they get this other one, and they get two more. And I don't know what all that means. And it says, "For an explanation, go to our website." I don't like that. I don't And by eliminating the search charge, right now they're paying that PSS line is the search charge on the private streets

and then you have the private street charge and then you have the search charge on the private street charge. So it's just confusing. Let's just say, okay, I'm a detached single family resident. I'm going to pay one billing unit. And so we were looking at continuing if we did the semiannual and telling them the semiannual fee right here is $84 per eru. And so they're private streets. They pay 0.27 erus. And they can do the math themselves and calculate it. And it's just a little bit more user friendly. So, if you live on a private street, your bill would go from four lines to two lines. If you live on a public street, which is the vast majority of residents, your bill would go from two lines to one.

How many private streets we have we got in the city approximately? Well, there 22 subdivisions. 22. Thank you. Yeah. Sorry. The streets are done by segments and there are 338 segments of private streets. So, Okay, that's the way I look at it. So then you ask how will it affect our attached residential residents? And so they're going to go Could you Could you go back please? One. Yes, ma'am. So what was the total um detail of current charges? Oh, we haven't implemented the change yet. Let me continue. Sorry about that.

This is what it would be if you did. And so for the attached residences that are on public roads right now, they're paying an annual of 5278 for their AR subclass one rate plus their searchcharged rate and going to 55%. That would put their annual rate up to 9240. Is that what we're recommending? 55%. And what is 55% again? It was that histogram of the attached residential showing that they were 55% of the detached. Okay,

good questions. And so instead of $14 a month like the detached residents, they'd pay 55% which is $7.70 a month. So a nice tall Starbucks. So, this is an attached residential bill for a customer that also lives on the same private street in Village on the Green. And right now, they're getting very similar looking bill, four different lines, very confusing. When I looked at it, I thought, "What in the world does this mean?" And this is, you know, this is what I do. And we're recommending that it just go to two lines. You have your flat fee of 0.55 erus, your 55%. And what that calculates out to, because still it's the same rate, everybody pays the same rate, $14 per eru. You may have a different number of billing units based on the property you have. And then you see for the private streets, it doesn't matter if you're an attached resident or a detached resident. It looks at the total impervious area of the private road in the community divided by the number of residences in the community. So

each of the private streets has a unique eru for their private street. Can you indulge me one more time the description your description of what an AR is versus the non-s single family and detached single family? I understand those two. What's an AR again? Attached residential is going to be a duplex, a triplex, a town home. Good. Got it. Thank you. You're welcome.

So, getting to the top 10, which is what we usually look at. In this case, it ended up being the top 14 because when we did the top 10 of customers down here and then we were looking at what the erus were currently because that GIS update was done. The ERUS have actually changed. And so if you did $14 a month per ERU, what would your fees be? And so their ranks changed. And a shocking one is this Matsushida, which you and I know as Panasonic. Their fee is going to go down because right now there is a parcel next to them that they're being build for, but it's owned by a different entity. And we suggest billing the entity that owns the property. Oops.

But everyone else's fee would go up. Um Walmart is paying 18,000 a year. A these are years. These are not a month. This is a year. It would go up to 30,000 a year. Um right now we've got the board of education. They're paying just under 14,000. Theirs would go up to 38,000. That's keeping the 75% education credit in place.

But but the erus have changed. Their erus have changed. Is that because we're now adding in New Booth Middle School and including colleges?

No, it's it's not. It's it's New Booth Middle School was just over half of this change in erus. So that was a big one. But the other one was since the original delineations back in 2004 before the utility was set up in 2006. You've had a lot of expansions on the properties. You've had a lot of building programs on the properties. You've put in parking lots, additional buildings, and so that captured it. Additionally, the aerial photography is so much better and so much clearer and so This is accurate now. We're getting accurate.

It is. Your GIS staff is really to be commended with what they've done. Hope I have another question. Yes, sir. Um, excuse me. May Did I interrupt you? You go right ahead. Okay. Um, you've done this before. This is not your first rodeo.

