City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Stonecrest. Welcome to City Council work session. Today is Monday, June 8th. The time is now 6.05. Madam City Clerk, can you... We're going to call this meeting to order. Madam City Clerk, can you be so kind and do the roll call?

Yes, ma'am.

Mayor Jasmine Cobble.

Mayor Pro Tem, Tara Graves. Here. Council Member Alicia Washington. Council Member George Turner.

Here.

Council Member Carmisha Smith.

Present.

We have a quorum. Thank you, Madam City Clerk. Council, after reviewing today's agenda, are there any proposed adjustments? Hearing none, I entertain a motion.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilman Turner.

Moved to approve the agenda as printed.

Second.

Motion has been properly moved and second by Councilwoman Smith. Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of the motion, please respond with yay. All those opposed nay. Starting with District 3. District 4.

Yay.

District 5.

Yay.

District 1 is yay. Motion carries 3 with 1 absent. The agenda is now approved. First item on the agenda is for discussion public hearing proposed 2026 millage rate by Eric hawkins and the revenue manager and keisha Franklin finance director. Madam city clerk can you please be so kind and read the rules for public hearing.

Citizens wishing to participate and comment during the public hearing portion of the meeting may comment in person. You may also submit your request, including your full name, address, position on the agenda item you are commenting on, whether it is for or against, via email to cityclerk at stonecrestga.gov by 2 p.m. on the day of the public hearing to be read into the record at the meeting. A Zoom link for the meeting will be sent to you upon your request. When it is your turn to speak, please state your name address and the relationship to the case. There is a 10 minute time limit for each item per side during all public hearings.

Thank you, madam city clerk. Good evening, miss Franklin and miss Mr. Hawkins.

Good evening.

Good evening. Once again,

I would like to provide a brief overview of the city's proposed 2026 millage before turning the presentation over to Eric hawkins revenue manager. Georgia law requires local governments to complete a specific process each year when establishing a property tax millage rate. That process includes calculating the rollback rate, publishing required notices, conducting public hearings, and considering a proposed millage rate for adoption. This meeting today falls in alignment with those requirements. I want to note that the proposed millage rate remains unchanged as 1.257. Also that property taxes represent approximately 15% of the city's annual revenues. At this time I will turn the presentation over to Eric Hawkins.

OK, I'll be presenting the 2026 proposed millage rate. This is our second public hearing. The first public hearing was held this morning at 1130 AM. So the Taxpayer Bill of Rights is legislation that was enacted back in January 2000. Its purpose and objectives are to enhance individual property owners' rights when appealing an increase in property value, prevent tax increases resulting from increases to existing property values in a county due to inflation, also if a property owner does not agree with their tax bill they may file a dispute by following the appeals process and deadlines indicated on the tax bill issued by the county the city of stonecrest is proposing a millage rate of one two one point two five seven that exceeds the rollback rate and is required to do the following Issue a press release. This release is noted on our website and also provided to the media outlets. Provide a five-year history of levy. That is provided to the champion, which is DeKalb County's legal organ. That information is also available on our city website. Advertise three public hearings. We are in the second public hearing. We provide the location, dates and times in the Champion paper and also provide this information on the website. Conduct the public hearings and if adopted, this will be the fifth year of the millage remaining at 1.257 and unchanged since 2022. A millage rate is the determining factor when calculating property taxes. So one mill equals $1 in taxes per $1,000 of assessed property value. Rollback rate represents the millage rate that would produce the same total revenue on the current year's digest that last year's millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred. The rollback rate is calculated by DeKalb County's Tax Commissioner's Office. Reassessment values within Stonecrest are determined by DeKalb's Tax Assessor's Office. Properties are taxed at 40% of their fair market value. So on the left, this is the notice of property tax increase, which was advertised by the champion on May 28, 2026, as required by state law. The public hearings, although the city is not proposing a millage rate increase, the state considers any millage above the rollback rate a property tax increase. There are 11,365 homestead properties with an average fair market value of 300,000. So the example that I used this morning, if a Stonecrest resident have a market value of 300,000, which is the average, their property is assessed at $125,000. That is the 40% value. There are 9,050 non-homestead properties with an average fair market value of $525,000. That equals to $225,000 at the 40% assessment rate. Properties whose value remains unchanged would generally experience no change in city property taxes resulting from the millage rate. The following PT 32.1 form reflects the city's manager's office proposal to keep the 2026 millage the same as the 2025 millage at 1.257. With keeping the millage rate the same, properties that had no increase in reassessed values would not see an increase in taxes. The 2.44% percentage tax increase is the calculated increase between the proposed millage rate and the rollback rate. Property reassessment values are not determined by the City of Stonecrest, but by the county tax assessor's office. This is the current tax digest and five-year history of levy. The tax digest reflects the adopted 1.257 millage rate from 2022 through 2025 and the proposed 1.257 millage rate for 2026. As a result of the reassessment values, the digest reflects a revenue increase of $82,459. This is a 2.87% increase from 2025. The budget allocation of these additional funds will be determined during budget development. Gross property taxes levied represents approximately 15% of the city's total operating and maintenance budget. So understanding the millage rate, the millage rate is the tax rate adopted by the city to calculate property taxes. Stonecrest reduced its millage rate from 1.336 mills, reduced its millage rate from 1.336 mills to 1.257 mills and has maintained that same rate since 2022. While individual tax bills may change, those changes are generally driven by property reassessments performed by DeKalb County rather than increases in the city millage rate. The tax digest represents the total taxable value of all properties within the city. Digest growth occurs where property values increase. New development is added to the city tax rolls or reassessments occur. A growing digest can generate additional revenue even when the city keeps the same millage rate. Property tax revenue can increase even when the city keeps the same millage rate. As property values increase and the tax digest grows, the same tax rate is applied to a larger taxable value. These revenues help support public services, parks, infrastructure improvements, and administrative operations. Revenue growth does not necessarily mean the city increased the millage rate. County reassessments and new development increases the tax digest. As the digest grows, the rollback decreases. State law then requires a tax increase notice when the adopted millage rate exceeds the rollback rate. For 2026, the city is maintaining the same 1.257 millage rate. The advertised 2.44% increase is driven solely by the statutory rollback calculation and county reassessments, not by an increase in the city's millage rate. So this is a slide that shows with with continuing with how it all works together. So this chart is basically illustrating how items one through six are all connected and read it reiterates how critical property tax revenues are for supporting city services. So this is just a quick overview of what has already been mentioned during this presentation. So the City of Stonecrest is proposing to maintain its current millage rate of 1.257 mills. Any increase is an individual tax bill result from property tax value reassessments performed by DeKalb County, not from an increase in the city millage rate. City of Stonecrest remains among the lowest municipal millage rates in DeKalb County and among the lowest municipal millage rates in Georgia. The advertised 2.44% tax increase only impacts resident properties with increased reassessment values determined by the County Tax Assessor's Office. City of Stonecrest property tax revenues only represents 15% of the city annual revenues, which is 35% lower than most municipalities. For other municipalities, tax revenue generally represents 47 to 50% of their annual operating revenue and budget. I'm open to any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Council, do you have any questions for Mr. Hawkins at this time. I will now entertain a motion to move into public hearing.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilman Turner.

Move to open the floor for public hearing for the 2026 Miller Street. Second.

Motion has been properly moved in second by Councilwoman Smith. Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of the motion, please respond with yay. All those opposed nay, starting with District 3. District 4?

Yay.

District 5?

Yay.

District 1 is yay. Motion carries 3 with 1 absent. We are now open for public hearing. Do we have anyone speaking in favor of the proposed military? Again, do we have anyone speaking in favor of the proposed military? Do we have anyone here speaking in opposition of the new proposed military?

Dave Marcus.

Good evening y'all actually i'm in the third category, the one you never get to which is who has questions about this because they don't have enough information to answer your day so i'm in that category. neither opposing nor supporting. But I do have two questions. One is, is this military based on at least a very draft budget for the city? And second, my understanding is that there's been a lot of money that the state has not released to the city that was expecting the LMIG reimbursements over the years that we have not completed our audits on time. which i think totals 3.8 million although i may have that number wrong i may have this whole thing wrong but you all can correct me and i hope you will my question is if the city receives some of this money is that going to change the budget is going to give us more to work with or is that already on the books as essentially having been spent and simply as a receivable for lack of a better word from the state that's it

Thank you, Mister Marcus is there anyone speaking in opposition Sabrina farmer.

I just oppose it, I think it should be lower. People have had so much increase with everything else is going up going on the property taxes are still too high, thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Is there anyone else you can in opposition of the proposed military? You have any comments online? I will entertain a motion to close public hearing. Councilman Turner.

I move we close public hearing on the proposed 2026 to illustrate. Second.

The motion has been properly moved and second by Councilwoman Smith. Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of the motion, please respond with yay. All those opposed nay. Starting with District 3. District 4.

Yay.

