Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

You're right. really seriously.

is what Excuse me. Thank you. It's very small. Okay.

No longer. Hey, how are you doing? All right, we ready? Y'all are gonna have to bear with my hair. I had to work a full day today. The hat was necessary. All right. Good evening and welcome. Uh today's Monday, Mar 11th, 2026. This is the planning zoning uh meeting for the city of Smyrna. Um and this meeting is called to order at 6:01 p.m. At this time, we'd like to ask all your electronic devices be uh put in a silent mode. For those of you joining us for the first time, this meeting is conducted much like a council meeting. Uh, as such, each application will include a presentation from city staff, followed by a question and answer session between staff and the board. Once all the questions have been satisfied, we'll ask if there's anyone in attendance that would like to come forward and speak in favor of or

opposition to the application. We ask that you come forward one at a time, state your name and address for the record, and please direct all your comments to the board. All right. Um, first item on our agenda is a plat approval. This is Z26-101 plat approval to allow subdivision of 3490 Pine Tree Drive into two parcels within the R20 zoning district. This is 1.01 acres landlot 555 again 3490 Pine Tree Drive. The applicant Shawn Murphy. This is a plat approval. This is not a public hearing. Do we have any questions for staff? I do want to make one point uh that this uh this is a question for for staff. Does this meet all the zoning for R20?

Yes. Okay. All right. Can we get a motion? Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to pass Z26-10.

Have a motion in favor. Do we have a second? Second, Mr. All right. All in favor, please vote. Okay. The plat's proof four to one. Mr. Rice in opposition. All right. The next item on our agenda is Z26-00004. Uh this is a public hearing to allow for reszoning from GC to TD conditional for the development of six family six single family attached dwelling units at a density of 5.7 units per acre. This is 1.05 acres and land lot 606 located at 4691 Campland. Melissa Mario is the applicant. Mr. Sts the background please.

Good evening. Joey Stabs, planner two with community development. Your recommendation tonight will go to mayor and council on June 15th for a final vote. Subject property is 4691 Camp Highland Road at the corner of Argo and Camp Highland. It's a little over an acre in size. It's currently vacant. The applicant is requesting a resoning from general commercial to TD town home conditional for six single family um attached town homes. The future land use map designates this property as medium density residential, which is up to six units per acre. And this would be consistent with the future land use plan. Basically, everything around this property is medium density residential. However, to the east, there are some properties in the county that uh are heavy industrial. I'll go over the site plan that's um submitted with the application. I have the TD zoning district setbacks. It meets all except the side setback. The uh for lot for town home number one, a corner of that building will need a setback reduction from 25 ft to 17 ft. There's six rear entry town homes. They'll have twocar garages and eight guest parking spaces. There's open space provided at the uh intersection and the storm water detention at the low spot of the site and a mail kiosk will be provided. There's a sanitary sewer line that runs at the back of the property and

they will be providing a five-foot sidewalk and twoft grass strip around Camp Highland and Argo with rightway dedication on Argo Road as well. There's a full access drive to the site um as far down on Argo as it can go. Again, there's one variance, the side step back reduction from 25 ft to 17 feet. This is the front elevation of the proposal. That' be brick, timber, tech, and some other um siding materials and the rear elevation. These are what they're proposing for the interior. some pictures of subject property and some adjacent properties. Staff is recommending approval of the reszoning from GC to TD for development of six single family attached units at a density of 5.71 units per acre. The following conditions standard condition regarding the architecture of the building. Um underground utilities they subject to any traffic improvements needed. Um and they will have to meet our tree ordinance requirements. Special conditions is the side setback reduction to 17 feet. They're responsible for any fire access, water and sewer and storm water improvements. the uh sidewalk along the frontage of the property that have a minimum of eight guest parking spaces and a maximum of six units with twocar garages rightway dedication on Argo Road and approval is condition to the submitted site plan and elevations. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Sts? Joey on this uh plan the variances for unit one. this whole cluster be shifted down and have a variance on unit six so that the the units of budding houses have that extra

I know they have looked at that and it affects the the entrance to the site and the engineering that goes in with that. So, but I'm sure they'll be happy to talk to that about That was similar to my questions. I was gonna Thank you. I was going to ask about the the variance and um the reduction from 25 to 17 feet and the need for that and then why the staff was supporting that. Well, the geometry of the site, the location of the sewer line in the back, it it kind of the low point of the site being where the storm water has to go, that kind of dictates where everything else goes. Excuse me. Any other questions? All right. Thanks. This is a public hearing. Oh, check. We need to see if the applicant is here. Will let come forward and tell us a little bit about your plans.

Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Uh my name is Melissa Marillo and I'm the applicant. Um, Highland Reserve is a a proposed residential development consisting of six modern suburban town homes designed with a refined blend of brick, cement siding, timber techch, and wood accents. Um, each residence will offer approximately 2800 square ft with four bedrooms, four baths, a double garage, and a rooftop terrace. The interiors are designed to deliver a more ele elevated and custom feel than what is typically found in traditional town home communities. Featuring high-end modern finishes, open concept living spaces, designer kitchens, premium materials, and thoughtfully curated architectural details throughout. Our community amenities will include a playground and a small dog dog park. The proposed uh price point is approximately uh 680,000 per town home. Uh we recently uh met with uh some members of the community and listened to concerns that they had and so we wanted to address some of those concerns that we heard. Uh one of the concerns uh that actually I'm going to have our our engineer team talk about uh is the detention pond. Uh, so I let them go more in debt. Um, one of the concerns was the dog park at a busy um the busy corner there of Argo Road in Camp Highland. Um, we're proposing to fence that area in to make it a little bit safer there for the dogs. Um, and uh, and going into the traffic uh, there in that area. We'll also be doing a traffic study before the next hearing. Okay. Um uh we also heard uh a little bit about

the aesthetics of the um the proposed town homes that it looked a little bit too modern um with the the concept that we presented the elevation. Uh so we took that into um into thought and we decided to change the materials a little bit to blend uh more with the surrounding homes. Um and that's when we decided to go uh more into the brick and cement siding um design. Same same architectural design but different uh materials. And uh another concern was the uh the glass garage doors that looked a little bit too modern. So we're we are reworking that uh design for a more architectural door. Um and uh for the the city um the city codes on the townhouse designs um we will have a slight variation on accent and paint colors on the town homes to different differentiate so they don't look all the same. Okay. Um we talked about the increased traffic. Some of the neighbors were concerned um that the fact that six town homes would generate a lot more traffic than um say if there was four stand freestanding homes. Um but actually preliminary studies show that freestanding homes tend to generate more traffic uh more uh trips per day uh than six town homes do. Just the fact that they usually have more children, more cars. Um, so that was our preliminary study, but then we'll leave it to the experts also to help us out with that. Uh, we had some uh some buffer concerns

mentioned uh the side buffer of 25 foot and the rear buffer of 30 foot. Um, we will be planting a natural fence there to create privacy. Um, and also, um, I think someone had mentioned maybe a little bit of a strain on on school districts and and in the staff memo, um, the Cop County School District indicated that the development would add approximately three children to the assigned schools. So, that's really not an issue with these town homes. And that's about all that I have.

Any uh questions for the bedroom. Yes, ma'am.

You know, whether there's a powder room or it's a bathroom per back a little bit that if you have four bed, four bath, you may have not each child having a private bathroom perhaps, but it may be geared more toward um Thank you. Sorry, it's it is on. It may be geared more toward having four adults in there, which would increase the amount of cars per unit um as opposed to being fewer cars. So, can you speak to anything about whether it's each bedroom having a bathroom and how that might play out if you get, you know, extended family? Obviously, if it's a private residence, you don't have any restriction on how many adults can live there. So, you could have the potential for more traffic. So, can you tell us about a little bit the interior ratio of bedroom to bathroom or how it's designed?

There is um a bedroom a bathroom planned uh with each one of the the bedrooms. The Yes, a bathroom plan for each one of the bedrooms. Um whether or not that encourages four adults to live together, as you mentioned, it's a private residence. We can't control that. Um once someone uh purchases the home, um of course, you know, there's not unlimited parking there. Um there's two two parking spaces uh in the garage for for each home. Um so you know like I said there there are some things that are under out of our control. We can only predict you know what's most likely to happen.

That's the only question. Any other questions? Thank you. Um, could you just speak a little bit about the detention pond and its location as proposed and if there are alternatives to putting it in a location that's closest to the residences to the west and to the south. I would like to turn that over to my expert to Asia. Good evening and welcome. Hello. How are you guys doing? Um, so yeah, we did look at Could you real quick for just procedure, can you just state your name and absolutely relationship? Yep. My name is Asia Mos. I am a civil engineer helping them with um the storm water design on this project. Thank you.

