Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Now I'll read the announcements regarding the decorum and procedures of the planning commission meeting. The planning commission's duty is to review and provide recommendations on applications for legislative review including text amendments, comprehensive plan character area maps amendments, zoning map amendments, reszonings, and conditional use permits. The petition will be heard in the sequence listed on the posted agenda. Following are some of the rules and procedures for this part of the meeting. The applicant and all those speaking in support of the application will be allowed a total of 10 minutes to present the petition. The applicant may choose to say some of the time for rebuttal following the the presentation by the opposition. The opposition will be allowed a total of 10 minutes to present its position. Since the burden of proof is upon the applicant, the applicant will be allowed to make closing remarks provided time remain from the original allotted time. Staff will keep track of the time for both sides. Those called to speak will be taken in the order that the public comment cards were received by the planning and zoning uh clerk prior to the beginning of tonight's meeting. All speakers will identify themselves by name, address, and if applicable, organization before beginning their presentation. Demonstr demonstration of any sort within the chamber is prohibited. So, please refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outbur, outburst, or dialogue when the person is speaking. Please show the same respect to the person speaking that you will expect to receive. The applicant shall not submit materials to the planning commission during the meeting. All materials should be submitted to the community development department at least 30 days prior to the scheduling meetings for inclusion in the normal distribution of packagings to the

commission. Thank you, chair. Thank you, Sam. Uh we have a meeting agenda for tonight that includes a work session as well as three cases. Uh one of which uh uh on section uh 6C which is case um 2025-00006 U2525-2 which 6344 Rosel Road. I understand it needs to be postponed due to um some paperwork not being completed in time. Uh, so we need to defer that meeting since we will not be having a September meeting. It needs to be deferred to October. I need a motion to defer this case until October. So moved.

So moved by Miss Williams, seconded by Miss Settles. All in favor? Uh, so so done. So that changes the agenda. U moving that out. But we have an existing agenda now that has been revised. So, a motion to approve tonight's agenda by Miss Williams again, seconded by Miss Settles. All in favor? I'm sorry, Chair. Excuse me. It's going to be Clemens. Clemens. Yeah, I know it seems like it be it should be Sherwin Williams, but it really is Sherwin Clemens. So, I let the first one slide, but you know, do we start over?

We can start over, chair. Save that audio, please. All right. Sherman Clemens. Sherwin Clemens. Sherman Clemens. I said it three times. I have it now. But I also have like a lifesaver on problems. I apologize for that. So, um, those motions were made by Commissioner Clemens. Thank you. All right. Uh, we have meeting minutes. Meeting minutes. Wow. from last uh meeting on June 18th, which uh I'm looking at those and to me everything seems right. So, do we have a motion to approve those minutes? Motion approved. Oh, boy. I'm sorry.

Yes. Point of order. Um did we complete the approval of the meeting agenda? We did. Okay. Did we approve the we we deferred we made a motion to defer the me the case uh case number uh the one the the case C. We made a motion to defer that until October's meeting. Then there was a mot that was the first motion that Miss Clemens made. Then she made a second to the revised agenda which did not include that case any longer. She made a motion for that which was approved. And who seconded? Miss Settles in both cases.

Okay. Thank you. All right. So again, back to the minutes for last meeting. Uh is there a motion to approve those minutes by Miss Trovich and seconded by Miss Kelly? Any discussion about those? Mr. P, did you have a question about it? No. Okay, good. All in favor? So move. So let's uh go on to our well it's item really five which is our work session design guidelines. Another point over I'm sorry the meeting minutes that we're approving is um June 18th. Oh it should be July 16. Oh

yeah. Says June 18th on here. Oh no. Mine says July 16th. Yeah. Oh, I guess this was for the last one. Yes, it's correct for the July 16th meeting. I apologize. Wow. Okay. Wow. Hold on. Let me let me look at the ingredients in that gummy. Yeah. Yeah, I got him at the place right down by Brooklyn Cafe. Could there be anything wrong with that? I don't No, just kidding. Just joking. No. All right. So,

please adjust that. That that was for July 16th, which I believe was in the motion. Yes. Okay. Any other questions or any other things that I've done wrong that we need to clarify and correct?

All right. Well, then let's go on to our next item, which is the work session, the design guidelines updates. Thank you, chair. Um so tonight you guys are familiar with our consultant RHI roadside Harwell and um we will have a presentation for you directly from them from security go who you guys I think have all met and know pretty well. Uh the guidelines again they're they're a practice exercise I should say in in aesthetics and and learning what it is about certain places in our community and our community overall that we enjoy and really establishing what those details are uh rather than just kind of going through town and not noticing those things. So um that's part of it. And then what are what are things that make communities and other areas special that we would like to see here? Um and and what do we maybe not like? And all that comes together to help design public realm, private realm, facade, um all these things that that create those that community character. And uh so tonight again, community uh security go will be here to uh give you that presentation in more detail and update of where we're at. Sam, you're projecting the monitor. Okay, you can press control L. That would go to full screen, I think. Good evening, planning commission members. While we are trying to fix that show for you, my name is Sukriti Goos. I'm a principal and urban designer with RHI. I'm very happy to be back here to

provide you with an update of the design guidelines process. It was great to talk to all of you um as an introductory process earlier this year and then we met and gave you an update during the BOPC retreat and we're here since that time we had a lot of community engagement especially for the stage one areas which are the areas roughly north of 285. So, we're going to give you an update for all of that feedback that we have received so far and share with you some of the upcoming and the next steps. So, if you can bear with us for just a minute while we fix the show for you.