District 5.

Yay.

District 1 is yay. The motion carries 3 with 1 absent. Public hearing is now closed. Next on the agenda, Councilman Turner.

Just a few more comments or questions from Mr. Hawkins before you move on. Mr. Hawkins, this is just some of the same thing we talked about this morning, just to emphasize it and make it clear to the public. We talked about appealing the assessed value we get a tax assessment notice and we get a tax bill. If you are not satisfied with the appraisal of your property, I believe that time to appeal it would be when you get the assessment notice, not the actual bill itself. Just for clarity, I believe that is correct.

That is correct.

Okay. And if we were frozen in time, over the last five years our tax bills would have not would have changed absolutely zero exactly the same for the last five years if there had not been an increase due to inflation and the tax assessor deal with inflating our value based on their determination of the value of our property that is correct And I like emphasizing good news. So once again, tell us about the dollar amount that the average citizen will incur on the $300,000 home based on the approval of this military.

Sure will. So can we bring the presentation back up, please? So on the notice of property tax increase itself, it provides an example for the purposes of the Stonecrest residents. If you have a property with a fair market value of $300,000 and it is a you have a homestead exemption, essentially the difference between your tax bill from last year and this year will be approximately $3.75 more attached to the bill, right? If you have a fair market value, if a property has a fair market value of 525,000, they can expect to see a tax increase of $5.25 more than the previous year. Thank you.

There were a couple of things in the chart that jumped out at me a little bit. And the motor vehicle tax. Five years ago, it was $6 million. 2026, it's only $3 million. Is this going to be an issue going forward if this keeps dropping? I think I know why it's dropping. We have the current tax digest and five-year history of levy. It goes from 2021, $6.6 million, and 2026, we're looking at $3.1 million. The same thing with heavy-duty equipment went from $132,000 down to 79,000. I'm just wondering if that trend continues, if it's going to be a problem. So it's something that we have to look at, not from this millage rate right now, but it may impact our decisions in the future.

The city of Stonecrest has no influence on these revenues. This is simply driven by personal property and property taxes based on the equipment that is being assessed. However, it is clear that 2025 I hate to call it an anomaly because we've never seen that amount in previous years. I did inquire on that. I hadn't got a specific response back from the county yet. I am interested in that number personally. But these numbers for 2026, as you see it now, can also change. Because in October, we'll get the final numbers. This is just the assessment as of today. But as we adopt the millage and it goes through the process, the tax commissioner's office will provide us what is called the final tax digest and five year history for this year.

No, I mean, that's something that we'll have to discuss as another meeting. I just want to point that out, that there's a trend in those particular categories that we need to keep an eye on.

Okay.

That's all I have.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Councilman Turner. Any other questions for Mr. Hawkins? Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I appreciate you. Next on the agenda is the April monthly financial update from Mrs. Keisha Franklin, finance director.

Good evening again. The April 2026 financial update as of today Hold on page here. So far, the general fund has generated approximately $5.4 million in revenue and incurred $4.67 million in expenditures and has a positive year-to-date surplus of $780,000. While this surplus is lower than reported in March, the change is primarily related to timing of expenditures and normal operational activities, not a decline in the city's overall financial condition.

Ms. Franklin, is your mic turned on?

Yes. Do you need me to start over? You can just speak a little louder. Yes, ma'am. OK. Let me bring it down. All right. So through April 30 of 2026, the city's financial position remains stable and operating as expected. The general fund has approximately 4.5 point 4 million in revenue and 4.6 million in expenditures and maintains a positive year to date surplus of 780,000. While the surplus is lower than reported in March, the changes primarily related to the timing of expenditures and normal operational activity. Finance is currently evaluating departmental budgets and preparing a mid-year budget amendment to address any projected shortfalls and unexpected expenditures and budget realignments identified thus far. We will bring those recommendations forward to council as part of the budget amendment process. At this time, the city remains in a sound financial position and no significant financial concerns have been identified. As it relates to the budget report that you guys received in the package, I want to note that period activity is activity only within the selected accounting period, accounting period as in that month, and fiscal activity is the cumulative activity for that account.

Any questions? Council, do you have any questions for Ms. Franklin?

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilwoman Smith.

Ms. Franklin, just revisiting, since I have it in front of me now, what I kind of mentioned to you in the hallway, being able to have a better understanding of where these line items go, what category or budget they're associated with would be very helpful. So if we can put that delineation in there, I would appreciate it.

so in the interim we did create a account string cheat sheet this afternoon that gives you a little bit more idea of what department the account is representing we will work with erp system to get a customized report created offhand the cam reports don't reflect by department cleanly it looks even more convoluted than the current report so we will get with them to get a customized report so that the department show in each section the department name okay thank you Councilman Turner

I was Franklin piggybacking on what we asked Mr hawkins about and that they have put the ad valorem tax is becoming of a little concerned to me, and that is that we know that under the new rules we pay of evolution taxes, mostly on the vehicle when we purchase them now versus every year. And the trend for the collection is still going down, down, down, down. And I think it's going to impact us at some point in time. So if you could also take a look at what's happening in that category with the ad valorem five years ago versus what is happening now and going forward, because the number is going significantly down.

Okay. We will take a look into that and I can provide an update at the next meeting.

I'm just saying that as we go forward, it's something that I've been noticing, and that's what we were told would happen, is that when you purchase a vehicle in particular, you pay most of your estimated taxes up front, and then you go in each year thereafter, and your average loan taxes are quite significantly lower than they have been in my day.

Councilman Turner, I believe, so the motor vehicle taxes that you remember several years ago, the city, the state has adopted a flat fee.

Oh, yeah, I know.

So it used to be the Avalorum would be part of that. But as motor vehicles are sold, that is going to a separate category.

Oh, so we are still receiving it, just that it was showing a different category.

I believe it's $1.5 million. That's a totally different tax.

Okay.

This millage deals with property and real property and personal.

Yeah, now I understand that's not going to be part of the millage. It's just a matter of knowing where the revenue is coming from and if there's a threat in any area that we need to take a look at. That's all.

Yeah, we look at these numbers very closely monthly, and actually we've seen an uptick in these taxes, so I wouldn't have any concerns about that.

Okay, you say it goes in another category. We'll talk about what that category is offline. Okay. Also, you mentioned the opera fund. And I know we have some projects that are dependent on opera funding.

Correct.

And it must be used by a certain date. Are you aware of any threats to our opera funding based on us meeting deadlines or not meeting deadlines?

Not today. We meet monthly with the city engineer to get a status on those projects. So, so far he feels pretty confident that the projects will be completed. But as of when we meet with him again with the update on the projects, I can give you guys an update as well.

Okay, good. Let's keep an eye on it. And we're still looking at COVID funding. What's, I thought we were done with COVID. Anything anticipated?

No, I do not anticipate anything with COVID funding. We're probably at the tail end and the reconciliation part of this project. But I don't anticipate any additional activity with the COVID funding.

Okay. Then my close-out question, you know it.

Audits. Oh, audits.

Where do we stand?

So we meet weekly with the auditors. We met, we didn't meet last week. They gave us our PBCs, our provided by client lists. So the department has been working and submitting the provided by client items to the auditors. We gave them probably maybe 20, 25 items so far from that list. And so they will review that. They are scheduled to have a site visit this month at the city. I believe it's the week after next. So they'll be on site to do in-person interviews and audits on site as well.

Okay. I want to keep this question before us until we get these audits done. It is so critical that we come up to date. So let us know if there's something you need from this council to make it happen.

i will thank you any other questions council thank you miss franklin i appreciate you thank you next on the agenda is matrix fee study by mrs cowey community development director

Thank you mayor for 10. This is a. Comprehensive user fee study report city why fee study results from the matrix consulting group i'm just going to give you a summary of the information that you already have in your packet. The city-wide fee study results, the objective was to streamline fee structures, time assumptions, fully burdened hourly rates, comparative summary, the legal compliance and a master fee schedule. The fee study results, the major consulting group reviewed 293 fee line items. That was in the building, finance, land development, planning and zoning, and parks and recreation department. fee calculation method, that was the time estimate, which is the average staff time by position, title, spent per permit, application or fee related activity, times the fully burdened hourly rate, which was salaries, benefits, productive hours, services and supplies, supervisory support and citywide overhead. And that gave you the full cost fee, which is the maximum maximum justifiable fee that can be assessed. This is just a snippet of the master fee schedule that you have in your in your packets. This one is for the billing department listed. You will see the current fee, the total cost. The fee calculation methodology as presented by the consultant team, the time estimated, which is the average staff position time by position, the time spent per permit the application or the fee related activities. And then you will also see the citywide overhead that will equal the full cost of the fee. The next column is the consultants proposed. The next column is the consultants proposed fee based on the team meetings and calculations and what the difference is between the current and the proposed fees. And you also see the green column, which is the proposed city fees rounded up or down to the nearest whole number, which is the dollar. The next step is to adopt the fee schedule and again to reevaluate as recommended by the consultant team in the next five to seven years. Questions or comments? I also invited Ms. Cushboo Engel, who is the vice president of the Matrix Consulting Group, if you have any more specific questions related to the Matrix fee study.