Um so the detention pond is in its current location because it is at its lowest point. Um we did take a look at possibly shifting the detention pond over um to the west. Um but that the topography on that side is about um 7 and 1/2 ft higher than where it's currently located. Um and then also the space. So we were trying to keep the um drive aisle as far away from the intersection as possible. And so if we do have to shift that detention pond over um we would have to shift the drive aisle up. Um which is something that we did not necessarily want to do. Um but we do know that there are some concerns with um pests, mosquitoes. So we originally proposed a retention pond. Um, and I know one of the main concerns was, you know, when a retention pond is not maintained properly, uh, it could cause standing water and so then that could bring in mosquitoes, which is it's close to a tennis court. Um, so we spoke with, um, the storm water, um, department and they are amendable to us changing the pond from a retention pond to a detention pond. Um, and so a detention pond is designed to um discharge water over the course of 72 hours. And it takes about seven days for mosquitoes to kind of breed in standing water. And so with the detention design, it's lower maintenance. It's a a dry detention basin, so it's lower maintenance. Um, and so it's less likely that we would have to worry about um standing water um or standing water long enough um for mosquitoes to actually breed in that area. Um we also discussed with the client the possibility of adding certain covenants to the HOA um covenants that require pest control um specifically towards mosquitoes to

prevent um any type of breeding to occur in that area. Maybe a question for the applicant then. Are are you amendable to those suggestions that they said? Um I guess another question that I had was the number of units and how you arrived at the number of six given the space that you have um in requesting the variance to the west.

Hi, my name is Hayo Marillo. Um um well the cost of uh of the property uh is basically what you know pushes to to to do six units instead of four or five. Uh it's basically you know that's what it is. The cost of the land and the the you know that that will not allow us to do basically less than six. Forgive me. Could you say your name again please? Aho Moro. Okay. Yeah, it spells J A I R O. Haido. Thank you. Pronounced H I D O. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. Could you speak uh as well? I think you'd mentioned or your partner mentioned um putting some natural fencing around both the properties to the west and then could you clarify a little bit of about what that is and then also potentially uh if that was mentioned for the detention ponds as well. Yeah, I don't know exactly what kind of trees we're going to do right now because we just meet with the with the next door uh community I guess a few days ago. So, we're working on proposing what kind of plants will go there. Uh but we have done in the past uh like green giants you know uh uh things like that uh uh just to create privacy. So, uh for for sure we we will do something and we will propose that in the next few days.

Okay. Go ahead. I thought of another question. Um, piggybacking on to why is it, you know, the number six. Um, here's just a thought, you know, and if you cannot shift it away from the line where you're asking for a variance.

Um, there's nothing that stipulates that every unit has to be the same square footage. the unit on the end or the you know unit number one could be fewer square feet. Um it would still be another unit and you know in order to appease neighbors if that is something that is a sticking point with neighbors. I have not spoken to the neighbors obviously, but you have reached out and and that's good. But um I just wondered if that is a consideration that you might entertain.

At this stage, I think everything could be considered. I don't think we had any of the neighbors complaining about it or mention this this uh uh uh this this issue or or or this situation. But uh we're open to to to discuss that. Yeah. No, we'll wait. Will you get your turn in a minute? Okay. That that is just a question I had. Just trying to think be forward thinking in how this could be pleasing for everyone. And that's all I have. No. Thank you.

We're clear. I just want to add to the discussion. The question was related to square footage and adjusting square footage. Um the footprints reflected on the city's town or requires a minimum 24. So they're reflecting that minimum according to our code. Obviously shorten extend the length but the width of the town. So they're all going to be size based on that. So, I'm not trying to get into a tabletop architecture, but I'm sort of just wanting to highlight that

the size of the town home and the width specifically is primarily dictated by what is Thank you for that clarification. All right. Thank you very much, and I hope I did that right. All right. This is a public hearing. So, this is a public hearing. At this time, we'd like to ask if there's anyone in attendance that would like to come forward and speak in favor of or opposition to the application. So, you come forward one at a time, state your name and address for the record and please keep all your comments directed to the board. Thank you. Good evening and welcome.

My name is Zad Salamy. I'm at 4817 South Argo Road. I am the president of the HOA at Woodland Brook. and uh I'm standing here to speak about uh this uh request, this zoning request. Uh we have few concerns. First uh let me say thank you for um Ricky and Walter, our councilman and our zoning rep in here to have a meeting with the developers this past week. We addressed a lot with them and unfortunately none was uh taken into consideration. I agree with you, sir. Please shift everything to the east. Don't worry about the west side. The dog park that they're calling a dog park is at the intersection of uh Tallaladega 2.0. Very fast, a very dip in the road in there. No one sees our dogs or our our kids. So that dog park is not going to be used or it'll be used by that development only. So please if they can shift everything to the east and not worry about going encroaching on the building line on the west side of the development. The other concern we have is the retention detention however you want to phrase it. We ask them if they can move it to the east as well away from our neighbors. We all know detention or retention mosquitoes are there one way or another. seven day larva circle cycle or two days mosquitoes. We're going to have them in there. There's a difference of seven feet. I'm going to take their word for it. I do not know even though I know that property very very well. Um maybe they can reroute their pavement, drainage, everything else to go further to the east and uh save us a little bit of mosquitoes in our neighbors backyards.