I just want to clarify I had nothing to do with the technology part of this presentation. Sir, I can do it on the fly. So while we're waiting um so as I mentioned uh you can just pause on this slide. I can come back to this slide that's fine. Um so we're going to give you a feedback on what we have heard. U we had already a robust community engagement process after we met with you. We had couple of public meetings. I'm not sure whether you were able to join any of those. Um, so and then we had two surveys following those public meetings and we had a lot of pop-up meetings during the months of May and June and the pop-ups were the Saturday farmers market, the overlook park and the Hammond Park. So mainly focusing on the city springs, the perimeter and the north end communities. And the slide that was just up there kind of shows some of the information about the participants. In the beginning of the process, in addition to getting feedback from all of you, we met with a lot of stakeholders. Um almost 53 meetings, I mean 53 participants in the stakeholder discussions and we talked about the needs and desires. How did it see Sandy Springs? What are some of the unique characteristics that can be manifested through the design guidelines? What are some of the unifying elements that ties the cities together city together as well as what are some of the unique characteristics of the different places like city springs perimeter north end crossroads neighborhood village and powers ferry so

if you go to the next slide that's kind of showing some of the numbers as I was talking about the 53 meeting participants uh we had almost 50 participants in the p uh public meetings um over 80 survey respondents and 90 plus people kind of stopped over at some of the uh workstations during the pop-up meetings. Next, so from all of the feedback that we have received, whether it's from you or from the stakeholders or the different meetings and the surveys, we wanted to understand what are the some of the themes and what are some of the feedback that people were telling us. And this kind of encapsulates that feedback. Okay. And as you can see in the middle of that, it says of Sandy Springs. That came out very loud and clear. We need to understand what the city's character is, whether it's city springs, perimeter, north end, and some of the other areas and use that character and enhance that character more. So, it cannot be some of the randomness of some of the other adjoining communities. It has to be of Sandy Springs. Then some of the other things that we heard was introduce some warmth. It has to be more inviting. And we're talking about the different areas. And you'll see a slide down the couple of slides down. You'll see what are the three realms that we're going to be focusing on. It's mainly talking about the public realm, the private realm, and the buildings. So there has to be some distinctiveness. There has to be familyfriendly character to it. um while being classic and elegant, there are some opportunities to infuse some modern aesthetics into the whole public realm and the building design. Next. So to reiterate and reintroduce the the different areas uh the stage one

areas as I mentioned before the areas just roughly north of 285 city springs perimeter and north end and stage two are the areas roughly south of 285 crossroads neighbor village and powers ferry. Next, as I was mentioning, these are the three realms that the design guidelines are going to be focused on. First of all, the design guidelines are going to be only applied to the commercial areas and the commercial areas will also include the design guideline areas will also include the multif family areas as well as the town home areas. And in those areas, we are focused on these three things. the building design, the private rail, which is the area between the building front and the sidewalk areas, and the public rail. And you can see a listing of all of the different components that we're going to be focused on as part of the design guidelines in the in the right hand side. I don't want to read through all of those, but the public realm in the sidewalk areas can include elements like paving, furnishing, trees, landscaping, signage, wayfinding. It goes a little bit beyond what you already have in the development code. It provides that a little bit of a guide guidance to the development community as well as to the city. Um so that you can take out some of the guesswork as to how you can enhance the character of the city. On the private realm side, the building zone where the cafes and the the fountains and the public spaces are. And then of course on the building side of things we are going to be focused on what is the kind of massing what are some of the materials that are can be applied to the buildings. What is the articulation of the buildings? How are the windows and doors and everything kind of line? Again it's not going to go into the details. It's going to be a flexible so that uh it's not only going to be focused on manifesting what the character of the city is but also provides that opportunity to the

development community to express their own identity and branding within their specific development sites and this is only going to be applied for development new development and redevelopment. Next. So, some of the key takeaways from the feedback that we have received so far and I'm going to go through those three areas, stage one areas and this is focused on North End. If you look into the images, those are the mosaic of some of the images that were liked by the public. So you can see in the north end a lot of trees, green landscaping, a little bit more setback, more of that parkway character to it and also some warmth and the tonal mix to it. on the right hand side the the words that you see the pink ones are focused on what are the specific or the unique characteristics that people mention to us which can applied to be which can be applied to the north end and everything else is kind of consistent as as you will see in the next two slides over the other two areas. So for the things in north end it's more inviting the warmth and the charm of the community the larger setbacks larger windows and the other things that highlights here are we have heard a lot about landscaping. So if there are landscaping just pump it up more. If there are not, just do some permanent landscaping rather than just doing temporary landscaping pots and flower pots. just do permanent landscaping and beautify the sidewalk areas because that's it's it's our gateway to the community especially Roswell Road and some of the bigger roads north not north not north not north not north not north not north not north not north not north not north not north south so when people are coming in they can feel like yes we are in Sandy Springs next so city springs is a little bit different from north end so you can see

the vibrancy and the excitement with the pictures of course you have made a statement with where we are right now and kind of building on that is going to be very important. So some of the images that you see a lot of mix of uses and opportunities for better pedestrian realm on the right hand side that energy and excitement that I talked about the transparency at the ground level which helps in the pedestrian connectivity and helps people to be safe and creates more of a pedestrian oriented environment and the other things like the creating more of a sense of a community trees and greenery shed and thermal comfort those were kind of consist consistent throughout those other areas. Next, and finally on the perimeter you can see the relatively taller buildings, the modern contemporary and simple design character with the variations um introduction of open spaces because we have a lot of big infrastructure roadways. So, how can you introduce more open spaces with development and redevelopment so that you can attract families? You can create that vibrancy. To create that vibrancy, you need housing, you need families. So what are some of the amenities that you can infuse into parameter to help create that character and provide that buffer from the street? Big roads, big streets, create that buffer so that everybody feels safe and feels walkable. The other ones are kind of common between the other areas. Next, so with all of that under advisement, we started thinking about how to lay out the document. As Matt mentioned, this is kind of an aesthetic exercise trying to provide like a lookbook of sorts to the development committee so that they understand what the city's intent are with the design guidelines. So what we have done here is on the top you'll see the three realms. The public realm, the private realm and the buildings and the document will be