Thank you, Ms. Cowie. Council, do you have any questions?

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilwoman Smith.

I know, Director Q, we've seen this several times. It's come up in several discussions. However, I have questions this time. I took a look at the matrix fee study and just some things that I saw as it relates to swimming pools. I see there is a the fee that we're proposing is the same for commercial as it is for privately owned homes. And in some of my just and that stood out out to me because it was one of the significant changes on that page. Typically, what I found when I was looking at some of this was that mostly commercial permits are a little bit higher than your personal home would be for a pool permit because there's more rigor that goes into the construction requirements, ADA requirements, because it's in public facility, you have to have the lifeguard stands and all that kind of stuff. um so i was wondering is there a reason and i also looked at other cities around so i did a little a little homework um is there a reason why ours is the same now let me um give you a little bit of um clarity a little bit of background information is that the fees that are proposed that are in the study are they in red the ones that you were referring to no these are i can tell you a page this is on actually it's on page 46. in the packet.

So I'm going to refer to Miss Engle since she did deal directly with each department when she did that assessment. And before Ms. Cushboo does talk, make her comment rather. Each department that is here tonight, if you have any questions unrelated that were not originally done by the consultant team, so if they did not make that recommendation, I did ask the specific department to come in and discuss their recommendation for those fees as well.

Okay, thank you.

Ms. Engel.

Yeah, thank you. Good evening council. So, yes, you are correct that technically right now it shows that the base cost for both the single family or commercial is is the same for the city. And that's because the base level of effort spent doing those reviews and inspections is the same. However, the 1 distinction in the report is that you'll see in commercial multifamily. It says. Up to a certain value, and then for each additional 1000, there's an extra tack on fee. So that's where the differentiation occurs is for a single family, regardless of the cost to build that pool. You just pay 1 rate, because it's not dependent on the value of the pool, whereas for a commercial or multi family swimming pool. Because those can be very expensive, in theory, ultimately you would pay more than the single family pool because you're not just paying that base rate. So there is that differentiation that exists that way.

Okay. Yes, I did see the per 1,000 value added. okay i'm going to move on to my next question um on on the athletic programs in the athletic program section page 53 in our packet there is there are several um fees that more than doubled For those, is there a reason why we're not implementing some type of incremental increase there?

Is that a new fee? Is that a fee that is outlined in red?

No, it's not outlined in red here.

I think the single is probably still researching, but it is my understanding when she presented the information that some fees did not exist before I don't know the rationale and maybe she could answer why it was not incremental and not just a set fee to start with.

Yes, so I think. If you're talking about in their report, it does show a current fee amount, but that's in theory what the current fee was that the department was proposing at the time to charge. And what we're saying is that it does cost the city a lot more to run these programs, which is pretty standard when you do these types of analyses. But the actual dollar value that the city staff is ultimately proposing is not that full cost amount that's in that column. So, in the other attachment that the city staff have put together, I believe they're proposing. less than half of that amount actually for the new fee amount. But from a staff level of effort and what it takes to actually run those programs, it does cost a lot of money. And this is very common in recreation that it costs a lot to run these programs, but that the ultimate fee that's charged is very low or minimal because of you want to subsidize these services to make it more accessible to the community.

Okay, thank you. I'll take a look and find where it is in the other part of the report. Because where I'm speaking of is, I guess this is the assessment that you all provided. With the current charges, and for example, athletic programs, it says the current charges are $600. However, the proposed is $1,322, which is $722 more than what our current is.

Yeah, so that part in the report, if you notice the column is labeled total cost. So that's not necessarily what we're proposing the fee amount to be. That's what we're saying. It's costing the city to provide that service. And then I believe following that whole report attachment as a separate proposed fee schedule from the city and in there. city staff are proposing those fees to be around the $600, $300 mark. So they are not proposing the full thousand dollars that's been calculated as what it actually costs city staff to provide that program and run those leagues.

Okay. For the moment, Mayor Pro Tem, I will yield to allow others to ask questions.

Thank you, Councilwoman Smith. Also any other question. Councilman Turner.

Again that's quite a bit to digest here. And I look at what the city is charging currently and what you're proposing to charge for some of these fees and I just wonder if we arm. more attracted with the lower fees? And that means a benefit to the city that we can attract more activities to the city? At what point do we break even? At what point do we wind up suffering a loss? And is there a benefit to being the most economical player in the game? Is there a way to measure that?

I can start with the answer and see if any of the city staff want to jump in it. So there is. Kind of pros and cons to both approaches. I would say there is some benefit. You're right to being kind of the cheapest game in town. It does create more accessibility for a lot of these permits, a lot of these applications. But what we always recommend is that you look at it more based on who's benefiting from this service and kind of what that is as a larger benefit to the community versus more of an individualized benefit. So things like the recreation leagues, Like, the council member brought up, those are things where you want to be able to provide that to the community at a lower price point, because even though it costs you a lot, you still want to make that an accessible service. Whereas something that is more private benefiting, like a swimming pool. um that's something where you do want to recover as close as possible to your full cost again because this is a governmental entity you're not generating a profit in any instance you're just trying to again break even or get close to breaking even so you want to generate what it truly costs you because it's much more of an individualized benefit somebody building a swimming pool isn't necessarily benefiting the entire community it's more kind of a personalized benefit so that's where It's up to council to take a look at these and and make that policy choice of where you feel like the subsidies make the most sense. I know that staff have gone through and kind of like director Q mentioned put together what they believe should be the proposed fee amounts, which for the most case are generally lower than what it's costing. So they're not. Again, proposing the full cost recovery that's been calculated through this study. So again, I think they're taking all of that into consideration when they're making that proposal to you all this evening.

I oppose that because with this not being a full service city, And I know that a lot of what we are dealing with is with a contract with the county to deliver certain services. And I want to make sure that we're not charging a fee and then you have to go to the county to finish your fee. And in the end, you wind up paying more to come to the city than it would be. I don't know this. I'm just asking that as a question. I know that you probably have considered these concerns. as to whether or not it is cheaper to do business with the city than it is with the county, or we compare ourselves to other cities that are full service city. Are we getting the same bang for our buck as the one who is providing the full service? So those are things that I want to make sure that we looked at before we just upped our fees because our neighbors have higher fees. But what are they getting? What are they providing for those higher fees? And I don't want us to discourage people from doing business in stonecrest and that's been an accusation in some categories is that is this cost too much to do business in stonecrest and uh you got to jump through too many hoops and i want to make sure that that is not true and we have totally examined this, and it is just as affordable to do business in Stonecrest and hopefully a little bit more attractive in some categories. We have to give up a little to get a lot, and we need to consider that.

Does that conclude your questions, Councilman Turner?

You're going to cover the arborist next, right?

Yes, sir.

Okay, then I won't go there until then. I yield, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Councilman Turner. I do want to piggyback off of a question Councilwoman Smith asked about the swimming pool. Looking at the chart, I just want to verify I am looking at this correctly. For the commercial and multi-family where it says per 1,000 value added, is that an increase by $7?

No, I believe it's saying it's $7 for every additional $1,000 added. So if you built, if the pool is valued at $17,000, you would pay 394 plus another $7 for that additional $1,000. So it's a kind of a building multiplier. So for every additional $1,000 above 16,000, you add that $7.

$7 per 1,000?

Correct.

Okay. So I was looking at that correctly. Thank you. If no other questions, thank you, Ms. County.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilwoman Smith.

I do have an additional question. Okay. So I'm looking at the non-athletic programs, and am I reading this correctly? Yes, Parks and Rec. Summer camp, our current residential pay per child for summer camp is $60 per week, and the proposed amount is $125. Is that correct?

I'm going to bring Ms. Porter to answer that for you.

Good evening. When when the fee study was taking place, Mr. Our former director met with the consultant. So that fee is not something that we were proposing 125. Okay.

