City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. And good afternoon. Thank you residents, staff, and colleagues for joining us for our January the 27th, 2026 City of South Fullton Public Facilities Authority meeting. I am Mayor Pro Tim Kio, vice chair of the public facilities authority, and I call this meeting to order. At this time, I would like to ask for our secretary, Corey Adams, to call the role. Yes, ma'am. Madam vice chair, this is a roll call for the January 27th public facilities authority meeting. The Honorable Katherine Fra, District 1, present.

The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4. The honorable Kosha Belle, District 5 and vice chair. Sorry, I'm here. I was on mute. Sorry. All right. Thank you. Present. The honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6. Present. The Honorable Linda Becker Pritchette, District 7. Here.

I Corey Adams, Secretary is present. And the treasurer, Althia Filler Bradley. here. Madame vice chair, you have a quorum. Thank you so much. Can you please call the next item? The next item is approval of the meeting minutes. All right. Thank you. Approval of the meeting minutes from October 20th, 2025. Thank you so much. At this time, I will entertain a motion to approve meeting minutes for October the 20th, 2025. I move to approve the meeting minutes from October 20th of the public facilities authority.

All right. Being approved and second, clerk, at this time we will be using the roll call for um any uh voting for this evening and for this meeting. Okay. This is a roll. This is a roll call vote. Council member Ralph. Yes. Council member Sebastian here. Yes. Vice Chair Bell. Yes. Council member Williams Brown. Yes. Council member Pritchette. Yes. That item is approved five to zero. Thank you. Please sound the next item.

Next item under agenda items is letter A, election of chair. All right. At this time, I would like to ex uh open it up for a motion to um select someone for the election of chair. I want a motion, Council Member Sebastian be nominated for chair. Do I have a second? Is there a second to the motion on the floor for election of chair for JC Sebastian? Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. At this time, we would like to take a roll call. Secretary, it's a roll call vote. Yes. Rob, yes. Council member Sebastian, yes. Vice Chair Bell, yes. Council member Williams Brown, yes. Council member Pritchette, yes. That item is approved 5 to zero. Thank you, clerk. And can you please sound the next item?

The next item is approval of a lower interest rate for revenue bonds approved at the October 20th, 2025 meeting. and uh public facility authority members, the actual resolution uh is included in the uh board package. But I I'll turn it over to the city manager uh to introduce the speakers for this item.

Thank you. U Mr. Adams, I um do realize we thought we were going to close on our bonds in December. Um and we've encountered a couple of in our favor. Um allowing us to drop the interest rate from 4.63 to 4.43, I believe. um which will save us over $2 million over the life of the bond. And so I didn't think you'd mind the slight delay given the amount of savings. And I'd like to turn it over to our financial advisor Ed Wall and our bond counsel Doug Selby to walk you through the document if you um and then open it up to any questions that you may have.

Thank you um Miss Suban. So um you all know the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates u 25 basis points back in December and uh when we had the delay um Miss Suban asked me to check see if we could get a lower interest rate and I did and truest lowered the rate from 463 to 4.43 lowered it 20 basis points. Um it does save us 2,313,000 over the 19 year life of the issue. And um um Doug has prepared a a resolution and he calls it the supplemental pricing resolution. And Doug, if you would uh turn it over to you.

Uh thank you um Miss Suban and and and Mr. Wall. This is a resolution that is simply to memorialize that the authority would authorize that we do two things. one reflect the new terms for the bonds in the final documents that would be executed prior to closing and then also an administrative change to redesate the bonds as series 2026 rather than series 2025 when they were originally done. Attached to the document we recite the fact that the bonds have been validated by the Fulton Superior Court and we've attached the term sheet that was provided to you by truest bank. So that those would be the particulars that you're authorizing us to put in the final closing closing documents.

And if I could add And if I could add one other thing, this is all exactly the same except for we've changed series 2025 bonds to series 2026 bonds and we lowered the interest rate from 463 to 4.43. is still the same principal amount. 96 million um 285,000 isn't it? Is that right, Doug? Yeah. 96,285,000 exact same principal amount and the principal amounts to mature in each year stayed the same since they were validated in superior court. That's it, Miss Suban.

Thank you. Um, I'll turn it back over to um, Secretary Adams and um, the chair, the new chair in case there are any questions for our staff and our consultants. Yes, Chairman Sebastian. Uh, currently we do not have actually we do have one speaker in the queue. One second. Will that We do have one speaker in the queue. Uh, Council Member Pritchette. Council member Pritchette,

thank you for acknowledging me. Uh, so, um, what is I may have missed this, but what appears to be the timeline now? Um, uh, fortunate delay. Um what will be the timeline now uh related to our um police headquarters and our public safety training center? So we are doing everything we can to um continue to move this along. Um while we have not waited while this process has been going along, we've been negoti negotiating final contract terms with both vendors and are in the home stretch doing that. As you can imagine, this is a huge contract, hundreds of pages, lots of provisions, mostly to protect the city. um and our vendors are not necessarily all that happy with all of our um requirements to protect the city, but I think we're we're getting to um resolution on some of that to make it fair for everyone involved. And so, um to answer your question directly, we should have a better answer for you within the next 30 days. And as soon as we get to that point, we will be turning dirt and you'll see equipmentizing on both sides. And of course, that will follow a um ceremonial groundbreaking at both sides.

Thank you, Miss Suban. I yield. Thank you. Um Mr. Clerk, are there any other speakers? Mr. Chairman, I do not see any other speakers in the queue. All right. So, if you would sound the next item, please. Actually, um, chair, we need to take a a vote on that item. All right. Thank you. All right. So, Tim, can I get a motion to accept this item and the second? Motion to approve this sounded. Second.

All right. We'll take a vote. Mr. Cra, can you call the vote, please? This is a roll call vote. Council member Ralph, yes. Council member Sebastian, yes. Council member Bell, yes. Council member Williams Brown, yes. Council member Pritchette, yes. Mr. Chairman, that approved five to zero.

All right. Thank you all and Miss Suban and your team and the advisers. Thank you all for continuing to pinch the pennies and save us money on this where um where possible. We know it's a lot of money that we are spending, but we we look forward to continue to fight the battles and and win the battles and make this these projects better. Uh Mr. Clerk, can you please on the next item? Mr. Chair, that's the uh last item. Uh we are at adjournment of the meeting. All right. Uh, do we need to do a motion for adjournment or I just call for? It is my understand that you can adjourn the meeting.

All right. Well, I'll just call this meeting to an adjournment. We are journed at 3:42 p.m. The next meeting.

Thank you for joining us live for the city of South Folton city council meeting. We are proud to introduce the leadership entrusted with guiding our city forward. Mayor Carmelita Gums, District 1 Councilwoman Dr. Katherine Ralph, District 2 Councilman Aaron V. Johnson, District 3 Councilwoman Helen Zenobia Willis, District 4 Councilman JC Sebastian, Mayor Pro Tim Piosha B. Bell, District 6, Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown, District 7 Councilwoman Linda Becker Kitchen. Supporting the work of this body in the operations of our city are city clerk Corey Adams, city manager Sharon D. Subidan, and interim city attorney Sarah Kelly. Thank you for being the best part of the city of South, a city on the rise. All right, good afternoon everyone and thank you for being here. I am calling the city of South Fton meeting work session for January the 27th at 4 o'clock to order. Clerk, can you please sound the role?

Yes. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of council and the general public. It's a roll call the January 27th work session. The honorable CA Carmelita Gums, mayor, present. The Honorable Katherine F. Ralph, District 1, present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2, present. The Honorable Helen Z. Willis, District 3, present. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4, present. The Honorable Kosha Bale, District 5. And the Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6, present.

And the Honorable Linda B. Pritchette, District 7. Here. Madame Mayor, you have a quorum. All right. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Can you please sound the next item? Yes, Madame Mayor and members of council. The next item which was uh listed as the introduction of new employees is going to be uh uh held until the next in-person meeting so that the employees can be uh properly recognized. So if it's permissible, can we go to presentations? Mayor. Mayor. Yes, ma'am. Councilwoman Wlet recognized.

Mayor GS, can you have the clerk forward um the city council any presentations? Uh because I am having trouble pulling up my civic rep. I have uh inbox this uh it I'm waiting on them to assist me. Um but we I can't pull any presentations down from civic rack at this time. Same. Um, Councilman Sebastian, were you going to make a statement? I was saying I having the same issue I I sent the message to. Okay. Mr. Clerk, can you please make sure that um the sta uh the council members have the presentation available?

Yes. Yeah, we'll forward uh the actual uh email with the presentation in it right away. All right. Thank you. So, madame mayor, that brings us to Roman numeral four presentations. Martyr expanded bus service. Okay. Thank you. Are they ready? Yes, ma'am. All right. Well, good afternoon.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Uh, thank you for giving us the time today. My name is Jennifer Larose. I'm senior director of government and community affairs here at MARTA. uh sort of your first line of defense for all things engagement around all of our initiatives as well as anything that you and your constituents may need. I uh believe we have our slides okay ready for you to go. Um I do want to introduce we were able to get our director of technical services and service planning that is a great contact and a wealth of knowledge on the new nextG bus network redesign. So I'm gonna hand it over to Mr. Ryan Vansickle I believe is also on the call ready to go. Thanks, Jennifer. And uh thank you, mayor, council members. We're very happy to be here with you today to talk about some service changes and improvements coming up in the city of South Fulton in our NextG bus network. So, in this presentation, we'll kind of give you a little bit of an overview about what the nextG bus network is, how it's different from the service that we operate today, and then um kind of a more detailed view of what the changes in the city of South Fulton will be, and a little bit more about how uh we will be planning to launch that in the upcoming spring in the next several months. So, uh next slide, please. Thank you. And actually, go ahead, next slide again. So, we'll just get started talking about the network. So getting into what the nextG network is, um we've been working for several years on a comprehensive redesign of Marta's bus service and that's pretty much top to bottom across Fulton Cab counties and certainly including South Fulton County. This is the largest redesign of its kind since Marta's founding um and since we started operating bus service in the early 1970s and it comes with a few distinct advantages from the changes we're making. Uh the new service, the new network will provide frequent transit service to nearly three times as many people across our service area as the uh bus network that we operate today. Um an important note when I say frequent service throughout this

presentation, I'm referring to service that operates every 15 minutes or more often. That's really kind of the marker by which most people do not feel like they need to consult a timet or plan ahead. you can really start to travel spontaneously if the bus is coming every 15 minutes or more often. In doing that, we're also able to provide significant improvements and service to minority and low-income communities throughout the system, which also increases access to jobs, to grocery stores, schools, health care, and lots more places that people need to take transit to. In doing this, we're also working to provide some supporting infrastructure to help our patrons access the system and also to help us operate efficiently. Next slide. There's some key differences in how the nextG network is designed differently than the one we have today. The first is really more frequent service. And so we certainly have, and I'll talk about this a little bit more, a lot more of that frequent 15minute or better service in the network. but also at all of the other frequency levels. We have a lot more routes that are operating 30 minutes in the new network where you might have a bus every 45 or 60 today. Uh there are a number of places where you have a bus every 20 minutes in the new network where it was operating 30 or 45 minutes today. So we do have more frequent service in a lot of places. We also have throughout the network the routes have been designed to be simpler, more streamlined and often in a way that uh requires passengers to make fewer transfers which saves them time from going from bus to bus or bus to train. Um in the cases where we do do still have transfers and there are some we're working to incorporate very specifically timed transfer locations. There's a really important one in South Fulton County, um, a little bit outside the city, but one where we think that residents from the city of South Fulton can benefit. Those time transfer locations are designed so that multiple routes will come together at the same time, pause for a few minutes so that passengers can transfer from one bus to the other, and then all depart. And

really, the goal there is is how much time people have to wait and to minimize how much time they're waiting outside in the elements. um we'll have more consistent service levels seven days a week and throughout each day. So in the new network we have much more consistent frequency. There's not as much of a spike between rush hour frequencies and the rest of the day. So you can expect when you see a frequency you can really expect the bus to be running at that frequency during the middle of the day into the evening and even on Saturdays and Sundays. Um we'll also be incorporating a new ondemand service. That's a new type of service that we're going to be operating under the name Martyr Reach. And I will talk about that a little bit more in a few slides, but that's essentially a point-to-point ondemand service that will help us u kind of create first and last mile connections for some communities into the broader Martin network. And all these things really roll up to provide more access to more places in less time under the next gen bus service. Next slide. So this is a quick comparison between the two networks and and certainly uh we know that these are these maps are not intended to be read in detail. So hopefully you're able just to get a quick snapshot of the colors of the routes in each one. Really the colors are coded essentially based on the frequency. So when you look for the red lines which indicate that frequent service in the existing network on the left you might see five segments where you have red red frequent service in the network. One of those is in the city of South Fulton already on Fulton Industrial Boulevard, but we only have four other places where buses typically run every 15 minutes or more often. By contrast, in the nextG network, we have se 17 places, 17 corridors where you can expect that 15minute frequency, including an additional one in South Fond National Highway. I'll get into the specifics of route changes in a moment, but hopefully between these two maps, you're able to see the uh greatly

enhanced amount of red lines on the map on the right. You also may notice some of those tan blobs or those tan zones. Those are the on demand services that will be operating under Martyr Reach and we have two of those in the city of South Fton as well that I'll detail shortly. Uh next slide. So here again, this is some of the specific changes coming to the city of South Fulton. We'll kind of focus on the Fton industrial area first and then focused on the rest of the city in the following slides. So I'll show you the map here. This is a map of the nextG bus routes um in South Fulton generally in the Fulton Industrial Corridor. What you see here is route 73 in red operating 15minute frequent service along much of Fulton Industrial Boulevard. The new network will actually offer that frequent service further down Fulton Industrial Boulevard than today. You can also see a couple of other connections coming into Fulton Industrial Boulevard, route 71 coming out of Atlanta on Cascade Road. That route is largely unchanged. Uh and then you also see a brand new route that'll be the route 80 on Campbell Road coming out of East Point. That one will actually serve the Sandtown Crossing area before it turns up Fulton Industrial to connect with Route 73. That one actually will provide our first service to the Amazon facility and it actually won't be too far away from the Mannheim um auto auction facility down on Campbell. Either places we've had requests for service uh as well as Sandtown Crossing. You'll notice in that area that there is a tan on demand zone for Fulton Industrial kind of in the vicinity of Fulton Industrial and Boat Rock. And so that martyr reach zone will really help us make first and last mile connections into the industrial parks to major employers and to some residents in the area to places where our buses are kind of traditional large martyr buses can't go easily. It'll provide them a first and last mile connection off of that frequent service with route 73. You'll also notice a T icon kind of in the center around Fulton