organized into these three levels. The first level is going into the design principles of each one of those. What is the meaning of the public realm? Why is it important? Then we go into the components and for each of the components we'll go into the objectives and guidelines for each one of those. So between one and two we are just focused on all of the areas within the city. Then we have number three that another level down which is going into the unique characteristics for each of the six areas city springs perimeter north end crossroads neighborhood village and powers. So that's kind of the framework that we are working with and the document will be laid out like that. The document will have a lot of graphics, images, supporting narratives, annotations. So it'll be a lookbook uh brochure kind of a character to it. With regards to implementation, you you guys have been thinking about it. Of course, we have been talking to the city staff. It's not vetted yet. We are talking about a lot of different opportunities how this can be implemented. Maybe some of the elements gets into the development code. Some of that can be in an administrative review with you all. So, some of this can be with you and the mayor and the council. So, we haven't vetted all of that stuff. When it is vetted with the city staff and the different departments, we'll bring those options to you and get your feedback on those. Next, and finally, couple of days from now, we are going to be introducing stage two um in the public meeting on the August 21st. It's 6 to8. It's just outside at the studio theater lobby and we'll have a very short presentation to orient everybody with the design guidelines and we'll have over 40 boards for everybody to get information and interact with the boards on the visual preference surveys. So we'll be sharing elements from the stage one and then getting a visual preference on the stage

two. And the other next steps are we're going to be having stage two pop-up meetings. sometimes late summer, early fall. We are planning for that. Then we'll be developing the draft guidelines because by that time we'll have heard from the community for all of the different areas and we'll start drafting the guidelines in fall 2025 and going into the late fall, early winter, we'll have public meeting number four where we'll be sharing the overview of the guidelines and the feedback processes and get feedback from there. And then the adoption the hearing and the adoption process will be early 2026. So with that the next slide is that's the end of the presentation and I'm happy to respond to any of your questions or clarifications or get any comments from you. By the way there is a website that we have spr.gs/design. We are uploading materials on a weekly basis. We'll have the survey that we are planning on work we are working on right now and we'll have that survey number three on the website pretty soon.

Great. Thank you very much. Questions Andrea? I don't have I don't even know that there is an answer to this question, but if you go back to the first slide that talks about the individuals that have provided input, obviously we've got close to 110,000 people in this community and I think you guys have done everything you can do, but is there anything else? I mean, it just doesn't seem like there's enough involvement from the entire community. Have we gone is it possible to go into like apartment complexes and have a presentation in their community room or go to schools or something you know to go to them instead of asking them to come to us.

I know the city has been very diligent in reaching out to the communities and the communications department has been doing a great job with the social media and everything but those are the things that we have been talking about but I don't know whether the city wants to comment on that. Yeah, I mean it's everything both of you have said. I mean the the topic here is a very um we've said this a lot of times a niche topic. So you're not going to get probably broad appeal. However, uh we we certainly would like to engage mo more if possible. And even though we're going into stage two, I think we can still reflect back on stage one for the folks that it still affects them in those other three uh design areas. So, we'll continue to look at ways to get everybody and not just the stage two people to to still give input. Um, but it is more challenging because this is a very specific thing and it's kind of like what I was saying in the beginning. We all go places, some we like, some we don't like. We're trying to figure out what are the things we like. And most people don't probably take as much time to look around and see why they like it. They just know they do. And it's kind of like that here. they they maybe don't realize this is an opportunity to see more of that in some way or encourage that to happen more. Um unfortunately because it's again it's a niche topic. It's very specific and focused whereas a lot of the things we do it's broader and it's touching people's property. So we'll do the best we can to find new ways to reach out for sure. But

is there any way to know is there any way to know where these individuals live that have provided input? Do we collect that data? We do know if we're getting north end, south end, you know, city springs.

We do during the public meetings as well as the survey and the popups. We have a map which shows when people are interacting with us. We have a map to show where do you live or where do you work. So we can create a data from that. But mostly it's where people where we are like the public meetings are going to be here. So we have getting a lot of people from the city springs area although I have seen a lot of folks from the north end and some from perimeter but uh for the stage one meetings but there are scattering or

yeah it's I don't have the answer either. I wish I had and I I know you guys are trying every possible option, but it certainly would be nice if we can get more engagement because the alternative I would like to say the alter the the answer is everybody's happy. Everybody likes what they see and you know they're happy with what's going on in the city. That's the way I'm going to look at it, but some other people may not feel that way. So, also we had popup events that we did in those areas already the north end. We went to the park um Morgan Falls overlook park. Yeah. And um and then the city springs and Hammond area. So we've been out there twice, right? We did. Yeah.

And I think staff will work diligently with communications to make sure that they are reaching out to those communities that you're talking about that maybe have, you know, we need maybe a little bit more input from. So I I think that as we move through phase two there'll be just more of that. Yeah. Is this in Spanish as well potentially? Is any of this information in Spanish?

So I think when we are going into the stage two there will be opportunities because that's where the main focus of the Spanish community is. When we did the crossroads plan uh we did everything translation versions and everything. So Michelle was leading all of that. Yeah. So, we're we we're thinking about all of that.

Just one thought. It sounds as if um you've had a lot of opportunity for public to come to meetings, but maybe there's a way to find a couple of venues where you can go to the public rather than saying to them, come to City Springs and give your input. And I'm just I'm not I don't know of any large gathering like that that would happen, but a church or a a school just something where we're actively going out. Yeah, good comment. And I think the the best participation that we have had so far is the farmers market because people are already there so they just stopped by at the booth that we had.

So I think that's a great suggestion. We'll work on that. I have a question uh around the modality for the survey. You mentioned that you did a survey. How was that disseminated? So, we had the QR code for the survey during the public meeting. The QR code and the link to the survey is also on the city's website. And I know the communications department is pushing that link over to the greater community.

And how is that is that going out as a text message? Is it going out how is it being pushed? Because I think I'm just thinking about my thought behind this is you know often getting to a meeting is very difficult and we want to be able to get as many people give as many people the opportunity to communicate as possible. Um, so is there a way to push out that communication via a text link, etc. I I'm of course with everything else that's going on right now, I'm getting them all the time. Yeah.