I can interject on that. The current fee, if not for sure you have this particular form, is $85 for the new fee. Based off this particular illustration you see in front of you, our fees are definitely lower than anticipated. Also, the concept of what other cities are charging that look like us, Forest Park City is a similar footprint as City of Stonecrest. We're not even breaking even. I can name all the programs as I oversee the programs for the city. uh even our new school boards getting put up that was started last last week up until today how can we offer adults programs for sixty dollars you can't go i'm i'm an official myself in reference to playing softball for adults sixty dollars don't even get enough to for to supply softballs for a league we have to be more conducive in our environment for our field space that's talking about adult sports even bringing programs like from basketball clinics our fees are so low we had 125 kids in our first year of inception of our basketball program for the city. But we had to end the schedule with the church at Berrin. That church charges $125 per player because I'd have enough kids in the program to get the program started. Now, we have a good baseline for next year, but we still need to have our fees, even though I'm proposing that we charge $85 for basketball for next year, or we do basketball in the summer. So our fees are not even at the baseline of DeKalb County, Tucker, Henry County, Gwinnett County, and cities like us, like Forest Park. So I compare apples to apples with Forest Park and City of Stonecrest. And you see in the green what the matrix apply and what we're projecting to charge. Even programs like Zumba. We have a program right now, tennis and pickleball. The instructor charged $75 an hour. Our Whitman grandfather charged $60. So we even, $15 is already going overhead that we're not even freaking even to a baseline. So we're asking, this has been in, since I've been with the city for a year now, full time, if we can have at least a better playing field that we can be more competitive. Not from other cities, but so that we can add more value. Our programs are very valuable. I can say that for basketball this past year, it was a great program. And I want to add more programs that we can offer and also adult programs, because right now I can't offer adult programs at $60 a pop. I can't do it at all.

Understood. I see there's a list of new programs on here that I'm going to conclude new means we've never offered them. This is something that you guys are planning to do. However, my concern is if we're doubling and you said that this is not correct. So if it's not correct, then it needs to be corrected on this matrix, because I do believe that when we vote on this, council meeting uh at the end of the month then we're voting on what's in the matrix so that it needs to be updated to whatever it is that you guys are proposing um so that it reflects properly so with the summer camp you're saying that currently is sixty dollars and you're proposing eighty five dollars that's correct submitted our proposed fees which are in a separate column so yes ma'am 85 is it okay um we don't currently have any type of um break camps school break camps that's correct no school break camps no we're planning to offer those school break camps that was something we was going to offer our fall break in our um

Yeah, fall and winter, well, not winter break, fall and our summer break programs. But right now, yeah, after school is also that we're acting also STEM classes. What can we do to offer more, not just your active programs, but your programs that we can offer to offer STEM programs, not during summer camp, but during the season?

So we currently have spring break camp, which is our STEM camp, and that is the only camp that we're offering. But the program's team would like to propose to have a fall camp as well. But the spring break camp, which is our STEM program camp, has been the only break camp that we've had. So they're just proposing an additional one at this moment.

Okay, my request is for, it sounds like Parks and Rec, possibly, if you guys can go through, take a look at what's not correct. So I know what is correct, and if I have additional questions, then I can reach out to you regarding that. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem, I yield.

Thank you, Councilwoman Smith. Any other questions? Council.

We did discuss the fee schedule with the finance department and the recommendation is where proposed fees increases or significant staff recommends a phased implementation approach to reduce the immediate impact on businesses and residents. provide predictability and allow the city to gradually achieve its cost recovery objectives. As a general guideline, increases exceeding 50% of current fees shall be considered for multi-year implementation unless operational, legal, or regulatory considerations warrant a more immediate adjustment.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilwoman Smith.

So for clarity. This matrix may say that it's going to increase by double, it's gonna double, but it's not gonna double this upcoming year. You guys are sliding into that?

We are making the recommendation that we can make it a phased approach, but the recommendation is there based on the consultant team giving us the recommendation, but the numbers are just what we recommend if we want to do immediate or phased approach so we can work through that approach and phase it.

When will we have an understanding if you guys are going to do a phased or if you're going to go with what's in this matrix?

What's in the matrix has been published. So if the numbers need to be lower or phased, that will be a process that we can handle. If we decide to go higher, that will be the issue of implementing a more phased approach to it. But since the numbers are a little bit lower or what we did adopt, it's up to you and your recommendation on what approach you would like for us to take. Did that answer your question?

It did. Thank you.

Any other questions? Councilman Turner?

Just to be clear, there's a resolution coming before us at the next meeting, and what you've given to us this evening is what's going to be a part of that resolution.

With any recommended changes between now and that time?

Thank you very much.

Yes, sir.

Council, any other questions? Thank you miss cowley. Next on the agenda is code enforcement update by missus q. Community development director.

And quite as to the second part of the sky we presentation on the the matrix and that was a one under the mass of the schedule for the others in the park. I was under the impression that the office would come separately, and we did not discuss that. Can I beg of you to back up and let us cover that?

Did you want to cover him during the matrix fee schedule or during the outline of his report that's in this update?

I just don't want to miss it. So where will you put it?

under the arborist update. He can discuss it. We have a actual slide for him to provide an update.

That comes before the code enforcement update. That's all I was saying. What does it fit on the schedule?

Councilman Turner, I see it under the code enforcement update. Is that not correct?

Well, I see it under the matrix fee study.

So we're going to move forward with the code enforcement update and she would do the arborist update Within that presentation does that said, yes, as long as it gets covered i'm satisfied, thank you, thank you, Councilman Turner.

And it will get satisfied, hopefully come from internal Community Development Department i'm just going to give you an overview of what our vision is is a collaborative planning responsible development and the consistent enforcement of codes. and standards that reflect our shared values and the future aspirations of the city of stonecrest. Our goals is to one promote safe and compliant communities foster sustainable and thriving developments and guide grow towards thoughtful and collaborative planning building and enforcement. Councilman Turner article six is a tree protection we're under the arborist update and before. Before we get started, I want to give a brief overview of the tree protection ordinance and its fees. At the last meeting, you did make an inquisitive statement. At the last council meeting, you wanted to understand trees as it relates to residential homeowners and commercial homeowners and now the fees. Tree protection and summary. Mr. Roy Matthews is our municipal arborist and he will reiterate the differences in fees and how the fees are structured. He will give you a brief overview of Article 6 and exemptions of cutting down a residential tree compared to the clearing of a development as outlined in the Ordinance and Awareness. And Mr. Matthews is here and I just wanted to let you know that there was no trees harm in the making of this slide.

Mr. Matthews.

Council, Mayor Pro Temp, I'm here. The only difference between this ordinance is not new. It's not new to the residents. It is not new to you. It is not new to the citizens of Stonecrest. Prior to the city becoming a city in 2017, the same exact ordinance existed with DeKalb County. It's the same exact ordinance. As a matter of fact, if you read it, DeKalb County's name is still in it. The only difference in this ordinance in DeKalb County is me. DeKalb County didn't enforce it. I enforce it. That's the only difference. The fees are the same. The conditions are the same. The terms are the same. Everything is the same except it's Stonecrest and not DeKalb County. And it's Roy Matthews enforcing and not the Arbors with DeKalb County. Unlike most laws, when you are victims of those laws, it tends to hurt you. It tends to bother you. I've gotten speeding tickets, and I pleaded my case even though I knew I was driving too fast. And I put on my best show with the officer, and he very kindly told me, you whatever you say it pretty much don't matter because you know the law. And that's kind of my same attitude as it is when it comes to enforcing this tree ordinance. It's probably a little bit more serious because trees carry a very heavily, very heavy environmental significance. 70% of our oxygen comes from trees. If we did not have trees and we suffered all this rain, we would have landslide, massive landslide, the beautiful homes that y'all live in. Amen. Would move. You'll see a crack in the corner of your house because the earth that it sits upon would move if it weren't for tree roots holding the earth together. Stonecrest wouldn't appeal as much. Arabian Mountain wouldn't mean as much if it wasn't for the canopy. It's not the rocks. It's not the stone. It's not the granite. It's the segue to that stuff that matters, and that's that canopy. Your home value has increased not because of the new furniture you put in it. but because the canopy that sits outside of it. What beautifies a city the most is its landscape. I wouldn't buy any house, or I wouldn't be apt to buy any house if the landscape didn't appeal to me. Because if the landscape don't look good, the house inside probably don't look much better. That's just me.

That's just me.

So my job is to protect the canopy that the council approved over $70,000 last year for a canopy study for the preservation of our canopy. There's a difference between how I enforce residential ordinance and commercial ordinance. residentials pay nothing nothing close to what developers pay for clearing land nothing nothing i before you i have fee schedules that you are approved i believe it's on page uh the fines of what I impose. I think it's page five. Although residents don't, I have here lately, I've had probably three or four residents have cut an excess of 30 trees down in their yard. That matters. You see that's just one yard, but just think of, I think there were 11,000 homes and I don't know how many homes in Stonecrest. Just think of half of that did that every day. What the canopy would look like. Canopy is dying on its own. Georgia ranks number one in tree loss annually. Over $500 million is spent annually over tree canopy loss in just the state of Georgia. So it is important that we protect our canopy. We are certainly sensitive to our residents and We understand circumstances. The ordinance says that a DDH tree, which mean dead, dying, or hazardous, those are the trees that we need to remove. It's either dead, dying, or hazardous. And when I go out to a property to assess a tree, that's what I'm looking for. Is the tree dead? Is it dying? Is it going to be dead within three years? Does it have structural deficiencies that we'll call premature failure? Those are the trees that we allow to be removed. um we talk about i was going to say a lot but i'm going to cut this short i just really want to answer your questions but we're doing all we can to get the word out in the citizens the citizens they claim that they don't know and i don't doubt that but i think we could do a much better job at advertisement but i'm doing all that i can with door hangers signs all types of signs around. You may have seen some of the signs around the intersections throughout the town urging people to call before they cut to avoid fines and fees. I speak at your town halls. I do what I can do to get the word out there. Is there any questions? I don't want to lead you away from that.