Yes. And so when you hit uh a business with tripling their stormwater fee in one year, I'm sure that you're going to get some type of what's going on response coming back. Have you had that? And how did you handle it? Usually what we recommend doing is an educational program to let the customers know in advance that this is coming, not just surprise your bills going up

and letting them know. I don't want to say y'all been kicking the can down the road because you haven't. You've been actively working with the dollars you had available, but at this point you may end up with a public safety hazard. You can go back to that slide that was the 12 foot diameter. That's two and a half feet. I mean, two and a half times as tall as I am under a road. What happens when that collapses? Who was in the vehicle going over it? We don't want to go there. We We would make national news and we don't want to make national news, not in storm water.

So, this is about the necessity of the projects. It is coupled with accuracy and new accounting for properties with our GIS and an augmented fee schedule that scales back on search charge. No more search charge. Um, streamlines I'll say streamlines the bills for better accuracy.

Yes. Because right now, neighbors next to one another in a subdivision may be paying different fees and different rates and it's very confusing. And most people who feel like they're paying too little don't call the city and ask for their bill to be reviewed. But people who are concerned that they're paying too much more than their neighbors that they're talking to, they call. And the purpose of the storm water utility is not to make sure that the bills are accurate. The purpose is to fund the storm water management program and take care of the infrastructure that we've got. So we highly recommend the simplification of the fee schedule and these top 10 accounts the ones that are increasing significantly. It's not it's not all because of the price change. It's they've added

so the board of education has built a new school. The erus are now counting the new booth which they were not doing before. Yes. Sne expanded from 170 to 200. That's a lot. Certainty did their building expansion. And so some of it is just correction, but some of it is actual additional building. Interesting.

So that's why you don't have everybody sitting at the same percent change. That's what that last column is. What's their percent change going to be? So just the summary of what the revised structure would be would be the attached residential duplexes, triplexes, town homes at 55% of one. So that's going to come out to 770 a month. the detached single family residentials at $14 a month. The large detached which are going to be a minimum of three erus or more would start at a minimum of $42 a month. And then the all other bucket, the NSFR are going to receive custom bills that are going to be a minimum of $14 a month. There are very few of the NSFRs are receiving the $1,400 a month. $14 a month. So, going back to those same pie charts, when you pull out these large DSFR customers and you categorize them with the NSFR, now you have these two categories are making up over 50% of the fees, whereas before you had over 50% coming from the residences. And it's really these two categories that are putting the most demand on the system. I would not have that. That's interesting. What do other communities pay? This is oh my favorite slide. So the way you can compare apples to apples is normalizing the rate per 1,00 square feet because in the eru

column you can see peach tree city existing is 4600. We're recommending it go to the actual histogram of 4200 and every community is going to be different and so the way the standard industry practices normalize it to a th00and square feet. So, you look at this and you're a little hesitant. Oh my gosh, we're going to be the most expensive at 333. But I will tell you both um just metro Atlanta communities, Dicab County, Decar, Aendelle Estates, they're all more going to be more expensive than Peach Tree Cities. We were just kind of looking at who are your nearest neighbors, who are other phase 2 MS4 permites. Here we go.

Yeah. Do you have any questions about this? Um, real fast, I want to go over the dates. Um, Senoya just increased their fees in 2025. Griffin. See, when they they're playing um they're playing the game of we only have 2,200 ERUs. So, it looks like, oh, we're only charging our citizens 620 a month. Because you may have family in Griffin and they're like, why are why are you only paying 620 and Peach Tree City wants to go up to 14? But it's really one of the highest rates out there because their eru is so low. Their square footage is so low. I see you shaking your head. Um, Snellville and Covington both did rate increases in 2024. Fagatville did theirs in 2023. They've done an interesting one. They are having their fee go up every year for five years. So, they're implementing it more slowly. um Woodstock their fee increased in 2023 and I didn't I couldn't find a date for when Carterville's increase this one down here on the lowest level. But you're seeing all of these communities have been doing rate studies and that's really been driven by the cost construction costs going up. The cost to do things just went up exorbitantly. No one anticipated that.