And I'm more likely to have time to sit down and do that for 10 to 15 minutes versus two hours um in the evening during the week. Yep. I think uh the communications department is working on every sources and possibilities that they can push out, but we'll keep that in mind for the next one. Yeah. And we have our neighborhood associations. Yeah. To be able to use that as a resource as well. I know I get a lot of information through our neighborhood pages about what's going on. And because those communities are smaller and they tend to be more connected as a community,

I find that residents are more likely to respond to calls to actions that come through those very specific groups. So getting in touch with our neighborhood associations and any of those affinity groups might be a way for you guys to get greater input and feedback so we can avoid the complaints as much as possible later down the road once implementation happens. Sure. But thank you. This is amazing work. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Yeah. Tremendous amount of work. Uh let's uh move to our first case. Um Sam, thank you. Chair 2025-00005TA-25-2 development code edits an ordinance to amend the development code. Presented by Matthew Anspa, our senior planner. Thank you, Sam. Once again, good to see you, planning commissioners. Um, so yeah, for tonight we have a text amendment you guys are all somewhat aware of by now. Uh, several text amendments you'll find, you're aware of already that a lot of these are text amendments that were essentially left out of the major update in December of 23. So, we're just bringing them back forward to you to try and get them in like they were intended to. Um, again, a lot of these were unintentional errors, so we'll walk through those. There's a few newbies. Um, some substantive items in here, and then some of this is is housekeeping. So, uh, we'll we'll go quickly through what we can. So, we're going to start in article one. This is the the substantive uh information. Again, a lot of the substantive info is left out. You'll see in the little green writing in parentheses to the right. You'll kind of get the gist of where this is coming from, but I will kind of explain the context as well. Once again, uh left out uh conditions that remain. So section 119 u anybody doesn't know some conditions that were in the resonings or uh the entitlements for all the properties in the city um were determined that they wanted to keep some of those uh into the future. uh in 2017 when we changed or updated the code to the current

development code that we have. Uh the five types of conditions that you see there are what we always have to go and check off when we're looking at developments. The fifth one has to do with access to or from a site. Uh and we added a line to that to where if someone wants to come and develop a site in the perimeter, so long as it doesn't touch a residential neighborhood being RE uh or any of the protected neighborhoods, I should say or REU or RT, so long as it's not ab budding one of those types of neighborhoods uh in the perimeter, uh it would not need to have the condition previously remain. And so because of that you would have your your current staff, your current engineering knowledge, your current um existing situation would take precedent uh at that site. So access to and from site would be current and up to date to the current conditions in the area. In article four, some of these are really basic. Uh we we did this same edit to all the other mixeduse districts. You'll see that card there on the right. Every district has that. In this case, it's for height and mass for the types of development in the zoning districts. Uh we break down various site requirements and and building requirements. Uh and in this case, we simply are breaking down residential versus non-residential for height and elevation and things like that. Again, we did this for all of the other districts. We probably made some changes in here that you can't see that aren't in blue that happened in 23, but we left out these few little edits which really kind of clarify what the requirements are more than anything. In NEX, that's the newer zoning district

as of 2020 or 2021. I believe that's north end mixeduse. Uh there are two districts within that NEX. One of the districts we did this measure for, we're coming back in and saying we left this out. It was intended to be for both. Uh and that is we are making we are reducing the requirement for single unit which is usually the uh detached homes or town homes. We're decreasing that 5%. U when someone comes in and wants to build multi-unit in the north end on a site they uh take whatever the number is. if it's a 100 units um and 25 of those should be single unit per this well in the updated version 20 would be so um this was done because as you guys are aware some of the reasons for resoning to NEX which were to try and get the north end a little bit more um energy a little bit more redevelopment some of the reasons went away that it was attractive and that is that NEX was going to allow for stickuilt type development Velment as we all know that's kind of allowed now throughout the city once again. So just as a nod to kind of give some relief to this district uh because none of the other districts other than certain situations really have a single unit requirement. So this this just kind of reduces that burden for them. Article five here we have this is even more minute. Uh this was left in it and should have been taken out. So in a way it was left out. The edit was uh the parentheses the information in parentheses no longer relevant because of all the information around it that is has changed. Um so that's that's almost housekeeping really but we wanted to get it out there that that's should have been removed. Article six

here we have again can't see it on the screen. We have several edits to one of our more dynamic parts of the code. Uh this is probably where a lot of what security just talked about will rest in terms of any kind of action when developers come in. Oasis is that area mainly the private realm that developers have to do a certain amount that's publicly accessible plus all of that that is accessible to the patrons. So, it's just the area that makes the uh developments interesting and and and places where people can relax and recreate and do all those other things. Some of the details in Oasis, uh we we adjust over time as we learn new things about what works and what doesn't and trends. And some of the things that we noticed that we're missing were kind of minimums and particulars. For instance, like I just mentioned, 25% of it needs to be publicly accessible. Previously, we said it needs to be publicly accessible. That's kind of a problem because there are parts of it that they should get credit for that are only accessible to patrons. Like your typical wrap apartment where in the middle you've got a pool and all of that. And that's only for people who live there. And we want to keep it that way. But we also want to have something that connects to uh the public realm as well. And so there's several items in there like that you guys have read through. It's in the red lines. Feel free at the end to ask me any questions you have about that or concerns. Shared court. This is uh a this was a newer um part of the code that was put in in 2023 and and most of it's working really well right now with a lot of developers that are interested in usually a town home style development can also be detached where not every unit needs street frontage. Um, and so it's unique in that, but the the drive that is in the middle does have um it is a connective piece that that acts kind

of as a street, at least for pedestrians. Um, one of the things that we wanted to do here was reduce the primary setback. For some reason, we had it at 15 ft. Most town homes just generally only have a setback of 10. And so being that shared courts are meant for kind of different lots, small lots, atypical uh infill lots, uh it would make sense that your setbacks aren't any bigger than any other setbacks. So here we have a couple of of different actions happening. On the top we have uh the storage requirements and what's allowed uh particularly in residential settings. This was something where code enforcement uh for a long time has had trouble kind of pinning exactly what it is that people are violating. So, we put a little bit of language in there to still be loose enough for for some judgment uh but to allow them to be able to pin what the actual issue is when going out to some of these sites and folks are storing their lazy boys and things for prolonged periods of time. And then on the bottom there's simply a reference uh and this is the residential parking section. So, a different section um nearby where uh you learn how you can park a residential lot or set of residential lots and simply a reference to some of the design elements that are required when you do that. So you know just clarification here we have building design the things that you see there the three blue lines actually let's start at the top sorry the building design for uh canopies we talk about color uh often times you'll have you might have a nice facade for say like a gas station or something and it's it's your typical earth tone colors or something uh at least that's the way our code reads now. Um, and the canopy, it was not clear that the canopy also needs to have that reduction or or that maximum amount of primary color. So, the whole canopy is no longer you're not