Industrial and Boat Rock where we're looking to establish a transfer point. So, that is a location, like I mentioned, where we'll have those time transfers, buses coming together, and so we're making uh working to make some infrastructure upgrades to make sure we've got sidewalks, shelters, and some pedestrian amenities uh for those transfers. Uh in the next slide, I think we have just a list of those changes here. Um covered, I think, each one of those. So, I think we can proceed on to the next the next slide, which will show another map. So on this slide you can see kind of along the uh I85 corridor and Old National Highway. So in this part of South Fulton in the city here we have a new frequent service along Old National Highway where buses will run every 15 minutes um basically between Flat Scholes Road and the College Park Station. Now that route will branch from there. So, every other bus on a 30-minute basis will go either over towards Union City or continue along Old National to Riverdale. Um, we also have another route operating every 30 minutes along Buffington Highway. And we have another uh the existing route 180 will be pretty similar along Roosevelt Highway making its connections with College Park and the rail station there. However, it will also connect folks over to the Walmart into another transfer point we're looking to establish in Union City. A couple of other key connections in the South Fulton area. I know it's not exactly in the city limits, but it could be very useful to city residents. Um along South Fulton Parkway, we will have a new route, Route 182. It provides a much faster connection between our rail system and the employers along South Fulton Parkway. It will also turn along Campbellton Fairburn Road to make connect or uh to make connections down to downtown Fairburn into the transfer point. I'd also like to point out the Oakley industrial martyr reach zone which you can see in the tan polygon kind of around I 85. That will be a

replacement for the existing route 188. It provides limited weekday only service today to the employers and residents around the Oakley Industrial Area. This martyr reach zone will operate seven days a week almost the entire day. It'll be about an 18-hour start to end span of service in that area and it'll provide folks point-to-point transportation in that area as well as connections to all of those other martyr routes nearby. Uh, next slide. So, here we have a written list of those changes and describing the routes that will be operating in that area. Uh, next slide. So, I know I've mentioned Martyr Reach. talked about where the zones are a little bit so far, but I did want to talk about how it will work a little bit. This is a new type of service for MARTA. And so unlike traditional bus service using a large vehicle on a fixed schedule every so often at specific times following a defined route, the reach service will really be curb curb on demand. Uh what you would do is use an app. You would also uh be able to use a web browser or to make just a simple phone call and request a ride. uh the Martyr Reach vehicle, which will be a smaller vehicle. It won't be a big bus. It'll be more of a I think an eight or a nine passenger van. Um a smaller branded Martyr Reach vehicle will come pick you up within 30 minutes of the request. Um similar to ride sharing and Uber andyft, it will vary about how long it takes within that window. If there's not a whole lot of activity at the moment, it might be 10 minutes. If it's a very busy time of day, could be closer to that 30 minutes. But the goal is pickups within 30 minutes of of you making your request. We've used this really to replace traditional bus service in some key lower density areas where there's low ridership, but there's still clearly a need for transit access. And so it provides kind of a connection within the neighborhood if you're going pointtooint within one of those zones. Every one of those zones is also designed to connect

you to other MARTA bus routes or rail stations so that you can go further easily into the rest of the network. Um I think I had mentioned it'll be seven days a week and each zone will operate about 18 hours a day. Um and I'll talk a little bit about the roll out on that in just a moment. Next slide. So again, the two martyr reach zones in south the city of south Fulton include the Oakley industrial zone um which provides connections over to downtown Fairburn and also to the new transfer point in Union City that we're working on where all of those other bus routes in the area will converge as well as the Fulton industrial zone which will have a connection to that frequent route 73 and also the other routes in uh Boat Rock. Uh next slide. So, we are in the process of getting ready to launch and as you can imagine, this level of change is happening all across the system. There are thousands of to-do list items going on. A few of them here, we're redesigning all the maps. We're building all new schedules. We're trying to get all of the vehicles ready. Getting the Marty Reach service ready to launch for the first time is of course its own its own kind of sub project with its own huge to-do list. And of course, a big part of it is also outreach. So talking to elected officials and and you know updating our partners at the cities like y'all as well as our customers and other stakeholders. So there's plenty to do on the next slide. U if you please advance. We've essentially grouped all of those things together into six uh if you go back one. Um just to give you kind of a window into how we're trying to proceed with this launch. We have grouped all of these things into kind of six different tracks with folks specializing in each one of them. And so this is a pretty simplified incomplete picture, but showing some of the key activities that we're working on as we get ready for this launch. Uh establishing those

transfer points and making updates to bus stop signage, getting our operators trained and ready with the new routes and so that they can pick their shifts. And of course, a lot on the reach side. Um maybe one thing I should mention here as we kind of jump into the next slide, you'll see a note under the capital bucket there that said temporary signage. And so one of the things that you may have seen already uh if you were driving by Martya bus stops is that bus stops that have a big effect from this change. We have thousands of temporary signs explaining to customers what the route changes are coming to that exact stop. So you may see an orange one that says something that service will be changing. If you look closely on that sign, you'll actually see it shows you what the new route numbers will be to serve that stop and also provides customers and and neighbors with a link and a QR code to help them um learn more about the new routes. But that's just one of the things that we have as far as resources to help our customers learn about these changes. Um other great ones are um the MARTA website. We have two pages dedicated to these new services. So marta.comnextgen has all of the new route information. It has our new maps. Uh there will be more to come certainly. Uh but we even this week we have rolled out a new online interactive trip planner where you can punch in your start and end point for your travel and it will tell you what the uh how you would use the new system to get there. It'll give you the new routes and an estimated travel time. We also have itsmarta.comreach which provides more information and FAQs about how the reach service will work as well as more detailed maps of each zone. We'll be doing town hall meetings or open houses over the next month or so throughout February. A mix of these will be at Marta rail stations as well as out in the community and we are working on one for South Fulton. We will also be having open houses uh at College Park and East Point stations. A lot of where a lot of riders in the South Fton area converge and connect to our rail system.

Those are really intended for folks hopefully to come to us to learn about these changes. But as we get closer to the launch date, um we'll be doing plenty of onsystem engagement where we'll be going out to our passengers and riders throughout our entire system, hopping on buses, going to the stations and setting up to hand out materials and help everybody learn about what's coming. Um, I think next slide, please. And I should mention, I think there was one with the launch dates, but with all of this going on, I wanted to share with you when these changes will take effect. Um, the first will be March 7th, which will be the launch of the Martyr Reach on demand service. We're actually launching that a bit early intentionally to make sure that customers have a chance to learn how the software that we, you know, the app and those things that customers will use to request rides will work and to help people get a sense of how the reach service works before we make any of the other changes. With that in April 18th, the full nextg network will launch and all of the other um changes to bus routes across the system will take place. So those are the two key launch dates. March 7th for the on demand reach service and then April 18th for the launch of the full nextg network. And I think with that um that concludes our

I'll add uh just as far as engagement goes. As Ryan said, we are we're very much in the midst of a lot of engagement going on. Uh we do have 14 open houses. Some will be in uh South Fol. I think we're still scheduling that one. Um we have done a bit of just uh virtual outreach to you guys. We started doing a monthly toolkit where we are emailing out to all of our city councils, mayors, um elected officials on all levels of government. Uh links to different sharable items for your newsletters, your social media or anything else where you can share um even on the council site. And you should have received that first toolkit um maybe last week. And if not, just let us know. We'll make sure you're on the list for next time. and we probably just need to update a few email addresses probably. Um, but also we invite you to let us know where to go. As Ryan said, we have some spaces and times where you can come to our customers can come to us and that's going to be uh very much what this the nextgen team is doing. We also have customer experience that is trying to touch a much broader all systemwide customers but um government community affairs we're a much more scalpel targeted approach and you guys are certainly the beginning of that target in helping you have all the information that you need to talk to your constituents. So, we will make sure to share all these links along with uh route maps specifically for South Fulton to all of you. And then, um upon request, we're happy to give a full hard copy of the the whole system changes. So, you guys can have that handy at city hall for any constituents coming in so staff can help as well. So, it's handy for you right there. But let us know if you have any events that are going to be largely attended by constituents where we might be able to have the resources available to do a popup and bring all this information and share it with your

constituents and citizens right there in your area. So, um that's in that way you can contact me and we will try to schedule that in. Um, a little bit of a leadway would be good because we are we are doing a lot of outreach all in all, but we want to certainly make sure that you guys have everything that you need and we're hitting everyone that um, rides martyr in your jurisdictions and districts. So, from there, I will open up any questions to mayor and council or anyone else that's allowed to ask questions.

All right. Well, thank you for that presentation and certainly we do have some questions. Um and the council members are in the queue. So please make sure that you all are in the queue and I have the list as we're going. So the first um Councilman Councilman Sebastian.

Thank you Mayor Gums. Um thank you um Ryan and Jennifer for the presentation. Um, I do have a couple of questions about the new route that's coming down South Fulton Parkway and making a left um on Highway 92. I'm assuming some of that is to serve the new grading facility there, right? Um the emergency room that's going to be there and even some of those logistic centers further down the road. Um are you guys working with um G dot to make sure that the pedestrians are going to be able to cross South Fulton Parkway and Highway 92 especially those are two very very dangerous roads. Um especially that Highway 92 it's traversed by not only a lot of cars but a lot of 18 wheelers and sorry South roads and Parkway. So, you know, if we're going to have a a stop on the side going towards Union City, whereas um the facility for Grady is on the left, that's a very dangerous crossing for people on foot. So, I hope you somehow we can work to make sure whatever goes there can make sure people traverse the area safely.

I appreciate that comment. Certainly our bus stop team is is careful as far as evaluating where potential stops can be. Pedestrian safety is a huge factor in determining exactly where the bus stops go. Um we do partner and work with GOD and other other folks to try and and u make sure those things are considered and as plan plans to improve conditions are are made then we also work to make sure our bus stops are adjusted accordingly. Um, Jennifer, I'm not sure if there are other other projects affecting it that may be relevant, but we do work closely with our bus stop team to make sure that there are safe places to put stops when we make these changes.

Yes, I'm actually looking I don't know if you might know this offhand, but the the safe routes to transit, we do have a few in South Fulton or at least one that we have an IGA that we're working on. I'm looking at the tracking sheet. Um, offhand, I'm just not 100% sure where exactly the location is, but we'll look into it. And, uh, but to Ryan's point, you know, we do ensure that pedestrian access and safety of that access is uh, very important. We know that that particular corridor is a concern. And so we do have a program called safe routes of transit where we work with G dot and the local jurisdiction, you guys, to get the permits to take over the rideway for a little while, improve those areas, and then um give them back to you safer for your pedestrians. And I believe we have one in um in IG working with you guys for that one. I just don't know where exactly it is. It might be that location. It might be a different one. So, um we'll look into that, but we'll also just look into um getting you getting you the details behind that particular stop and the access to it.

So, for that corner, three of the corners are Union City and one is in the city of South Bton, although you know, most of the area is um city of South Bton. Also, did you um did any argument any thought towards instead of just making a left, make a right to the plaza and then come down 92 center right there. That's a very busy shopping center. And if that bus is going to make a left towards Union City, they're going to have to be prepared to drop to to go into the left lane, the left turn lane. And once they make that left, anyone who is who is um going to ride that bus towards that shopping center, they're going to have to cross south, which is a very very dangerous thing to do on foot. So immediately that's that's my concern. So um I hope we can, you know, take another look at that and figure out how to, you know, make sure people can safely navigate uh the area.

Absolutely. appreciate the suggestion. Thank you, Councilman Sebastian. Uh, next, Councilwoman Ralph.

Uh, thank you, Mayor Gums, for um respondence to my request to have Martyr come present to us today as I have received many um queries from residents um after they saw the signs installed, particularly um for the new route bus 80. And so one of my um questions is how many requests have you actually received for this new route 80? And I recognize you may not have this information. Um I heard um during your presentation as it re in reference to this particular route um I'm kind of give a suggestion similar to Councilman um Sebastian. Um I think the primary interest talked about servicing uh Sandtown crossing and food and industrial coming from out of College Park train station. Had any thought been given to coming straight up Cam Creek and and looping around? And and the reason I say that because I I did I got a lot of concerns um from neighborhoods and where did this come from? Um I know in the past when Marters come they may have come more on the front end. I will say I was happy to see the ext expansion on route 73. I know um myself and the foot and industrial C have been working on requesting for about three years. So glad to see that. um would really like y'all to look at that 80 route to see um you know it not necessarily going through those neighborhoods but coming up still being able to service town crossing if that's what the data says and then going to foot and industrial which is the job corridor where where workers really are concentrating and I say that cuz a lot

of my residents they probably had two and three cars I'm just saying and um how long is Is it before you assess a line? So I know like after you start a line, you go back and look and see what the wrership looks like to evaluate if you should continue the line. What does that process look like? Now those are that's my question. And can I get information about where the data came forward from to even create this route 80? Ryan,

certainly. And I'm just writing writing down a few notes to try and make sure I don't miss any of your questions. Please tell me if I do. Um so as far as route 80, we designed route 80 um in a workshop setting. Uh we actually did that. It was kind of a wide variety of Martyr staff back at the very beginning of the draft development of our draft plan. So forgive me if I'm going a little bit further back as far as the history on the project. That would have been late 2023 2024. Uh we did that with a again a wide variety of martyr staff but we also had representatives from each each of the cities. Almost every city that we serve actually participated in those workshops as we drew the routes. The 80 in particular came from uh several different requests in the area. One of them was certainly a group of businesses that had gotten together and written this about Sandtown Crossing and providing more access to that area. And certainly we'd received uh requests about you know service to Amazon and Mannheim. Um those kind of all fell close to other existing service in the area and so we're trying to make sure we were piecing the right things together and providing an additional pretty solid connection over to the Martyr Red and Gold lines in East Point um with Camp Creek Parkway. I I should also kind of mention part of the background to this project and the parameters going into it whereas it's essentially a neutral a costneutral exercise. So what you see is a lot of kind of rearranging of things, not so much a whole lot of additional expansion, which is part of why we did not send another new route out Camp Creek Parkway to that connection. Uh so it's all kind of in the balancing act there. Uh but I do appreciate hearing your your feedback as far as concerns from neighbors and kind of the need for that route. Um and certainly that's something we'll take into consideration. Getting into um the

Ryan, one question for record just before you go any further. You did mention that there was someone from uh each city um and jurisdiction rather that represented uh in the conversations around drafting the plan. Can you let us know who that person was for South Folton? I think we have it handy. I think you emailed me so I could pull it up if need be. But I just wanted this mayor and council to know that there was someone from the city there. Certainly. And and Jennifer, I apologize. I'm not remembering everybody who was in there. So you may need to pull up the I'll pull it up for you. Yeah.

