Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

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That's all we All right. Good evening everybody. It's 7:02. It's the first meeting. We've started late uh in a while. Sorry about that. Um welcome everybody. Uh we are pleased to have Reverend Michael Walker with us from King's Chapel AM Church, 2600 Davenport Street. like to invite you up now to lead us in the invocation and pledge. Everybody please rise.

I will. Thank you. Father God, we come tonight to give you honor and give you praise. Oh Lord, we thank you for bringing us here safely, Lord. And we thank you for allowing us to to have the mind, a clear mind to come and to be about your business. Oh Lord, we lift up your name in the highest of highs, oh God. Lord, we thank you. We thank you. If we had 10,000 tongues, we could not say it enough. Lord, we love we love the way you've been treat you've treated us, oh God, even when we didn't do what you wanted us to do, but you still loved us. So, Father God, we come tonight giving you thanks and praise in the matchless name of Jesus, who is the Christ. We pray. Amen. Amen. And amen. Let's do a pledge of allegiance to the flag here. I pledge allegiance 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. Amen.

We sure appreciate you being with us tonight. Thank you.

All right. We don't have any agenda changes tonight. Um, mayoral report is going to be short this evening. We had our uh, annual daddy daughter dance since we last met and that was a huge crowd and a lot of fun. Um, the Smyrna Little League starts up this week with practices. There's over a thousand kids signed up to play. Um, so I think um, first part of March or later this month is the little league parade. if you have them come out for that ever. It's it's quite a thing. Starts at Campbell Middle School and ends at Bartlett Field at Brinkley. Um and all the players are out on the field. It's uh it's a it's a great community event and I hope everybody's enjoying the warmer weather. Um we got all 70s this week so that makes it a little easier to do just about everything. Um we'll move on to proclamations and presentations. And the first item is a proclamation in recognition of Georgia Arbor Day. And who is handling that? Miss Wilkinson. I'll turn it over to you.

Okay. Thank you. Um I have a pro proclamation by the mayor of the city of Smyrna in recognition of Georgia Arbor Day. Whereas the first Arbor Day was celebrated in 1872 in Nebraska as a special day for planting trees uh and has grown to thousands of celebrations in communities across our nation each year. And whereas community partners, families, and friends will be joined together at local Arbor Day ceremonies to recognize the benefits of trees and urban forest. And whereas trees will be planted across the state, creating a lasting legacy for future generations. And whereas trees improve water quality and quantity, reduce the erosion of precious soil, top soil, increase property values and economic vitality in business areas, provide shade, clean cleanse the air, create habitat for wildlife, and add beauty to communities. And whereas trees promote outdoor recreation which improves human health and well-being and reduces uh natural deficit disorder, nature deficit disorder in children by encouraging more activity and connection to the natural world. And whereas all of Georgia benefits from forestry, which contributes billions of dollars annually to our state's economy and provides employment for more than a 100,000 people. And whereas the city of Smyrna has been a tree city for 23 years due to the celebration of Arbor Day. Now therefore, I, Derek Norton, mayor of the city of Smyrna, Georgia, do hereby

proclaim February 20th, 2026 as Arbor Day in Georgia, and encourage our citizens to plant trees, thus leaving a legacy for present and future generations.

Thank you, Miss Wilkinson. Is there anybody here to accept? Come on up. Good evening. On behalf of Julie, uh she asked me to accept the proclamation and to share the following. Today we recognize Arbor Day as a day to celebrate the many benefits of trees, especially native trees that are indigenous to Georgia. We celebrate Arbor Day in February because it's the ideal time for planting. Each year, Keeps Mr. Beautiful honors this tradition by planting at least one tree. And this year, we're excited to plant several in North Cooper Lake Park right next to the Smyrna Community Garden. The planting will be this Friday, February 12th, at 12:00 p.m. And everyone present is invited. We'll be planting a total of eight trees. Four will be native tree species, two fringe trees, an eastern red bud, and a service berry tree, which you may know has delicious fruit that's similar in flavor to blueberries. Native trees make local ecosystems more climate resilient. They reduce landscaping costs, and they increase pollinator populations responsible for the 2thirds of the food that we eat each day. Speaking of food, in addition to the native tree species, we'll be planting four non-native fruit trees for some variety. Two fig trees, two apple trees. Once all of the fruing trees reach maturity, they'll provide free food to park and community garden visitors alike. So during this Friday ceremony, um we will also be giving out free tree samplings to seedlings, excuse me, to anyone who would like a seedling of their own. Our tree seedling species include the southern kalpa and bald cypress trees which are also native to Georgia. And we thank you all for having us tonight. We accept the proclamation on behalf of all keep sma beautiful and the city of Smyrna. And we look forward

to seeing you all on Friday for our tree planting ceremony. Thank you.

We're going to come down and get a get a photo with y'all. But let me just tell you how much we appreciate what y'all do. And those are fantastic new shirt. I have not seen those shirts before. Those look those look really good. If that doesn't represent the jungle city, I don't know what does. Once upon a time, Laura and I served on that board. And uh I just love all the things that y'all do for our community. Um next we have a presentation from the Smyrna Education Foundation. We have a report and uh and a check from JRM. So come on up.

I see Mr. Dax and Mr. Goldsmith in the audience. Tim chairs our education committee. Thanks for being here, folks. Would you all mind just introducing yourselves and just tell us what you do for the for the city and JRM? A lot of folks know you, but not everybody does. Could you just explain?

Sure. I'm Bill Watson with JRM management and uh we partner with the city to uh produce spring jell festival, taste of Smyrna and crafts and drafts and um Smyrna is one of our absolutely favorite venues. It's beautiful. Uh got the restrooms and the fountain. all that's completed and now with StillFire kind of bookending the events, it'll be even better. Um so we're very excited about that. So we're always um conscious about trying to give back and and do what we can. Uh we partner with uh Atkins Park and Kevin Draw who couldn't be here tonight to put beer gardens within those events and then proceeds from that we uh we set aside. And then um with uh with the events this past year we had a little bit of weather and uh but we still uh the crowds always come and they're always a great events. Um the um with the uh beer gardens we were able to raise $3,33121 and that's from all the events. So we coupled with that um we're going to donate $20,000 to the Smyrna Education Foundation and glad to do it. uh I think always mention this. Thank you. Uh the matriarch of our company uh FA Miller uh taught for 32 years. So education is near and dear to our hearts. So um we're glad to support them. And since co co was rough on us, but since then we've been able to donate $66,473 to Smyrna Education Foundation. So

that's awesome. Thank you very much. So people are very familiar with the work that JRM does, but they may not know exactly the what you give back to the community and and all the wonderful work you do for for the city of Smyrna. We appreciate that very much. Thank you very much.

And uh I'm Jeff Dax. Um I'm one of the board members on the Smyrna Education Foundation and I'm here with Tanner Goldsmith. Uh we're both on that board and we want to thank JRM for what JRM does uh for us. Uh what Smyrna Education Foundation does is it supports the 13 public schools within the city limits of Smyrna or those which send kids as fe part of the feeder program up into Cob uh Campbell High School. So the feeder schools for Campbell or city limits of Smyrna. That's a total of 13 public schools that we support. Uh we just finished giving $750 grants to each of those schools. We're in the process of giving uh $2,000 grants to each of those schools. And uh it's because of the money that we raised from JRM and from a couple of other sources uh like JRM um that we're able to uh do what we do for the schools. So, thank you very much again.

Thank you for your time. Awesome. We really appreciate y'all. Thank you for your service on the committee and and JRM for all you do for us. Thank you.

Thanks so much, Steph. Thank you. You know, one thing I failed to mention in my mail report, and I'm and I'm going to mention it because we've gotten some questions about it. We were just talking about it in our pre-consil meeting. This is in my hand is a list of uh what we're going to put forward to the county uh for the special purpose local option sales tax that'll be voted on uh for 2028. It'll be voted on this November for 2028. Uh the county has a couple of um meetings that they've scheduled for public input. One of which is I think on February 25th. Um but we are some of the other cities have put their lists out already. We have not we we've just kind of finalized it and you'll be seeing that um on our website and and distributed to the public for your um for your comment back to us about what's important to you and and what we should be funding with the 2028 splast. All right. We'll move on now to the rest of our agenda. First, uh, under item seven, community development items. I think this is the only one. Yes. Uh, Z, this is item A, Z25-015. This is a a public hearing zoning amendment Z25-015. Request to modify the site plan, elevations, and zoning conditions of Z21-014, land lot 751 and 752. This is 6.9 acres. 4941, 499, and 5041 South Cobb Drive and 4960, 4970, 4980, and 5000 Oakdale Road. Uh, Aerys Smyrna LLC, if I remember right, I know you're going to give us all the details, but we had we had zoned this before. Uh, and this is a the next iteration or or a different iteration of this site.