going to see them as red, yellow, pink, blue. They're going to be uh in keeping with the other buildings uh that have those earth tone requirements. On the bottom there, you see the multi-unit requirements. We're adding back in a few things that were in the previous code and I think just probably unintentionally left out. They're all very standard. Nothing here is uh, you know, harmful to anyone trying to do a development. These are very standard 9 foot ceilings and things like that. It's uh, but we wanted to get those back in as a base. The benefit matrix, hopefully some of you guys remember this. If if somebody wants to add stories and they're in a bonus district, this is how they know how many they can add. And how they do that is in our technical manual. the list of of items that you can get points for. Um, when we originally put this out in 23, we left out a few scenarios unintentionally and how we worded things. So, we just went back, took a good review of what we need to do to make sure that all the other scenarios we left out on accident are are now clear and they're now in there. Article seven, we have here, this is one that I run into a lot. Obviously, we have a lot of um development coming in and a lot of folks wanting to live here and multi-units pretty common. Uh this tells them what percentage of street fronting ground floor needs to be commercial uh only or commercial uh ready, which is you can do residential if you want, but it has to be built out for some amount of commercial if it were to ever convert. And then you also have a larger percentage that's just strictly residential for street fronting ground level. So not anything really changing here materially. This is clarification. You know, we often run into here's here's our requirements. And the way it was listed out earlier wasn't the

clearest. Um it's like a percentage of a percentage of a percentage. It just gets kind of confusing. So we just laid it out a little more plainly. Um, I was going to say we also made clear that you don't have to elomerate all of your commercial in one or you don't have to spread it out to each building. You could if you have multiple buildings, you can have a core area of your development that has all the commercial, you know, so it works out that way as well. Recreation and open space. So this one is specifically for cemeteries, mausoleiums, particularly cemeteries that uh we thought a good answer use for cemeteries because you know we spend a lot of time thinking about cemeteries um would be to allow for cremator or sorry not a crematory that would be the one thing that wouldn't allow but a funeral home without a crematory. Um, so this is just something where often times you see with schools, churches, they might have like a daycare, something that's kind of in line with what they're doing uh as a larger campus. And same thing for cemetery here. We just think this allows them to bring that forward as a potential um proposed use for their conditional use permit, which is always required to do these anyway. So somebody comes in, they either have a cemetery or want to do one, this would be an option for them to include within their overall plan. Here we have uh residential accessory structures. Um just a snip from each section um the second subsection of each one of these. So there's the minor type and there's the major. Often times you have atypical lots here. You have a lot of topo, you have old flag lots and things like that. and determining what is front, side, rear, and everything else in between is is kind of difficult with a lot of these lots of land. So, one thing that we've determined is it's a lot easier to

figure out what's the appropriate uh front yard based on the front front plane of the building versus say what the street is considered. So we have the primary street setback which is more about the street than it actually is about the lot or the home on the lot. So we're kind of unbundling it from primary street being the determining uh factor and and making it so that once we find the front plane of the house then we figure out where it's appropriate to put a play structure etc. And that's for both sections pretty much identical. Article eight, another one we left out. So we did this for the protected neighborhood transition buffer. We took out the parentheses that said no fences allowed. So when you do a buffer in Sandy Springs, the the first requirement is you're going to put in a wall along with some some landscaping for either one of the buffers. We determined based on the experience that we've had that there are a lot of situations where the only thing that would make sense from an environmental standpoint and from just a what the neighbors would like to see a fence actually works pretty well a lot of times the standard will still be a wall but this just gives discretion to management the director to determine that a fence could be done in certain parts where it is more helpful more feasible. So this was again that was done for the other buffer. It was meant to be done for that one as well. This is just fixing that. So, monument signs, we are removing a statement that is true, but it's not the whole truth. Meaning, you know, you you can have a monument sign if your building's 40 feet back. This says that you can't have one if your building is not at least 10. So it really should say if it was to be correct it has to be up to 40 feedback which is clarified in another section of the sign

code. So it is in there. We're just removing this because it kind of creates a lot of confusion. Article nine. So this is an adback. This was in the code before we worked on our retaining wall code a few years back. this uh requirement right now almost seems to be that if you're building a retaining wall that's four feet or tall, four feet or taller, not only do you need a permit, but you need an engineer stamp. But the general standard, the industry standard is it has to be six feet tall or supporting a search charge for you to really need a stamp from an engineer. Otherwise, you just need review through the city through a permit. So, we're just adding that back in article 10. This is kind of like before. This is a reference to, okay, we have to develop an alley for our site. What do we need to do to make that meet the city standard? So, it's just a reference to where that is. Here we have shared street. Earlier we were talking about a shared court. Well, this is the type of quote unquote street that goes through there. I say quote unquote because often times for these types of really small lots, they're probably not bringing cars through there. It's certainly going to be people. Um, but it' be large enough if you did want to bring a vehicle. That's the way that the dimensions are for this. However, that not required to, you know, have automobile traffic on it. some of the things that we did for the um characteristics and the actual design pattern in article six did not match up with the street pattern that was given. For instance, the rideway here says 24 to 36 I believe minimum. Um whereas in the design pattern itself it says 15. So we reduced it to 15 here. Did a few other things to kind of delineate the expectation of of what this is supposed

to be. You know, you might I think we have a six-foot lane for at a minimum for at least a place where somebody could walk beside a 9- foot or more of a mixed path. So, all rough numbers, but article 11. Um, so here we're simply removing something that we thought was a little bit aggressive where in most of our code when it comes to non-conformance, everybody has a year to get somebody back into a um a leasable space or whichever where they're they're running their business. they're they exist and then when they leave, if they're gone for a year, some of your things that are there are now non-conforming and they they can't remain. You know, that happens often after a year. This is basically saying when the business closes, you got to remove your non-conforming sign. It's it's a little aggressive. Give them a year at a minimum. So, this section is is all appeals edits. Um, as you go through it, it's it's pretty clear that anywhere that we've made edits, it's simply to show that whatever the appeal is for, it's one of the appeals that has to go to the Fulton County Superior Court. So, that we put all the sections up there for you, but we don't go into detail because again, it's it's just the process and it's explaining that the process is now clarified that it goes downtown Atlanta and um it's handled there. The rest is the the references to the housekeeping edits which again you guys all have in the packet. There are many but they're very small. Some some it is actually I don't know if you've looked very hard to see what the edit actually is. It's like that. So

and uh in the next step here is mayor and city council next month. So, any questions? Thank you, Matt. I believe as a case though, this is open. We should open public hearing if we have cards. Do we have cards? Do you have any? No, we don't have any cards for the TA is what we're talking about. Correct. No.