Um I believe Mr. of Valenzuela was was in those um those work sessions. I I we actually had two work sessions or workshops dedicated to the South Fulton area including City of South Fulton. Um I think we had had a kind of a first the first one we had some cities missing and so we actually held a second day to keep going to make sure everybody was present. Um but I believe it was um I apologize. I'm going to have to pull up exactly who else was was there uh in those workshops as they were a couple of years ago before we we took everything to the public. That was primarily staff is what you're saying it sounds like. Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am. Yeah, we had the with the workshops we worked to try and make sure we had folks from all over MARTA who had different understandings of operations and considerations. We also invited quite a few people typically from public works departments, planning departments, transportation planning or zoning. We really wanted to make sure that these workshops accounted for development patterns, zoning, the types of changes that were anticipated to come in the next several years because we didn't want to design the network to be completely reactive to conditions as they are today. We wanted to make sure that we were aware of big new developments that might bring in more residents or bring in more jobs and cause us to try and, you know, cause us to see a shift in gravity of where bus routes should go. Um, Oh, go ahead, Jennifer. Sorry.

We had an Antonio V our public works director, Reggie McClendon and Rousan Francois. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that information. Yes, ma'am. I think I'm I think I may have missed the data part of your question, Council Councilwoman. Um, well, I I I think you've kind of said it and I you you mentioned in your uh presentation that you got some letters from some businesses.

Um, yeah. and and I could understand businesses want to have access to workers, but just um in the past, like I said, you know, having the information before it kind of popped up would have been very helpful um because I had um received emails which I then forwarded to our city manager cuz I didn't have the answers to those questions about what where did it come from, just didn't have a lot of information. And so, um like I said, that's why I asked the mayor, can you please bring Martya Um because I know in the past the communication had been you know more frequent. I remember that was the case when the well maybe it wasn't as the cascade line extension. So

okay um I'll probably do some followup later but thank thank you. I don't want to hold it up. I know other people are in the queue. Sure. Well there there was if it's okay to take another 10 or so seconds. You did ask a question about how we monitor and change our service. Oh yes.

And so we do um especially with a change of this magnitude, we'll be watching how it works very closely. Uh part of that especially for the first part is are there unexpected operational problems or on time problems. But we do have a regular cadence. Typically we do three service changes a year uh where we can make adjustments to schedules and routing. With this big of a shock, we anticipate that we will be kind of watching for really urgent problems and evaluating to see what other changes we might make towards the end of a year out from the launch. But we will be looking to identify what kind of adjustments are needed as we go through the year um and after after the the first uh phase of the launch. And then typically we go into a rolling cycle of three three service changes per year. Thank you for that answer.

All right. Again, I don't have any further questions. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh, next we have Councilwoman Pritchette. Thank you for acknowledging me, Mayor. Uh, thank you so much for your presentation today. Um, I've gotten a lot of calls from uh people who live off of Betsa Road uh near Jonesboro Road and I guess they were uh trying to understand where the need for uh additional bus stops where that came from. So, was there a criteria uh based on the population or an area?

Yeah, there was. And and this goes back to kind of the workshops and looking at the data that we had. Um part of what we did in those workshops in addition to looking at just wrership and where we've had requests and things like that or suggestions, we're also looking at residential data and uh employment data along Betha and Creel Road in particular. the route um serving that area used to travel along Jonesboro Road along a stretch that was parts of it were uh somewhat undeveloped and so there were simply more people and more people who might need transit along Beth Seda and Creel which is why we we made that change for Route 189 to switch from Jonesboro to using Betha and Creel connecting Old National over towards Union City. So that means that the routes that you had on Jonesboro Road, many of them will be discontinued or out of service.

So it'll be Yeah, just in that section. Actually, I'd have to look exactly where the cross street is. Most of the area between Betha Road and Old National Highway. That's where the fixed route would be shifting away from Jonesboro up to Beth Seda. About half of that portion will be covered by that martyr reach zone 306. So most folks in that area should still have transit access. There will be a small portion between the Martyr Reach zone and Old National Highway that would not have any service. Although part of that will still be in walking distance to Old National Highway. So it's really the the kind of undeveloped segment that we travel through right now that we were looking to move away from.

Thank you. Um also, um residents have asked me to ask you guys, um about uh will you be placing trash receptacles on those but at those stops?

So, um Jennifer, feel free to jump in if you have some more to add on this one, but as far as when MARTA installs bus stops, typically we do not install trash cans at typical bus stops. If Marta does install an amenity such as a bench or a shelter somewhere where we know there's a concentration of passengers waiting, then we do install a trash can as a standard with those upgrades. Um but for typical bus stops on a pool on the side of the road, we do not install trash cans.

Okay. And then also um a a lot of people I guess um have to wait sometimes uh just they're standing like in the dirt if there's not a sidewalk there. Um is there would would you all consider placing shelters there I guess after you get some statistics on the rider counts and the frequency of service there. Certainly. Oh, go ahead, Jennifer.

Yeah, and I think Ryan maybe mentioned this. Um, the amenities that we do are very much based on the writership, but there's a little piece of funding involved in that, too. So, for instance, right now, we uh just in 2024, we wrapped a five-year amenities program, and we were able to put one o over a thousand shelters at the top 70% ridership stops. And those those amenities again were based on the ridership. So the type of amenity was based on the ridership of that stop. Um however in order for us to move forward with the next nextG if you will with the bus stops that we're going to have now um we are looking for a bit of a funding gap um placement where we were looking into federal grants. That's we were able to get some of that funding from um federal funding at that time. We're looking into ARC grants um and state grants and other things that we've applied for over the past year and change um to really make sure that we're able to push that program a little bit further. This time we do have a program where we're moving some of the amenities that on stops that will no longer be utilized and uh placing them in higher ridership stops that will be on the NextG network. But I just wanted to set some expectations. It is our full intention to expand that amenities program. But as far as when it's going to happen, if you are at a stop that you think has some high ridership, please feel free to reach out. We'll certainly assess it and keep you posted. We'll add it to that list and as soon as that funding mechanism is found to bridge that gap, we will be out and running on it.

There's two more things. Um on Oakley Industrial, they have a C. Have you all spoken to the uh South Fulton CI which includes uh Oakley Industrial? We have um they they were certainly very interested in the existing route 188 when it started and have reached out to us for updates as we've progressed with the project. So just last week I believe I met with them um and just gave them an update and kind of walked through what the changes would be with that uh reach zone 305. So they're aware and and uh we're very supportive of it.

Well, you can reach out to them probably for additional funding as well. And uh the last question is um I think now you you're using a vendor to maintain the shelters that are existing in our city. We've had a lot of complaints about the condition of the shelters and I um I don't particularly have a contact person for that, but I you know want to make sure we stay on top of that. So as I receive uh questions and complaints that I can filter that over or relay it to the appropriate person.

Absolutely. Unfortunately, we're between vendors uh on that particular contract and I in in order to save some time here, we're separating two pieces that were formally together to make sure that the purpose of what you're talking about stands alone and the vendor we choose acts accordingly and up to expectations. However, we do have a bit of a stop gap where we have some internal folks working a little bit extra to um help with the issue that we're having currently. I would be your first line of defense on that. We also have a bus stop team and customer service that we track every complaint on. So, uh, please feel free to reach out to me or anyone else in my department, external affairs. And our AGM, Michelle Arrington of external affairs is also on. Um, we would be the ones to make sure that we follow through with those issues for you. And I do know from experience of kind of going through this issue for a few months now. Anytime someone sends me a complaint and I send it to my team, we not only rep respond to the issue within a day or two, we send you pictures to make sure you can tell your constituents it's been handled.

Thank you so much. And with that, I will yield. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Pritchette. Uh, next we have Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Um, actually, Councilwoman Ralph and Councilwoman Pritchette have already asked all the questions that I had. Um, so we can move on. All right. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Uh, Kiosha Bill.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. And thank you all for doing the presentation. Um, I know in our in our city, we have a lot of residents that do utilize MARTAM. Um, and I am one of three of the of the council women in the old national corridor. So, I know that you were making some changes and you've um answered a lot of the questions that I had, but I did have some questions regarding the app. I know you mentioned that there's normally an app that a lot of the um bus riders or martyr use users use. Are there other ways of for maybe individuals who are our senior population or for those who have some uh challenges or you know disabilities? Are there other ways that they can access this information to be able to schedule routes um that may not be associated to a app is one of my questions. And then I know you briefly mentioned about some of the routes that would potentially be eliminated. Is there a list of routes that would be eliminated or modified? Um, as we do have residents that are, you know, throughout the city that utilize Martin. So, we just want to make sure that we're getting this information out to those riders. Um, I have an event that I'll send over separately to you all that may be good to just get more information um, communicated with our residents. So, I just wanted to ask those two questions.

Yes, ma'am. I'll speak to the engagement and I'll let uh Ryan validate the fact we're going to be able to share that list of cut routes, but we certainly will do that with you. As for the engagement piece, and I do know that uh Tony Thornton of our community engagement, she has been with us for 17 years, um has scheduled if not has already executed and been at each of the senior towers in Fulton County and we plan on hitting them twice a piece. But we certainly they are a hot commodity and hard to schedule into. So, if you have an event that you have scheduled and you don't mind us tableabling up, um, let us know and we will bring resources as they are available. And what we're doing is working with our senior population and other communities that might need a little extra attention a little bit earlier on in this process. If they have phones, we'll help them download it. We'll work them through the process on how to, but we also have a call-in line. So, you if you have access to any type of phone and just want to call and order it, you have you are able to do that. We have a website that they can find that information, but we'll also have it available at all of our senior communities. We'll share that information with all of you to share with your communities as early and often as you would like. Um, so yeah, there are multiple ways to make sure that anybody in our community has access in our our writers have access to uh these services.

Perfect. Thank you.

Um, so I'll I believe I can speak to a couple of the other items, Mayor. Um, so you asked about the app and the the app is really going to be what we expect to be probably the most commonly used way to request a ride in the Martyr reach zones. Um, however, we really do not want it to be the only way. And so, you'll be able to use the app. You'll also be able to use the the Martyr website to request a ride. For those who don't want to deal with the technology side of it at all, you'll also just be able to call Martya. We'll have a number where you can call and request the ride that way. Um, so smartphone or not, either way, uh, you'll be able to just simple phone call and request a ride just and and that'll be booked for you the same way as if you had done it through the app. Um, so that's one way. Um, you had talked about kind of helping um, helping communicate how the routes are going to change and getting into the places where service might be removed. Um, there are a couple of tools on the existing NextGen website that could be handy as far as understanding the changes and where we might have a removal of service. One of them is a tool that we call a crosswalk. Right now, it's in a PDF form. Um, but hopefully we'll have an interactive version of it before the launch. You can essentially look up the existing route that you ride today and it will tell you what the nextG routes would be. So if for example if you are a rider of route 188 today that one is being largely replaced by the route uh the reach zone 305 and so the crosswalk would tell you if you ride route 188 look at reach zone 305. So we have a tool to help people identify what their new routes might be. Um something that just went online I believe yesterday is a version of the MARTA trip planner. So today, if you go to the Marta website, we do have a trip planner where you can plug in your starting address and your ending address and it will piece together the transit trip and give you several

recommendations. We have a version of that on the nextG network page that is reading the new routes. And so if you you can take the commute you make today, plug it into there, and the trip planner will tell you how to navigate the NextG network once it launches. So we really wanted to make sure people could plan ahead and use some of those tools. Um and then lastly, I think we can certainly provide some information about places where routes will be eliminated. Largely, there are not large chunks of uh the city of South Fulton or even South Fulton County where service is removed altogether. There are some small places. Uh I think the biggest change in the city of South Fulton would be the martyr reach zone where we have that route 188 operating a very limited weekday only service today. It would be replaced by that reach zone providing service all seven days of the week. Uh but we can certainly follow up with you about other places where we have changes.

Perfect. Thank you because I know we have residents who still have uh home phones and so thank you for that option as well. Thank you. Sure. Um I I might sorry if I maybe one final uh comment to add on that also. Uh we mentioned the temporary bus stop signs that have been posted. So, I think at this point, every bus stop that will be closed as part of this, whether it's just a realignment on an existing route or in a section of a route that'll be no longer in service, those should all be marked. And so, people should already have notification if they're going to have an impact like that to plan for.

All right, Mayor Prom, are you does that conclude your questions? Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Thank you, Councilwoman uh Helen Willis. Hello. Thank you for recognizing me. Um, I have a couple of questions. I almost feel like we need to have a couple of martyr town halls. Um, and I know it would be difficult to do it in every district, but I do think we need to have at least two on each side of town because there are a lot of updates. And I what I've cons consistently heard you say is that you know we have the the website and there's a huge digital divide in our community and one of the largest populations is our seniors and a lot of them are not um internet savvy and so I almost feel that we do need to have a town hall just for M to give updates. ates on these changes and where people can go to get information. Um, I also think we need to push the MARTA mobility service. Uh, a lot of pe a lot of our seniors don't realize that MA has a service that will help them get to their medical appointments, that will help them get to their uh, grocery stores. Um, and so I would love to see more information about the modern mobility. Um, I know this was already mentioned, but the MA cleanliness throughout the entire city is very problematic. Um, consistently, I've been here for nine years. This is probably about the third model presentation. We're consistently told that there's a number that we can call um to get someone to come out and service uh or clean these bus stops. But two things for me. I'm not understanding why, you

know, it's not customary when you all expand services that we have shelters. Cuz at this point, um, when I ride down South Parkway and I see people just standing there and it's pouring out raining and there's no shelter, I think that is just, um, very unsightly for our community as a whole. is very unsightly when we do have shelters that you know Martyr isn't keeping these shelters clean. Um so much so we have residents that say they rather take the buggies from the grocery stores and sit on the buggies while they wait on the bus versus sitting in the shelters because the shelters are so um you know filthy and so um we need a lot of help around that. Um and lastly, can you give me any updates on BRT?

Yeah, so I will start with uh the engagement. Um so yes, we do have website. We do have that digital space. We do have a 14 open houses that the BNR, the NextG team, Ryan's team have scheduled. Some of those are in the southside. Um one of them will be in South Fulton City itself. Uh we certainly welcome again anytime you guys are having something please let us know if we have the resources and people available we will bring them and to your point on martyr mobility um we do have to get you qualified for that. So if when we come to your uh district and that's something that you want to for us to bring information on we will certainly do that. Um we typically do that anyway but just as a reminder whenever you make that request please just ask us so we don't forget it. Um, as far as the trash, completely understand where you stand with that, which is why I wanted to tell you, please contact me directly or Michelle directly, and we will follow through with those issues for you. Um, we will no longer, well, I don't want to say we're not going to be using the same vendor. We'll be using a different vendor. And I don't know who that's going to be because we want to make sure that the vendor that's taking care of the advertisement is not the same group taking care of the trash. they each need to be done separately and better because we have heard your issues on that and we want to fix that. So, we're in the process of doing so. So, we do have RFPs and contract negotiations for both of those items right now. Uh, but we are going to try to help the issues as you call them into us as quickly as possible in the meantime. So, please don't hesitate to do that when you get off here. Just email us. Um, as for the senior centers, uh, we do we have gone to the senior highrises already and met with them. uh we have scheduled to do so again um because we do understand that certain communities need a little bit more help in person uh so we're happily bringing those hard copies of information um helping them with the app if that's their choice uh

making sure we leave behind some information on how to just call us uh with the different communities but you know it's really hard to hit absolutely everyone so we certainly rely on your leadership and your resources too so we could do two things one we can make sure in the next toolkit we send out to you guys. It has a lot more detail on Marty Mobility on um the open houses we're having on, you know, where the senior centers we will be scheduled to hit in the next few weeks or so. And then um so you can share that information with your communities either social media, newsletter, or however best you reach your people. And uh the other thing is again can't say enough that if you have something because we we do try to schedule the seniors and they tell us they're booked up. So if you have one of those just let us know so we can join in on that. But we do need the help on this one. Reaching every single person in the jurisdiction is going to be a tough uh engagement lift for us. So if there's an idea on how we can do this better or we can join in on your efforts, we're here and we want to hear those ideas.