Yes, sir.

All right, I'll turn it over to Rusty. Uh Rusty Martin, community development director for the city of Smyrna. Um this is a zoning amendment case to a previously uh approved reszoning of the property. Um this is zoning case Z25-015. He uh SimRNA is the the applicant. Um this went before the planning and zoning board on uh January 5th and it received an approval of 3 to two um with a recommendation for approval of 3 to2. The subject property is located on the northeast uh corner of the intersection of South South Cobb Drive and Oakdale Road. Um it's approximately uh seven acres in size. Um, it's currently a vacant assemblage. It's a wooded lot. There used to be an old uh church building there, but that's since been demolished since the the last resoning. Um, the applicant is proposing 45 town homes and uh 5,000 square feet of uh drive-thru restaurant. Um I'll go through what was previously approved and then what they're what what they're proposing now. Um the zoning of the property will remain um mixed use conditional conditional with this request and there'll be no changing. It's just a modifi modification of the of the site plan and the building elevations. With this request, there is no change to the future land use map. It'll remain community activity center. um mixed use is is an appropriate zoning for that uh future land use designation. So there's no need to change it. In the adjoining contiguous future land use, there's neighborhood activity

center in Cobb County's property. Um to the north um and then to the east there's medium density residential in Cobb County and then medium density residential in Samra. And then to the south it's community activity center and then to the west um it's um high density residential in Cobb County and low density residential. Just to give you a little background on the property in 2007 the property was assembled um eight total parcels and it was annexed and reszoned. They were SRAA parcels and and Cobb County parcels uh mixed together and it was reszoned from R15 and RDA Simra and R20 and LR uh Cobb County to GC conditional for 26,000 square foot retail center. Fast forward to 2021, the property was reszoned from GC to mixeduse conditional for 163 units and 20,000 square ft of commercial and commercial commercial and restaurant space. Um, this request tonight is to modify the the resoning from uh 2021. um it'll maintain the existing zoning category of MU. However, they want to reduce the the multifamily units down to 45 uh town home units, which are single family residential, which are owner occupied units, and reduce the the commercial space from 20,000 square feet down to five with a with a drive through restaurant rather than um what was allowed in the GC zoning. We are maintaining the mixeduse zoning

category and doing a plan modification because the restaurant use is allowed. Town home uses are allowed in the mixeduse zoning as opposed to changing it to GC for the drive-thru. Um just to because the MU is a more restrictive use or restrictive district. It doesn't allow the hundreds of 100 plus uses that are allowed in the GC. The plan from 21 is reflected here. The residential units, the 163 units were broken up into buildings, um, four to fivetory buildings and then there was an associated parking deck off the back. The commercial space was broken up between three buildings. It was the first floor of the both uh residential buildings and then there was about a 5,000 square foot um parcel that was just purely commercial. The applicant is proposed to modify that plan to this plan which um is broken up into two phases. You or two parts. You have the the the town home development and then you have the commercial development on the south side. The mixeduse zoning district for the residential town homes has a front setback 25 side of 12 and a rear of 30 ft. You got 45 fe simple town homes. These town homes are front entry. Um these town homes are rear entry. So, the town homes that are um facing Oakdale Road will have the front of the town homes facing Oakdale Road and the garages will be to the interior off the rear of the home.

And then the other three buildings will have the front of their their town home units facing the park set the park there. There's an amenity green in the middle of the property and then storm water management will be underneath that. With this development, there'll be a full access drive for the town homes off of South Cobb Drive with an associated deceleration lane. And then off of Oakdale Road, there will be a full access drive. The development will have a 5-ft sidewalk with two-ft grass strip that goes all the way around um Oakdale Road and South Cop Drive. and then through the development. The commercial development has the following setbacks. Minimum front of zero, side of zero, and a rear of 20. And then a maximum of 95 ft and a side maximum of 20. And these are associated with what the MU zoning district um allows. Um with this, we're modifying the maximum to allow the building to be pushed off uh the road. It is a 5,000 square foot drive-through restaurant uh with indoor dining as well as 67 um associated parking spaces. All the queuing and everything will be located on this site um to be able to handle um service from this site and not back out into uh South Cobb Drive or Hookale Road. There's a detached canopy and menu board. Um and then the trash enclosure is located here and storm water. Um in this location with this there are several uh traffic improvements. There's a deceleration lane along with a full access drive on

Oakdale Road and then a full access drive and a deceleration on um South Cobb Drive. not shown on here, which the applicant has agreed to, is to provide a um pedestrian crossing somewhere on Oakdale Road where appropriate. Um that'll be a hawk system. So, it'll be the flashing lights with a marked uh crosswalk. Um and that'll be determined if this gets approved during the plan review uh process in coordination with um SimRNA and if it's if it would be located in uh the area in J Cobb County's jurisdiction then we'll coordinate with them as well with this request. There's several landscape buffers, 10-ft landscape buffers between um the commercial property and adjoining residential. And this also has the sidewalk connections um for the property. With this request, there's five variances um associated with this. Uh the first is to allow a reduction in the side step back from 25 ft to 12 feet for for the town homes. Two is to allow a drive-thru restaurant in the mixeduse zoning district. Uh three is to allow drive-through facilities and associated queuing lanes between the building and adjacent streets. Four uh allow an additional accessory structure for the restaurant. And then uh five to allow the garbage dumpsters to be visible from public street for the restaurant. to give you guys some context with respect to the restaurant and the surrounding properties. Um the applicant has provided some um illustrations and renderings of the perspectives from Oakdale Road in uh South Cobb Drive. So this first perspective is from Oakdale

Road looking back at the the the building. Um, and as you can see, the building sits lower than um, Oakdale Road, probably closer to grade with uh, South Cobb Drive. This is from the interior of the property looking back um, basically where you enter the drive-thru restaurant back at the building. And as you can see on the right hand side of the property, there's a there is a retaining wall and you can see uh that grade or elevation change on that right hand side from Oakdale Road. And then this would be sort of your perspective from uh from South Cobb Drive and then another one um from Oakdale Road. Here are also some landscape renderings for the residential site. And then your proposed elevations for the the residential buildings. Um the top are the front entry elevations and then the bottom are your uh rear entry elevations. These are the fronts of both of those types of um entries. And then just giving you some more perspective of what the rear looks like. These are the proposed restaurant elevations and all brick uh structure and then some pictures of of the subject property and then adjoining properties. Community development is recommending approval of zoning uh to revise the site plan and elevations of reszoning KZ21-014 um in the mixeduse uh conditional zoning

district at South Cobb Drive and Oakdale Road for 45 town home units at 10 units per acre and a 5,000 square foot drive-through restaurant. We've kept most of the we've kept all the standard stipulations from section 1201. Um we have modified the the special conditions from uh zoning case 21 from the zoning case 21. We've added the setbacks requested uh for the town home units in stipulation number 10. And then um everything from the previous request is staying the same. any transportation improvements on South Cobb Drive will be reviewed uh by uh G DOT prior to any development permits being issued. Um and then you have, you know, requirements for storm water improvements, water and sewer and fire access. Then we move further. We've eliminated the request some of the stipulations that were no longer applicable and modified the rest of them. And I'll get to the end here where we um we we modified the site plan stipulation and the ele elevations stipulations to reflect the dates of the elevations and site plan submitted for this request. And then we tied the the town home elevations to the standards established in section 501 which are the new uh town home requirements which require some articulation uh varying roof types and so forth. So those will all be applicable um to those um town home designs. 41 allows for the mixed use or allows for the drive-through restaurant.

42 um allows lanes to be located between the building and the adjacent street. 43 allows for the additional accessory structure. 44 um requires the allows for the the dumpster to be visible provided it it's in a three-sided brick enclosure. And 45 uh the developer shall replace the existing curbs within certain city's jurisdiction with with highback curb and gutter. 46 is um they need to uh investigate and document the condition of the storm drain systems um and rehab any existing CMP that may need to be required. Um and then 47 requires landscape buffers. And then 48 requires uh no Hardy plank sighting on any elevation visible from a public rideway. And then 49 is the requirement for the signalized uh pedestrian crossing on Oakdale Road. And with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions for you.

Thank you, Rusty. This is in Ward 7, so we'll turn it over to Mr. Oglesby for any questions and comments. I know there are a lot of people here from Ward 7, surrounding areas to that will speak on this tonight. Mr. Oglesby. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh thank you, Rusty. Uh that was very thorough. I really appreciate that. Uh you answer some of my questions. I do have one question uh to start. Um the Chick-fil-A that's currently there. Will there be do you know of any deed restrictions that will be put on that that particular restaurant or is there someone here that can answer that?