Counsel, any questions for operas?

May I approach him?

Councilman Turner.

May the choir can sing. We got a great sermon. I really do appreciate what you do, sir. I do. And I was not criticizing it. I'm speaking on behalf of constituents, just individual homeowners who have been faced with some very hefty fines for removing a tree Not 30, but a tree. And naturally, they claimed they were not aware. They had to save up their pennies to get a tree cutter to come in and take it down, $1,200 or something thereabouts. And all of a sudden, they get hit with a fine that exceeds the cost of removing the tree. And I was just wondering if we really give considerations to individual homeowners versus developers for a different rate for making that, I don't want to say mistake, but for cutting down a tree without a permit. There should be some penalty for doing so. I just thought it was kind of harsh. from my judgment, put them to face such a hefty fine. And if there was another method to say a maximum thereof, I advise them to go through the municipal court system if they felt that they were being mistreated. and get some resolution on having been hit with such a hefty fine and being able to calculate what the fine is going to be is another issue based on the size of the tree, type of tree, so forth and so on, is something that is of concern. And understand, I'm not speaking about commercial developments at all. I'm only speaking about the individual homeowner. I've got about three or four trees in my yard that I like to see gone. And I have to be careful now. That's how I approach it. And it's a matter of, you speak of the attractiveness of the city. Landscaping. You ride down Evans Mill Road or Rock Springs Road, where I live, and trees are leaning all over the roadway on the power lines. And I find that unattractive. In order to landscape it, you've got to take down some trees and put up some more trees that might fit the area better. And I'll give you a little background on the street that I'm on. The mailman 40 years ago told me how it came about. There was a farmer off of Evans Mill who had cows coming from as far away as Panola Road. And they would just meander through the fields and over the hills and valleys and dales until they got to Evans Mill Road. And over the years, the mailman wanted to take a shortcut from Panola to Evans Mill. So he followed the cow path to get there. And that's how that road is so winding and meandering. And after a few years, they decided to put some gravel on it. And other people began to use it until it was eventually paved. It was not properly should I say, fixed for a pavement, but they paved it anyway, and we got a mess. And the trees are the same trees that were probably there then that are leaning over the roadway. And for some, that's attractive. For others, it's not, and it presents a hazard. Even the ones that look healthy, you get a little ice storm and a big windstorm, you're going to lose them. And that is the thing that I'm concerned about. If someone decides they want to landscape their yard, make it more attractive, I don't mean bear cut it, they get hit with some serious penalties. Now I'm trying to understand if I cut down a tree, if I cut down a tree, am I going to be hit with a fine? and a fee, because there's a fee to cut it down, right?

Yes, sir.

Based on the size of it?

No, there is a permit fee of $80, and that covers like a one-time application, which says in Article 6, Section 14-517, which is exemptions, that allows the homeowner to cut up to five non-specimen trees annually.

Without a fee?

Without a fee. The only fee they would pay was a permit fee.

Oh, permit fee.

Yes, sir.

Permit fee per tree.

No, no, no. For five trees.

Five trees. One permit.

If they cut six, then the fine comes.

Okay.

But it's a permit fee of $80 for a single request.

Okay.

And the homeowner is permitted or allowed to cut up the five non-specimen. A non-specimen tree is a tree that's not greater than 30 inches in diameter. Diameter of breast height is four and a half feet from the ground, your breasts. If that tree is 31 inches, you pay $100 per inch, so that's $3,100.

Cutting the ones that are beyond.

One tree. And that is to discourage, that tree might have historical value, age, you no longer take to get a 30 inch, 31 inch tree to grow, 100 years. And so you can't replace that with, 25 little ones, because out of the 25 little ones, 10 of those are going to die. And so we try to discourage the removal of specimen trees. Now, if that specimen is DDH dead, dying, or hazardous, you can remove that with no penalty. Is there a fee? There's no fee. Okay. But if you cut that tree down without a permit, there will be a fee assessed. a fine assessed. But if you call me or call the city and apply for a tree removal permit of that 31 inch, say, Mr. Matthews, I believe this tree is dying. I'm going to come out and give you a free evaluation of that tree. And if it's in fact dying or something, yeah, you can cut that down. That's it. End of story. Okay. So there is a difference on page one the difference between a homeowner and a developer page one paragraph one it says. At the bottom, it says trees removed per pursuant of this section must be replaced at one time the diameter that's a homeowner now i'm gonna run real quick over to page two. in the middle of the page highlighted. It says, any specimen trees removed from a partial shall be replaced one and a half times. That's the developer. There's other places in this ordinance that it would allow me to assess a developer two and three times the size of a tree. Over at Hayden Quarry, they removed, just on that particular site, they removed an excess of 100 specimen trees, you never get that back. And they're going to put up a whole bunch of townhouses that's going to be hot, going to have high electric bills because they have no canopy to shade their houses. So the energy bills are going to be high. Same thing with Highland Park. You know, so they're assessed more because we want them to put that canopy back. for our grandkids, because in 2050, they won't have any heat. They don't want to go outside. It's too hot to go outside because there's no canopy. Did I answer your question, sir?

I'd say you did.

I just want to make sure that I'm not over assessing the citizens, but they need to know that there is a tree preservation ordinance that needs to be followed for the betterment of our society, our community, our families, our neighborhoods. We don't want a whole bunch of neighborhood townhouses and stuff that don't have canopy there. It just don't look good. It looks like a monopoly game.

Yeah. While I do not favor clear-cut at all, I am in favor of us doing something to make our property more attractive in terms of landscaping. And if that means removing a few trees that need to be replaced, I can deal with that. And I think by having this conversation, and we need to have others, and we need to get a little bit louder so that people will understand what's going on. And thank you for putting that sign in front of my house this morning. Now, really, I saw one for the first time today across the street.

Just this week, well, this was Monday. So last week, just last week alone, that sign brought five people in here that saved them a lot of money. They said, we didn't know, but thank you for putting it out there. So I'm trying to get the word out. But five people, and one came in today.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they put some more out. Because when I saw it, I had to turn around and go back and read it and say, oh, that's Mr. Roy's sign. But now that's the city of stonecrest got a logo on the top that says what it's all about call before you cut and i'll call before I could. Okay, just want to make sure that we. magnify this ordinance?

No, we're not. I'm not opposed to cutting down trees. There's there's there's there are trees, the trees you talked about Evans Mill. I got I see the same things and I've gotten an estimate on having those that road trim from what from from Woodrow all the way down to Browns Mill from one side up the other. Because you're right, there's a lot of hazards along our street that needs to be addressed.

And we can identify some other streets that are just as bad.

Absolutely.

And I think it will add to the value of the city to have our streets, let's call it streetscaped, with getting some of these leaning and dead and just ugly trees out of the way. I mean, that's not an excuse for cut one because it's ugly. But if it poses a hazard and there are no shoulders with these trees leaning into the right of way, that is a problem. And we need not punish people for trying to take action, but we can work with them to legitimately remove the trees that need to be removed, and we can make it clear as to what is desired by way of the city. I can appreciate the city like Decatur, who they have almost no trees in downtown Decatur. They let it get out of control. So they need to protect the few trees they have left. And we have more trees than you can shake a stick at. Oh, excuse the pun. uh and they need to be thinned out but they need to be thinned out with some uh methodology and we protect tree canopy for our for the future of our generations to come and some of these numbers we could debate but if we're wrong we could be in deep trouble so i appreciate what you do and uh we'll talk more about how to best make sure that the word is uh sent forth thank you so much

You're welcome. Thank you, sir.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Councilman Turner. Mr. Roy, I just want to have a question for you. I heard you say the permit for to remove a tree is $80. So in this, and I want to confirm I'm looking at this correctly, in the new matrix fee study that we just reviewed, I'm showing a fee of $500. no that's that's probably one of those penalties that's not a that's not a permit fee you want me to read it to you it says tree removal permit 500 on the new fee study we just reviewed prior to you coming forward so this is the new proposed fee Is it $500 or we're staying with $80? Or am I looking at this incorrectly?

I don't see this on this particular document.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. We will, again, we are making the recommendations based on the information that we did receive from the consultant. We are working with $80 for the permit fee right now. Again, this is the recommendation and we followed the fees as we went through the process, but we can stick with the $80 for the tree removal permit.

OK, so when you look at the tree fees, I think several of the fees are different than what's in the packet we received. So if you can just review all the tree fees, that would be great.