All right. And the last question I had is uh we for years we were getting information about BRT the future of you know um martyr moving towards BRT in some in some jurisdictions. Is that still on the rise? Is that happening?

Sorry I forgot that one. So bus rapid transit is on the rise. It's coming April as well. Uh so the first BRT route is the Summer Hill route downtown that was um funded by the Moram Marta city of Atlanta half penny and it opens in um April. So we will have BRT for the first time here in Georgia. Uh we are looking to see the success of that. We are hoping and praying for it. So we can expand that across the system and let that be another way that we can expand our transit system over any other modes and methods. Um, I will say that we we are still uh in a little bit of a funding gap to continue planning for South Fulton BRT in South Fton Parkway and Roosevelt Highway ART. Uh, I believe we met with each of the jurisdictions including um South Fulton on where we ended with that planning process. We've applied for a few funding grants federally that didn't work out. So, we're still seeking some opportunities to make sure that we can move that forward. And I do believe um you know we might see some renegotiations of some project uh priorities in the near future with MARTA with many a new leadership in all our jurisdictions and you guys will certainly be a part of that conversation to stay um have those projects stay top of mind and important to the system because we we do the projects that the jurisdictions are wanting to do it. We are contracted with all of them. So that's how that works for us. So we move forward as they tell us to.

And how much funding are you getting from our Fulton County Commission? I mean, what role do they play with Martyr? I see you all um you know have a very um well some funding does come from them. You all do uh presentations in front of them regularly. So, can you tell us as a as as Fulton County, one of the 15 cities in Fulton County, um what part they're playing?

Yes. Um great question. Thank you for asking. We've actually had this conversation quite a bit lately. Um as the funding that we get from the four jurisdictions that we are contracted to Clayton, Dicab, Fulton, City of Atlanta um that funding mechanism is a sales tax, a penny sales tax except in city of Atlanta where there's a penny and a half because the half of their penny um goes to the more morta program which is very specified to certain projects and service. Put that aside. So the core penny from all four jurisdictions um is collected by department of revenue. It goes through our bond trustee because we do bonds for our whole capital program and then comes to MARTA as buckets of money multiple times a month if you will. We don't get a report to say who is due what or paid what. And so we sort of back into what each jurisdiction has paid um by uh like tax. So for instance in Dicab we might use their east blast because that's a penny. So we can say okay they collected this amount in east boss and we match it up to see how much we likely received um from do for them. However all of the penny the core penny goes into one fund for operations and maintenance and service and everything else of the entire system. Uh so we do have service levels and collections that we balance and match percentage-wise just to to be as fair as we possibly can. But at the end of the day uh the core penny sales penny is collected by all four jurisdictions and spent on all four jurisdictions. So it it would be hard for us to say how much city of South Fulton is paying in per se. um it might be a little bit easier to say how much Fulton overall is paying and um to say that that money stays 100% in

that jurisdiction. It just fluctuates because no no way can we say that the person who got on in Fulton stayed in Fulton or the person that got on into cab stayed in Dicab. That's a part of having an a system is also more of a benefit in finance is that all those costs to all four jurisdictions are a little bit cheaper because it's just one system and having that connectivity, having a police department, having all the administration done by one system um is a bit of a save. Uh so that's that's how it's collected and how it's spent. Um we can certainly get some more details on any particular area or budget or item that you might have interest in. um just let us know and we'll share that.

Okay, I won't belabor the point, but I just want to because the reason I'm asking I would love to see more um information around where the money is coming from because the two largest cities in Fulton County who have well Atlanta has rail. We don't have rail, but the two largest cities in Fton County are the city of Atlanta and the city of South Fton. And so um and our amenities and I understand we may not have as many ridership in comparison to some of the other cities because uh Marty just started expanding bus routes within the past five years um here in the south and we still have some more expansion that needs to happen. I just would love to see, you know, where the money is coming from because um if we with being the second largest population in the in Fton County and a lot of the dollars are coming from our area to mo um you know, of course, I would like to see more advocacy around what we're getting. That's it.

I will say your your new board member has been a massive advocate. I know she's taken the time to meet with all of uh the jurisdictions, at least somebody from each that's um responded to her. So, she is going to be a great advoc advocate for you. I know your count uh commissioners are good advocates for the city as well. And we're seeing a lot of different changes in uh leadership and um advocates in in that space at the county level. So, we welcome that feedback. We welcome your uh responses and where you think the service needs to go because that service change as Ryan mentioned earlier, we do assess that and as you get riders in certain areas or businesses or whatever the case may be, we will pivot and we will move with you and we will grow with you. As far as rail, it comes down to resources and explanation. We need federal funding to make any mode BRT, lightweight, or heavy rail. We're going to need federal funding to get that gap. So, we need to keep the core penny 30 years out and we also need to um get grant funding. So, when we call for a letter of support sometime to continue projects in your area, that might be what we need from you to get that going. So, when the resources are available, we're ready to expand into South Fulton for sure. We definitely have seen I personally used to represent Fulton County 10 12 years ago and was part of the mayor's meetings that they used to have when they were talking about the referendum and what the north was going to have versus what South Fton was going to have and the city being created and the development in the area. So, I personally am a champion for you guys and can't wait to see expansion in your area.

Thank you so much. You may. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Willis. Uh, Councilman Aaron Johnson. Uh, good afternoon. How are you? Good. How are you?

The great thing about being so far at the end, you answered all 74 of my questions, so I only have a couple for you. Uh, the first thing is number one, thank you for that uh inclusion. I know it's not in district 2 or uh primarily in district uh in the city of South Fulton, but the route that goes in front of the elections hub uh you know the new elections hub that's down there has been trying to get a uh bus stop put there so people can be uh have easier access to voting. So we really appreciate you being able to do that. Uh second, I just want to clarify something for uh Route 80. Is Route 80 a bus that will come down uh Camel Road and loop back and go up Camel Road or is it two different buses that are going and what I mean by that is the same bus going to go down, loop around, come back and go up,

Ryan. Yeah. So route 80, it it travels on Campbellton for part of its route and then it travels uh just to describe it maybe a little better. It'll travel between the East Point Marty station and u the transfer point at Fulton Industrial and Boat Rock. Traveling from East Point, it'll generally take Heedland Drive through East Point out to the Greenbryer area and around Barge Road, it'll cut up to Campbell and take Campbell all the way to Fulton Industrial from there. So those buses will turn up Fulton Industrial, hit the transfer point, and then they will loop back in the same vehicles. Most likely the same vehicles will be traveling back, but that the the route 80 will turn around and go back to East Point along the same path.

Okay, that was the question I had. And uh to make this short and quick, one other things that thing that you may want to consider uh to help get the word out a little bit more about uh the new routes, uh there are several job fairs that are being done around the area. That might be an opportunity for you to set up a table and reach out to people to let them know the new routes. And it can also be helpful to residents around to be able to say, "Oh, there's this bus, new bus is coming over there. I might be able to apply for a job in this area. So, just consider that as well.

Uh, yes, we do job Yes, we do job fairs monthly at HQ and we welcome the opportunity to do them other places because we are hiring operators and technicians all the time. So, I I appreciate that. No, no, no. What I mean is other job fairs like if one of the cities is having a job fair or if the schools if they're having a job fair go do an information session over there about your new routes is that's what I meant. Absolutely. Is there if there's a place that we could find all that information so we can go out. Um we would probably might even consider bringing someone from HR for the same reasons. Oh, exactly. Exactly. Madame Mayor, that's all I have. Thank you.

Wonderful, wonderful questions. All right. The next person I believe I have in the queue is Councilman Sebastian for your second time.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I'll be quick. Um, Jennifer Ryan, once again, thank you guys. Um, while I'm advocating for safety of um, pedestrians, and I know we all want to do that. I'll just tell you all too that that same area where you're expanding on Highway 92 and South Fson Parkway, it is very, very, very dark. So um whether it's you guys, whether it's GOAD, whether it's us working with whoever Union City, we have to make sure we get some lighting around um those areas too because you know again for the safety for the safety reasons and that's an area that we all know that have a lot of logistics centers where where people may be going to work and then walk into the bus stop bus stops. That's all I have. All right. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Councilman Sebastian. And last person I have in the queue is Councilwoman Ralph. Um, thank you for recognizing me for a second time. Um, I think it's been a lot of great feedback. Um, mayor, um, I would ask or, you know, I don't know if we have the poll, but we talked about a lot here today. if that information could be, you know, put in the letter be that you and the city manager kind of express the things that we heard today and share with um Martyr as we go forward. I know um I think Mr. Van Sickle was taking notes, but I think we should officially um share that information with Martyr. Would that be possible?

Absolutely. Um we and also I believe the clerk is recording some of this information so we should be able to um take care of this with no problem. Thank you so much. All right. Well, I do want to thank our presenters for being here. Um we appreciate it and uh thank you so much. Clerk, can you sound the next item? Yes, ma'am. The next item is executive session if necessary. All right. Well, it's uh 5:10, so we need to get ready to go into our next meeting. But if there's no further business um from the body, is there any further business? Council members? No.

All right. Since there's no further business, I will go ahead and adjourn this meeting. Make sure you all switch over to your five o'clock meeting. That meeting was adjourned at 5:10 We will now go into our 5:00 meeting for alcohol license and zoning public hearings on Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 at 5 11 p.m. I will now call this meeting to order. Clerk, can you please sound the role? This is a roll call for tonight's public hearing. The Honorable Katherine F. Ry, District 1,

present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2, present. The Honorable Helen Z. Willis, District 3. Present. The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4. Yeah. The Honorable Kosha B. Bell, District 5. Present. The Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6, present. And the Honorable Linda B. Pritchette, District 7, here. And the Honorable Mayor, Carmelita Gums, here. Madame Mayor, you have a quorum. All right. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, please sound the next item.

Madame Mayor, members of council, we have uh one case tonight for the alcohol license resoning, variance, and modification cases for presentation and public hearing only. The first case is Z25-036 and CDP25-015. It's a public hearing application by BTR group care of Hakee Hillyard requested reszoning from AG1 in the Clifton Overlay district to AL apartment limited dwelling district to develop 162 units on 6.3 acres at 5090,50 and 0 Southwood Road. Point of order. Mayor,

recognizing you, Councilwoman Willis.

I am raising the point of order for a U procedure issue. Typically, when we have public hearings, um, we have the first read of the case that we are hearing on the agenda. And I don't see that. And I wonder why. um if you could ask uh the attorney or either the CDR director why that case was not listed on the agenda. And also what's missing off of the agenda is the recommendation from um the uh planning commission. I see the recommendation from staff, but I will see the recommendation from the planning commission. And then I would ask for the clerk to send this case to everybody because I am unable to download the case from um civic clerk.

All right. Is our parliamentary um attorney Kelly? I am present. I would defer to CD regarding the first read and why the recommendation was not listed. That's not something that the law department um usually controls. All right. Do we have someone on from CDR? Good afternoon. Yes, we do. This is Matthew Williams. Okay, Matthew, you breaking up a little bit. I'm sorry. Let me get to now. Much better.

All right. So, I would typically defer to the city clerk as to why it wasn't um as the rationale for the public hearing and then a first read. But again, I will say that this case is special because typically um once if the cases are deferred, we do allow for time for the turnaround. We just had the planning commission meeting on this past Wednesday. Um well, I'm sorry. Yeah, on last Wednesday. So, sometimes there's there's not enough time to get everything into the portal. So, that's why there's no planning commission recommendation, but I do have that information. Um, in terms of why it's not on the agenda for the first read, um, I defer to the city clerk's office. Mr. Clerk.

Yes. So, regarding the u the, uh, first read, uh, similar to what Mr. Williams mentioned, um, there was a the case was held uh, the meeting was held on Wednesday and the information was just not transmitted um, in terms of the actual first read ordinance. Um, so my recommendation would be uh like we did in the past um to uh have that added as a first read during the 7 o'clock meeting um to sound it. Understood. Can I make a comment? Who Who is that? Sorry, this is Sharon Subaman, city manager.

Uh council, just one moment. Councilwoman Willis, do you have any further? Um, I fine, but uh I I will I need the case emailed to me because I'm not able to download anything from Civ or I'm not able to go into the queue for some reason. I still don't have the Q button to enter into the queue. So, um Okay.

I would I I just need that information so I can see what the what the recommendation was from um the planning commission because it's not on the agenda. Thank you. just one. Okay, thank you for that. And I think we're all still having some challenges with um civic wreck. Uh city manager.

Yeah, two things. One, to be clear, it's not it it is up to us to get the information over to the city clerk to ensure that it's on the agenda for a first read. So, my apologies that should have happened. And um Matthew, I think we need to send out the case to everyone. It is true the portal was closed, but the PDF could have been sent to the city clerk timely after the the meeting last Wednesday. And for the record, could you tell everybody what the planning commission recommendation was at the last Wednesday's at last Wednesday's planning commission meeting?

One more thing, the um the client the the petitioner is having problems getting into the queue. Can someone please from the CD call the petitioner? Okay. I She broke up. I didn't hear. The commissioner is having a hard time getting into the queue. The into the meeting. Petitioner. The applicant, not the Oh, the applicant. I'm sorry. Into the meeting. Yes. Okay.

Okay. Neymar, can you can you text text us the um contact information someone and we can reach out to them and make sure they have the right Zoom link. I'm I'm sorry, Madam Mayor. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Yes, the petitioner is Mr. Hillyard and uh it is the link should have been in his um on his calendar as a calendar invite, but yeah, but the link wasn't on my calendar and it should have been in mine. So I don't know what's quite going.

Okay. Is he able to have the link sent to him expeditiously? Okay. Um, city manager, I believe Matthew, you directed Matthew to give us a status. Absolutely. I am prepared to do that. All right.

Um, so I'm just going to do an overview of the case once more. An application by BTR group developments care of Hakee Hillard requesting a resoning from AG1 which are agricultural district to apartment limited AL to develop 162 units and also they're requesting a future language amendment from agricultural neighborhood to suburban 2 uh for the addresses at 5090 5050 and 0 southwood road. This is in city council district 3. staff is recommending denial for the reasonzoning and for the future lings amendment. Again, this went to the planning commission on January 21st. The planning commission recommended approval of the reasonzoning and it was a tie to approve the future language amendment.