I I am unaware, but I'm sure the applicant can probably answer that question for you. Yeah, obviously we don't want a vacant Chick-fil-A building in that area either.

Um, in reference, I did notice that the uh the crosswalk was put in there and I do appreciate that. Do we have an idea where that crosswalk will be located? um not not at the moment, but that'll they will do sight sight distance studies um during the development of the construction plans uh for the LDP and they'll make that determine where determination where it's appropriate based on the site distance up and down Oakdale Road. Uh, and last and final question, and I was trying to figure it out on the drawing, and you may need to pull it back up. In reference to the Del Lane, where is that in reference to the Oakdale Estates entrance? Is that is that in the same area or is that kind of

No, it's um And this I've got it pulled up if they want to pull it up on um It's further It's to the south. Um the del lane is sort of I think in between where the convenience store is and I think that's Misty Lane. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other questions for Rusty? Yeah.

What's the approximate distance from the Oakdale the exit onto Oakdale Road from the Chick-fil-A to the South Cobb Drive intersection? Uh, it's probably I don't know. I'd have to look at it. It's It's probably 150 ft. Yeah. 200 feet, I'm sure. Olivia, can you pull up the podium computer, please? I don't I'm not I I don't have a scale on me, so that's a tough question to answer. Russy, Kennet. Yeah. Were you finished? Well, Miss Wilkinson had a question as well. No, I'm done. Miss Wilkinson,

um, are the town homes going to be gated? I've just No, there was a stipulation that they can't be gated and the road system through the town homes will be a public road. Okay. And and also notice you said fe simple. Will there be a HOA uh with the associated with the town homes? Yes. request. Um that's part of the um zoning stipulations for 1201 require a mandatory HOA for maintenance of the infrastructure associated with the development.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Do you um so for PE I riding through this area on Oakdale Road, I've noticed quite a few pedestrians along that path. There are some neighborhoods um along Oakdale Road and also the Silver Comic Trail passes there. Is it I know there's going to be sidewalks uh in this development, but will there be a way for um pedestrians to go to the Chick-fil-A? I mean, I know that we talked a lot about the the lanes keying up at the drive-thru, but is it there will the pedestrians be able to walk up and

Yes. Um if they are on the east side of Oakdale Road, they've already the applicant has agreed to put a signalized cross pedestrian crossing on Oakdale Road to get them across to the site. Um depending on where that crossing is, there is um they can either enter the site through a um sidewalk where uh the grade is appropriate up at I guess the if you look at the site plan sort of in between um where the t the town home and Chick-fil-A building are located. Um or they can come down and there'll be access uh further down. Um, we've worked out another sidewalk uh access from that point down there.

Um, Russy, so I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. Even if we were to approve this on some levels, there's still two other reviews it's got to go through. Am I right? Is it Cobb County and and DOT for purposes of the roadway? Yes, they will have an opportunity to review on and with respect to what they have jurisdiction over. They'll they've got to the applicant will have to submit to those jurisdictions for review and approval from them prior to us issuing the land disturbance permit. Okay.

So, we will not issue a land disturbance permit if GOT has not signed off on the plan because they, you know, they control South Drive. They control South Co Drive and so if there was an issue then they may not approve it. Okay. Thank you. Got a question Mr. Mayor. Mr. Good Rusty on the U town homes. Could you just describe um a little more about the materials that'll be facing the road and visible from the road please? Yes. For the most part it'll be um brick and then board and batten from my understanding. Um, but everything visible from the front and the sides. There will be no lap siding on those elevations.

Good. So, it'll be in accordance with the town home standards. Thank you. Any other questions? I know one of the questions I had asked in our meeting the other night was about the dumpster and where it's located. Can um can you point that out on this thing this uh map that's here? The

Yes. Uh you see the the hatch section sort of in the middle uh landscape island in the middle uh in front of the Chick-fil-A building. That's where the dumpster enclosure will be. So you would enter the site and if you were entering from South Cobb Drive, it'd be the first driveway and then they'd pull in there to access it and then pull around um all the way around and back out. Mr. Jones, did you have a comment or question?

Yeah. Um Rusty, taking a look at the way this property is currently zoned um versus what's being asked for today. It is this a in your opinion is this a less intense use than what's already zoned that could go there today? Yes. This the zoning is not changing but from an intensity standpoint in our minds it's a down zoning of the property. Okay. is that you so you you went from 160 apartments to 45 town homes, but you've also added a a Chick-fil-A, which is going to be a little bit more intense probably than whatever was

you went from 163 units down to 453 units. And then you went from 20,000 square feet of commercial space down to five, which if you know, looking at the 20,000 square feet under the first, you you might have had two or three restaurant spaces in those buildings. So, you know, there there's some offset with respect to what the change is between the plans on that. Yes, you're going to gain more vehicular traffic from the Chick-fil-A, but it may not amount to a net positive or a net plus change in in total traffic volume for the site. Okay, any other questions?

Hey, Rusty. Mr. Pickicket. Um, are there any stipulations for making sure the site work is done simultaneously for both sections so we're not maybe stuck with one part of it and then we don't get the other or vice versa? I believe the plan is to have all the site work done for the site um at one time. Okay. But you can have the applicant verify that.

With that, it might be time to invite the applicant up. Please come up. You need to be sworn in. Okay. Let our city attorney swear you in. No.

Uh first of all, thank you all for the time uh tonight. Um, to answer uh your question, uh, Council Member Pickkins, yes, it will be all done at the same time. I mean, the topography of the site, you have to have to do it all at once. Sorry. Maybe better. I missed your name. I'm sorry.

Uh, my name is Park Lambert with Aerys. Uh, we're the we're the owner of the property and developer. Um, and as as Rusty mentioned, um, we are uh the request is to to change the mixeduse zoning to amend it. uh from 163 multif family units and 20,000 square feet of commercial down to 45 town homes which will be fee simple um owner occupied and 5,000 square feet of um class A restaurant drive-thru space. Um we've you know we've owned this property since 2021. Um we have diligently pursued financing and equity options for this this project uh as it stands now. Um, as you've all probably seen uh in the news, commercial real estate markets have deteriorated u due to interest rates and a number of other other uh issues uh declining rents um and really difficult capital markets. So we have been unable to move forward on this project. Um this plan as amended would allow us to move forward today um get financing and start immediately um as well as lower the density for the surrounding areas and match um a little more with the uh the surrounding residential densities. So uh we would appreciate um approval and certainly would be happy to answer any questions that you have related to this.

Any questions of the applicant? Mr. Oglesby? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, and I'm not sure if you will be able to answer this question, but I I did propose it earlier. Will there be any deed restrictions on the current property? I don't know about the Chick-fil-A that they are uh that they're going to to leave and vacate. I don't know. They're here. Uh, David Chick-fil-A's council may be able to answer that though. Come up as well.

He's a little bit taller than I am. Uh good evening, Mr. Mayor, Councilman Oglesby, members of council. Uh to answer your question, Mr. Oglesby, um my understanding is that the current site is a leased site. So when Chick-fil-A vacates that site, it would be up to the the current property owner to to retenant that space. Great. And I'm I would assume, and Daniel Lomax, the operator, is here. Uh, I would assume the the uh the current owner is aware of these proceedings uh and may already be may already be looking for for other tenants for that for that location.

Um, for the record, my name is David Kirk. Uh, I'm a partner with the law firm at Chopman Pepper Lock here and I'm representing Chick-fil-A. I'm not representing Aerys, but I'm here representing Chick-fil-A. We've got the entire Chick-fil-A team here with us uh this evening. uh staff has done a very good job of of evaluating and presenting this matter to you. Uh and I'm just going to re-emphasize a few points. First, and I think this has been said a couple of times, this is effectively a downzoning of the property. It's about 25% of the number of of residential units and about the same in terms of of of the the commercial space. And granted, it it is quite possible that a Chick-fil-A of 5,000 ft would generate more traffic than a 5,000 ft, you know, just dining in restaurant only without the drive-thru. Uh, but I I think Rusty is correct that that's likely to be offset by the fact that it's 5,000 square feet instead of of 25,000 or 20,000 square feet. Uh second, while we understand the concerns that some neighbors expressed during the planning commission of the visibility of the site, I think when you combine the the elevation change that that's on the site, which is quite significant, as well as um the landscaping that that we're committed to and required to install. I think that provides a very effective uh screening of the site from view particularly from Oakdale Road. Uh third, um the proposal addresses the traffic and safety concerns uh that that uh a number of people uh expressed. We've got the deceleration lanes uh at both restaurant entrances as well as at the entrances to uh to the town home property um to allow for safe access uh to the site. Uh the drive-thru itself uh

is designed to accommodate about 60 vehicles. Uh that's more, you know, more vehicles on site that you can handle on site means less likelihood that those vehicles are going to queue up back into adjacent roadways. Even if we have more than 60 vehicles, if you look at the site plan, and is it possible to pull this up? Thank you. If you look at the site plan, you see particularly like South Cobb Drive, that entrance has a significant amount of of of storage area, if you will, as people approach the site. So, in the rare event and the unlikelyhood that the drive-thru were to back up, there's still plenty of room on site uh for additional vehicles. Um the sidewalks uh as staff mentioned we're required to put sidewalks uh on the frontages of of the property where they do not exist today. Uh and um condition number 49 uh that we uh that we've agreed to with the developer uh and in consultation with with u your staff uh both in terms of the planning staff and the engineering staff uh installing the pedestrian beacon uh on Oakdale at a at an appropriate location uh that we're going to work closely with your staff to determine where that is. Uh, importantly, all of these will uh will go through an additional uh review, extra sets of eyes at at Georgia DOT, and we believe we meet all the DOT standards now. Uh, but they will officially look at the plans and and uh have to sign off on them before we get our permits. Um, even post opening. Um, uh, Kendra with