Okay, then I guess before we have any questions, we should ask for a motion. Anyone want to make a motion? I make a motion to um in reference to case number 2025-00005 TA-25-2 development code edits and ordinance to amend the development code and I make a motion to approve staff's recommendation. We have a motion to approve from Miss Settles. Do we have a second?

Second from Miss Tritch. Um, I have a couple of questions, but I don't need to go first. Anybody else would like to Anybody have questions? I do. Mr. Porter, Matt, could you help me with the sign 11-7.5de? We're eliminating the 12 month time moratorum or whatever you, but I don't know what the right word is. And we're adding a that one of these conditions could require the removal of the sign. Am I understanding that right?

No. Uh we're we're removing there was a statement in there that it was as soon as the business that is advertised as existing right now goes out. You got to remove whatever and it was the sign. So we're we're taking that out. We're saying that that's a bit aggressive and we're deferring to something more um where it's like 12 months or or whatever it is uh for the rest of the situations you can run into or if one of the a sign could be if condition number two deterioration of the sign or damage the sign makes it a hazard or renders it dilapidated unsightly or unckempt.

Right. And how How do you how do you define unckempt? Well, it's just kind of more of a you have to make a common sense judgment. Well, yeah. I mean, I get it. It's like the Supreme Court head of the Supreme Court. He said, "I I can't define porn, but I know it when I see it." That's a quote. That's a direct quote. interesting topic to reach into,

but it's I just each of these is a is kind of a I mean, how if if someone wanted to process this through, how would they do it? Take a picture of the sign and send it to you and say, would you consider this? Do you I mean, I think we could go up and down Roswell Road and see some signs that are on their way to being dilapidated, but if they Exactly. That was the point I was going to. There are places that have three signs.

Yeah, to Jinger's point, we often look we we look for compliance first. So, if they can clean it up before it gets to that point, then that's certainly what what we look for. We don't go looking for stuff that doesn't look good. It finds us. Um, and it obviously has to be more than just not looking good, right? kind of say that lightly, but when it's dilapidated, you know, um if it's just kind of looking a little rough and it can be fixed or cleaned up, that's very different and we're going to work with them to make sure they can do that without any issues. But but it seems that one of the ideas of this of the original concept was to get away from popsicle wood popsicle signs or something like that. make them more groundbased monument style. But

that's correct. That was the intent of of that ordinance was to try to get away from, you know, when these um older businesses change to a new one to try to get them to comply with the current signage. So yes, that was the original intent, but you know, we also recognize that, you know, not everybody can afford a new sign and and you know, if they just need to repair it, you know, often within 12 months, we let them do that or reuse it within that 12-month period. But if it goes for 12 months without being uh used, then we say now it's got to go. Thanks. Anything else? Amy, I'm good.

Anyone else? settles. I do just um when it all the reviewed parts, not the edits, not the housekeeping and all that, but has there been conversation with developers like general conversation about will this help you in processing our requirements? And has there been back and forth dialogue about some of these that you actually have made changes to? Which sections are you talking about? Just in general.

Just in general. No, most of these edits. I mean, oftentimes that is how we do things. cuz I I did mention the multi-unit section. That's that's directly from just talking to excuse me all the time and running into kind of the same sort of how do I explain this issue which shouldn't be there. Um but no that a lot of these edits are left out. So it's really almost all of this is cleanup in a way except for a few items that are kind of new and original. Um most of the time your question will say yeah there's quite a few. This is more of a let's fix what we left out in 23 on accident. Okay. and and the design color that is only for new property.

Yeah, that's right. So, if anybody comes to us and wants to um a lot of times gas stations will want to rebrand, this is going to affect them with that. But again, the goal is to tone down kind of the really rambunctious colors sometimes that that come up from different developments. though. Um, to be consistent, the canopy counts, too, you know. Okay. But, but buildings that have been there's not a timeline like we have with some changes where you're you're committed to making some changes within two years or something like that. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Good. Anybody else? Uh, I did have a question on on the recreation and open space which was 7.4.2 B1. All right. which is specifically talking about cemeteries and mausoleiums. Arlington right here.

I know that they have consistent challenges with their entrance because of the way it's positioned on the road and the way that Long Island comes into it. There's no light there and they they constantly have problems. Um there are and the in the code I believe it specifically states that access is from either a major thorough affair or non-residential street. However, Mount Vernon is both. It's both a residential street and a major thorough affair. So there's that issue, but there are properties there that are for sale. What would prevent them? And I just I think this is hypothetical of course, but what would prevent them from purchasing one of those properties and trying to use that to create an additional entrance into their property into their funeral home? I realize they can't put a funeral home on those purchased properties because I don't believe they're zoned for that. But could they create another entrance? And if so, do we need to change the language to state that access can only be made through the main entrance?

I think it's well a couple of things. Good question. I think it's pretty well safe that if somebody and that's that's a good for instance because that's obviously our largest I don't even know what the other cemeteries are to be honest, but that's a large cemetery. So it's a good one to talk about hypothetically. Um, I think the entrance, these are my words, but I think it's safe that it's going to be the entrance. I don't think you're going to get anything right next to that, and I don't know that there would be any reason to get an additional entrance. Um, that said, all of these types of things get addressed through a conditional use permit. So, there's not going to be any sort of get a plan, get it permitted. it's going to go before the public first, you know, so if there is a an issue, it will be kind of ironed out that way.

Okay, that makes sense to me. Uh, okay. So, we have a motion. It's been a while since it was made. Who made that motion? Miss Settles. And who second? Mr. Terry Trovich. Thank you very much. Uh, which call for a vote. All in favor? I. Uh, that's unanimous. So motion is approved. Sam, shall we call the next case?