Um there's no deceleration lane or recess lane. People turning from Camp Highland to Argo Road, they are so in a hurry because they don't see that dip in Camp Highland. And that traffic right there is very very bad. We even have a pedestrian crosswalk. Even with that, they're still flying through that intersection. So please consider that in your uh in your studies as well. I do not know. They did not damage anything. Um, last on that site itself, we had problems before because Mr. Abu Jali, the previous owner, developed that property and there are four homes, stubs, sewers, whatever you want to call them. So, even though it's a GC today, but for some reason, it should be residential because Tony took it through the zoning committee and it got approved for four homes. At that time we had a heck of a trouble problems with them. Silt all of our tennis courts, silt all of our drainage, silt into everything we have back there. So please, whatever you can do, whatever stipulations you put in there, whatever monitors you put, uh, inspection, weekly inspection, things like that, please keep that in mind because we've had a heck of a time with that development when it was developed before. And that's about it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening and welcome.

Hi. Okay. My name is Alex Mone. I live at 4801 Claybrook Drive. Um I love the design. I love the building. I think it's well thought out. It's facing the city skyline. Um in the rendering that I received, and I have it here in my hand. I'm not sure if you could show it if you have it yourself. it doesn't really show accuracy and and uh this building's size uh directly impacts four homes on the west side and it's um you know with the retention pond and as well as the the encroachment I can't speak about because it's there's boundaries and I understand those but uh I'm just wanted to speak that my HOA president uh Zad speaks on my behalf a lot of the points that he had just mentioned I don't want repeat. Um, he and I have spoke about this. I just uh want to uh be in in front of you as one of those four homes on the west end and how it's impacting me. It's not the eyesore. I think it's a beautiful building. It stands 38 ft in the air. It's it's it's uh downs slope. They're going to have to fill it full of dirt to get it up because it grades very And it's going to looks like their parking from this rendering is directly on top of the corner of the HOA's uh uh recreation area which I've lived in this property in this neighborhood since 1999 when I built that house in a uh July 1st actually. So I've been there 26 years. Uh I've been waiting for something like this to happen. when I heard the

developer state that something this size has to come in this lot uh because of price points um and I had to listen to how that mathematically calculates. I don't have the answers and I can't question it. I can just say that I I don't believe that's the case. That something of this size has to be built in a community. Even the condominiums across the street don't scale to this. Not even close. I think uh two stories and uh an eve. So that's all I really like to say. I'm one of those four homes. As a matter of fact, I'm the corner house. And if I were to draw my house on their rendering, and it looked very beautiful as if this was green space, my house is in this little spot right here. It's in this spot right at the corner of the building. And uh that's all I have to say.

Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. My name is Dylan Morgan. My address is 4841 Claybrook Drive, Smyrna, Georgia 300082. First, I would like to thank city staff. Community development has been very helpful and responsive. The clerk's office went out of their way to ensure that my written objections were stamped and added to the record. It should be in your packet. Um my concern tonight is um not about staff professional professionalism at all and I would also like to add that the applicants themselves have been very um courteous and helpful in explaining their intentions. Um however before the board meets its uh reaches the merits I respectfully ask that the matter be deferred and renoticed. The application record itself is inconsistent. The application field lists the present zoning as GC and the proposed reszoning as RTD, but the project description says that the application proposes to reszone from RTA to RTD. The current sign on the property appears to state GC2T. Um, and uh, the sign was altered uh, I believe on May 6, 5 days ago. Um, you to make that reflection. Um the as of tonight the staff has referred to TD conditional as a sixunit per acre uh you know six unit per acre standard. Those may be reconcilable internally but the public should not have to infer zoning action what the zoning action actually is before the board. The notice should clearly state the present zoning the proposed zoning classification and the relief being requested. My understanding is also that the po uh I apologize. Um so if the board proceeds tonight, I ask the staff to answer three questions on

the record. First, what is the zoning classification actually before the board? RTD, TD conditional, or something else. Second, where is the exact zoning action stated in public notice and the application materials? Third, if the staff is relying on a sixunit per acre density standard, what ordinance section governs that standard? And how does this relate to section 801's RTD dimensional standards? The um I am not stating that nothing can be built here. I'm saying that the record should be clear before the board acts. The application's own description says that strict compliance with the setback standard is difficult because the site's tight confinement and limited dimensions. Uh that is uh you know that I apologize. I don't do this often. U the that is evidence that the proposed layout needs relief from the standards that protect the adjourning property. the proposed fourstory 36 foot massing directly beside the attached single family homes that Alex was referencing earlier uh in the Woodland Brook HOA rec recreation area remains a serious compatibility issue. The 2040 comprehensive plan emphasizes compatible infill, context appropriate density, protection of single family neighborhood character, and adequate buffering and tree canopy protections. For those reasons, I respectfully ask the board to defer and require corrected notice. If the board does not defer, I ask that it recommend denial. Thank you.