You mean to do our repair projects?

Yes. Construction cost, materials cost. Build back better had you had to use the money by a specific deadline. So suddenly you had demand go up and the supply stayed the same. And you know from econ 101 that means the price goes up. And so just to summarize, the recommendations we're making are to reduce the ERU from 4600 square ft to 4200 square ft to increase the attached residential AR from 47 to 0.55 to increase the ERU billing rate from 689 to $14 a month to revise the tier structure to only have the detached single family, the attached residential, those large detached residentials that are going to be included in the NSFR to revise the residential rain barrel credit up to 10% to add a no direct discharge credit to change the education program credit to expand it to schools and colleges and decrease the minimum number of students to 200 students. students in the system.

What is it right now? A thousand. And then to add a credit for this inspection and maintenance agreement to incentivize those pond owners for the ponds that were constructed prior to that 2012 date.

Okay. Anything else, council questions? Um, so on your last pie chart there, we're showing that that small red section, those NSFRs, once we do this, the burden is going to be over 50% on them. Is that correct? That's correct. That's Well, if you if you put the large DSFRs, the little purple wedge in with the red, yes, the burden is going to be over 50% in that group. And so that's showing how much impervious area those customers have. There aren't a whole lot of customers, but they're the ones that have the area.

Yeah. Um I think when it comes to storm water, it's something that residents don't always have an appreciation for. You know, it's something that's that it's a you know, it's a service that we provide and we want to take care of our city that they don't see the pictures that we saw tonight. Um, I had a conversation with Justin today that made me a lot more appreciative of this because people don't love getting a storm water bill. If I'm if if anyone ever comes up to me about storm water, it's not a positive conversation that they're, you know, having with me typically. Um, but what I learned, you know, even if we don't have a storm water bill, residents are going to be paying for this, you know, but then it's going to be in the form of the taxes and And by doing it this way, we're able to share that burden because otherwise it's subject to a millage and that's, you know, the burden is going to be spread out amongst our residents and then you're going to end up paying more. So, you know, it's it's ugly kind of, you know, and and people don't love it and there's lots of complaints, but there is a a great benefit to our residents in doing it this way. Is that correct, Justin? Am I saying this right? I mean I would defer to hope but I you know the way I will usually try to explain it to people is is we have to maintain our storm water one way or another. So it can be through a millage, through property taxes, or we could do this, which to me, you look at this pie chart, you see that red there. Our NS, if you take our NSFR and put it into our digest, they would not pay over 50% of what it costs to maintain our storm water system. But this this utility allows us to really put more of the burden on the properties that are actually causing us to have a better storm water system. Um, control that and

actually let our residents pay less than they would if it was in their taxes. Absolutely. Because the properties that are tax exempt will not pay for storm water if you're paying for it out of the general fund. And so in that case, you have everybody else that whose property is taxed. And some of those tax exempt properties, you saw the schools, they're the third largest one in the city now. they would be paying zero. I have a question about that though. I I thought we had tossed around at one point or that it could be put on the tax bill but would not necessarily be part of the millaged rate

kind of thing where it would be a separate line item and it would be you know that that is an option that we need to actually look at. Correct. The ad the advantage is when people pay their taxes the beginning of the year, anybody who's got mortgage properties or whatever, it would get paid. But um you know then if people are hope was not tasked with that was not tasked with how we build. Sure. It was just more Yeah. Well, we had tossed that around as an option and other communities do part of the millage rate. That's the thing, right? It would be a line item kind of like the 911 line item is on our tax bill.

You did you say other communities are doing that? Other communities do that. And so for the tax exempt properties, they receive a storm water only bill from the tax commissioner's office. It's kind of surprising. And from an accounting standpoint, I think it's cleaner that way. Yes. Right.