Thank you, chair. 2025-00007 RZ-25-2 9755 Robert Strive zoning map amendment reszoning from RE1 to RD7.5 presented by Lquita Williams, our planner 2. All right. Thank you, Sam. Um, good evening, commissioners and members of the public. Welcome to the August 20th, 2025 Planning Commission public hearing. Tonight, I will be introducing zoning map amendment RZ25-2. Go to the next slide. at 9755 Roberts Drive. A request to reszone from RE1 1 1 acre minimum lot size to RD 7.5 7500 square foot minimum lot size styles recommendation is approval with the conditions the character area of the property is protected neighborhood and the current zoning is RE1 highlighted in the blue in the aerial image is the subject property Next slide. Uh, pictured here to the left is the existing development on site. The survey on the right shows the singlestory ranch style home that was built in 1963. According to Fton County's records, the 1.72 acre property again is zone RE1. Directly north of the property is the Chattahuchi River and to the west is Roswell Road and in office mixeduse plaza. To the south is Robert's Drive in Mirhar

Freedom Village and abuing east is a residential neighborhood. The applicants are proposing to divide the current parcel into three separate parcels that will share a single driveway from Robert's Drive. Although the proposed zoning district requires a minimum lot area of 7,500 square ft, the three proposed parcels range between 17,000 and 39,000 square ft. Excuse the typo on the PowerPoint, but it's 17,000 to 39,000 square feet. Due to the various restrictions on the existing parcel, the biddable area for each parcel ranges from 4,800 square ft to 8,000 square ft. Staff finds that the proposed zoning map amendment is consistent with the intent of the residential detached zoning district which supports single family detached residential living. It aligns with the next 10 comprehensive plan by preserving established neighborhood character area while expanding housing options. Approval of this amendment would increase the housing supply on the subject site by 300% while maintaining appropriate lot sizes. Overall, staff finds that the request supports the comprehensive plan plan's vision for balanced growth and housing diversity. Staff recommends approval with conditions of RD RZ25-2 with the following conditions. One, there be a maximum of three lots subdivided at a par at tax parcel 06 03670 1 0 011. Two, all three parcel Oh, sorry. All three lots shall serve shall be served

by one access point from Robert's drive at the most suitable location determined by the city engineer. Three, the property owner shall ensure compliance with planned city projects including the dedication of any rightsways rights away or easements and that this verbage be included in any plat for their property. And lastly, the Metropolitan River Protection Act allocations for the site determined by ARC must be kept at current provisions and may not be increased or transferred from other neighboring sites. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Miss Williams. Uh let's open up the uh public discussion portion of this hearing of this case uh and hear from the applicant. Uh good evening uh commission. I am Brad Riffle with AEC 51 Springs Circle Roswell, Georgia. Uh here representing Bill O'Dre who is the owner of the property. Um Liquida did a fantastic job explaining everything. Um, basically this is an effort to try to help the value of the property given it's 1.7 acres. Um, it's been kind of hard to sell. Uh, so we figured we could try to get a few more lots on it and try to spread the value out and and help with the builders. Um, in that regard, uh, we are um restricted or constricted um by all of the Chattahuchi buffering and the stream buffering. So, it limits our buildable area to the to the three lots. Um, which we think is sufficient. Um, but that's that's really it. It's not um much more than that.

Okay, great. Well, we'll reserve the rest of your time if we have some questions for if you want to make any rebuttals or further comments. Okay. Thank you, Sam. Do we have any comment cards? Not at this time, chair. Oh, well. Okay. Anything else you'd like to add? Anybody you'd like to rebut? No. Uh we're we're satisfactoring uh satisfied with all of the conditions and accepting of the all the conditions and um thankfully for the the approval from for the recommendation and um if y'all have any questions of me, I'm here to ask. Great. Answer. Thank you very much.

All right. Well, we've we've heard there. So, ask a question of a motion. Anyone? I'll make a motion. Chair. Sure. To approve. Um, thank you, sir. Mr. Reed. Um, to approve the uh recommendations um based to approve this based on the recommendations from the um the staff with with the conditions listed. Great. We have a recommendation approved. We have a second, Miss Kelly. Um discussion any questions? Miss Settles could have

Brad, can I ask you the community meetings? Um were there any issues that you worked with the community to resolve or?

Um no, not really. there. Obvious the the some of the concerns have been brought up about is the condition of the property as it is right now. Um, with regards to some of the the aspects that are in the water and the boats, uh, some of the stuff, um, I can assure you and and and I will let Bill know, there is has been, um, um, comments made about trying to get it cleaned up and and I have expressed to him that that it's very important to do that. Um he seems to think as soon as he sells the property, he can get it cleaned up or try to get it cleaned up prior to sale. Um but he's he knows about it. He's working at it. He does have someone that's that's trying to come out and and help him with those um aspects. Those have been really the the most of concern from the public is is just the condition of the property. They're just happy that something's being done and not left in the condition it's in.

Right. And and and we're hoping of course and everybody can can and realize that you sell this property and you get three really beautiful big homes in lie of what's there now. I think it is a plus. So that's what we're striving for. Thank you. Other questions? Yeah, Mr. Porter. I I couldn't tell. What What are the sizes of those three houses?

Well, that's very conceptual right now. Um we just placed a a footprint to show how big they are. Um you know, it's just it's just conceptual right now. It's just it's going to be a matter of what the builders can come in and what they would afford, what the lot's going to cost over the the entire property and spread that over three. Um, it's it's going to be completely up to the builders. I do think there's some very specific in in the picture of the lots. There obviously are some tremendous limitations on that because of the where it's located.

Yes, sir. Um, so I think that does affect the buildable area of that. But I think I'm not sure if there's a follow-up question you have. I

the Um, I guess I know this has been a troublesome property for I mean this is probably the fourth time, fifth time that it's been brought before us and I don't it just seems uncomfortable to me that that the two reasons given for allowing this kind of an interesting zoning is the place looks like crud and we want to make him more money. that those two don't seem to be necessarily within our purpose.