Thank you, Dylan. Anybody else? Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Uh my name is Robert Low, LWE, 4800 Claybrook Drive. And I have two things in mind from what I heard tonight. Uh first is parking. Uh considering the size of the unit's number of bedrooms, I can't fathom that a few of those aren't going to have more than just two cars. and I see a twocar garage per unit and then eight guest or overflow parking spaces. What will happen if two or three or four of those units have more than two cars? Where are they going to park? Is there safe parking along Argo Road if they have to resort to parking along Argo? I walked that today and I don't see safe parking along Argo Road as an overflow opportunity. I could be wrong, but I would recommend that the planners take a look at that. Um, and what if one or two of those units happen to have a Mother's Day gathering as an example, and you have guests? Where are people going to park? I It just seems like this is being shoehorned into too small of a space from the viewpoint of parking and parking safely. And again, the only overflow I can see is Argo. And I certainly wouldn't want to see them come into around the corner into Woodland Brook, walk across Alex's property to get to the front entrance. So I I have serious questions about parking. The other one is um in regard to storm water. Yeah. Occasionally we have these 20 or 50 year 100y year reigns and where is the water going to go? I hear detention, retention, and the revision is for the water. From what I I'm not a civil engineer, I don't fully understand it, but it sounds like the water would go away more rapidly. And does that mean an overflow pipe? And if so, where's it

going to go? Or what if it rains so hard that it even overflows the bounds of the upper bounds of the detention, retention, whichever it is, it's going to flood, in my estimation, the recreational area of Woodland Brook. And that's a concern of mine. So again it seems like a not a lot of space when I look at the diagram I can't do the calculations of course but at least half of the space which is now pvious is going to become impervious and that is a substantial change and where is the rainwater going to go or storm water going to go on a 20 50 year 100year flood and it's going to go into Woodland Brook and there's a swimming pool there as well Just below the tennis courts is a parking area and then a swimming pool. Are we going to get a muddy swimming pool if we have one of those torrential rains? I don't know. I can't do the calculations, but I'm not it's not my business, but it's just a concern. Is the detention retention ever really going to be handled properly and to the uh for the protection of Woodland Brook? So, those are my two concerns. Thank you. Thank you, Robert. Anybody else?

Sure. Sure. We can. Good evening and welcome. Hi, my name is Ty Marie Lockach. I'm also a resident of Woodland Brook, 4842 Claybrook Drive, South County. Can you say your name one more time? Ty Marie. Ty Marie. You can call me Ty like Thailand. Awesome. Thanks, Ty.

Awesome. I'll be short and sweet. I just want to sit here and echo the concerns of my neighbors. They have done a wonderful job outlining many of what we have. I want to double down on the intersection and how dangerous it is. No matter how many units we have, five, six, three, having any sort of entrance or exit there is incredibly dangerous. I already don't feel comfortable walking with a stroller along there. I will only go on that walk if I'm by myself because of how fast people are driving through that neighborhood. So, I ask that regardless of how many units there are, that we really think through that traffic pattern because it does matter. One or two more cars going five miles above this speed limit at that intersection puts all of our our kids, our walkers, our dogs at risk. And it's something that already happens today. So, thank you for my neighbors for voicing their concerns. There are a ton more people who weren't able to make it here from our community, whether child care or health care or house repairs, but we are just a small bit of our community who are very concerned about this. So, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Can we get the site plan thrown up on the screen, Joey? So, we can just look at it as we go. Anybody else? while he's pulling up the site plan.

All right. So, you will need Okay, there you go. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Uh, good evening. My name is Philip Toledo. Uh, I'm at 1627 Omar Lane. Uh, I'm at the corner where the apparently I don't know the difference between a detention or a retention pond. Uh but that's right where my uh where my property is. And so um I apologize for not doing all of my due diligence and learning all of the terms. So I'll just speak to you more as a uh a citizen in in what I would call plain English. But a couple of concerns that I have just like uh what was mentioned by all of my neighbors. I agree with what they all have to say. Uh when I take my kids on a walk, uh we have to pass this intersection and then we have to cross east west uh to be able to get to the Silver Comet Trail. And it is much more stressful for me to be at the corner that we're talking about on Argo Road in Camp Highland than the main road with however many thousands of cars are passing by at any given moment. And so I am very concerned about uh not just the the volume of cars that you add, but just the complexity of when you're adding another drive, people coming through there that don't really know the area. It's just going to add complexity to an area that I think is already um rife for uh an accident or something to happen. Um you know, we talked a lot about variances again, the retention and the detention and all of that. Uh all I know is that uh when I walk out my back door um I'm not sure what I'm going to see. Am I going to see a 30- foot tall uh you know what's it called? Retention wall with a pond at the top of it. Because when I walk out my back door and I look to where Camp Highland is, it's a very significant slope. And so what concerns me is what is it going to look like, you know, for my family, for the other families that live there. Um, I know they said they were going to plant some trees, but again, if you're if it