Councilwoman Smith? Yes. For the dead, dying, hazardous trees. Um, what happens when a property owner can't afford to remove a tree? How long do they have to add the tree removed? Are there any subsidiaries that the city or the county or anybody provides any resources for them?

No, we don't have the county have a program. They just implement it to help seniors with that. Those types of scenarios However, it's not poor, it's poorly ran. And of course they have more applicants and more money than they can assist. I think they can only help 120 people based on the money that they have, but we don't have such program where we offer that assistance on dead, dying or hazards. All we would do is just issue the permit and whatever recommendation I'll give them an assessment and try to kind of give them a timeline on when I think that tree will fail.

Okay.

But far as us providing any assistance with that we don't have the resources to do such.

So providing them a timeline on when you think the tree will fail, meaning when the tree will collapse on and fall down.

Beto versus structural damage, I can pretty much say look, you got to get this, this is an immediate urgent, this is an imminent danger, you know, critical, you know, you need to get this down within the next year, stuff like that.

And if it does not come down within whatever the timeline is that you provide, then what happens?

The potential of that tree failing increases.

Okay. Anything from a fine perspective?

No, no. No fine. Okay. It's more of a warning. If they can't afford to cut it down, because if I go out typically, If I go to someone's property, if they've already put in a tree removal permit, I just don't offer advice. You got to put in a permit for me to come to your property. And then when I go out, I'll do a level one assessment. And tell them the conditions is your is your request legitimate should you be afraid, or should you not courses of action, maybe this tree could be limbed up as opposed to remove. I offer that type of advice, yes, it should be based on what I see there's conks around the the the root crown that leads to that in that entails internal decay. And where that leads to so I give that type of information, but I don't tell them. We can help you cut that tree down or anything like that.

So if a constituent says to me that they have been fined because they have a tree that they were told needs to come down, then I shouldn't believe that?

No.

Okay.

No. You get fined for not cutting, you get fined for cutting down a tree, not cutting down.

Okay, thank you.

Then at one more time for me.

The fine comes when you cut a tree down without a permit, not if you don't cut it down.

Thank you.

Yeah, pro Sam.

Thank you, Councilman Smith. Any other questions, Council? Thank you so much, Mr. Mathis. I appreciate it. Next on the agenda is zoning ordinance and overlay update.

And again, we haven't done code.

Well, I will. Go back to the code enforcement update. We're still there.

Still there. We just wanted to enhance the code enforcement because they are working together. So we wanted to make sure we show that they are working collaboratively together. The code enforcement division update. This will be brief. We are just going to give a list of the top violations that we see in each district along with any additional questions that you may have for us. In District 1, we see that the top violations that are in District 1 are the accumulation of rubbish or garbage, restrictions and limitations, maybe the payment of occupational taxes in high weeds or grass. Some are parking regulations. I know Mayor Pro Tem is familiar with the parking regulations of our 18 wheelers being parked illegally. District 2 is the payment of occupational taxes, maybe sanitation, high weeds and grass and protective treatments and parking regulations. District 3 is protective treatments with vegetation and debris, garbage structures, maybe the unkeptness of doors and motor vehicles. Four, parking regulations. Sanitation again, accumulation of rubbish and garbage and high weeds and grass. Five is sanitation with protective treatments, maybe mechanical appliances, highways and grass, roofs and drainage and motor vehicles. The top five complaints that we received from code enforcement is these have come from 2026, from January to the present. This is the top information that we've received. This is in our CitizenServe portal. Again, if we do not see it in our CitizenServe or have record of it, not that we won't take care of it, we just would like to fairly document the information so we can provide the efficient feedback from it. Our code officers do work on the weekends, on a Saturday. We try not to give that specific date on the Saturday so that the illegal businesses or anything that they won't try to hide from us. If they know the weekends that we're working, they do, usually they try to hide. The schedules, you do have the schedules that are also in front of you. And we are working with our revenue department and the finance department to locate the businesses that are legally operating or do not have business licenses. We have a June 16th court date that is specifically for business licenses and those who do not have business licenses and who are operating without business license. So most, again, are unaware, you would believe that they are unaware that they need to update their business licenses annually. Some are operating without any record of a business license. So that's another collaborative project that the Community Development Department, which is business licenses, is working with finance and to update our business license records. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you Council, do you have any questions.

May I pro tem?

Councilwoman Smith.

Okay, question. You said that code enforcement is working on weekends, but it rotates.

It rotates. We have two groups. There's a group A and a B. Okay. But they do rotate on a given Saturday.

Okay. So, What steps are we taking for the Saturdays that code enforcement may not be working to make sure that violations don't just go unaddressed?

That is something that we had discussed before. We are trying to determine whether all weekends are Can we allow our code officers to work every Saturday or do we have a weekend or a weekend? I won't just say a Saturday or weekend group that can facilitate working weekends. If there's a Saturday that they're not working, we will rely on either law enforcement or the citations that we not citations or the the the complaints that we receive from either raise residents or business owners.

So if a resident submits a complaint over the weekend, then what exactly is the process for addressing the over the weekend complaints?

If there's an over the weekend complaint and it's a life safety issue, um, then we would, um, request the assistance of law enforcement. But if it's a, um, a complaint that we received through the portal or through the email, then we handled that on the next business day, which will, I'll just, for example, if you receive it on a Saturday or Sunday, we will make priority for Monday.

Okay. So, um, To be clear, if a resident reports something over the weekend, then there should be some type of an update on the Monday following that weekend. Is that a new standard?

Give me, for me to adequately answer your question, give me an example of if you're requesting, if there's a complaint on a Saturday.

If there's a complaint that there is a food truck that is, not even a food truck, a grill that is parked out in one of the vacant lots, it could even be our lot, every weekend. or at least random weekends yes the weekend that you're not working then you you go there on Monday the food truck is no longer going to be there then what happens are you anticipating them being there the next weekend making sure that if somebody is on duty then they're paying attention

That is an understandable question, Councilwoman Smith. We don't have consistent weekends of working with code enforcement officers. So that again, we rely on law enforcement to assist with removing someone on private property. that is there illegally. We do work with the DeKalb County Police Department with affidavits that will allow them to have someone call law enforcement if they are infringing on someone's property illegally. That is a process that we handle as of today when there's no law code enforcement officer on the weekend working to visually see a complaint themselves. That's the feedback. That's the process of how we handle something now. We are looking to review what we can do outside of, you know, the weekends that are the two weekends that our officers work during that month.

Okay, so with there being a, so you have the CitizenServe, and CitizenServe, you are able to log your complaints in CitizenServe. There is, you have the ability to add pictures, add photos to CitizenServe. If there are weekend events, and I'm gonna say events at this point, that are happening in your neighborhood and you've logged those events along with a video or a photo, then what should the citizen expect the action of code enforcement to be thereafter?

If this is an event that's unpermitted, of course, through our CitizenServe portal, we do have special event permits. If an event has happened and it has not been documented by a valid and, well, I'll say permitted, if we, the City of Stonecrest, has not given them a special event permit, then if we have address with documentation, that location will be cited for having an event illegally, again, without a permit. If we receive those complaints and we have noise, we've received video as well as audio to allow us to hear also something that is happening at a location that is not permitted as well. so if we are reviewing a case and the documentation is there from a resident or a business owner then we will review and that location will be cited for having an illegal event or illegal parking or illegal dumping Etc whatever that infraction may be did that answer your question thank you that answers the question on what should happen how are we determining that that is actually happening And let me make sure I get you. Are we following up? Yes. Yes, we are following up. We are following up on incidents that we do receive. Whether I will also say that I will also check to make sure how long it takes for us to respond to a complaint and get back with the complainant to make sure that a an answer or response has been not only given to the person that is asking the inquiry to make sure that we talk to the business owner or also that resident, if it's a resident or another business that made that complaint.

If you could provide the complaints for District 5 for me, as well as if you pull the complaints, and I'm guessing that I would be able to see the response to the complaints, whether they're open, closed, what the action was. Do we see any of that?

I think there's a history of a chart that the data that we can see whether it's open or closed and the response time. I don't think you will unless your administration that will actually have an account can see the details of that particular complaint. But I'm sure that we can give you a list of the complaints in District 5 and whether or not they're open and closed, who the officer is or was assigned to that complaint, and the amount of time that it took to rectify that issue.

Okay, I received some feedback that complaints were opened and there was no response and that too has been my experience. So if you can give me that list so I can see what's out there, I would appreciate that. When it comes to consistency, within code enforcement, do you mind helping me understand, helping us all understand? And I say us all because education, I believe that is everything. When you know better, you do better, and you understand. Sitting on this side rather than sitting on that side, I've seen that I've gotten a few different answers to things over the years, so I want to make sure that everybody is educated the same way. With code enforcement, how are we ensuring that the enforcement is applied consistency around all the districts?

Let me think about that.