It was a tie. Yes. Okay. So, no one was able to break the tie, right? Because the chair was not at the meeting at that time. Okay. Has the applicant been able to join I do not show him in the meeting as yet, but we just forwarded the email to his law office email.

Do we need to suspend this meeting for a few minutes? I'm getting texts and they're saying me and client are on but can't but can get can't get into the meeting. Somebody needs to call them. Can someone please take care of this matter or we need to take a re a short recess until we get it squared away? It looks like M just popped in the uh just popped in the meeting.

Okay. I did hear someone uh announce my name. I I was I was going to move for a five minute recess while we um got the applicant online. Second cuz I also need the case sent to me. All right. It has been moved and properly. Second. Please sound by um I guess we can do by eyes if I can be able to verify. All right, I'm go down. Go down the list. Continue.

I for a fivem minute recess. It has been moved and properly second. Anybody else? I I I All right, we will move for a five minute recess. We're recessed at 5:21 p.m. All right.

to reconvene. I move to reconvene. Second. All right. It's been moved and properly second. Can you all sound by saying I I I I I

All right, that motion passes. All right, we will go ahead and uh open up this public hearing. At this time, I'm opening up the public hearing for item three a on the agenda. You have a total of 10 minutes to give your presentation. You do not have to use all of that time. You may also want to reserve time for rebuttal. Also, please keep in mind that time is included with public comments for any of the citizens who are also in favor of your application. Any time granted for the application, the same amount of time must be given to the opposition, if any. You may proceed with your presentation, Mr. Hillier.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of council. Sorry for the snafu on the front end here. We were m Mr. uh Furlow and I both had trouble getting on, but it was I think it was our fault. So, appreciate for giving us the time to present to you this evening. Uh this is the application of the DTR group uh for a reasonzoning for property located on Southwood Road uh in an area that's border it's in district three, but it bordered u the city of Union City, Georgia. Um, we did have went through a couple of zoning cycles and reacted to some of the concerns from the Cliftonale Neighborhood Association and the Planning Commission. And as I heard you discussed, the the the planning uh commission did recommend to support this project as well as the Cliftonale Neighborhood Association after we went back and made some specific changes uh that they requested. I'm speaking really fast because I want to first let you all see the video that Mr. Furlow had prepared uh for the project that is immediately across the street from this that is going to be a sister project to and then he's going to share a little facts some facts with you and Mr. Adams, if you could share the uh

is about more than it's about creating a vibrant, safe, wellmaintained environment where res This community is about more than it's about creating a vibrant, safe, and well-maintained environment where residents thrive and the surrounding neighborhood benefits. The first thing that attracted me was the new town homes in an apartment complex area. it being a town home. Um, and the the outside exterior of course caught my eye as well. Um, it had a very modern look to it and I think just the amount of square footage that you get for the price is a great deal.

Our residents enjoy resort style amenities, professional landscaping, and safe, well-designed homes that translates into healthier, happier families and a community that the city can be proud of. I love knowing that my landscaping and maintenance is taken care of is wonderful. Absolutely stress free. I love not having to buy a weed whacker or a lawn mower. It's It feels great. It It takes a lot of stress off of the renter as well because that's one less thing you have to worry about.

This is not just another housing development. It's a thoughtfully designed, professionally managed community that enhances property value, strengthens the city's appeal, and ensures long-term quality for both residents and neighbors. This development is designed to be a long-term asset for the city.

The biggest thing that saves me time and reduces my stress at this community is maintenance. Putting in work orders is a one minute process. Um, they have it where you can take pictures and tell them specifically what the issue is. You don't have to be home and wait for them or take off work. Um, if something major breaks, we have emergency maintenance, so they're they're always on top of things. I am very grateful for maintenance and it it's been wonderful so far. We believe this development sets the benchmark for how thoughtful design and professional management can work together to enhance the quality of life for citizens and the city as a whole. Even though I've only been here a short amount of time, I have already experienced a sense of community at this point. A lot of the kids are getting a chance to know each other. A lot of the kids are getting a chance to play together. Um therefore tying the parents to each other. The sense of community is stronger. I think we can stop right there since the audio is gone.

Mr. Flo, you want to start?

Yes. Yes, I will. Thank you. Thank you, Keem. Uh, madame mayor and members of uh, south of South Fulton City Council, uh, thank you for the opportunity to present our reason request uh, for colleges at Southwood. Uh, we have u, we have actively engaged with the community through two uh, public information sessions, two planning commission meetings, and one Cliftonale community meeting. This valuable feedback has directly informed uh us to create a revised plan that reflects both regulatory regulatory compliance and the high standard South Fulton deserves. Uh so going through the process and working with all the community members, we pretty much came up with with four different items that we realized we needed to address when we finally got before y'all. Um those four items are the uh there was a 100 foot zoning buffer that we were unaware of that we had to apply to the plan. Um also we're going to talk about the future land use designation. Uh some additional parking and enhancements. Um and just after listening everyone uh South Fulton just wants a better product. Uh as you just saw of our of the development we built across the street somewhere Cottage Village. Um, it is a great product, but it sounds like uh the the citizens of South Fulton deser deserve just something a little bit better. So, that's exactly what we've done. Next slide, please. Um, as you can, uh, I don't know if you can tell here in the plan, but however, uh, staff did provide comment that we did not, uh, we did not incorporate a 100 ft zoning buffer into the site plan. So, we have fully incorporated a 100 ft zoning buffer into our site plan aligning with

South Fulton's zoning code 405. this adjustment to the site plan. Um, it it was I I I appreciate the comment because that it did give us a chance to go back, revisit the site plan and give us an opportunity to design a more efficient layout with increased open space uh that also respects the site's natural topography. Um, and as a land planning uh person, which I I truly do enjoy, I designed the site myself and the site definitely feels better. So, thank you staff for the direction. Uh, next slide, please. Um, also now we need to talk about the future land use plan. Um, the future land use designation. Uh, as you can see here, kind of walking through. Um, as you can see, there's Cottage of Southwood kind of hashed out in uh purple. Uh, and then you've got um South Fulton properties to the north, suburban one on Wild Boore Court, and then everything kind of flows down to the south to the uh public shopping center, the um community live work, future land use uh depicted in purple. Uh we believe that the parcels uh of that com that bring together cottages of Southwood uh may be incorrectly designated as suburban one and should be reclassified as suburban to at least or at least be considered as suburban 2 while y'all review um our resoning requests. And uh these reasons are because the cottage southwood parcel shown in the purple hatch uh are uh only share a property line with the suburban one property to the north on wild bore court which lacks access to uh Southwood Road. So even the properties of the north at Wild Bore

Court, they can't even access uh our property or the property shown um on Southwood Road. Also, when uh if you want to go by road, coming out of the cottages at Southwood properties, uh progressing from Cottages at Southwood towards the public's shopping center, the community live work uh designated in the purple on the bottom left. Um uh that requires passing by Summerwell Parkway Village, which is uh shown in the light red. Uh Providence Parkway Village and Arcadia Parkway Village. these developments. Um, as you go by, the Summerwell Parkway Village, which is a 282 town home development, progressing down to an age restricted development at Providence and a more traditional multif family development at Park at Arcadia. Uh this simply shows a transition of uses going from suburban one to our requested reszone at College of Southwood, which to my to in my opinion should be reviewed as as a suburban two. Um because we're only this is showing five units density. Suburban one allows up to three. Suburban 2 allows up to eight. So it is a nice transition. And then you go down to the more dense uses of Providence and Arcadia down to the future land use uh community work parcels shown by the Chick-fil-A and uh the Publix. Um and just and I do come at this I I don't I don't bring the suggestion lightly. Um I I I I recently spent time uh in my home county uh as uh on the future land use committee here in Athens Park County and in in doing so I became aware that the the future land

use mapping is a broad planning tool um and it's which can from time to time uh not exactly pay attention to the actual parcels. So, it's more of a broad stroke. Um, and it is a broad stroke showing uh everyone how y'all intend to grow your county and how you intend to to also have transitions from one use to the next. I'm I'm not saying it's anybody's at fault here. Um, and your future land use mapping committee did a great job. I second time for 10 minutes, right?

Can I keep going? I think we're done. We're done. I think we're out of time. Yeah. Yeah. You You are out of time. You got You want to do one closing uh sentence, please? Well, I I'll just close out saying that we we have also worked with Mr. Marcus Carter at Cliftonale, all the all the all the citizens of South Fulton. Um it's we've enjoyed working with y'all. Uh I believe we got a nice plan in front of y'all. Um, I'll be happy to answer any questions and thank you so much for your uh consideration for this reason request. All right. Thank you. All right, Mr. Clerk. Are there any names u in opposition?

Yes, ma'am. There is one speaker card that was received from Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter, if you're on the line, unmute. and receive instructions from the mayor. Mr. Carter, what is the first name? Marcus. Marcus. Okay. In opposition, just so I'm clear. Yes. Either way, he just submitted comments. All right. Is he on or he You need to read his comment.

Mr. card are you on? I see someone I find I don't know who it is.

I've asked that person to identify themselves from earlier. Okay. Um I don't believe he is on. So, at this time, if there are no additional speakers, I will be closing a public hearing and we will take questions from the council, starting with the district's representative, Councilwoman Willis. Uh, thank you very much for recognizing me. Um, I just contacted Marcus Carter, um, president of Cliftonale Community Club. First, I want to say thank you to Mr. furlow um and Mr. Hillyard for working with the community and coming to a meeting of the mind and a compromise. Um colleagues, this track of land has um had many concepts, but where is essentially located is in the proximity of the Providence uh Union City Senior Assistant Living Facility. I think they have town homes over there. If you go behind Publix, they have uh affordable housing that HUD owns. And then behind that, they have a senior living community. And so really over where they are putting this development, uh this is the best use of land. um single um family homes would not be uh a good the best use of land. Um I have spoken directly to uh Marcus and he is uh in alignment with Mr. Furlow. Uh he does support this project along with other Clifton community um community members. They work closely with Mr.

Furlow. He has confirmed that Mr. Furlow has uh acquiesed to all of their requests. Um the only thing he said the reason it's against the future land use is because we currently have the comprehensive development plan underway. So we haven't adopted any new maps. And so um I'm good because the community is good. and um thank you for working with our community who's not Mr. Marcus. For him to say that he is in support of the pro this project is a huge feat because um sometimes you know our community can be very um challenging and demanding. So thank you for um working with the Clifton residents. Uh I yield. I don't really have any questions at the time. The questions that I do have is for staff. Staff, did you get all of the Clifenddale community residents? Uh um or maybe you all can ask um as Mr. Furlow and Attorney Hill, did you all turn in all of the conditions from the community over to staff and are they incorporated in this current plan?

Yes, ma'am. We did. Uh the conditions that Cliftonale brought up were uh parking um and we increased uh parking to have additional uh guest parking throughout the site and we also enhanced the um the residential model types uh throughout um by going with our new and updated models, the Concord of the Manchester, which is not shown across the street at Summerwell Cottage Village.

Okay. And this is an upand cominging area and martyr uh is uh this is one of the areas m Mart mart is expanding to. So um thank you so much. I would uh ask that we move to add this to the regular council agenda clerk Adams because I preferably will want to go ahead and vote on this. If we don't have any opposition, um I'm planning to wait the first reading and go ahead and vote on this. Yes, we can have that at the council meeting. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Willis. Are there any other um questions from our colleagues? I have no speakers. All right. Well, thank you um all for the presentation. If there's no objection, we will um entertain a motion for executive session. Uh move that we recess into executive session for real estate personnel litigation and cyber security. Second.

All right. It's been moved and properly second. Can I get it by a resounding I I I I All right. I We will be going into executive session. We are 54 p.m. All right. And make sure you all change over.

Executive session has concluded and the council meeting is now back into open session. So based on parliamentary procedures, um was there any action that was taken in executive session?

There was no exe no action taken in executive session that requires a public vote. All right. Awesome. Is there any other further business from the council? So, if there's no further business at this time, this meeting is now adjourned. I will ask that the council will switch over in civic plus in civic clerk, I'm sorry, in civic clerk and we'll get ready to convene the next meeting. Thank you for joining us live for the city of Southportton city council meeting. We are proud to introduce the leadership entrusted with guiding our city forward. Mayor Carmelita Gums District 1 Councilwoman Dr. Katherine Ralph District 2 Councilman Aaron V. Johnson, District 3 Councilwoman Helen Zenobia Willis, District 4 Councilman JC Sebastian, Mayor Pro Tim Piosha B. Bell, District 6, Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown, District 7 Councilwoman Linda Becker Pritchette. Supporting the work of this body in the operations of our city are City Clerk Corey Adams, city manager Sharon D. Subadan, and interim city attorney Sarah Kelly. Thank you for being the best part of the city of South Fton, a city on the rise.

All right, I just love that video. So again, I am officially calling the city council regular meeting for Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 700 p.m. officially to order. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the role? Good. Good evening. This is roll call for the regular meeting of the city council January 27, 2026. The honorable Katherine Nefra, District 1. Present. The Honorable Aaron V. Johnson, District 2. Present. The Honorable Helen Z. Willis, District 3.

The Honorable JC Sebastian, District 4, present. The Honorable Kosha BB Bell, District 5, present. The Honorable Natasha Williams Brown, District 6, present. The Honorable Linda B. Pritchette, District 7, here. And the Honorable Mayor Carmelita Gums.

I am present. All right. Mr. Clerk, please sound the next item. Yeah, madame mayor. Next on the agenda is the invocation which will be delivered by our city chaplain uh Ed Long Jr. Mr. Long, would you unmute yourself, please? Mr. Long.

Chaplain Eddie Long. Oh, there he is. Good evening. How are you? Wonderful. Outstanding. Outstanding. I saw a notice in the chat to list my information and all, but the way that the Zoom is set up, it did not allow for me uh to do so. So I am here now and I'm assuming that is the part where you all would like for the implication to be shared. Yes sir.

Outstanding. Outstanding. Well, I'm in chaplain mode now as well as in father mode. So if you hear my children in the background, please um accept them. Not excuse them, but accept them as a part of this community. If all hearts and minds are clear, I will lead us now in this invocation. We are grateful for a peaceful transference of leadership from the previous mayoral administration to the leadership of now mayor Carmelita Gums. We celebrate each elected official, each elected council person as we declare blessings and favor, insight and wisdom of the most high God to perpetually be invoked into this leadership and this council. Furthermore, we petition accountability, empathy, justice, love, mercy be extended to you and that you extended to all by the measure of your judgment and accountability. I declare that resources in abundance be at your disposal for the benefit of the citizens of the city of South Florida and for the uping of the kingdom of God. I pray that your households are healthy, your marriages are operating in purpose, your businesses and your jobs are sustained, and that your souls are whole. I declare that tonight's meeting be fluid, respectful, functions with dignity. It overflows with love, and it does well to hear and meet the needs of the people. We come into this moment releasing our personal stresses of the day. As we just pause and feel that and as we embrace the concerns of this community, if all hearts, minds, and spirits are in

agreement with this prayer, simply state, I agree. I agree. God bless you. God bless you. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right, Mr. The clerk, please sound the next item.