I'm going to make it up, but if it's 30 feet to the the camp island, it's going to have to be a pretty tall, however they fill it in, and that's a concern to me. Uh, I also am concerned as to where the storm water is going to go. Uh there's a a drain or something at the corner of uh the site plan there because it's right next to my deck because I know my irrigation or my my drainage from my um pipes or my gutters go down into there. Um and during like they mentioned the last couple speakers mentioned, when we have a lot of rain, it does fill up pretty quickly. And so I'm concerned once you take all that vegetation out, what's going to happen? and the HOA just invested in some protection around our our tennis courts. Um, that's another concern that um may have been addressed earlier, but again, in a plain English way, um, I'm not really confident that we've really addressed that. And then the last thing I'll say, I'm glad one of the neighbors brought it up, is when you look at the uh the plans for uh the property, I think it's the elevation plan or the one with the pictures and the colors, um it does not accurately represent what uh the actual site looks like. If you went to Google Maps and just did a satellite overview, you'd be able to see that it's different from what's there. This is my first time participating in local government, so I'm not sure what the standard of accuracy is for one of these documents, but uh it is concerning to me if it is just an oversight, what other oversightes there may be or if it was not an oversight and more intentional. I I don't know, and I just say that as a concerned citizen, I don't know again what the uh the standard is for these types of documents, but I appreciate the opportunity um for our neighbors to be able to be here and to speak on the record and on YouTube probably somewhere. Uh but I appreciate it. Thank you.

Let's hope not. Thank you very much, Philip. Hold on one second. Any anybody else? Good evening and welcome.

Hi, I have a relatively easy name. My name is Rachel Spivey. I live at 4921 Derley Lane again in the Woodland Brook community. So, if you look up at the top where Argo and Camp Highland meet, everybody speaks as a pedestrian. As a driver, it is the most dangerous intersection I proceed to go through every day. There is a dip where town hoes three and four are where you lose visual of the street and in a four-door car, a sedan. I know not many people drive them anymore, but I can count it. And I will lose a vehicle for 4 seconds. And now you're wanting to put a dog park with a fence to block my visual again. I got a concern about that. And then there is no crosswalk right there. It's on the other side of the road in terms of where they want their turn in. Again, that's a dip on Argo Road with another blind turn there. That road itself is dangerous, especially at night and in the morning. And so when when we're in daylight savings, people veer into the opposite side of the road making those turns. And that again needs to be taken into consideration because you're adding cars coming in and out of there and people at that intersection coming from the east west connector and turning are hauling 30 miles an hour. What is the stopping distance right there? Again, everybody speaks as a pedestrian, but as a driver of that road daily, it's significantly dangerous and you all need to take that into consideration, please. And thank you.

Thank you very much, Rachel. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. My name is Rodney Turner. I live at 1641 Omar Lane. Uh this is my first time seeing this site plan. Um I currently work in engineering, so I see a few of these on a given week. uh my only it's not a concern but it's a proposition to the developers to go beyond the existing rightaway they're showing here because when you're doing rightway uh budding existing rightway like my neighbors have said the runoff from the detention pond they may use will cause issues. No det no detention pond is ever built perfectly and it's not a fault of the designers, it's usually the fault of the construction crews uh just for we'll say lack of experience doing it. So I've seen the runoff that can happen. So when they're doing their analysis, the civil engineer here, I would ask them to go a little bit beyond this right away. If this is approved, they will need to work with the existing owners and the HOA for around the tennis court area, the house right next to the tennis court. I lived right beyond the tennis court down the hill, so I get a lot of discharge now and run off on heavy rainstorms. So when they're doing their due diligence, um even even if they need to bring in a structural engineer for the retaining wall to be designed and the back field, they need to go beyond the normal scope because your typical catch basin is going to be extended out way further to avoid the houses to avoid causing any water related damages to these current houses and their foundations. And then of course we don't want any um sink holes forming in the future. So that's my only concern just to go beyond the normal scope that they're proposing right here with these rightway limits. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Anybody else? Okay, we're going to close the public hearing at 6:47. And by my math, that's 23 minutes of public hearing. Okay. Now, in fairness, I like to give the applicant opportunity to come back and answer any of the uh questions that have been raised, see if they can get any clarity on it. Um, so, and I know Asia is dying to come back, so I've already stopped her three times. So, if you want to come on, that's absolutely fine. I think you you can shed some light on it for us, especially with the question of detention versus retention. Okay. I don't know if it's up on the the mains. Okay, there it goes. Yeah. So, I actually thought that there might be some questions surrounding what the difference is between the two. So, I did submit some pictures to kind of shed some light on that. Um, so this is a retention pond. Um, you can see that there there's quite a lot of plantings here. So, a retention pond is designed to retain water. Um, and so there's certain soils, um, they're called engineered soils that the contractor will lay at the bottom. And the idea is for water to pond up and then infiltrate through the soil. Um, and then there's usually an outlet or a weir structure at the top. So if that water overflows, it goes through the weir or it over tops the pond. Um and so that is the the design of a retention pond. It's to retain water. Um, and so