I do have to ask a financial question. Hopefully you'll be able to do that. I hope and at u the $14 a month and $168 a year and what the revenue is going to be coming in versus the estimated cost going out at some point they're going to have to be a break even and have you have you looked at when that would be uh uh roughly and was it year six what year was that going to be for breaking I know you you talked about your projection earlier the way the great model works is you want to be in the black at the end of every year,

but you don't want to be ended up like a lot. So, we looked at doing I think a $15 rate and at the end of 15 years you had $4 million. Well, let's not do that. Let's not ask people pay for I mean, I'm sure we could figure out a way to spend it, but let's not do it if we don't have a need for it, right? And so just we can open the rate model if you want to see it and look at the bottom line. I just thought maybe it just would be, you know, a year, four and a half years we'll be all break even and we'll be

in the very first year we're red by less than $10,000 and in year two we're in the black. But it goes it goes up and down because we have some existing bonds out there that we're already paying for that are going to be paid off in three more years, four more years. You're getting really close. Good. You gave me the Thank you, Hope. We can open the rate model and look. It's in there. So So this new rate structure covers an anticipated storm water bond.

Yes. The the rate is includes financing 13.5 million dollars in capital improvement projects. And it's how you finance it is going to be up to finance. Got it. Okay. Got it.

Okay. I mean, council, I don't see any way around this. I have a sense of urgency about the projects. Our backlog exceeds available funds. We've been dipping into storm water savings reserves to cover emergency projects. And we're spending too much money on emergency projects. I I have one more question and it relates to what I asked a minute ago about billing it annually on the tax bill. Um I don't have any idea what our current cost is to send out the every six month bills, but we're doing that independently. Um so I guess the question is is that something we should look at because we'd be looking at it annually over a very long period of time. Yeah,

we've already been in in works with the tax commissioner. We've looked at what our costs are in house to mail them out. We we contract with a third party. We send them the information and they send out the bills and the tax commissioner is willing to put it on the tax bills for less than what we currently pay to have it outsourced. So that would actually be very much to our advantage in the ve in the long run. Yes. because we would be we would save some of the mail cost and handling costs that we're paying out now. And it would also be in the advantage of the I've had a lot of people call me wanting it, desperately wanting it on their tax bills because then they just don't have to worry about it. It's part of their escrow, right?

Yep. Okay. Council, any other questions? Painful, but necessary. Mayor, I have a question. and I'm not a part of council but hope are you finding more cities and counties are going to a flat fee model or is this that's a challenging question to answer because it's in my best interest to say that our clients do there are some consultants who will have seven different residential tiers and they're setting up a community stormwater utility to be an annuity for future engineering consulting fees. And I have a problem with that.

Okay. I'm just I would rather I would rather flat fee myself out of work and do what's right for communities. We have to get back to that. Um and that um looking at the detached single family residences that are 3.0 or larger, there are two cities in metro Atlanta that are currently doing that. So there's it's not like you'd be setting a precedence doing that. People are already doing that. But yes, I think I may want to have some other analysis or discussions with you folks about the different tiers.

Yeah, if if you see a camel when you do the histogram, well then you may need five tiers, but we don't see that in Peach Tree City. We see this nice uniform lump. and you saw very few were three times the median or larger that little red group way out on the tail end.

And so that's when you see the the driver. If you've got um a a large broad histogram, even if it's normally distributed, you might want to do tears. But we're not seeing a broad. We're seeing a night tight nice tight one. And so in that case, we wouldn't recommend tears, but we certainly do see communities with tears that have camel humps and you want to make sure that it is fair and equitable for the residents. Oh, I I agree with that. Okay. All right. Justin, is there anything else you need to know from council?

I don't think so. Um, I thought I had one more question, but Ted asked his. I forgot. So, we're good. Um, yeah, I'm good. Uh, I do I think Ted wants to talk a little bit more about it, but as soon as what I'm hearing, as soon as it's ready to be brought forward, we'll bring it forward. Good. All right. Is that what I'm hearing? That's Yeah, I think we don't have any other choice. I, you know, it's like the only thing I

I hate charging people something today for something that's going to be spent somewhere way down the road. you know, that just seems cruel because if I pay all kinds of extra money now and sell my house in five years, I've paid for something somebody else gets the benefit of. But so there's that to be balanced out. Yeah. But part of the reason of taking out a bond though, too, is to be able to get a lot of that stuff done, not at once, but in a right timely manner where we don't have to wait on the funds to acrue. Sure. Well, I I think the hard-hitting reality is doing the preventative maintenance is infinitely cheaper than doing the repairs. That is true.