To answer your question of consistency, it is our goal to provide consistent information to every resident and business owner. There's no special or preferential treatment on citation of fines or educating anyone in the city of Stonecrest. Now, based on a district, I will have to review the information to see how the information is being presented and why it is not being consistent and presented to one resident based on another resident or district based on another district. I can't answer that question right now. I will have to speak with the department to understand that a little bit better.

Okay, thank you. You mentioned something about the weekend response should be the Monday following the weekend complaint. What's the average response time for complaints that are logged and citizen served? How long should a citizen expect to wait before somebody contacts them?

It is my understanding that it is 72 hours for a response to happen from the login into a feedback to that particular complaint based on if it's logged in because it goes through a process. If I understand correctly, it goes through a process. Either it's an anonymous complaint that is submitted through the Citizens Center portal And then it is given to that particular district officer that handles that complaint. And then they will research and then they will respond accordingly. So we give them 72 hours to respond. Less than that. If we're being efficient.

72 hours or less, for the record, 72 hours or less should be the response time for code enforcement. Okay. And if I see or my constituency that we're not quite making that 72-hour response time, then what is it that we should do?

You should not have to do anything. It will be up to me to handle that with my department.

Do we highlight it? Do I highlight it for you? Citizen highlight it for you? How are you going to know that there's something out there that we're still waiting to receive a response for?

It will be beneficial if we receive the follow-up. I'm waiting for, or could you answer the question that I submitted on June 3rd? I'm still waiting for a response.

that allows me to and us and the team to be again consistent and efficient in responding and accountable as well okay I am going to yield for now I have additional questions but I think Mayor Pro Tem and Meredith might have some questions I saw them leaning forward so I yield Mayor Pro Tem

Thank you Councilman Smith, I do want to piggyback off of one question or answer you and Councilwoman Smith just talked about the 72 hour response time in your system when that. complaint or when it's updated your system shows complete and you can generate a report from that or it's just.

There's a query that admin can run a report from a particular date. I'll just say from May 1st to May 31st, run this report based on open cases, closed cases, by district, by location. And again, you'll see it's almost like I can chart the same information that I presented to you on those maps on what is open, how long it's been open, who's who's responsible for for that case and get a status update.

And one other question, I heard you say that code enforcement work every other weekend. They work once.

You tried to get my cool, it is, it was my understanding that we had someone working every weekend no whatever every weekend, it was never every weekend, it was once a week in a month one weekend a month. That rotated.

When when did that change.

It was the final, when we received the final based on prior administration, the approval came through the one weekend first. Let's try the one weekend and see how effective the one weekend a month is, and then we can rotate the schedules if we needed to enhance the schedules.

Okay, we'll talk offline because I think I remember that differently. Council, any other questions? Councilman Turner.

Ms. Cowie, before I became a councilman 10 years ago, almost, we were dealing with code enforcement, trying to clean up this area of code violations, people running chop shops in residential neighborhoods. and these illegal truck parking in everybody's commercial parking lot. And everybody wants to be a weekend mechanic. Me too.

You too?

Oh, yeah. But I know to do it inside my garage, with the garage door closed, no matter how hot it is. But it seems like very little has changed. There's a chop shop that we know about and we talked about it off Panola Road. It appears to have grown quite a bit. There's one off Crossvale that's growing by the day. One off Salem Road, and I can name a bunch of others. And I believe code enforcement is citing them, but it appears to me without really knowing that the punishment is not severe enough to warrant a change in behavior, because the same thing is still going on. Now, is that a code enforcement issue? Is that a court issue? Those are things that we need to talk about. Because if the penalty is stern enough, the behavior will change. And I have to admit, I don't see much of a change in that area. I know some of the smaller issues, meaning making me cut my grass, that's fine, and, you know, fix my gutters, that's one thing. But some of these major issues that can destroy a whole neighborhood, it seems as if we're being ignored. And those are some things that we have got to get control over. It's been 10 years and it seems like I failed. So that is my biggest concern. I look at the dots on the map and that's good because I know I called a bunch of these in. Rhonda Lee, I called that in on yesterday. But when it comes to actually changing the behavior of a community. It seems as if we're having a very low impact. So we need some solutions. And writing citations, one thing, gaining meaningful compliance is another. And we're coming up short. And I think each district can give you similar stories about how people just simply are not compelled to change. I mean, to come into compliance is one thing. To pay a small fine is another. But to change their behavior so that it improves the appearance of Stonecrest is something that we're missing. And I don't know what the real answer is. I know we don't have these. I can't say certain things on the mic. But the punishment, the penalty needs to be severe enough to encourage change. I know they talked about other cities, and we compare ourselves in a lot of areas, is that there's a limit as to how much a fine can be. But there may not be a limit as to how often you can impose that fine.

That's correct.

And when it adds up enough, and we change for one or two reasons, pleasure or pain, it gets to be painful enough, they'll change.

Thank you, Councilman Turner for that. But one solution is that we ask that we also receive support. Because once our officers are out and they do cite a location, it could be a little detrimental to them to get to court it's disheartening when you when they know that a piece of property is not in compliance and a case can be reduced without conversation or it could be or the fine is just thrown out or a citation is thrown out In defense of code enforcement, they do work hard. They work hard for the beautification and the enforcement of the City of Stonecrest. However, again, another solution is the support when they get to court and they're standing there with documentation of an infraction that has happened. at a property, a business owner, a business or a residential piece of property. And then the case could just be thrown out. So one of our solutions that we're asking for is support. for that to happen. And we understand that the harsh penalties, they are happening, but you don't see that in the end. We see that in the beginning before we go to court, but you don't see that in the end.

i want to see it in results in terms of that chop shop cleared out of the neighborhood and it's clear this i mean you see 15 cars in someone's backyard all the hoods are up what's going on having a neighborhood party and this goes on all day long you can tell it's a shop the chop shop and that's why we need to see the results when it clears out of the neighborhood I'm not fussing at you. I'm just saying that somehow the city needs to take another look at the way we address these code violations. We've got to be more stern in our meeting out the penalties such that we can gain some meaningful correction.

Understood. We will keep pressing.

I may or may not be in order, but that's the way I see it, and that's the way I speak it.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Turner. I do want to piggyback off Councilman Turner. I do believe we have a lot of work to do, but we have made some improvement. I can talk for District 1. So I want to tell you thank you, Ms. Q, and thank you to the code enforcement officer for District 1, Mr. Frank Austin. and i heard you say you need some support i would like to know what that support look like and maybe we can talk offline to see you know what we can do to help you in that because um i do agree with councilman turner we definitely want to control beautification that's something that that's our brand that's what we stand for and that's something i think we should control a little bit better But at the end of the day, I do see some type of improvement. I don't see 18 Willis Park alongside of Stonecrest Boulevard no longer. So thank you for that. But again, let's just talk offline to see what that support look like. And then hopefully we can see some results and no hoods in subdivisions with these chop shops in residential areas. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem, if I might add.

Yes, Councilman Turner.

Economic development. We're trying to attract people to Stonecrest. And if it's not attractive, duh. And you have to make it attractive. And that means cleaning it up. And I don't just mean picking up your candy wrappers, but I'm talking about big time cleaning it up. I will be on this bandwagon, whether I'm on council or not, until we clean this place up. And I'm not saying there are not good things happening in Stonecrest. There's some great things happening in Stonecrest. And we've made some progress, but not the meaningful progress that we need to do to really attract and wow people about Stonecrest. And it's wow-able.

It is wow-able. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilwoman Smith.

Does the division currently have adequate staffing to respond to the concerns that are being logged? Not only by citizens, but your code enforcement officers see things as well. So are we adequately staffed?

at this at this juncture we are adequately um we do have enough staff um if we are to answer the question um that mayor pro tem brought up about the weekends we do not have code officers working every weekend and if we need to increase that effort staffing would be beneficial to assist for those weekends. So right now, as you stated, Councilwoman Smith, I've driven out myself and have found issues within driving distance of the city of City Hall. Very disappointed, you know, to see those. But they've been addressed. I don't look at every effort. I just give an address. This is where I was. This is where I am. The officer for that particular district. Did you notice that this is happening in that area? And they will respond, yes. Sometimes it's a no, but mostly it is a yes, and it is going through the court process.

Is there some type of cadence, and we can probably talk about this offline, for you and your team to provide some data to the council, whether it be I was told that there's been some issues with the same apartment complex over and over and over and over again. And that was only because I was walking through the hall and I asked how things were going.

That is the support. Not to go into details, that is really the specific support that I'm seeking when we do have areas in the City of Stonecrest that citation is really not going to help at this point. They need more stronger penalties assessed on them to get it right. So again, that's the support that I'm seeking. I won't, you know, give the particular area, but that is the support that we need. Some areas a citation is not going to help them.

Right.

Or make it better, I'll say, not help them. It's not going to make that area better. It's the stern lashing that they need, you know, to get it right.