with a retention pond, when it's not maintained properly, um, and the engineered soils that I talked about where the water kind of infiltrates through, those engineered soils can get clogged with sediment and so water might not be able to seep through those soils. Um, and so that's how you get ponding or standing water. Um, and that is where a real concern of mosquitoes comes in. And I'm not um you know downplaying your concern at all. I completely agree. Um but a a dry detention pond is different. So I want to ease some of your concerns. The next Can I go to the next one? No. So a dry detention pond is different. You can see it's just grass. Um there's there's no engineered soils. And so your outlet is placed at the bottom of the pond. Um there's no it's not designed to infiltrate unless that's just what the soil naturally does, but it's designed to drain um over a maximum of 72 hours. Um and so again, you should maintain it through mowing the lawn, but there's not a huge maintenance cost like there is with making sure that soil that I talked about before is kept clean and there's no sediment buildup. So it it drains a lot easier and there's a significantly less chance of water ponding in a dry detention pond. You probably have driven past a lot of dry detention ponds and didn't even know that it was a pond. Um and so that is what we're proposing in this area. And you can also see there's some gravel in the middle. So in the middle of the pond, everything is actually sloped towards the center and it is designed so

that it actually drains and gets to that outlet so it doesn't sit in the pond. Um so that that's again that is what we're proposing. Um we also talked about you know what if there is a 50 or 100year storm um what if that water over tops the pond. um that is possible, but we are required um by Georgia law that for each storm event, the water has to discharge less than what it was discharging before we came to develop the property. And that is by law something that we have to do. So, um I forgot the gentleman's name who just came up here. We can definitely look and try to go above and beyond um and do, you know, a little bit lesser than, you know, what was uh what was originally discharging from this site. So, that's another thing to keep in mind. And I know traffic is a really huge issue. I don't know how I can get back to the site plan. Sorry. Sorry. Um, and I know traffic was a really huge issue specifically at that intersection.

I think we talked about how that crosswalk was missing and we said that we would add that crosswalk in. Um, but it's kind of a catch 22 with us. If we shift the detention pond over, I talked about the grade change, but also it's putting us in a bad situation with the entrance and so um we would have to shift it up and we are trying to appease to the traffic conditions in this area by keeping it further down. Um I know another uh concern was you know are people going to be able to see because there's a dip? Um we we are also required um sometimes through the review process we will have to do what's called a sight distance analysis. Um and so that is where we will take a look from uh the view of somebody driving um from and when before they turn out they have to look to the left and the right and we will determine if there's anything blocking their way. Um so throughout the review process that is something else that we will uh when we seek a permit that is something else that we would have to uh keep in mind.

Okay. I think that was majority of what uh we could address at this time. Yeah.

Asia, thank you very much. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Martin. related to the the detention pond retention and the comment with respect to um the construction and whether or not it's built according to plan and so forth. um within our processes. Uh you know, if this were to get approved, they'll go through the formal civil design process of designing the infrastructure for the neighborhood, the storm water detention, curb, gutter, water, sewer, so forth. If that once that permit is um issued, they'll construct all that. The land at that point has not been subdivided, right? It's still one track with with the um infrastructure that's planned for once they are substantially once they have substantially installed all the infrastructure which means the detention fund has to be fully in at that point before we even subdivide the property um to be able to issue the construction permits for the homes prior to that final approval for the final plat we will um require and as build certification from the engineer of record that designed the pond to certify that the pond was built according to plan um and that the correct volumes and everything are there. So before we even get to the point where we legally subsured now if there's some issues during construction of the town homes and someone puts you know there's runoff at that point we the grading at that point that something's gonna happen at that

point. But I just wanted to speak to with respect to the city side of things, how we ensure that what's shown on the plan is actually being constructed so it works. Yeah. and and and to that the detention pond is in place prior to construction commencing on the on the