And we just can't not look at that. They're not going to get cheaper. No. No. All right. Ready? Next next topic, council. All right. Work session discussion item D. Multiple police station buildings renovation design. Dave Warowski.

Yes. Good evening again, mayor and council. Uh this is uh a design uh proposal request uh for three buildings for the uh police and emergency services. Basically, we've got the the gun range that was recently acquired uh the existing PD facility and uh another facility located uh in the same area 107 I think Guthrie Guthrie Way. Um, we have already done a lot of work in the gun range getting the uh the the ranges themselves uh up to uh high quality standards and everything and they've been using those for quite a while now. But uh now we're ready to proceed with with our new architect to design the renovations of the rest of that building along with renovations in their existing headquarters and the the third building. We we want to do a lot with the the gun range specifically. We want to make uh an EOC there as well and uh really really make that a a premier facility. We've met with our architect GMC and we we've had lots of discussions on what's needed in the design for these these facilities and they have given us a price of $379,840 for the the regular architectural services and then we had some add-ons for some civil and structural work uh for another 29,250 which would be the total design cost of $46,090. And we currently have a project account with uh sufficient funds to uh to fund this design and we were uh just bringing this forward now for discussion and questions and and uh we

would come back later for an official vote. Thank you. Council questions. Ready to move forward on that? if you don't mind, Dave. Um, I looked through this and I didn't see an awful lot about, you know, what you're going to need at that EOC and also at the gun range and that was security. Is there something built in that I just didn't see in the document here that you can elaborate on because that's obviously going to be a very serious piece of property for the city? Yes. Yes. There there we haven't gotten gotten into the weeds of all that stuff. that will be uh forthcoming in the design. But yes, we do realize that we'll have to have, you know, card access and

Yep. all that stuff. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next topic we have uh discussion item E, new HVAC equipment for the library. Dave?

Yes. And this one uh is an existing CIP project, approved CIP project. We would like to move forward with purchasing the equipment now so we can uh expend the the grant funds that need to be spent by I think July. Uh so we want to we want to do that u so we can expend those funds and then during that time we'll we'll finish the the overall design of it and uh and whatnot. we expect to be uh in about the $400,000 range for all the the equipment. They're they're pretty big pieces of equipment. They're called RTUs, rooftop units, even though they're not on the roof. They're on the ground. But, uh yeah, that's what we would like to pursue with approval at the next council meeting on that.

All right. Council, and just as a reminder, this is the project that is 50/50 with the state grant for the library. All right, council. Any questions or concerns? Any reason why we can't do it tonight? Justin, you want it tonight? I don't think it's in a rush. Okay, we'll put it on the next agenda. Put it on the consent agenda, not the next. Okay. Uh item F, multif family moratorum resolution. Ted Mer,

mayor and council, on October 2nd of last year, council adopted a 180day moratorum on multifamily residential developments. Um we have been working as quickly as possible. Uh, one of the goals we discussed at that meeting was the potential elimination of multifamily as permitted uses in a number of zoning districts. To sort of have a backbone to that going forward, we've been looking at things such as existing housing stock in the city. Um there are some national sort of goals for various communities as to percentages of single family detached versus multif family taking into account apartments, condos, town houses and everything else. Um we also are trying to inquire and get some analysis on existing vacancy rates in apartment complexes that are in the city. In other words, we're trying to do a fair analysis of what what's on the ground, what the goals would be going forward, and everything else so that we have a good basis in the event we ever get a legal challenge. We're just trying to do our homework on the front end. I will tell you that we've been working as fast as possible, but we're not quite there yet. This is looking to expire on March 31st of this this month. Um, so we didn't want that to creep up on us and us not have a comment about addressing either a extending it. I I would think another 90 days should help us. Is that a fair timetable? Okay. Justin and Shayla and I have been and we've been doing this in house rather than paying a consultant on the outside to look at it. I have a good idea of what we need to look at from a fair housing analysis and everything else, but extending it or getting other direction from council about what you want to do

comments. I have a few questions actually. Um Justin had put together that chart for me, the data with regard to housing that's approved but not yet built. Are you taking into account all of those numbers when you're figuring out what percentages of certain types of housing? Because there's town houses, condos, and there's no apartments, but there's town houses and condos in both of those charts. Yes. Yes. Or all of those charts, I should say. We're taking into account what's been approved.