Interplan is our engineer. She's here. She's had conversations with your city engineer, Mr. Wolf. And after the Chick-fil-A were opens, uh, they're going to look at the signal timing at the Oakdale and South Cobb Drive intersection to make sure that works uh, works effectively. So, in closing, uh, working, excuse me, working with Aeros and your staff, we believe we've worked in good faith, uh, to address the concerns about traffic, uh, pedestrian safety, visibility. I will continue to work with your staff and others going forward if this request is approved tonight. And so, I'd respectfully request you accept the recommendation of staff and of your planning commission and approve this zoning amendment. Uh again, the whole team is here to answer any questions you might have uh at the appropriate time. I appreciate your time. Uh and we're h again, we're happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Mr. Gold. Thanks so much for being here. Just a question. Um point of clarification, will your uh who who's going to own the property where the restaurant's located? Aris owns the property. just wasn't sure if you We'll be We'll be leasing the property from from Aerys. Okay. Thank you. We meaning Chick-fil-A, not me personally. Anybody else have a question? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. This is a public hearing and we have, I think, seven people signed up to speak. um all in opposition. Uh everybody who is signed up to speak or anybody else who didn't get a chance but wants to say something, come on up and be sworn in by our city attorney now. And then um we'll start with K. Barker from there. But everybody that signed up, come on up and get sworn in. Or even if you didn't sign up and want to speak or think you might want to speak, come get sworn in now. Thank you, Scott. Um, we'll start tonight with K. Barker, 4665 Oakdale Road. First of all, thank you all for for being here tonight, taking your time out of your schedules to to be at the council and speak. Thank you. Um I'm Kay Barker at 4665 Oakdale Road and I

If you can speak into the microphone. Thank you.

And I am in opposition of the Chick-fil-A portion of the reasonzoning amendment. Um and also the reasonzoning amendment application does not honestly answer the analysis questions. Chick-fil-A the proposed Chick-fil-A is not compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and will be a nuisance. This parcel cannot be compared to the commercial industrial area where the Chick-fil-A is now. There are no drive-through restaurants on this side of South Cub Drive. It will also be a nuisance because people lord around the dumpsters at Crystal and the Chick-fil-A at night and that transferring those people over to our residential areas not a safe environment. Also, with the fast food parcel having a driveway on the Oakdale Road will cause additional traffic concerns at the five-point intersection at Church Road, Kenwood, Oakdale. More town homes would be agreeable to that area and they've been very successful in that area. So, I request that you deny the Chick-fil-A portion. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Mike Kennedy, 5003 Oakdale Road. Good evening, Mayor and members of council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um, I want to be clear about why I'm here tonight. Uh, this is not opposition to Chick-fil-A as a business. It's a request that this specific site be approved with conditions that reflect how it will actually operate once it opens. Um, if the location is approved and it's busy, that won't be a surprise. High demand is expected. And when demand is high, operations matter. The site is at a nonround five-point intersection very unique to Smyrna at Oakdale Road and South Cobb Drive. The visual the visuals before you show the existing traffic movements and crossing conflicts at this intersection and operates with a limited margin of error. Five-point intersections are more complex than standard intersections. They work safely only when nearby uses behave predictably. This proposal adds a high throughput drive-thru immediately adjacent to that geometry. That means peak hour queuing, stopand go movement, idling engines, and exterior speaker activity. Because demand is expected to be high, peak hour vehicle activity will concentrate at the most constrained parts of this intersection. Oakdale Road serves the nearby homes, including the 45 additional town homes proposed in this application. Uh carry school bus routes and function as an emergency access corridor. Each of those functions depend on a

predict on predictable operations, not assumptions. The planning and zoning board recommended approval by a nar a narrow 3 to2 vote. That matters. It shows that concerns remain unresolved. staff has recommended approval subject to 49 conditions and that work is appreciated. But under the zoning ordinance, the the restaurant use is permitted, but the drive-thru is a design element approved through conditional zoning. That gives council the authority to require operational safeguards. What those conditions do not address is how the site will operate once it's once it's open. The original 2021 zoning included a traffic impact study, but the analysis was not updated for this high throughput drive-through request. There's no requirement to verify that these cues stay on site. No prohibition on spill back into the intersection. No post occupancy operational review. And no requirement to address ongoing operational noise, including sustained exterior noise above approximately 55 dB. State and county agencies will review driveway access, and that's appropriate, but they do not evaluate drive-through Q behavior, noise, neighborhood noise, or postoping performance. I'm speaking tonight as a nearby resident who has reviewed this proposal carefully. These impacts are foreseeable, not speculative. This is not about trusting the applicant. It's about how the operational risk is managed once once approved if it's granted. But once this site is built, the location, the layout is fixed. If problems arise, the city's op options become reactive instead of preventative. So tonight, we respectfully ask for one of two outcomes.

Either defer approval to address these operational issues or approve the project with enforceable conditions that keep cues fully on site, prevent spill back, require noise require a post occupancy operational review. These are basic safeguards for a highintensity use at a constrained location. So, economic development does not require blind approval. Public safety does not require opposition. Good governance requires both. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. Next, we have Kate Shaw, 2209 Misty Lane. Good evening, mayor, council, staff. Thank you for your time. Your code is clear that drive-th through restaurants are prohibited in mixeduse districts. Your code is clear that drive-through lanes cannot be on the outside of the buildings along a residential edge. You are thoughtful and experienced decision makers. And out of respect for your time, I'm not going to debate whether this is a land use or a design feature tonight. For the record, I have to state that myself and many residents consider this an unpermitted land use and preserve all rights. Also, for the record, the 2040 land use plan designates this as CAC, which is low to moderate intensity. This is a highintensity use by any planning design standard. Setting that aside, the site raises serious safety concerns. Please see exhibit B for the school bus stop routes. This is a school bus route

and child pedestrian environment. Oakdale is a bicycle and pedestrian corridor. It is a neighborhood street that does not contain businesses. Of note, 83% of the parcels on this site plan abut single family residential. On February 3rd, just 13 days ago, there was a crash involving a school bus at this very intersection of South Cobb and Oakdale Road. A bus trying to turn left onto Oakdale was struck by oncoming traffic. for a 40turn bus. Please take a look at that turning radius. That is a less than 60 degree angle skew. Essentially almost a U-turn left for a 40ft bus is an already difficult maneuver before any additional traffic is introduced. Now those 60 cars may quue on site and not stall back, but they have to get off the site somehow. I called Smartipedia this morning to confirm this bus crash after hearing about it selling Girl Scout cookies this weekend. And without much info to offer, the staff said immediately, quote, "I know that intersection." Quote, "Because that intersection is crazy." Quote, "Accidents happen there all the time." I spoke to the city engineer this morning who sent me a document that there have been 110 crashes at this intersection in the last three years. The math on that is one every 10 days. Please see exhibit C that I've entered the record of the bus crash. I continued to speak with Mark in great detail today and he confirmed that no one would be studying the safety on Oakdale. He confirmed he does not remember receiving a single safety study

request despite months of my boy's concerns over child pedestrian and school bus safety. None of the 49 conditions require Cobb County DOT signoff. I believe council member asked that question and was given a different answer. You do have one condition that says it's got to be reviewed by G DOT. And although DOT has jurisdiction over South Cobb Drive, it does not have any jurisdiction over Oakdale Road where this curb cut and bus stops are located. This cannot be punted to GDOT because they have no authority over Oakdale and they're not there to catch the ball. You are now publicly unnoticed that a school bus crash happened at this exact location less than two weeks ago. We know you care about us because you are our neighbors. And nothing about denying this application deprivives the applicant of a use of this land. It merely asks them to seek a tenant or use that does not violate your own code or policy statements on the very definition of mixed use. You are being asked to approve a highintensity commercial use at a constrained bus intersection with a high volume of traffic accidents. This is a foreseeable hazard and the city owns the dirt on both sides of this Oakdale curb cut. You are inviting municipality risk and it would occur after this council was placed on notice tonight of the risk. Someone please make a motion to deny or at a minimum remand this to add