Next item on tonight's agenda is adoption of the council agenda. All right. I believe would be the pledge of allegiance. Do you want to lead us, council woman? Of course. All right. flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible indivisible with liberty and justice for allice for all.

A y'all sound beautiful. Thank you. All right, Mr. Clerk, please sound the next item. Yeah, that brings us to Roman numeral five, adoption of the council agenda. All right. Are there any changes to the agenda there? There was uh one by council member Willis uh regarding a zoning case zero Southwood Road.

Yes. And then I also have another I want to add a shredding and uh produce distribution for February. I will get with um Dr. Cooper to make sure that um right now tensively I want to put it for uh February 28th um I'll get with Dr. Cooper to make sure there's no conflict. So that's why I said tentatively for February 28th uh shredding produce. This is Councilwoman Ralph.

Yes, ma'am. I would like to add um my D1 town hall. It'll be we're still finalizing the date. We are trying to wait to the retreat, but I wanted to be able to put the information in the queue so the flyer and everything could be made by public affairs. So for a D1 town hall meeting um in February, um I wasn't finished. No, I did not yield. But I respectfully um you have that mayor. I have one more thing. Okay.

Yes. Um I would like to have the district 3 power hall for March 3rd Tuesday. And just to verify the policy, I don't think the policy does it require us to put town halls on the I thought the policy the new policy did not require us to put town halls on to get approved, but I'll just go ahead and do it in case. But the new policy I thought prohibited I mean did not require to get approved where March 3rd or District 3 town hall. Okay.

And that is it. I yield at this time. Thank you very much for recognizing me. Councilwoman Ralph, did you have a date for your town hall? Uh, no. I'm not sure exactly. Um, I know my um legislative specialist has been working. I know it's within the first couple weeks of February. Okay. Are there any other changes that need to be added to the agenda?

Uh, this is Councilwoman Pritchette. I guess I'll just add it on just uh so everyone could be aware. Um, I am on February the 7th, I am hosting a juicing class and food distribution at Creole Park. On February the 9th, I'm hosting a District 7 town hall meeting at the Glattis Estard Library. And on February the 12th, I am hosting an uh a business roundt with the mayor at the economic development office as a lunch and learn.

All right. And that's it. Any other council members have anything that they need to add? Mr. Clerk, do you have all of that? I do. I just need clarification. Madame Mayor, regarding um Council Member Willis, were were you still moving forward with that uh Southwood Road zoning item? Yes, I plan to vote on it tonight. So, tonight would have been for first read this evening.

Yes, we're waving it. I have a motion to wave the first read so that we can vote. Okay. So, yes, ma'am. I have all all of those items, Madame Mayor. Okay. And we're doing this to save time. Um if there if everyone if there is no objections to the agenda um as a amended, then we can approve those noted changes and move forward. We approve the agenda as amended. All right. Well, since there's a motion now, um

Oh, wait a minute. I'm sorry. I will withdraw that motion. Is it We don't have to um don't have to vote. No. If there's no objections to the changes that have been amended, we can move forward with the approval of the agenda.

Mayor, can we ask Can I ask one more thing? I withdraw my motion. What about can we do um uh could you ask uh parliamentary procedures uh or could we go ahead if there's uh no objections? Can you call for us to vote for the approval of the minutes and the consent agenda um by um affirmation if there's no objection? Well, we have them doing we're doing this separately, but it's the same for the council me uh council minutes as well. So, okay,

let's let's move on with the the adoption of the agenda. Since there's no objection, that is approved. Thank you. Okay, next. Madam Chair, I did I did have one um slight caveat with the um appointment. Just wanted to clarify for the um ZAB appointment, they are in the middle of a hearing and so it just be my advice that the new appointment occur once they're in the middle of the hearing to not waste city resources because they would have to start all over

um that hearing is supposed to conclude the first week of February. So there wouldn't be an unnecessary delay. which is supposed to be to next after next week. May I have a question? All right, let's uh let's use the queue of the chat. Um I think I heard Councilwoman Willis and then I believe uh Councilwoman Ralph for discussion.

Hello, Mayor. I I this is kind of getting a little um complicated or concerning for me that we keep moving and changing rules as we go along. I've never heard of that. I've never heard of it. Um I would like to see some type of legal citation or opinion. um you or any new council person on this that have been newly elected has a right to appoint their appointees and so um I've never heard that you know we got a case that didn't even get voted on because one of the cubers appointees didn't even show up you know and so Therefore, we got a case that even didn't get voted on. And so, I've never heard of this. So, I just I would like to have some legal citation. I would like for you to go ahead and make your appointment. And if it's not the case, uh, you know, if it's if I want to see some legal citation behind this because we keep doing stuff, the needle keep the the the rules keep getting changed and then opinions are made and then they have to be walked back. We we we're starting to look, you know, really unprofessional out here. And I've never heard a person having to maintain their appointment. I've never heard I'm not saying that's the case, but I'm a little uncomfortable. Let me say that.

Okay. So, in reference to the appointment, are and I guess uh attorney Kelly, you will be in the queue, but are you speaking about the appointment for the uh ZBA under the mayor?

Um I'm not sure who the appointment was for. I just heard that it was for the ZBA. they are in the middle of a very important hearing. Um that a significant amount of resources to get the ZBA council as well as other council conflict council um to be present to help the current factf finders. It'd be the same thing as if we're in the middle of a jury trial and you switched out one of the jurors. Um, so it it's just my request based on equity and economic benefit of the city to not waste the city's resources to switch out a factfinder when they're in the middle of a important hearing. It would not be an unnecessary delay. It would just be effective February 4th. The hearing is supposed to conclude next week.

Okay. Um, I'm going to start recognizing the queue and I believe Councilwoman Ral is next and then I do see Councilwoman Williams Brown. Yeah, I was just going to kind of say with the attorney just make it effective. We did that at the last meeting with um new board appointees. I think the date we said the exact same thing at the last meeting. we adopted um with their effective date just a day after they're supposed to conclude their process.

All right. Thank you um Councilwoman Williams Brown. Yes, that thank you um mayor for recognizing me and that was what I was going to say because those were my board appointments that um got notated for becoming effective on February the um February the 4th. Okay.

Because because of the pending um appeals case that that's coming forward I believe either the second or the third. Okay, thank you for that. Um, you know, I wish that we had known or that information was shared a little bit ahead of time, but thank you all for that information. And we will make a note for the ZBA appointments to be effective February the 4th in conjunction with the other appointees that the council has. I do have a question. All right, let me make sure no one else is in the queue. Yes, Councilwoman Willis, is this your request or is this the law?

This is the request and we will um we will address that with Attorney Kelly at a later date. We're going to go ahead and move through the agenda. Thank you. All right. So, and Mr. Clerk, you said you have noted all of those changes to the agenda.

Yes, ma'am. All right. And uh it appears that there's no objection to the agenda. So as noted, we will go ahead and move forward. Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item? Next item is approval of city council meeting minutes. Regular meeting minutes January 13, 2026. Work session meeting minutes January 13, 2026. And alcohol zoning public hearing minutes January 13, 2026. All right. If there is no objection to the minutes, this will be approved as sounded. To approve the minutes as sounded by the clerk,

right? We didn't need a motion, but yes. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you sound the next item? I would call my motion. Thank you. I'm sorry. You're fine. With the approval of the minutes, that brings us to the consent agenda. Items A, B, I items A and B. All right. Move to approve the um consent agenda with the one noted change for uh February 4th. Second.

All right. It has been moved and properly second. And Mr. Mr. Cler, are we ready to take this vote by um um point of order? Yes, ma'am. So, once something has been published, I would ask um mayor if you would check with the city attorney. Um you can't uh make changes on the consent agenda. What you can do is pull the item off and make the change. That's correct. All right. So the item the item that was

I I with I withraw I withdraw my motion. I I move that one appointment only and move it um to additional items I guess at the end of the agenda. All right. So we will go ahead and u remove that item from the consent agenda. So is there any objection to the consent agenda as amended? All right. Can do clerk, are we prepared to take this vote in this queue? Yes, it appears everyone is in the queue.

All right, let's take this vote in the queue, please. Vote is open. That motion was approved unanimously 70 as amended. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please sound the next item?

That brings us to Roman numeral 9 alcohol license resoning variance modification cases for motion and vote. Letter A request council confirmation of the following recorded development plat as approved by the city engineer pursuant to section 4.2.2e of the subdivision regulations. Appendix D subsection 4.22E of the city's municipal codes calls for city council to confirm receipt of all recorded plats. All recorded plats have been received and logged by Fulton County Superior Court at this time. Number one, confirm minor plat for 360 Buffington Circle located in council district 5. This minor plat for the combination of two tracks into one parcel being a total of 9.832 acres and two confirm the final plat for the Enclave at Stonewall Tail located in council district 2. This final plat is to establish the 48 lot subdivision of Enclave at Stonewall Tail on a total of 54.08 acres.

All right. And Mr. Clark, you can continue all the way through those items. Do we have to? It doesn't appear that we have to hear them individually. So, you can sound all those items.

Okay. The next case is uh letter B. This is the alcohol license case. The applicant Kazzy Sarroju doing business as Big A Shell Food Mark has applied for an alcohol license for the retail sale of beer and wine located at 71000 Old National Highway, Riverdale, Georgia 30296. This request is for a change of ownership. It's located in council district 7. Letter C, case U25-013, navigation by Early Rocket, requesting a special use permit to allow a group residence for 6 to9 children in CUP on the Old National overlay at 120 Canewood Court East. It's located in council district 6. Staff recommendation approval conditional and planning commission recommendation denial. And the last case under Roman numeral 9 is case M25- Z003, an application by Sea Slaughter, Care of Robinson Happy Homes, requesting a modification to zoning condition 3B of zoning case 2001Z-0121 to reduce the required 50-foot principal building setback from peripheral property lines adjoining property to a 20ft principal building setback for lot 226. six in the CUP zoning district. The property is located at 969 Brook. It's loc located located in council district 3 and staff recommendation was approval.

All right. If there's no objections to items A through A through D, it will be approved by unanimous consent. Are there any objections? All right. Items A through D is approved for unanimous consent. Mr. Clerk, can you please tell the next item? That brings us to public comments. Madame Mayor and members of council, um, as I communicated to you earlier today, we did receive 23 uh speakers cards cards, written format only. We have uh six citizens who have signed up for Zoom. Um, you have allotted 30 minutes for your public comment. With that, Madame Mayor, if I can proceed with uh reading the speakers who have joined our Zoom this evening.

Please proceed. for the speakers. Speakers will you will be granted two minutes each and public comments will not exceed 30 minutes. Speakers will not be allowed to yield or donate their time to other speakers. Speakers must identify themselves and their addresses prior to speaking. Speakers may only address the presiding officer and shall observe all rules of decorum. No debate, disrespect or obscinity shall be tolerated. The presiding officer should rule any such individual out of order that fails to comply with the foregoing. With that read into the record, as I call your name, please unmute yourself. You will have two minutes to make your statement and then uh you're you notified when it's complete. The first speaker is Deanna Respish, then Penny Webster Lewis, and then Kip Carr. So, Miss Respus, if you're on, uh, please unmute yourself and you have two minutes to make your comment.

Okay, Mr. Clerk, I am on. Uh, can you hear me? Yes, you may begin.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, so my name is Diana Rers and I live in district three uh on Butner. Um, I'm on tonight to respectfully ask this council not to continue to pursue the repeal of the gas station ordinance and instead of slowing and instead slow down this process to allow for community input, transparency, and smarter policym. This current ordinance exists for a reason. Many of you voted for it and you know that it provides objective guard rails, distance requirements, buffers, and use standards that protect residential neighborhoods, schools, and churches from overconentration. Eliminating those standards entirely does not create flexibility. It creates subjectivity, exposes the city to spot zoning claims, and increases litigation risk. Opposition to a full repeal is not anti- business. It is pro planning, pro- neighborhood stability, and pro public safety. Gas stations bring increased traffic, al alcohol sales, and tobacco sales. Lighting impacts and security costs and environmental risks, especially when placed too close to homes. These impacts are long-term while promised economic um benefits are often overstated or simply shift sales from one corner to another. If there are corridors where placement makes sense, then let's identify them together deliberately the way this city already did with Fton Industrial. This is smart planning. Eliminating the standard citywide is not. If the goal is economic development, there are innovative alternatives that this council should explore such as brownfield impact fees or environmental and mitigation fees tied to fuel stations. These revenues could directly fund cleanup, infrastructure improvements, and other code enforcement, ensuring the city actually captures the value these develop from these developments. Most importantly, residents deserve a seat at the table. A policy of this magnitude should not be rushed. I urge you to pause the repeal,

engage the community, and refine rather than remove the protections that helps South Fton grow responsibly. Thank you, and have a good night. Thanks for your time. The next speaker, Miss Penny Webster Lewis. If you're on to this evening, please unmute yourself. You have two minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Penny Webster Lewis, resident of district 2, and I too stand in opposition to the proposed legislation to repeal ordinance 20 uh 21-003. The ordinance, as my uh predecessor spoke of, provides protections not only to homeowners, but to neighborhoods and the community culture. If the ordinance is repealed with nothing to replace it, it will there will be nothing to protect the communities that we've grown to love and want to see thrive. There'll be nothing to stop a development from being placed a a gas station from being placed across the street from residential neighborhoods with no buffer, no zone requirements, no limits to the distance between gas stations. As we approach 2030, there will be less demand for fossil fuel and more demand for e vehicle charging stations. I don't I'm sure not sure that we're doing all that we can to prepare for the future by continuing to deal with this relic of a gas station. There's several questions that come to mind in addition. What will come of the land that we uh that houses these gas stations, these fuel tanks that are underground? How will that be mitigated? It's not clear. What protections will there be for areas that aren't on public water or sewer when ground contamination can actually impact the quality of their life or their health? There needs to be thoughtful planning and something that provides protections prior to repealing this ordinance, which has stood for no less than four years. We're asking you to slow down and to be more thoughtful about what we do in place of the current ordinance, but not eliminating the ordinance first. before we have something to protect the

citizens and the safety of our city. And I thank you for your time and attention. Thank you, Miss Webster Lewis. The next speaker is Mr. Kip Carr. Mr. Carr, if you're on the line, please unmute. You have two minutes. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Uh, Mayor Gums, members of uh, city council. My name is Kip Carr. I live at 1308 Brook Forest Drive, Northeast Atlanta. Good to be with you virtually. Um I am I'm here to talk uh very briefly about a situation that occurred two months ago involving my family. Um in District 7, uh my cousin uh was the victim of an attempted carjacking. He was shot seven times. And apparently uh it looks like this individual had been trying multiple times to uh to uh to steal his uh vehicle. Um he had to have about a half dozen or so surgeries. Uh I would like to report to mayor and council that he is recovering. Uh however, um I'm very concerned. I'm very concerned uh that we need to probably heighten v visibility of of of the police department and I want to thank uh councilwoman uh Pritchette. I know she reached out to the public safety director and mayor Gums. I appreciate uh the wonderful conversation you and I had a couple of weeks ago. Uh uh I would like to request for the record uh that uh that there be a meeting with the family uh and I guess uh involve whoever you feel would be appropriate uh because for this uh situation to

occur to my family, I I don't want it to occur with anybody else's family. And and that's all that I have to say and I look forward to seeing you soon in person. Thank you very much and have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep warm. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carr. The next speaker is Miss India Rice. Miss Rice, if you're on the line, please unmute yourself and you have two minutes.