What we're finding from the real estate world is the the economics of it at a 1.7 acre lot with it having so much restrictions on it. the sale of it is, you know, it's hard to justify building a certain size house with the lot cost, the property value of what it is over one lot. And we're hearing that you can get three lots out of it. You're you're creating a much better value from the builder standpoint. So that's that's really it. That's just I mean I understand math but it it just seems strange that that that are the primary reasons to me anyway that's all I have

nothing else no just I mean it's just troublesome to me that to that um that there's we just had a case like this last month, right?

And they and some of the the um justification was transitioning from this use to this use and that and that seemed to make logical sense to me. But it's almost like this is a a situation where we're we or the neighbors are tired of it, want it to go away. And and if the if that's what the neighbors want, then I'm not I certainly wouldn't stand in their way. But it just it is doesn't appear to me to be a land use decision, if that makes any sense. You know, if it means anything, we we do have some interested parties that they have said as soon as you can get this to reszone to three lots, call us. We're there.

I bet. I bet. So, you know, that's the way we see this um playing out in terms of getting it to look better than it is. When I was Can I speak to Yeah. Ginger, did you have something you want to say

to address that? I I would like to maybe add that nobody wants to build a house on Roswell Road because it's a commercial corridor. So, this is kind of an appropriate transition for being right on Roswell Road into u the 1acre 2acre zoning that you find on the rest of Robert's Drive. So, I I think while it's it's not a an event facility, which is kind of what they were hoping for before, right?

Um I think this is a reasonable use of a property that is quite compromised from a a regular home site um perspective and and I think that's how staff viewed it when they reviewed the application. Does that make sense? It does. A little bit better. Yes. Yes. Okay. I mean, I I I think about there's not I'm trying to think quickly of other residential areas on Roswell Road. And I know that we one time had a case at Sunnybrook, right, and Roswell Road that wanted that same issue resolved.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Ginger. Thank you. Sure. When you had a question.

Well, I I think the I I definitely hear what um if Andy is saying and the thing that got me over the hurdle um on this when we were looking at it was seeing how it does line up with our next 10 plan and our comprehensive plan and understanding that it will give the diversity of housing um in that area even though it's only three. the idea of it being what you could imagine in terms of a a single one um kind of helped me get over that that hurdle a little bit and yeah, of course there's a financial component to it, but that's to be expected. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Anyone else? Um you know, my only concern is infill and protected neighborhoods. This is the second case in just a few months where I think that's while we're saying that's part of the next 10 plan, it's also runs completely counter to what we said we were going to do with protected neighborhoods was not allowfill, not allow lots to be broken up into much smaller lots and 1 acre and 2acre communities now have 1/3 acre lots. So that would be my only issue with that. But thank you so much for your time, sir. So, we have Thank you.

Uh we have a motion on the table for approval. Uh we have a second. Um I think we're done with discussion. All in favor? So moved. Uh we postponed case C. We actually deferred it to um well, it's not on the agenda anymore, so I really don't need to talk about it. Uh ongoing business. Michelle, any that you know about? No, just what we had mentioned that we wouldn't have a case in September and we'll have a case in October. We will not have a case in September. Correct. Correct. But we will have this in that case in October and whatever else is on the agenda. Correct. Is there any ongoing business we need to discuss? No. No.

All right. Thank you. So, no new business. No ongoing business. With that uh motion by someone to adjurnn. Mr. Second there. All in favor? So moved. We are adjourned. I couldn't find it. It's probably best to say that's why I was like, it's best to say like the full thing and read it through. I'll have the print out next time. In the past, we've talked about speaking motions. Yeah, it's on the agenda.

It's on the agenda, but I didn't print it. Like I usually print it. I only had the digital version. It's down there under the book. But I was like, where did I where's the agenda? We gave that to Miss Williams. We gave it to Miss Williams and she that's what happened. Yeah, she left. She left some color swatches. I could not get to it. Yes. Thank you. I know what it is. I don't usually bring the big notebook. neighborh too many properties with too many.

Well, I I I knew it was, but it just it just the I'm my wife says that I'm often too black and white when I see things, but it just for a guy to say, "I'll clean it up when I sell it." We were happy about I was like in that boat in the room. Yeah. No, I know. You probably own a a house that was owned by the Thomas family. Clint Thomas. Thomas. It's 9643, right? Yeah, that's where it was. The Thomas. We played high school sports together. Sure.

He uh he's one of the only human beings. He jumped from the fourth floor of a tower in Daytona and made and missed from the fifth floor. Okay. And still survived and played football.

And I think you live in the Bowen's house, right? Yes. That Tom and I are partners. Yes. So anyway, thank you. So we didn't get tired res. three applications and he said no. Last application was I think I think his time is burned. He's getting older. He's not healthy anymore and he just wants to get it done. No. Well, it doesn't really have a dock at all. It's just got a boat tied to the side of the dock right now, but there are some docks that are um Yes, probably. But the but the core of engineers would love to see all of those go away.

So, grandfather that are not used like the one on this side. There's also that funny just south of the dam.

Andy knows where all those things are. Yeah. Yeah. Hold on one second. Okay. But she's when I was when I turned 30, there were about 25 of us. Each chipped in like $500 and we had this was a party that was on your property. Oh my gosh. We had a band because it's a great property. Yeah. Yeah. We called that area down in the Hollow. We called it the Glenn. I love that. Oh god. Yeah. Remember that. Go to the Glen. I hate to say that. I might have been there a few times. That's all of us. I mean, it was a huge party.

That's a long time. Yeah. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. You're welcome. And she's had some health challenges. What kind of other house Well, hopefully at some point you'll have nice neighbors from there. Although that beer would be garden, pardon me. What?

The beer garden with the river boat, cruises. How awesome would that have been? Floating floating decks, all that stuff. Like the boat could have been gambling. Are those international waters? At at the at the at the meeting when that guy proposed that I flew in and I was just like, "Okay, where do you live in

that was the gentleman that was proposing it?" Yes, I heard about him. Yeah. I was like, "You don't live here. You don't I heard about the entire toe and I was like if I touch it there or something out just kind of gets to a certain height and Half of it breaks off.

I'm like noticing everything.

No, no, I'm not sure that too, but it was certainly affect [Music] right here.

Thomas Well, looking at me There goes Congratulations.

All right. Fine. We're out. We're out.