conditions like a Cobb DOT sign off, pedestrian safety analysis, line of sight studies, and a meaningful buffer that will actually protect us. Thank you. We appreciate your hard work. Thank you for being here. Uh, next we have Glenn. Is it Paritch? Yes. Got it. Yes. Welcome.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and board members. I have lived at 2159 Oakdale Estates since June of 2006. So, I have 20 years of experience with Oakdale Road and the intersection with South Cobb Drive. And on the best of days, it's misery because the light only changes and allows five vehicles at a time from Oakdale Road to go either north or south on South Cobb Drive because there's no additional turn lane at that point. That wasn't really what I wanted to speak to you about tonight, but it's important that you understand the dynamics of Oakdale Road prior to the inclusion of all the cars that are expected to go to the Chick-fil-A for either in in restaurant service or for the drive-thru, which I understand it's going to be a double lane drive-thru, which is typical. Um the the traffic intensity study would appear to comply with the industry standard. The 5,000 square foot restaurant is expected to generate about 2300 additional vehicle tricks per day. and the current infrastructure for traffic just is not designed to handle that kind of volume. I've also looked at the uh buffers that they will allegedly put onto uh Oakdale

Road. They're not allowing enough space for a five-foot ADA compliant sidewalk, a two-foot buffer between the sidewalk and the street. And simply there is not enough space to put up the types of trees for natural buffers that I'm sure you would prefer to be versus concrete walls and such to grow. I mean, if you put a just a normalsiz plant in the ground, think of the ball that comes from the nursery and they expand rapidly and that that in my view is going to be quite an issue. Um, and there's the fact that they want to put the uh retaining wall and in some ca passes it appears that it'll even be higher than the 10 ft foot mark that's been currently recommended in the development phase. We are also concerned about the deliveries of night for food, beverages and also the uh waste management companies for reming out the uh dumpsters even if they are hidden behind a corral the noise doesn't go away for that matter it may not go away any point in the day. So, the landscaping that's been recommended does not allow for any of that to be hidden from sight by anybody driving down Oakdale Road.

So I would like you to consider upholding the standards and policy the mayor and council keeping in mind that how would you view this and how it would affect your life with the additional traffic concerns and all of the exhaust fumes which comes with such an increase in vehicle traffic. So I want you to consider right now and even though I understand uh it's being recommended for approval by the city of Smyrna staff u that there's still the 49 conditions that do not appear to have been met. And additionally, um, the claim of the reduction of 163 apartments to 45 town homes does not make sense to me. It just doesn't pencil. While it may mean less traffic from onsite residents, it certainly will not diminish any traffic from people going into a fast food restaurant for in dining room service or drive-thru. Uh I thank you for your time and please uh vote to oppose this. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Um, thank you very much. Next we have uh Debbie Stallman, 2228 Misty Lane.

Good evening. Thank you. In consideration of approving this plan and allowing it to go forward, I am adamant that it should not be approved. And here's why. The land is zoned as mixed use and according to code, drive-throughs are not allowed. However, it has been stated that drive-throughs can be deemed design features rather than use features, which I find to be very convenient for Chick-fil-A. Um, I will say it for the record. Chick-fil-A is a restaurant fundamentally built around its drive-thru. It is not merely a design element. It is actually a primary function of the business. And using a turn of phrase like design feature as opposed to use feature is simply a convenient way to shoehorn in a variance that has should have never been approved in the first place. But setting the past aside, we, the residents of a highly residential street of Oakdale, are now faced with the very real and impending consequences of a double drive-thru Chick-fil-A restaurant that for all practical purposes is being plopped directly into our front yards. The very situation that zoning laws are meant to protect protect the residents from. These impacts include, but are not limited to, high intensity traffic that in our existing infrastructure just simply cannot sustain. Increased danger to our children and the pedestrians, disruption to our buses, bus routes, and emergency vehicles, and the inevitable reducing and lowering of our property values. Currently, the plan is to relocate the Chick-fil-A from one location to another to alleviate the traffic from spilling out onto South Cobb Drive. And this is speculation that the uh new location that the traffic will not spill out onto South Cobb

Drive. It is just merely speculation. And so if speculation is an acceptable basis for making a decision that will permanently alter our neighborhood, then I ask this, who is better to make those speculations than the residents who actually live here and understand the realities of the area? the information about the area that is not included in any of the information provided by the developers and presented to planning, to council or to the mayor that uh about uh that is that Oakdale Road is a very small one lane in each direction completely residential street that intersects with South Cobb Drive at a very dangerous and complex five-point intersection. so dangerous and complex that it is a no right turn on red area. Many residents call this area uh Smyrna's very own Spaghetti Junction. The information is seemingly conveniently left out of all visual and written considerations for approval or disapproval of this plan. leading me to believe that this council and mayor just simply do not have enough information about the adjacent streets, neighborhoods, and intersections and traffic patterns to make an informed decision that has very heavy consequences and outcomes for the residents of this area. We could speculate whether this plan will solve the traffic issues or create far worse ones. No one can say for sure, but what is certain is that it will it it will be the residents who permanently bear the

consequences of the decisions made here today, right now. high-tra double drive-thru restaurants will introduce impacts that completely residential street infrastructures simply cannot support. And once those impacts once those impacts exist, they cannot be undone. And I would like to finish with one final very important point. If we as a city, the residents, the planning council and mayor allow for shoehorning of highintensity traffic drive-thru restaurants that this infrastructure cannot support today, where does it stop? What happens when it is a drive-thru restaurant in your front yards? Who will stop them? This would set a very bad precedence and should not be approved. Thank you for hearing.

Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next we have William Schwarz, 2168 Oakdale Estates.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, I'm I am very opposed to this because the Odell Road entrance is about 60 feet from South Cop Drive. I walk my daughter that way pretty much every time she drags me that way. So, you're talking about having an inter left, you know, and I see nothing in the plan where they're going to prohibit left turns from Oatdale Road going toward Atlanta road into this facility, which means the travel back up onto South Cow Drive. So the problem you had with the current Chick-fil-A, you're going to have with this Chick-fil-A. Additionally, that is a blind curve and cars because of jurisdiction. I'm not going to argue that now. Between Smyrna and Cobb County, Odell Road is a racetrack. People regularly go 50 miles an hour and they go 50 m an hour up to that traffic light that stays green for about 7 seconds, which gives you time for two cars to get through legally. Additionally, that 60 car drive-thru, how do we know when it first opens? It'll probably be 120 cars, 180 cars. It's going to be a brand new facility. And we they don't know what they don't know. They're speculating as much as anybody is. But given that the traffic regularly backs up where I cannot even get into my own development because that traffic lights only time for eight seven to eight seconds, I strongly urge you to not develop that land at all because it's just going to add more pain to the residents who live there. In addition, do do our schools have the capability to handle all these kids that are that we continually we build here, we build there, we build everywhere. Where's Cobb County schools? Have do we talked to them? Hey, we want to build 100, you know, 163 units, possibly 320 kids or more. Can the

schools support it? And my answer is no. Because I see when I see a temporary classroom, landscaped in so it lives permanent. I'm thinking we really need to check ourselves and figure out, are we doing what's best for our children? So, I'm I'm on record. I'm opposed to both parts of this. And, you know, if you want to develop stuff, go into older neighborhoods and develop houses one for one. Bring those land values up, which will bring property taxes up, which may support our current school, but building more and more houses will not pay for new schools. You know, impact fees pay for new schools. So, thank you for your time. And again, I'm opposed to both parts of this. Thank you.

Thank you. Last person signed up is Lauren Morris, 2199 Misty Lane. And and after Miss Morris, was there anyone else who had come up to be sworn in that that are not on the list? Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for the opportunity for me to state my opposition to this proposal. Um, I like my many friendly neighbors here are concerned about the traffic, that fiveway intersection, the outflow of cars onto Oakdale just creating even more havoc at that intersection, plus all of the pedestrian and kids and bikers. As noted, it is a thorough fair for that activity to get to the Silver Comet Trail. So, I'll be short and sweet tonight in stating my opposition, and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Um Rusty or the applicant, I can y'all speak a little bit more for me to the signal timing that seems to be an issue over there now if there's going to be any change to that and then what just focus in on the traffic flow and traffic plan specifically for that area. I went over there and drove the area. Um, I'm I'm very familiar with what we're talking about here. Te tell me more about how all of this is going to work at that location with the drive-thru.