Thank you. Hello. My name is India Rice. I'm a community member in district 7 looking for more information on the Microsoft data data center on Stonewall Road. As I witness how data centers negatively impact black and brown communities across this country and displace our people, I've grown more concerned with how it's going to impact us. I would like to know when it will open, how it will impact our energy bills, if there's any protocols put in place to ensure that it doesn't harm our environment, and what type of jobs it will provide for the community. Um, it's something that's been sitting on my heart for a minute. I've been eagerly awaiting. It's open and I just want to make sure that our community is not harmed and our people are not displaced from a place that we've loved for so long. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Thank you, Miss Rice. The next speaker is Mr. Drew Demand. Mr. Demand, if you're on the line, please unmute yourself. You have two minutes. Mr. demand. Okay, moving on to the next speaker, Miss Danielle Withers. Miss Withers, if you're on the line, please unmute yourself. You have two minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Uh, Mayor, councel, uh, I echo a lot of the previous comments concerning uh, repealing uh, ordinance 2021-033. So, I'll just read this to make this quick. Um, it is unclear as to what all is being proposed to change and I think a clear written document would be beneficial to the community even if it's a living document. If we the community are only left to guess the details then is understandable when feelings of panic and calls for transparency arise. I have tried to weigh both sides of the debate and I understand that restriction to competition is a valid concern. However, I don't think repealing ordinance 2021-033 is a magic bullet that will solve rundown properties uh pertaining to gas stations. So, suppose I'm a developer who's applying to build a gas station within three miles of a rundown shell. The application succeeds and I am now Shell's direct competition. What's my motivation to be a 75% better option where 10% might do? I don't have to rise to the level of buckies to steal our customers and be very lucrative. So I ask, what's the end goal? Three to four gas stations hopefully competing in the same neighborhood. I doubt that will come to pass or even be very beneficial to that community. But competition is the main and only argument I have heard for repealing 2021- 033. And I also don't think um competition will drive existing older gas stations to uh upgrade what they have underground. I think ordinances pertaining to that will only be the environmental protections will basically be what will drive them to do that. So if I could humbly make a suggestion, it is to attack the root cause of the of the concern. The desire to uplift what we have in the city of South Fulton to a higher standard. We can write ordinances for that. If we must lift the three-mile restriction, doing so without setting a standard for new development is a recipe for disaster. Uh, you might argue that setting a too high standard would diminish business interest, but I would

argue that that admitting to be willing to accept peanuts just so you can eat them now. Thank you and uh for allowing me to speak. Thank you, Miss Withers. The next speaker, Miss Wanita Marberry. Miss Marberry, if you're on the line, please unmute yourself. You have two minutes. Miss Juanita Marberry.

There we are. Oh, good. Good evening and thank you, Tori.

Good evening, madame mayor and council and congratulations on your new appointment. My name is Oneita Marberry, District 1, Boat Rock Road, and I am a 40-year legacy resident of this community. I'm before you to ask you to please do not repeal the gas station ordinance 2021-033. City of South Fulton has enough gas stations, approximately 25 gas stations, one per four miles. If the gas stations we have are not suitable, please use code enforcement to improve them or negotiate a contract to replace them with better ones. Also, I would like to uh speak on district 1 does not want or need martyr. My neighbors have so many cars and ordinance was created to get cars off the street and off the grass. The martyr presenter stated that the bus route 80 runs Headland Drive, Greenbar, and Cameon Road, a long way from Amazon Sandtown. But Martyr stated it was requested by Sandtown Publix and Amazon and Fulton Industrial. So this bus needs to come out of East Point down Camp Creek and make a left on camera road to serve the needs that he stated. My neighbors do not need Barter. I yield.

Thank you. Uh just wanted to check one last time. Did Mr. demand join the meeting or Miss Alma Hill. Madame Mayor, with no response uh from the queue, that completes the public comment for this evening. All right. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Can you stand on the next item, please? Yes, ma'am. That brings us to council comments.

All right. We will start with council comments and I can't remember what we started with last time but let's start with district 7. Thank you madame mayor for recognizing me. Um uh good evening everyone. I don't have a whole lot. Um, on February the 7th on a Saturday, uh, back by popular demand, we are having a juicing class. Uh, for everyone who, uh, joined us last time and the people that didn't get to participate, it's something that's near and dear to my heart because it promotes healthy lifestyle. um you know, fruits and vegetables, just knowing the proper way to juice that it's not that complicated and being able to fellowship with your neighbors. Um you know, as we uh teach you how to juice, we're providing the fruits, we're providing juicers, and we'll also be doing a food distribution at the same time for those participants. Uh the class is uh can only have 50 participants. So, our class is actually full at this time, but we will do more classes as uh time permits and you know um people continue wanting to participate. So, I look forward to seeing everyone there. uh on February the 9th, which is that following Monday, we will have a town hall meeting at the Glattis Esard Library, because there are a lot of different topics that um we need to talk about, but mostly I want to hear from residents and the different concerns that they have as we uh start this new year and we bring the departments uh on to hear what's going on in the communities and the ways that they can assist and um deal with some of these issues. Uh we will have code enforcement, public works, the police

department and the fire department. And hopefully um uh hopefully Martyr will show up too so that we can uh talk about the new bus routes and how these type of things uh impact our communities. And then on February the 12th, uh the mayor and I will be hosting a business um roundt which will be talking about the different issues that uh business owners face in our city. Uh like the fact that we have about 11 zip codes and um people don't know that we're South Fulton because they want to identify themselves as other city names what they were used to. um different issues like interfacing with some of our departments for permitting and licensing and different things. So, we want to uh make sure that business owners know that we're here to support them, that we're here to partner and work work with them and assist them in any way we can. So, this will be a lunch and learn and um we're putting out flyers uh today and uh putting out a link and seating is limited as well, but um I look forward to these different meetings so that uh we can get everyone involved and civically engaged. And with that, I yield. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Pritchette. Next we will go to district six. Councilwoman Natasha Williams Brown.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um on Well, greetings and salutations. Welcome to the sensational sixth district. On February the 6 from 11 to 100 p.m. um Facts to Thrive in partnership with Georgia Power will be having um their Friday lunch and learn in Krill Park. Um the focus for this month's lunch and learn will be on how to prevent um slip and falls for our silver seniors. Um so please do come out for this lunch and learn workshop um because that will be valuable information particularly as we um progress through the winter holidays and you know forecast of additional ice. Um as well we will be having I will be hosting a town hall meeting on February the 17th at the economic development office. Please do look out for more information on that. And um our monthly food giveaway with the um in partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank is scheduled for the end of the month, February 28th. And all of this information will be forthcoming in um my newsletter that will be out um my next newsletter that will be coming out. Um as always, these have been your church announcements for the week. Please govern yourselves. What? Accordingly, Madame Mayor, I yield.

All right. Thank you for that awesome uh report. I am moving on to district five. Mayor Pro Tim Kio Shabelle.

Thank you and good evening everybody. Thank you for tuning in. Hope you are staying safe and warm. And again, hey, as we get prepared for Keeping It Live in District 5, I want to encourage all of our residents to come out and mark your calendars for February the 5th at Berdat Park from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This will be our city of South Walton's comprehensive development plan, community engagement meeting. very very important that you come out, you really let us know your thoughts, your concerns. Um, this is the time to review all of the input that we have received from residents as it relates to our comprehensive plan. So, I again, I do encourage our residents, any residents are always welcome, but District 5, I need you to show up and show out on February the 5th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Birdet Park. I do want to give some thank yous. I want to thank all of the residents. Um we had residents from district 1 all the way through 7 who attended the D5 town hall meeting last week. And so I just want to say thank you. We had a great time um being able to address complex uh situations and matters as it relates to our city and specifically in district 5. I also want to give a special thanks to parks and recreation for being there and presenting all of the great works that are coming and have taken place at Berdet. Um, I also want to give special thanks to our code enforcement department. Thank you for all the continued work. Um, I had the pleasure of doing another ride along all throughout District 5 and through our city. And I really encourage individuals to make sure that you're utilizing Cclick Fix. But I can assure that residents, they have heard your concerns. They have it locked and loaded already and have been taking care of it. They're very knowledgeable about the district and our community. So, I just

want to give some special thanks to code enforcement department, all of the um members of that team that patrol districts 5, six, and seven, as well as the entire city as well as district 5. And my last thanks is to our public safety departments, the fire and police departments, parks and recreation, public affairs leadership, and for everyone that kept our residents safe. I know that they were uh predicting inclement weather and snow and you know ice and unfortunately we didn't get the snow but we still were all safe and so I just want to say thank you for actively engaging with the residents to keep our residents and our community safe keep the road safe during um this time as well as for providing any type of assistance for our warming station that is located at Birdet Park. So again thank you all and that's all I have. All right. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. We are going down to district four. Councilman Sebastian.

Uh, good evening everybody from the fantastic 4th. I just wanted to remind folks that on February 5th, we have District 4 town hall, the first one at Fire Station 6, our newly renovated Fire Station 6 community room. And we're g we're going to have Madame city manager there to give an update and to talk about the project that's coming at Cedor Park, the community center at Cedoro Park and other things around the city. And also we're going to have Dr. Reginald Parker to talk to us about some green energy options that can save you money for on your energy bills and maybe how you can, you know, get some money to improve some of um some repairs at your home too. as well as um happening on the 15th of February at elegant occasions at 7580 Spring Box Drive uh over here in district 4 of 55 plus senior Valentine's brunch and gayla. So we're looking forward. It's a very small venue so space is unlimited. You know we found a few more seats today so we opened a few more. So, if you tried to register before and you did not, you may want to try this evening to see if you can get a a seat. And um that's all I have reporting from the Fort District.

All right. Thank you, Councilman Sebastian. We're moving on to district three. Councilwoman Willis.

Thank you, Mayor Dums, for recognizing me. I want to put a official statement on the record. Um, I would hope that with this new reign, um, new leadership that's in place that, you know, um, we know who the colleague is that, um, incited resonance and put out misinformation regarding this gas station ordinance. So, I'm not going to be divisive and put that person name out. There will be a time that that person will be addressed. um uh several of the residents um contacted many of my colleagues and told us who that person was. So, as a result of that, I am going to read my statement for the record. Um recent commentary circulating on social media regarding the city of South Fton proposed action related to gas stations regulations has included significant misinformation. As the council member who sponsored the proposed legislation which would strengthen our our current ordinance along with four other council members, I believe it is important to clearly state the facts and provide transparency to our residents. First, there was no rush on this new ordinance. Any suggestion that this proposal is being advanced because I will be leaving city council in March is simply false. The policy review has been under discussion since October of last year. There has been two iterations of this ordinance and not one time staff tell us that this should have been done by way of text amendment. Well, before any developer withdrew an application and long before speculation about future office future offices, this effort did not arise suddenly nor did it

have a dri nor was it driven by any single project or developer as reported. Secondly, the intent of this legislation is not to eliminate protections for neighborhoods. In fact, the council's goal is to strengthen the ordinance, not weaken it. While the original 2021 ordinance, who was waved, which was waved by the original author of the 2021 ordinance to bring a gas station in their uh jurisdiction, um it uh had rigid three mile separations requirement between the gas stations. the proposed changes. We're going to focus on um a more balanced approach while not impacting new development that new valuable development that will come to the city. Under the proposed revision, residential protections remain in place, including required buffers from neighborhoods with any reduction subject to direct council approval. Oversaturation is prevented through limits on the number of SA stations within the defined radius and the use of the special use permit process. Council oversight is increased by ensuring community input and accountability for any future proposal. So the new ordinance will be required uh to go forth through a text amendment which will require a uh public hearing process through the planning commission process and the city council process. So residents will be able to have input. We as a supermajority council are making changes to this ordinance because this ordinance is impacting several viable

gas station developments throughout this entire city. Um that would be um good for economic development and will bring modernized gas stations. We have gas stations that currently exist in our city that have become crime havens that have become uh breed for lording and have that do not have modernized gas stations. Yes, we do have code enforcement in effect, but we cannot force um business owners to modernize their gas stations. Um, with that being said, I thank all residents who have come to this council meeting today to voice their concerns and their opinions. And I have received emails um from several residents and thank you for your opinions. We look forward to working with you through this process. Uh, with that being said, I would like to encourage all residents to come to the Welcome All Comprehensive Development Plan meeting that is scheduled at Welcome Park on um, let me tell you, Monday, February 2nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to help us um, pull together the most import one of the most important documents in the zoning process, which is our future land use plan. We are asking you to come out to be a part of the process and tell us how you would like to see this city plan in the future. I want to thank all my volunteers who showed up to the MLK give back um the Kappa the Kappa Leagues um Miss AJ um and any other volunteers, the mayor, um Commissioner Arrington. We had a amazing time with 500 people um that was served with uh fresh fruit, vegetables, and they got an opportunity to recycle their paper. Thank you so

much for your participation and keeping our city clean. Thank you for recognizing me, mayor, and you all have a great day and continue to stay warm. And I want to thank all the staff for keeping us safe um during our um supposed snow snowstorm. Um, but we didn't really have any major events, but I want to thank you for preparing us and keeping us safe. Have a great day. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Willis. We're moving on to District 2, Council Member Aaron Johnson. Madame Mayor, how are you? I'm well. How are you?

I am phenomenal. I just have one quick thing for our um for as an update is uh district 2 also has a comprehensive development plan community engagement meeting. It will be Wednesday, February 4th, 2026, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Renaissance Church of Christ. That's at 3675 Butner Road. Please come out so we can talk about uh the various ways we'd like to see our city grow and the areas that you want to see changed and the area and whatever you want to see in our community. This is a great opportunity for community engagement. Again, that's our comprehensive development plan community engagement meeting for district 2, which will be Wednesday, February 4th at Renaissance Church of Christ. And that's all I have, Madame Mayor.