Okay. because I know there was um single family condos, town houses, apartments, which is non-existent. I don't think there's any that are approved that were not built. Correct. And then age restricted was the fourth one. Correct. Yes. And that's are those are probably the same categories that have national projections or goals or whatever. Right.

And we're doing some limited analysis on because you know one of the things that's been I mean we're required somewhat under the Fair Housing Act on affordable housing component and we're sort of looking at those numbers as well. Um, a lot of times the market dictates things above what a community can really control. And I've always believed that it's just a reality that, you know, the average house price in Peach Tree City has been very high um, compared to other communities. So, we're not spending we're we're looking at that, but we're also not dwelling on it, if that makes any sense. But I I think as part of it, we at least need to do that. When I when I brought this up and we tossed it around, I wondered whether 180 days was enough. Anyway, um I'm in the past I've seen them as high as a year. Um is is 90 days realistic or with staff taking potential vacations over the next couple of months and whatever.

You know what? I I would rather keep a short rope on it and then if we have to come back and ask for more time, we will. But I think we've given ourselves 180 days to start with. I think another 90 days. I think it is realistic because we've really made some good gains on it. You know, part of it was timing. I mean, let's all remember that in October,

we're on the heels of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and then everybody back. So, there was a period of time in there that just due to holidays and calendar that it probably wasn't. and that with existing workload um it probably wasn't we did maximize our potential during that time. I'll say that. But nonetheless, we've been working on it pretty well for the last 60 days. I'd rather keep it at 90 and we can always revisit it again. Well, plus it gives us incentive to try to get it done within that time period. Okay. I mean, it wouldn't hurt to go 120, but you know, that's

ultimately council can do what they want to. I wouldn't I don't know that we need to double it up for another 180. Aren't we going to bump into I mean, we're going to start getting ready for our next comprehensive plan update, right? No, it's next year, but we'll start gearing up later this year. um talking with ARC if we still want to utilize them. Uh free is good. That's what I've heard from y'all. And they'll come in and and uh help us with it. They their timeline was fall because they're finishing up other ones that they're working on right now for this cycle. So they would start, you know, early fallish with us.

Well, I mean, we had the mortorium in place for these six months. What happens if we do nothing? the moratorium expires on March 31st. Yeah, I could do that. I think it's appropriate to let it expire. I mean,

I don't We have our own efforts coming up that will be with the ARC and we're going to be getting ready for our comprehensive plan update. This is extra work we don't need to be doing right now. um five months in. We think we still need three months. I I don't think so. I would like to understand what we have so far and just let the moratorum waft off into the distance. We are the one city council is the entity that can decide whether to lift a moratorium anytime we want to. We are also the same entity that decides zoning measures. So to me the the point of the mor moratorum has been nominal to begin with and I think after five months six months if we don't have anything to show for it we'll just take it up when we do our comprehensive plan work. I would be for just letting it expire after the six months. I disagree. I think that you've you've we've been giving a break of some sort to the staff in the uh building and zoning department and I think that if they can project they're going to be able to work with TED and get this done in 90 days. Let's leave the the burden of having new applications strolling in their door off their backs. Well, once what's, you know, new guy, new guy question. What was the purpose of the M? Because I mean, I'll talk about moratoriums like I did on the campaign trail, which I'm not a fan of any of them from a policym standpoint, especially this one. It's kind of seems like it's a more of an infringement. If if if there's a property owner, they have a right to approach the council and they should know this council's opposed to high density. Um, so what's the

ultimate goal of the moratorum and what would 90 extra days allow you to do? Um, because if we let it expire, all that work that you've done goes away or we can get some sort of report, temporary report of where your work's gotten us to over the past few months.