Those studies are going to take place if this is approved prior to issuance of land disturbance. So they'll do a an analysis of the signal timing of the the light at South Cobb and Oakdale along with probably the light at Highlands Parkway and South Cobb Drive and figure out what the appropriate timing is based on the trip generation from the uses around there and what traffic is coming in there to maintain the same level of service um that's currently there. So, I can't give you specific numbers today, but that is all part of the review. Um, with respect to uh what Miss Shaw uh said that there's not a stipulation in here that requires the county to review. Stipulation number four, per vatum, the developer shall be responsible for any traffic improvements, including additional rightaway dedications deemed necessary by either the city or the county during construction review. That's as plain as it can be. Um, we are going to do our diligence. The county has their standards with respect to what they want to see. G. controls the light and controls South Cobb Drive. We will coordinate these reviews and make sure we're trying to address everything in in the best possible way as as we can. And if any of those entities say, "Hey, this entrance or this um this entrance on our jurisdiction is not appropriate. We need to limit it." The zoning stipulation says they have the authority to tell them no. So if they say, "Hey, we're not going to do a left out at this entrance on the Oakdale Road. It's only going to be a ride in ride out." They have that authority to do that. They have the authority to make those changes according to the plan.

But okay, but we have we have the ability now to make that change on if we were going to. I I'm a little uncomfortable just honestly with the traffic. Maybe it's because I don't have enough uh has been presented to me on the on the previous plan that was approved here. Was there traffic study done versus the traffic study on this site? What what and if so, what were those findings with this use? I understand that that the signal can be changed. I I get the timing and all that kind of stuff, but just the general anticipated traffic coming through there. Maybe this isn't a question for you. Maybe this is a question for the applicant what this

you know what the what the effect is going to be the backups and the anticipated there's probably a better question for the yeah I'd like to know just kind of what what has been done on the front end on the traffic side of things. So if there's somebody on the applicant side that can answer that question any kind of study that's been done or any kind of um I' I'd like to I'd like to know a little bit more about that.

Yeah, sure. Um there there was um as far as the traffic, I think, you know, I can maybe lean on David a little bit and their engineers for how that's going to work. Um, as you know, as Rusty said, I mean, there is there is a um, you know, it's it's kind of hard to define now because it will be reviewed by the county and the city and and everybody to see if any changes need to be made as far as the timing of the light, traffic flows, where the entrances are, if one of these entrances must be turned into a right in, right out to avoid, you know, slowing proposed traffic flows. So a lot of that typically in these situations we you know lean during lean on during the permitting process because that's you know they they generally have some comments to the plan and say hey we think this you know this might be a safety issue you have to change this we have to do so a lot of this is driven by G dot and Cobb County when we do get into planning but I don't know if you guys have any comments to to add to need to swear her.

Why don't you do it? Sorry, we've got a non- attorney that needs to be We got to get sworn in. Okay. Make sure we're doing it the right way. And then when you're finished, I think Miss Hines had another question, too. But I'm just I want to get some comfort level with the impact that this is going to have on the on the neighborhood there from a traffic perspective. That seems to be the number one concern and uh volume and safety and how we're dealing with all that.

And I I agree, Mr. Mayor, that was what we heard at the at the planning commission meeting was that, you know, this sort of parade of horribles that's going to happen if this is approved. I don't necessarily agree with that that position. Um, this has been reviewed by your your city engineer. We've actually met with your city engineer and talked through things such as the the need uh to have a pedestrian crossing. Currently, there's no sidewalk on the west side of Oakdale. And if if a school bus is dropping off there, then kids are just getting dropped off on the side of the road without a sidewalk and no crossing. uh that's going to be provided. Exactly where that's going to be is going to be determined in in cooperation with your your city engineer. Uh in addition, uh one of your staff recommendations, uh number 20 is that a right turn lane on Oakdale Road at South Cobb Drive will be required. Again, to quote Rusty, it couldn't be any planer. And a dedicated right turn lane will be provided. uh at that intersection where uh there may not be one. Now, um as far as the design of the site, uh I'm going to defer uh to Kendra, who is uh the engineer that works with Chick-fil-A, not just not just on this project, but on dozens, if not hundreds of projects. Uh, and part of her job is to help design the site so that the the traffic will in fact or the the the cars will be on site as opposed to uh leaking out onto neighboring streets. And that's one of the reasons I've heard people talk about the double drive-thru as a horrible thing, but one of the

reasons you want to have a double drive-thru is to prevent that backup. uh it accommodates more people uh more customers. It allows for uh bypass operations uh in in if one order is taking a lot longer for whatever reason than than the orders behind it. So it it's much more efficient at moving people uh through the through the process. And I probably gotten a little bit out of my lane, so I'm going to defer to Kendra and see if she has. KJ, you designed the site and I'm guessing this is not a, you know, it's not a traditional intersection. Tell me tell me how the traffic is going to move, how many extra cars you're anticipating there, how there this area can handle it if it can. I just I want to get a comfort level and and I don't have it yet.

Yeah. Yeah.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Um Kendra Lewis for the record. Um I so I'm not an engineer but I work closely with the engineer and the architect. Um so my title is a senior permit manager. I am involved heavily in the due diligence entitlements permitting process and all the way through construction. So, um, myself and my team have probably already spent 40 to 50 hours, um, doing preliminary research for this site. Specifically, we've spoken to all of the city, county, and DOT stakeholders and sent them this preliminary plan or some iteration of it. Um, and so, so first, the traffic study. Um Chick-fil-A has not done their own traffic study at this point. We would want the approval tonight in order to proceed with that. Traffic studies are um a big expense. Um sometimes they could be five figures. So that's not something that we've gone through with yet. But um we have reviewed the previous traffic study done by Aerys which is what um in part this this was designed around. Um also we have taken into account DOT standards. Um so as mentioned South Cobb Drive is a DOT roadway. So that's where we will have we'll have an access permit through DOT for the South Cobb entrance. And then for the Oakdale road entrance, that will be the city and the county. Um, and and we will not get a permit without all of

those entities approving of the plans. But I can tell you that to my knowledge, this site does meet the minimum DOT standards um for intersection spacing. Um the standard requirements are based on a couple of standards and one of which is the type of roadway and then the other is the speed limit. So based on those items um our initial research has indicated that what you see on the plan does meet the minimum requirements.

Okay. I know Miss Hines had a question. Mr. Welch has a question. Mr. Oglesby has a question. But Miss Hines is first. Okay, I have several questions and it may be that Rusty might need to and and I want to make sure we come back. I want to get this traffic thing figured out first. This is about the traffic. So, that's might might be able to come back up. Um I understand that the traffic study is is not um it's not cheap. Mhm.

Um but we leave and go home and we're not being impacted by this development that's coming up and um being a good neighbor for the people that you're proposing to have your development in. Um it would be nice if maybe that could be a consideration. But I want to go back to Rusty because I have a a couple quick questions. Um because I want some clarification for myself. I'm trying to look on Google maps so I can understand a little bit better because it feels like there's several jurisdictions that are going on here definitely Cobb and then we have uh we have uh the state with DOT Misty Lane is that within the city of Smyrna?

No, that's unincorporated Cobb. Okay. All right. So pretty much the area between the convenience store and country and suites and Oakdale estates that's unincorporated Cobb County. Okay? Meaning we are only on the west side of Oakdale Road. Unincorporated Cobb is on the east side. And when we don't have land on both sides of a roadway, the jurisdiction falls within Cobb County. And Cobb County is also doing the sewer and water. Is that right? Uh for the part of Okay.

Typically south of East West Connectors, uh Cobb County Water and Sewer. Okay.

Before you ask your question, Mr. Ro, I still nobody's told me how many cars are going to be coming. It can this intersection handle this? And the reason is because nothing because no study's been done yet and y'all are saying that a study needs this needs to be approved before a study's done. Well, should I think it should be the other way around. And forgive me, but five five and I'm not listen, I'm not these folks are going to vote on this and but it it strikes me that coming up here and saying that it might cost five figures, but okay. You know, I know that's an expense, but I feel like this is backwards and that and that just feels wrong the way that this is. Nobody's told me my answer my question yet. Mr. Welch. Yes.

So, South on South Cobb Drive. Yeah. Yep. So, yeah. I mean, if I'm exiting the drive-thru, I would have two options. So, I could take a right and turn out of South Cobb and I could go that way or I could go I could go to um the other exit and I could Yeah.

Right. Yeah. I was I was navigating inside the site. So yeah, I could go towards the left and then exit.