we will not issue a permit until that that is in place at that point and then once they construct the detention pond or I mean once they construct the town homes and we go to close out the whole pro project we'll also have them certify that the that the volume of the pond is according according to the plan and it holds the appropriate amount based on the hydraology study and if it doesn't then they got to demuck the pond and get it back to the original design standard before they turn it over to the HOA and people that are so um and and that is all done prior to the last being issued for the last and then finally we also requ inction maintenance agreements on pond. So the ho the the developer and his engineer establish maintenance criteria uh for that pond over the life of the pond. So there'll be items that they got to do every year. There's items that they do every five to 10 years. They do that and that gets reported in the county that runs in the property. So if we have any other issues, they have a guidance plan that shows them what they need to do with the pond. Then if we run into any issues with them, they get directed back to that fix whatever issues. So we have we have safeguards in place to ensure it's built appropriately and then I just it's a good discussion to have this% understand. All right. Any other comments from the board? Questions for staff or the

actually just staff? Clarifying question. Um I believe it was uh Mr. Morgan had a question around the posting and a change to the variance notice. Can you guys comment to that for us and clarify? The sign was updated April 22nd. We're required to post a sign 15 to 45 days prior to a public hearing. So that was within

pictures of happy but everything agenda is reflecting what request from zoning procedures acting and then we have postal as well which will happen after this meeting. So in MDJ it will say what the is the what the meeting location is we'll meet all those

Jeff. So when I first got this application I thought the architecture was going to be like the big hold up and hearing the opposition they kind of liked it. And when I look at the site plan in front of us, it looks to be we've got a twocar garage, correct? Little two vehicles. And then behind it, there's 20 feet for another two vehicles. So each unit's got four vehicles plus there's an additional eight spots. So you've got 32 spaces. So I think that work my whole hangup is the variance of eight feet. Is that correct? Seven.

Seven feet. It just looks like it was that measured out and it it is seven or do y'all just need five and you asking for a little more? It just if there's a five foot mark on the front of the site plan, the five feet doesn't look like it translates. So that's going to be the I think to me the biggest is the variance on the buffer from the neighbors.

Any other comments from the board? All right. Sorry. I will be here all night, guys. The uh I I do I want to commend you guys for coming in and being very professional and and however this goes. Uh it's good to know that we have people in Smyrna that care about their community. They can come out and they speak uh in favor of or opposition to an application and they can do it with uh professionalism and u and just decency to be honest with you. Um so, and just for you the people sitting up here um they're up here because they care about the community, right? Um so whether you disagree with them or not, whether you're their neighbor or not, um just know that uh that they care, right? And and whether it goes your way or you are on the same side or opposing sides that we can be nice to each other when we leave here tonight. Um so with that, um I I hear a lot of the traffic issues. U and that's that's in a any growing community and I know more about growing in Smyrna than most as I've done the entire journey of my life here. So the traffic is always an issue. It's always something we, you know, we bump up against the city engineers, the the county, the DOT, all the guys that they do the best they can to make those improvements as appropriate. And in opportunities like this, when developments do come through, it is an opportunity to make some of those improvements to the community. Um, and that's why we go through the process and we analyze the plans. We have all this discourse. Um, and then one of the other things is I do believe there's a sidewalk to wrap the perimeter of this development, which is kind of standard protocol in Smyrna um for all of our new developments. Is that correct?

So, so the Yeah. So, when it's appropriate, the uh but so the sidewalk helps eliminate some of the the bipedal traffic concerns. Um, and I and I do I do think that there are some serious concerns with the traffic and that that also makes uh makes developing u problematic because people don't want to live in you know dangerous areas where it's hard to get in and out. So which affects the valuations which affects everything. So it's really important we take all those things into consideration. But um with all that hot air um I'd like to entertain a motion. U Mr. Mr. Chair, I'd like to move to deny Z26-00004.

I have a motion to deny. Do I have a second?

I have a motion and I have a second. Do I have a vote to deny? All in favor of the vote to deny. So, it's denied. 5-0. Um, good luck with with your plan. And I I didn't say anything about you guys earlier, but um just the number of things that you brought up during your presentation that you guys were working on speaks volumes about any developer. Um so I appreciate you guys doing that and hopefully we can get you guys can get some of this stuff worked out as you guys move forward uh to mayor and counsel. Um any other further business? Nothing. I do want to say that uh we miss Mr. Bentley tonight. Hopefully he gets well soon. And with that, we will gota got to approve the minutes. Sorry about that. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes as presented? Mr. Rice have a motion to approve. Mr. Kola second. All in favor of the minutes as presented. The minutes are approved. 5-0. With that, we will call this meeting adjourned. 7:04 p.m. Thank you and good night to all.