I was just talking with Justin about this to answer your question. I'm not going to waste a lot of time. Um, but I think a little bit of history is needed. Back in the late 90s, I think it was, the city council adopted a moratorum on apartments. It was annually renewed till some what was it? 2018, 2019, somewhere in that time period. Um, from a legal standpoint, I understand they're doing an annual renewal, but it was just kind of rubber stamped every year that we were just going to annually do it. I thought from a legal standpoint, I had some concerns like you've had 20 years to address whatever the problems were,

right? So when this was brought up a few back in October, my point at the time was we got to have a goal for what we're aiming to do because if I go before a judge, that's the first question they would ask me. Mr. Maker, you had 20 years to address this problem back when we were renewing it every year. Um what have you gained on it any um moratory are allowed under Georgia law, but typically for short and finite periods. That's why we put the six month on it. When I told council I thought one of the ways we could probably at doing this was to sort of get an idea of what's out there, what our goals should be. And there are national models in terms of a mix of multifamily versus single family, single family, detached, and so forth. And so that was what we were going to do with the ultimate goal looking at there are only a few zoning districts where multif family is really permitted in the city. And the question was whether we wanted to continue that or perhaps could eliminate those as permitted uses in a number of zoning districts. In order to do that, I felt like we needed to do some of that deep dive into what our current housing stock is and sort of figure out where we at. In other words, have we achieved what would be considered a national goal for a community like Peach Tree City? Um, and so that's where we've been focusing most of our attention. I do think it's been a good exercise that regardless of what council does, I would say we're going to finish only because you are getting ready to start your comprehensive plan. So all of this information will be useful going forward. So regardless of what council does with the moratorum, we're going to finish this analysis because I think it's going to be helpful for staff. Well, I think that was the answer I was looking for. Like that work gets done and that's going to inform the comp plan moving forward. No reason to put more. Okay.

I appreciate your honesty on that. Um I would if if you can wrap it up, put a bow on it. Let's let it go. Let it die at the end of 90 days because you've got at least the data that we're looking for. Not not 90 days. You mean at the end of At the end of that 90day period? No. At You mean at the end of our six months. I'm sorry. not 90 days at the end of our 180day period. Sorry. Corrected, M. John.

Yeah, I would agree. I mean, if we can as long as we can get the information, that's the priority. And if we're getting that, then I'm great with that. And that's something we again we can either dive into that um when you guys start your comp plan or that's something if we find a light agenda that we can tuck it in sort of what we found we can do that on a work session or something going forward. Whatever you all want to do. Good. Real good. All right. But having come this far, we're not going to waste our efforts. Agreed. All right. Council staff topics. Uh Monday afternoon. Do we have an anniversary celebration in front of the library? That's correct. Um, it is the city's 67 birthday

and so it's going to be in front of the library at 3 PM. We're inviting uh everyone to come out and celebrate the city's birthday. Are you going to send those out in invites so we can put them on our calendars? We can. Yes. Okay. Thanks. All right. Anybody else? Council staff topics. I have no more. I have a question. I'm gonna throw it out just because I can at this point. Is there a cart path that's Justin? Is there sorry is there a cart path that was abandoned that runs um gosh I don't think I have that from 300 Willoughbend Road all the way toward the intersection of 7454 Peach Tree Vill and then goes south to the villas.

Yes. That are off of 74. Yes. Before my time, but yes. Yes. Is there Okay, so they're they're building as part of the 7454 construction, they're putting crossing things in with little sidewalks that are really like they go nowhere. Is that something we should think about like attaching to We could look at it. The path or something? You know, I'm not I'm not saying like let's go do it, but we can we can look at it. Why? Why? Do you have any idea why that path was abandoned in the first place? What?