You're talking about this. I'm gonna go out to South Cop Drive and cross because the light just up the road is going to give me the benefit of being able to cross South Cop Drive. Um, but that's just me. Um, I I mean, and the site plan on this thing, it's a tough site plan. I, you know, I'll say that about it. I don't do traffic engineering. I don't do site plans, but but it it's got a lot going on. But still, that is not the way I would not go out on Oakdale Road and and try to get across the righthand turn lane into the lefthand turn lane with these people coming down Oakdale Road that aren't going to let me in. I'm going to go out on South Cob Drive.

Right. That's why that was the first option that I went. Mr. Ogles will be next. Mr. Lindley. Hey, thank you. I I want to thank you for being here today. I I have to say this. I'm really disturbed that you all didn't do a traffic study. I stay in this area also. Uh that's really disturbing. What is your busiest time of the day currently for the current location? What are the busiest hours? Mr. Mayor, can I ask Daniel Lomax, who's the operator, to come forward? Sure. Do you need to swear him in too, Scott?

Sorry, Scott. Thanks, guys. I wasn't planning on speaking today, but long-term Smyrna resident. We built a house right behind Market Village, so I walked over here. Um, I've been the owner operator of the Chick-fil-A since uh 2012. Been with Chick-fil-A for 25 years. So, Lo is above my pay grade. I just sell the chicken. Um, but I can tell you um just a little bit about the volume if that kind of helps. We're about twothirds the volume of the one that's closer to downtown Simrna and they just built one in Mapleton that took about 20% of my volume on top of that. So in retrospect of other Chick-fil-Ass we are below average volume. Um some of the things I think are kind of scary are the two drive-thrus and the 30 car stacks. Um that's all to help with traffic. We have currently one of the most difficult lots in Chick-fil-A. We're on 8 acres. I can stack 15 cars on my drive-thru. So, what you fill in the morning backing up on the highway, sometimes we get on Highlands, um, all that is contained to our lot. So, if you have cars that are stacked up on South Cobb, I'm losing my job. Like, that that's like an hour wait. Um, so I I don't know the traffic patterns. All I can tell you is um everything is going to be contained to the lot because this thing is built for three times the volume of what our current lot has. And it's not like three times people are going to come. It's just it it handles the volume better. Um I honestly have one of the most difficult lots currently in Atlanta to operate.

So the question was what is your busiest hours of the day? Yeah, obviously 12 to one. Um so we get obviously kind of what you expect. We get a breakfast rush um 7 to 9 in the morning and then we have the 12 to 1:30 and then our dinner, but you really don't feel that at dinner. I think moving across the way I think that's probably going to change the traffic pattern a little bit will probably be a little bit less breakfast and a little bit more dinner.

Yeah. So that's the busiest time of day for the entire area. It is a spaghetti junction. You are aware of that. Uh and there was no traffic study. So, what is the what are there any plans? I mean, maybe there should be plans for Odale Road to improve traffic at least, right? We know the traffic lights are horrible there. Yeah.

Listen, we can't have people drive yelling from the audience. We're going to keep an order in here. We're going to get some answers and appreciate everybody's passion. I I think this is this is exactly I mean when when Cobb County and GD GDOT look at this and if they see something because it has to operate at a certain level of service the traffic. So whatever that is ABCDE EF I think is how they grade it. And if it does not operate at the same or better than what it does today, they will require traffic improvements somehow. whatever that entails, whether it's additional lanes, whether it's another left turn lane with an arrow at the light, whether it's longer timing. I mean, they will do that analysis.

I I understand. Yeah. I just feel like we're I feel like that analysis should be done. And hear me. I love Chick-fil-A and I love what you all do and you're a great community partner and I represent the people that are here that have spoken that live there and they they deserve to be able to look at a plan and say this is how many this is how this is going to work and this is where the um if there are improvements this is where they'll be made to make their lives easier that live right next to it or or not change their quality of life. I

I don't know. I I don't usually get this um uh I don't usually speak this much from this seat on a zoning, but I do feel like it's a little bit backwards. I feel like y'all have come up and said, "You know what? It'll it'll be okay because we'll figure it all out." But but there's been there's no nothing has been presented to me yet tonight to tell me. You said twothirds volume and and you know, I want you to be successful, too. But what does that mean for the number of cars coming through there? uh and and how that's going to work, you know, whether it's on I'm not so concerned about it backing up onto South Cob Drive, but how it's going to interact with Oakdale where those where those neighborhoods are concerns me a lot. Um and it might work out fine, but I'd like to see that. Um, I'd like to see some some study that tells me what is twothirds of volume where you know what times a day and what I I just I I don't I don't feel comfortable uh at the moment because I haven't been given the right answer or or an answer okay to my question.

Um yeah, our traffic studies typically they'll show us you know car volumes but we don't get a lot into the you know into the nuts and bolts of what go GDOT wants until we get the permit. But you're talking about on South but on but on Oakdale I mean that's gonna it's just it's an odd intersection. It's a significant impact. I just I wish that there was something that I could look at and say okay I understand now how many cars are coming and what how it's going to be dealt with and

how it's going to interact with this space but I don't see that. So but but I don't get a vote. So uh okay. Anybody else have any questions of uh the applicant or any concerns? Okay, Mr. Uglesby, I I really think this is something we should table. All right, I think Hey, Mr. Cochran, what what can we do here? You can make a motion to table. You could make a motion to table till our next meeting or for a month. I don't know how long a traffic study takes if that's what it is.

Yeah, and that's what I was I was um um starting to talk to. I'm not saying this will work at all, but I want more information. And we, Mr. Mr. Mayor, uh, Councilman Oglesby, we would be open to that to deferring so that we can do the traffic study and provide the information which usually is provided later, but we're happy to provide it now if it's going to help you all make a make an and I'm not trying to add expense to what you're doing and I'm not trying but I but I do feel a responsibility to to be thorough in in making sure this is going to work for the people that live next to it. So, is that what you'd like to do? make absolutely and I don't know. So the motion needs to say table until

what? Scott, we need to table it to a specific date and probably just for safety probably just run an ad again before that hearing. But how long would it take you to get traffic study? You think it could take as short as 30 days, as long as as long as two months. Um, how could we could we defer for 30 and if if we're not done, defer for another 30? Would that be acceptable? Mr. How was the ad be? Because I we probably want to run the uh Well, no, since we've convened this, we don't have to run another ad necessarily

until what? April 6 is 45 days. And you can meet all the if you had to you'd meet all the advertising deadlines and all. Okay. Does that that sound okay? Okay. Can we do before? Can we do one before April 6th? We do the 30 days.

And Rusty and Joey, I trust I trust y'all and this and this staff to give us great recommendations, but I just don't feel like we have the information on this traffic side of things. What What date would you like? March 16th. March 16th. Yes, sir. And if if we find that we can't get it done in time for another two, we'll certainly let folks know, but we'll push as hard as we can. Then I'll entertain a motion to um table this until the March 16th. So move

meeting of the mayor and council. And we have a second uh by Miss Hines. Everyone, please vote. Miss Hines and Miss Wilkinson, we're waiting on How do y'all vote?

Oh, you did. Okay. Okay. There we got it. We got it now. Uh, that's been tabled unanimously. Uh, and we look forward to seeing more from y'all. Thank you for your presentation and thank you everybody who showed up tonight. We want to make sure we get this right. I appreciate y'all. All right, we don't have any more community development items. Thankfully, we're now at uh formal business. We have uh six items. Uh item A, authorization to award RFP 26-013 consultant services for comprehensive plan update to MKSK for $198,000 to be paid from general fund and authorize the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. Mr. Jones, that MKSK sounds familiar.

Yes, sir. They are. They are certainly the ones that that worked on our our downtown plan and they've done a good job for us. Um the city requests proposals from consultants to update the um the uh the city's comp plan. Eight proposals were received on Friday, December 19th and evaluated by staff from economic development and community development. The team selected three of those firms for presentations and interviews um on January 16th and the firm that came out on top was MKSK. So, uh, the recommendation is, uh, for approval for $198,000 be paid from the general fund and authorize the mayor to sign, execute related documents.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Is there any questions or comments from council on this? Okay. Entertain a motion.

Move approval by Mr. Lindley, second by Mr. Pickkins. All those in favor, please vote. And that's approved 70. Item B, approval to purchase a 2025 Ford Transit 150 cargo van in the amount of $47,350 to be purchased from Hardy Family Ford in Dallas, Georgia, using the Georgia statewide contract 99999- SPD. Do I need to read that, Scott? SPD 000000218- 0000003 funded by the vehicle replacement fund and authorized the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. And the one question I asked before you do the background, Mr. Jones, is did we go to our local Ford dealer here? And the answer was yes. And uh they did not have a competitive um offer or competitive uh they were not competitive with this. Mr. Jones,

Mr. Mayor, this uh this vehicle is used daily to to um for our support services staff to sustain essential fire department operations. Uh the normal replacement cycle for this type of vehicle is 15 years and this particular one is a 2006 Ford F50 that we'll be replacing. So it's uh it's it's well past its service life. Um the vehicle replacement, it'll be built to order with an anticipated delivery time frame of 8 to 10 weeks. Uh the recommendation is to approve the purchase $47,350 uh to come from the vehicles replacement fund. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any discussion from council?