All right. Thank you, Councilman Johnson. And we are moving on to district one. Councilwoman Ralph, thank you very very much for recognizing me. A couple updates for those who planned on tending the broker's reception hosted by the Aerotropolis on the 28th. That has been postponed due to the projected storm that we had or didn't have, I should say. Um, in addition, Sant Town Falls is hosting a home buyer seminar on January 31st from 12 to 3 at 2377 Rosetta Drive in Southwood and lunch will be provided. So, people are looking for homes. Um, please attend this seminar has been included in my newsletter. In addition, registration for the youth development spring league focused on fundamentals, skill development, and growth is open through March 20th. You can visit Sanon Park for details or scan the QR code in my newsletter. And um for those who are interested in PAL's girls volleyball club, um girls aged 9 to 17 can join the club at Sant Park on Saturdays from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. This programs helps young athletes develop their skills, build teamwork, and promote physical fitness in a positive, supportive environment. Um and since I wasn't going to respond to this, but I I will. Um, one of the council members implied that somebody on council and you had to be referring to me because I was the original sponsor of the resolution or the ordinance to keep the to create the three distance requirements. I have not attended a meeting, met with any

residents or incited anybody. So that is fake news. Um, in fact, I told them I would not attend and I have received numerous emails just as any many of you have received about this ordinance because they thought I had to repeal it since I sponsored it. So, I don't know where that information came from. It's false. And in fact, I said I am one vote. Period. That's been the extent of that conversation. So before you go there and insinuate or imply or suggest, please make sure you have your facts correct. All right, I guess that that includes um council comments, but I did want to um say just share a few. There is lots to do in this city. Um of course you have heard from all of the council. There are plenty of town halls, comprehensive plan and events that are happening throughout South Fulton. So there should be no reason why residents are not engaged. Um we are moving this city forward and we are looking for your participation. I do want to thank um our city manager, of course, our public safety and our city staff. They did an excellent job over the weekend with the snowstorm that didn't really happen. And I think we were we dodged the bullets. So I do want to say that I am very very proud. I am um I was just job well done. So I definitely want to make sure that you all are recognized and uh it was a lot of hard work. It was people you know um doing the work and just being out there. So I do appreciate that. Also I do want to take a moment to uh also thank our grants team. As you can see that the South Fton is moving forward. We're getting lots of money in the door and I am very thankful and I believe the rest

of the council as well for the job that the grants team is doing along with the leadership of our our city manager. Um so thank you for that and um that is all that I have at this point in time. We do have a senior event that is sold out um looking for uh some additional sponsors so we can get more people in the door. But um more to come on that and that will be on um February the 13th at En Ranch. However, there like I shared before there is plenty to do in this city. So again, thank you all for being engaged and that concludes my comments and um I will ask Mr. Clerk to sound the next item.

Yes, ma'am. That brings us to Roman numeral 12 agenda items under letter A, administration. have number one, a resolution authorizing submission of grant application in the amount of $500,000 to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Community Home Investment Program to secure additional funding for the senior homeowner rehabilitation program and execution of a grant agreement and other necessary documentation if awarded providing for an effective date. If awarded, the funding will be leveraged with the community development block grant funding approved by the city council to increase the number of seniors that can be assisted through the program.

All right. Um I do believe that the council has had an opportunity to review these items. If there is no objections to items 12 A through B, uh we can uh adopt this by gross unanimous consent. I have an objection or at least um I'm going to decline on A3 on A3. Okay. And I'd like to um speak on that issue as well.

All right. So, let's one moment. If we have unanimous consent uh with the exception of item A3, are those items are we able to move forward? Yes. Yes. So, all items except for item A3 um is approved by unanimous consent. Clerk, can you please sign item A3?

Item A3, a request council approval of a resolution of the city council of the city of South Fulton regarding potential liability of city elected officials, appointed officials, and employees. This is sponsored by Mayor Gums.

All right. So yes, this is an item that um we do have this in our um in our repertoire of information, but this is kind of like a reminder to remind you um as council that you have this most cities uh every year at the beginning of their council meetings um renew this. We've got this from Peach Tree City and some other cities that uh have this same thing. So, this is just a reminder um that you have this as a simple protection um as far as liability. Nothing has been changed, but this is just information that has been pulled out to make sure that you all are aware of um any type of liabilities that may happen. So, what uh I guess Councilwoman Ral, you had a question?

Yes, I do. Thank you. So, um I guess this is more of a question uh for legal because I know we are um indemnified in our official capacity. What was concerning to me when I read it because I didn't remember the original um coverage covering does it specifically deal with ethics complaints? And that's what I thought it was it was um singling out.

No, it wasn't. So, there were several provisions um in this legislation that are consistent with what's in our charter as well as our um the section of the ordinances that deal with um when elected officials are given legal counsel and what's covered. Um there is not currently a provision without this resolution regarding the indemnification of ethics complaints. um that is something that is separate but all the other provisions are consistent with with what we already have on the books. follow follow on question. If um I know our practice has been that our attorneys through our insurance if it was something that was covered they they cover it and and if I recall we implemented what was best practices when we indignified ourselves because we previously did not have it. Then we put it in place after we had several hearings. Um, and again that the attorneys look at the facts of the case and they determine if the coverage is in effect. That's our current policy. Is that true?

Yes, that's consistent with my understanding. I do want to point out though in this resolution um that it does not cover things like malicious intent and things of that nature. So, it's not um specifically at the bottom of page one. And it says that indemnification shall not apply to those individuals who acted oppressively, maliciously, corruptly, or without authority of law as defined under OCGA36-33-4. So, it's not a full and complete indemnification no matter what. Um, there are some limitations according to state law.

So, just to verify, you feel this is consistent with what we currently have in place or what would be normal practice? this is normal practice um across other municipalities. I also did consult with um GMA council as well that is that this is consistent um I also check with GER GMA council um as I mentioned before the indemnification for the ethics complaint is different um but all the other provisions are consistent with what we already have in our books. Um, thank you, um, may um, attorney Kelly and, um, I guess this is just a follow- on question for Mayor Mayor Gums. Um, the addition, could you speak to why you felt that was necessary to to add?

It is a careful reminder that every year that a lot of the other cities and mayors do that to remind their council of this particular clause. So, it's nothing that I was done differently and that is the reason why I did it. I wanted to bring it to you all's attention so you all will be aware. It is a standard practice that other mayors across the city do. Okay. But I just want everybody know that is different. So again, just that's fine. I have a question. Do I need to go? Are you Are you done to Councilwoman Ralph?

Uh, yeah. I Yeah, that's fine. I'll yield. Councilwoman Willis. So, attorney I mean, mayor, do you mind if I asked attorney Kelly what exactly is this? I guess my understanding is someone files an ethics complaint against a council member and they have to retain legal representation if they are found not guilty or if it's unfounded and they they get a certain amount of their representation um refunded. Correct. Hello.

Trying to find my unmute button. I guess my point is what is this doing? What is this saying? What is this doing? Because I'm I'm I'm a little confused on it, too.

Well, I I I would hope there was an opportunity to review it and to know what it says before we've gotten here today. Um but what it's saying is that there's certain demnification for elected officials and employees as long as they haven't acted oppressively, maliciously, and things of that nature. Um, article three of the charter um talks specifically about the ethics complaint and it already spells out there pretty explicitly um what is covered when there's an ethics complaint. So, the addition of this language and I know that this language was taken from Peach Tree City. Their charter reads a little bit differently than ours. Um but the other provisions of this resolution are already covered that if you are charged or accused as an elected official, as long as you are acting within your official capacity, as long as you're not acting maliciously or outside the color or the power of the law, then there's indemnification. Um but the ethics complaint in particular is different compared to what's in our charter. So um I also would like to add if it's possible is there anywhere possible that when um for us to add to this if um that residents who frivously file ethics complaints can be uh held liable for legal costs. That's a determined that the ethics panel can make. There may be some questions as far as enforcability on how an ethics panel would enforce that. Um, so they can make that ruling that a citizen who made a free ethics complaint should be liable for the attorney's fees, but that may be a bit difficult to enforce.

Okay. And what do you mean if you had an opportunity to read this? because Mayor Dums has been been doing an excellent job with getting our agenda out like way very timely before we have our council meeting. I think we got this agenda like last Tuesday.

I agree. Uh if I can point to your comment, your comment was along along the lines of what does this say and what does this mean? My comment was directly in response to you saying or at least opining or inferring that you didn't know what it said or what it meant. Yeah. So that's why I was asking you like is this something different from what was what is spelled out in the charter? Is this something in addition to what is spelled out in the charter? That was my question and then I waited for you to respond. And so I believe I've responded that the other provisions with the exception of the indemnification for the ethics complaint is consistent with what's already in our charter.

All right. So, are we ready to proceed with the vote? Yes, I am. I think Councilwoman Pritchette is in the queue. Councilwoman uh Bridgetette.

Yep, that will be correct. Thank you for acknowledging me. Um, I just want to just just chime in and just say a as a resolution. Um, the mayor is just reminding us of something. I think she said that a few times. I don't think that there's any harm in um adopting this resolution just to be mindful and just to have somewhere to refer back to at any point in time and say, "Hey, we talked about this. This is in writing and this is a point of reference for us. So, uh, thank you, Madame Mayor, for this thoughtful reminder of something that we may not have thought of. And I guess I look forward to, uh, subsequent reminders of things that can be helpful to us uh, as elected officials serving in these capacities. And with that, I yield and I am ready for a vote. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Council Member Pritchette. All right. Can I get a motion since we pulled this one out?

I move to approve as sounded. Second.

It has been moved and properly sounded. Can we take this vote in the queue, please? is open. I had Oh, here it is. Councilwoman Willis, your mic is unmuted. Thank you. Have all members voted. That item was approved. 6 to 6 to11 abstension.

All right. That one abstension. Can they please identify why they abstain? Uh this is Councilwoman Raw. I didn't have it. I I just I wanted to be really clear if there was coverage included or not and I don't feel like I really was clear. So I I didn't feel comfortable voting on it. I had put this these comments in the port on so of order. Councilwoman um Willis for your point of order. Mayor, could you please have the um city attorney read from the charter on grounds of uh

We'll make it no then just to make it clean. It's fine. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you please tell the next item?

That that brings us to Roman numeral uh this is 13 walk-on items. We have uh the items that were approved dur to be added to the agenda. We have uh number one uh the following events. February 28th, District 3 uh the produce uh giveaway. Uh District 1 uh town hall meeting date to be determined in February. We have um district 3 March 3rd town hall meeting. We have District 7 town hall meeting at the dinard library on February 29th. We have district 7 uh juicing and food distribution event on February 7th at Creole Park. And we have district 7 um business roundt at the economic development office on February 12th. those events um were added to the agenda for a vote. And then separately, we have a zoning uh case that was up for first read, which I understand council member Willis is going to move to uh approve.

All right. So, if there are no objections to the walk-on items, can we uh consider that uh through unanimous consent? Yes, madame mayor. Madame Mayor, I have a question. Yes, Councilwoman Pritchette. So, um I don't know. Did I miss something? Uh on section B one, two, three, one, two, one, items number one, two, and three. Yes, we did A through We did A through B with the exception of item A3. Okay, understood. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. All right. Mr. Clerk, I believe we need to hear um item for Councilwoman Willis's case.

Yes, ma'am. So, that item is um uh it was on for a first read. Um this is a Z request approval of a zoning ordinance for KZ25-036 CDP25-015. An application by BTR group care of Hakeem Hillyard requesting resoning from AG1 to AL to develop 162 units on 6.3 acres at 5090, 50/50, and zero Southwood Road. A future land use amendment from agricultural neighborhood to suburban neighborhood 2 is also requested. It's located in council district 3. Staff recommendation was denial and planning commission recommendation u I believe Mr. Williams said that there was a tie

because the chair the chair didn't show up. Yes. I would like to uh move uh to wade the first read and approve as sounded by the clerk with the conditions included into the case. That's my motion. A motion to approve. Hello. I need a second. A second.

All right. It sounds it has been moved and properly second. Is there any discussion? Um, this is Councilwoman Pritchette. Yes.

Um, I'm just asking if uh we can separate the two items. The first item is the uh vote to wave the first read and then let the item be voted on separately just so that in case anyone has any apprehension on the first read we don't dis we don't uh dispose the or throw away the item alto together if that makes sense. I I guess my question is can we ask the city attorney is that necessary? We sounded both item. The the clerk sounded both items. I don't have a problem doing that, but if the clerk sounded both items and I'm asking for both items to be read, uh is there anything wrong with doing it the way that we we're doing it?

Oh, and and before y'all answer that, I do have one more thing. um when the item came up during the zoning hearing, I remember that I think it was Matthew that what he articulated was different than um the denial and it was it was different what he said that what was listed in our agenda. So, I just want to make sure for everybody's memory sake that it's understood that what we saw or what's in our agenda as far as that denial, even though it was um even though they were tied um as far as on the the staff recommendation, it was different than what we have in our agenda and it was positive. That's what I'm trying to say.

Okay. Yes, council woman recogniz the city attorney if it's even necessary to vote on it separately and for clarification if we need to. Um, can we have the clerk read everything again? Because I I clearly heard what he said. I clearly understand the motion, but I just want to make sure everybody is clear. Understood. What councilwoman uh Pritchette is asking is asking to divide the question. Um the vision of the question will require a majority vote, but I am asking attorney Kelly, can you please weigh in?

It's not necessary. Again, as you've as you've uh mentioned, Mayor, what she's asking to do is to divide the question. It's up to the council how they would like to proceed. Council, what is your pleasure, please? If it's not necessary, I don't choose I don't I don't want to prolong this meeting. If it's not necessary, I don't want to withdraw my motion. I may motion it. I got a second. I don't man. May I recognize I was in the queue? I apologize. Council.

All right. So, let me first say this. Uh, thank you, Attorney Kelly, for articulating that it does not have to be separated. Um, I just wanted to to state for the record that I support this project because it's in an area that in my belief it's right on our borders with Union City and it's in that plaza. Um, and I think it will be one of those things that bring a diversified housing stuff um to our city and provide, you know, options for younger people, smaller families, and maybe even some seniors, right? Those are some of the the um the resident types that we're really missing in our city. And it's located in an area where people can actually walk to a lot of stuff right there in the plaza. So hopefully as we work with um our partners at the state to improve things in the area with regards to Highway 92 and traffic and roundabouts and South Fton Parkway and all that sort of stuff then you know we'll be also u making the traffic along there better. So uh I just want to state that for the record. That's um why I support this project and I have no problem supporting it tonight.

All right. If you all are ready for the vote, can we take this vote in the queue, please? The vote is open. Has everybody registered their vote?

That motion was approved unanimously. 70. All right. Awesome. All right, Mr. Clerk, can you sound the next item, please? Madame Mayor, that brings us to executive session if necessary. All right. I don't believe that is necessary, but I could be wrong. If there is no further business, do I move to adjourn? Second. Second. Well, y'all don't even have to adjourn. But since there's no further business, thank you council for your work today and I hope you all have a good evening. This meeting is now adjourned at 8:26. Well, you have broken some records here, madam mayor.