I do not, but I think you were here, right, John? Um, part of it I think had to do with the fact that that business, that gas station was closed down. The other part is, um, connecting to that sidewalk could potentially create some issues with carts actually trying to cross there. I mean that's that's kind of an issue everywhere like that when you get close to 5474s

because what I've noticed from some of the overhead things is that there I mean there are sidewalks over by um Longhorn and some other you know places but that the other side you know the that southeast corner of the intersection there's like a little horseshoe sidewalk there and you you see that a a lot with G do because they get federal funding and they're actually required when they do intersections to make them ADA accessible. So they'll put those little like areas that don't go anywhere. They their sidewalk accessibility doesn't help when the sidewalk goes to a dirt, right? It's part of their federal.

Well, so this has led to a question from me and Dave, you probably know the because you dealt with the DT project. I'm assume the DT project is not extending that sidewalk to that shopping center, is it? Yeah. It's not It's not going to take that crossing on the southeast side and extend it to that old gas station and the the renovated uh Willow Shopping Center. I don't believe so. I'd have to look at the plans again, but we could talk with them about putting a sidewalk along there and it not being a path. So there's no confusion.

I I mean just one of the reasons why I looked at that corner primarily is because it the signage at that corner was mentioned in the art thing and I looked at it and I was just kind of you know I mean you can see on the pictures where the path used to be. There's still some old asphalt out there. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's, you know, I would say if we're going to look at it, we look at it from a pedestrian standpoint and not a carp standoint. When I asked around, I found out that a former city manager abandoned it.

Can this can this be something to go into the tag group tag? Take a look at it. Yeah, we could have Jonathan discuss with them because I do thinking about it, I do think it's a sidewalk there would be more appropriate than a path possibly because we don't want carts p, you know, crossing there, but the where the path goes, it goes up behind the signage thing, the big signpost thing and then goes all the way down to the villas. We've been talking about, you know, cart path access down 74 on the other side of the street, obviously, but When I saw that, I'm like, well, why would we have abandoned that?

Well, I will be the confusion possibly of crossings. Looking at it, uh, Councilman Holland and I were looking at it before the meeting, I I don't think it achieves anything as far as connectivity because the villas are already connected through Twig's Corner, right,

to get So, I I don't think it achieves anything of anyone going anywhere, of getting somewhere they need to go. Like there's ways to get to Twix Corners. There's ways to get to Peach Tree Villas. There's ways to get across 54 under the tunnels or over the or over the bridge at village at uh village village green the disc off. Um so I don't I don't think it achieves any connectivity necessarily, but if we're if we want pedestrians to be able to cross, we could potentially look at a sidewalk connecting to that Willow shopping area. I don't know. You just need more need more info.

Yeah, we can look at a map together. See like we could look we can look at All right. Council staff topics. Mr. Apollo check. I have nothing other than kudos chief moon or Dr. Tab aren't here but last week at newly elected training state mandated training. They gave fantastic presentations. uh folks were jealous of our staff and I, you know, coming into this council, I keep hearing kudos about our staff, but seeing them in like that public forum and them really execute their professionalism um and their expertise was really great to see. So, kudos even though they're not here, but pass that on. So,

every PL every training you go to, you're going to hear that. I hear it all the time. So, you'll hear it too when you start going to training. Council member Johnson, I don't have anything. Brown, I'm done. I'm done. Nope. Nope. Justin,

I got one thing I just thought of of uh we just started our Peach Tree City 101 last night with our new class. It went really well. I'm excited. The reason I talk about it is because just such a it's such a good program for our citizens that come to it. We don't involve these guys. We don't involve the elected officials. um you get to come in and just see how we operate as an organization as how the staff operates and maintains our city. Um which I think is eye openening for a lot of our citizens. This is the third year we've done it since we brought it back and we've gotten a lot of good feedback and positivity from the people who've completed it and this year kicked off with a really good session as well. So I'm very excited and and happy that this program is continuing

and it's kind of a pitch for if you want to do it next year which you may forget by this time but wonderful. Thank you. Do we have executive session? Painfully. Yes. Oh boy. Painfully. Pending or threat litigation and real estate. Can I get a motion? So moved for pending litigation and real estate. And real estate. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I.