Can I have a motion? So moved. Motion to approve by Mr. Welch.

Second by Mr. Lindley. Everyone, please vote. And that's approved unanimously. Item C, authorization for the approval of RFP26-00008 to SH Creole Contracting in Powder Springs in the amount of 1,16,13 for the Rose Garden improvements CDBG project for Rose Garden Park located at 1839 Turpin Road, Smyrna, Georgia to be funded by a combination of CDBG grants funds, general fund CIP, and 2022 Splast and authorize the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. I'm excited about this one, Mr. Jones. tell us about it. I

I know the the entire council is is happy about this project. So, we looked at this uh um a couple of weeks ago and and we have a layout for this. So, we we um sent out to collect some bids for this for some contractors. We had seven bids that were received and reviewed. Um, after reviewing these, we concluded that SH Creole Contracting was the lowest response of responsible bidder and should be awarded the project RFP26-00008 for the Rose Garden Park Improvements. The amount of the contract be 1,16,130,000. The project will be managed by foresight group and will be funded by a combination of uh CDBG which if you don't know what that means community development block grant um and and also a supplement of general funds uh from our community from our uh capital improvement fund and the 2022 SPLOS funds. So it's a but we're we're excited about that project. It's uh it's going to add an awful lot to that neighborhood. Miss Hines, anything you want to add?

I'm very very happy that we're doing this. It's a long time coming and I know the residents are very very new playground pavilion. It's going to really be it's going to be really be awesome. So very very happy about it. And uh with that I would make a motion since I may motion to approve by Miss Hines. Who who got it? I think Mr. Oglesby might have got it maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Was it over here?

It was that way. Okay. All right. Uh, everybody please vote. And that's approved. 70. I know Mr. Lindley, you've been very involved uh in that uh neighborhood in Rose Garden and trying to do right for them for a long time, too. So, thank you for your efforts, even though you didn't beat Mr. Oglesby to second that thing. Item D, authorization to approve Georgia P request to acquire two easements along Belmont Circle along Windy Hill Road for new power services installed at 945 and 969 Windy Hill Road for the new bridge lighting and authorize the mayor to sign and execute all documents. My understanding is this is just a small area, Mr. Jones. Is that correct? Item D,

the two easements. Okay. Item D. Welcome to the meeting, M. Welcome to the meeting, Mr. Jones.

I did. I did. My my C is mixed up. I've got my my items. Um, yeah. So, this is a request that's based on need for Georgia Power. They have to acquire the two easements to locate the lines to actually um be able to service those uh bridge lighting underneath underneath the Windy Hill bridges. Um public works recommends approval and the authorization for Georgia P request for those two easements along Belmont Circle and Windy Hill Road for the new powered uh services installed for four the address 945 and 969 Windy Hill Road. I recommend approve. Miss Wilkinson, this is in your ward. You okay with this?

Yes. Would you like to make a motion? Yes. All right. Move to make a motion for item 9 D.

You moved to make a motion, but what you meant was move to approve item 9D. Okay. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Pickkins. All those in favor, please vote. I guess you could move to make a motion. Guess you could. That's approved unanimously. Item D, authorize and approve a quick claim deed conveying a segment of land that parallels the rear of the property located at 1501 Walker Street. Parcel segment to be deed is that of an old alleyway based on the recorded subdivision plat and authorized mayor to sign and execute all documents. Mr. Jones, this is item E. Can you give us some background, please?

Yes, I'd be happy to. So, um, what you what you read off is exactly what it is. It's it's not a par parcel that um that the city is is has any interest in and we want to quickly this back to the property owner as mentioned 1501 Walker Street. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any uh comments or questions from council? This is in ward three. Motion to pass by Mr. Lindley. Second.

Second by Mr. Gold. Everyone, please vote. That's approved. 70. And our last item under formal business, item F, authorization to approve city of Smyrna to quick claim deed a segment of land that parallels the rear of the property located at 1400 Corals Avenue Southeast. This parcel segment to be deed is that of an old alleyway based on the recorded subdivision plat and authorize a mayor to sign and execute all documents. Pretty straightforward there, too. Yes. Yes, sir. It is. This is this comes as a citizen request whose property was 1400 Carl's Avenue. Uh the city has no future plans for that alleyway. Recommend approval of the quick de Mr. G. This is in ward six.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Make a motion to pass as read. Have a have a motion seconded by Mr. Welch. Everyone please vote. And that's approved. 70. Item 10 is the consent agenda. Mr. Jones, can you please read the consent agenda for council approval?

Certainly. There are six items on the consent agenda tonight. Uh first we have approval of the January 29th, 2026 committee the whole meeting minutes. Item B is approval of the February 2nd, 2026 pre-counsel meeting minutes. Item C is the approval of the February 2nd mayor and council meeting minutes. Item D, this is an approval of a special event permit for the Smyrna Pride to hold the annual Pride Festival in the Smyrna Market Village on Saturday, June 13th. 2026 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm. It also contains um the approval for closures of West Spring Street from Atlanta Road to King Street and King Street from Bank Street to Steven Street from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on the evening of the event and authorize the Vineyard Vine and Market for and Smyrna Village Bourbon and Cigar Bar to operate a beer, wine, and liquor mobile bar during the festival hours. also to authorize the vendor to seek the required special event permit through community development office and ala alcohol sales approval through the state of Georgia. So there's a lot in that one one agenda item.

You going to read E and F or is that

yes we're not voting on these independently. Uh, item E is the approval of the special events permit for a carry the load to host a community awareness event at Veterans Memorial Park on Friday, May 8th from 8:30 a.m. to 10 to 11:30 a.m. in honor of Memorial Day. And item F is an authorization to approve a road closure at 1493 CER Drive for the period of three March 9th, 2026 to April 10th, 2026 for the installation of storm water infrastructure improvements. Public works staff has led me to believe that this will not take the entire month, but uh we're going ahead and get authorization for the full month. We hope this to be a week or less.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. I know you have a cold and I'm sorry to give you grief this this evening. Uh we appreciate you. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved by Mr. Lindley. Second. Second by Mr. Gould. All those in favor, please vote. Travis and that's approved. 70. We're now into our public comment section. We don't have anybody signed up to speak this evening. So, we'll move over to ward and staff reports and start tonight with Mr. Ricky Oglesby.

Man, f is first today. Awesome. Hey, in the spirit of Black History Month, I'd like to recognize the great Nat King Cole, who passed away on this day in 1965, a great jazz musician. And as always, uh, black history is American history. So, pick up a five minutes to read a little bit about black history. Thank you. I yield, Mr. Gold.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just one uh one thought. Smyrna Business Association's uh March meeting which is March uh 5th Thursday will feature two local uh business owners Aaron uh Bizage Stillfire uh one of the managing partners and Nick Beverly from Rev Coffee and they'll be talking about their obviously Erin will talk about the the opening of StillFire and Nick will talk about the partnership with with StillFire Brewery. So come on out for Thursday, March 5th. Miss Wilkinson, no report tonight. Thank you. Mr. Jones, anything else you want to add? Okay,

Mr. Lindley, Miss Hines, I have a report.

Um, in thinking of Black History Month, I am so happy to be chairing the committee again. And uh we have our taste of black history um which will be our dinner annual dinner next Friday. Very excited about it. And come Wednesday, we will be able to announce our celebrity chef who is going to be one of the judges who is from Food Network uh fame. So I'm very excited about that um being able to announce that. Um but we're looking forward to it. It's going to be a great event. And also I just want to give a shout out to the city officials for the city of Lugano uh Switzerland who um welcomed me uh in a meeting and it was a wonderful time and uh it was great to be able to discuss some of the redevelopment that both of our cities are doing and hopefully we'll be able to have more uh discussions and maybe a little bit of a sister city program. Thank you.

Hold on, Mr. Pickkins. Miss Wilkinson thought of something. I want to put a plug in uh for a business in W five. It's called Dupsies and it's on South Cobb Drive and if you've never been there, they have a lot of uh clothing for African-Americans and uh they have beautiful clothes and I've been to a fashion show there. They've expanded into their the building next uh to them that used to be a uniform building uh store. But anyway, it's uh they have fabulous clothes. So for all of you that would like to um to celebrate u black history month in the some clothing just invite you there to that shop

that's just north of windy hill on south cop pickings no report miss Heather Jill anything Scott all right that concludes our business if there's nothing else to be brought before this body we say good night from The junk city.