Okay. Mayor Pro Tem took the words out of my mouth when she said, what type of support is it that you need? How can we help you? So we definitely should have a conversation on how we can support what it is that needs to be done. Especially when I heard about that particular apartment complex, I started looking into things that we could possibly do. Okay, and last, I'm going back to the weekend. If you could also get me when it comes to some data gathering, the percentage of weekend complaints that have been closed either unable to verify because you come out on a Monday or a Tuesday and of course the activity is no longer going on, or closed as unfounded. I would appreciate that. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem, I yield.

Thank you, Councilwoman Smith. Mrs. Q, the weekends, are the officers working the entire day, or?

I think the schedule, I have a copy of the schedule in front of you. You'll see weekend schedule for the officers on the chart. I think it's 1130 to 730, an eight-hour day. Yeah.

OK. We'll talk about that. Thank you. I do want to announce, since we're talking about code enforcement, council is having a town hall meeting, I believe, is June 20th. We're also going to have a dumpster here at, I've got to verify if it's going to be here at City Hall. It's going to be at Farrington Park. But if you have anything that you need to clean or anything that you would like to dispose of, that would be a great day to do it. It is free of charge. He's going to see if stonecrest and it'll be here that entire Saturday, June 20, June 20. Council, any other questions for Mrs. Cowley? Okay, continue.

We have the zoning ordinance that is underway and I just wanted to give the public, a little bit of feedback a review of the feedback in the comments that we have received either online or through our public meetings that we've received. What do you love about Stonecrest? Diversity, eat, live, play, nature, trails, green space, Arabia Mountain, Arabia Alliance, wonderful neighbors. What would you change about Stonecrest? Development is too restricted and clear-cutting, need more clarity and transparency in city government, walkway bridges, walkways near the Nature Trail, more organic food options, reopen Panola Shoals Park, too many low businesses, um, better retail and upscale, um, build better quality homes, better customer service, more entertainment venues, and better roads. We did receive some, um, informal comments of, you know, don't mess with Arabia overlay preserve, um, and incorporate, um, agritourism for small opportunities like a visitor center and, um, It says it wanted to change that quarry at the Lithonia Big Ledge. I think I read that correctly. One of the top responses that we did receive was EV charging stations. Reconsider the language that we also have related to our electric vehicle charging stations. At Agritourism District, we do have acreage of land. It is beautiful. We do know that it is in one of our overlays. But they many of the property owners in that area are looking for agritourism district, a new district in the city of Stonecrest. In our overlay districts, we asked which rules of the overlay district are working well. They said the density limits, the consistent facade at the mall, and keeping the area all around Arabia Mountain greenish. What changes or adjustments would you recommend to the overlay district? Again, agritourism uses by right. Alter the permitted uses. More paths to the Arabia Mountain, like a walkway or between Salem Road and Evans Mill. Less tree cutting and a CID placed in the northern area of the map. This is our exercise that we presented during some of our public meetings. It is also online, too. And we just got feedback. We received feedback based on our outdoor living. You will see that most of the residents were Happy to receive maybe like walkways outdoor walkways or seating. To separate uses to use bollards that's the nine to one they were more susceptible to receive micro breweries and again to keep our trails. Our emerging uses, like drones, data centers, that was a no, a no, and another type of no. Existing uses and emerging uses like, again, like data centers or parking decks. They were more susceptible to those type of uses. Design preferences for outdoor dining, I'm sorry. for outdoor dining, parking garages that is incorporated with development or residential uses in an entertainment district. Again, the green areas show the high level like parks or amphitheaters. So they were more prone to want to accept entertainment districts and existing uses as one of the existing uses. I just wanted to just give a little bit of brief background on the applications that we receive for public notice in, in our Community Development Department, the planning and zoning. You will see our new signs located when you see a rezoning, a zoning modification, a variance, a special land use permit, and appeals. The consultant team is currently reviewing the information and drafting the draft document to be reviewed at some of our public hearings. We will present that information to our steering committee first, and then we will open and schedule public hearings so we can all review the document once it is ready. That is all I have, Mayor Prusill.

Mayor Pro Tem. I do have questions. Oh, thank you. Director Q for that update on where things are in the feedback that you received from residents. I do have a question when we're talking about zoning, planning and zoning. Could you explain for us what the purpose of our 100 zoning is?

Single family off the top of my head since I can't read it verbatim. It's a single family residential neighborhood.

single family residential neighborhood. It should preserve quiet, low traffic residential environments, protect property values within single family communities, limit the intensity of land use to produce incompatible commercial or high volume activities, maintain neighborhood stability and quality of life for residents. That's the definition I found on it. When it comes to planning and zoning and some of the different type of permits that are issued, you have a special events permit that has a I think a rather extensive list of items to be checked off if you're planning to have a special event. Special events, they apply to residential areas as well as commercial areas. Is that correct?

If there are areas where you're having a special event, we do require a special event permit.

Okay. And this document, which is the special events pamphlet or packet, I'm guessing, one of the things here says, permit from the city of Stonecrest, applicants must submit applications no later than 90 days, must submit no later than 90 days to the proposed event. Is that a must, as this application packet says, or is that a, you get it in, we'll see what happens?

Oh, thank you for that, Councilwoman Smith. That is a requirement that we ask to submit it, the application. So we, as staff, can do an in-depth review of the special event that is required because Not only are the city staff at the table, we do have external partners or stakeholders that review the application with us. 60 to 90 days to submit an application is a must, but in some instances, it does not take 60 to 90 days to review an application. So if you submitted an application today and you were looking for August or September and you submit the application in today and we reviewed it, then we can review it before the 60 or 90 days is up. And we don't issue the permit until it's closer to the time of the event. But we will take the necessary steps to review the application. Okay.

So what I'm hearing is the must is not a must.

The must is a must for the application process, but that does not mean that it will take, again, 60 to 90 days to process the application.

So if I submit an application to you today on June 8th for an event that's going to happen July 4th, Is my application going to be approved if all of these other things on this check sheet happen? Is my application going to be approved or are you going to tell me your event must be 90 days out?

I don't think specifically the application said it has to be 90 days out. We do ask that you submit the application 60 to 90 days prior to your event for the review and processing of the application. Again, it does not take us in some instances. These are the larger events that go beyond 90 days sometimes, but you must submit your application 60 to 90 days before the event. We ask that that takes place, but again, the review may not take that long.

Okay. So I'm gonna go to the possible reasons for denial of an application. And this is whether it be in a commercial area or residential area. So one of the reasons on this list says failure to submit City of Stonecrest special administrative application or permit request a minimum of 90 days prior to the event date. This is our documentation. And it says that this is one of the reasons you will be denied. It doesn't sound like we're following it. is it a must or shall it's a must here it says applicant must submit application no later than 90 days prior to the proposed event it also says here um the event must i mean the event if the event will disturb traffic within the city beyond practical solution. What exactly is practical solution and who determines the practical solution?

We have a transportation section. Not only is internally the transportation, our engineering department will review for traffic concerns, but we also give that same review to DeKalb County and their farmers. for review as well and their feedback.

Okay. The location of the event will cause extreme hardship to adjacent business or residents. What are we doing to determine if the event that's in residential neighborhoods, areas, backyards is causing extreme hardship to those residents adjacent to the event center?

The location of the location.

How is that being measured and determined?

Repeat that question again.

The location of the event will cause extreme hardship to adjacent business or residents. What measure do we use to identify extreme hardship? And also, how are we determining that the people surrounding the event is experiencing extreme hardship or not?

The questions that are listed in our special event application, not only does staff assess those questions, but we also ask for a response from the applicants. And we also do site visits of special events, those that are reoccurring if we've gone to a location before we know the layout. But to determine whether it is creating an extreme hardship, we look at the nature of the event, the hours of operation of the event, if it's additional noise to an extent for the area on where the event is happening. Those are just some of the, some of the some of the uses or uses that we review to determine whether a special event is creating a hardship to the residents or adjacent business owners in an area. We know that some roads are being used that are in residential neighborhoods. Of course, we ask for traffic control plans In some instances, if they're closing a road or requesting to close a road, a detour plan, it depends specifically on the event and the happenings as it relates to the adjacent properties.

So in the assessment of how it impacts the residents and the businesses surrounding it, there's no contact made with the business or the residents surrounding it to find out how it's impacting them.

I don't know if notices or if we've asked the applicant to provide notices to the surrounding property owners on whether or not they are in agreement or disagreement with a special event happening at their location. We also are aware that certain locations in the city of Stonecrest may be warranted to have events at their location. And they're operating legally, but nonconforming. And we are aware of that. And we try to conform with what's going on in that area. But as far as staff and we are concerned, we can't just cease operation of a viable business that. I can say that's that hasn't necessarily. They're legally not conforming, but they have been conforming.

Can you explain legally non-conforming?

A legal non-conforming is a business that is in an area that may not conform to a specific zoning category. It may not be a permitted use. We have several businesses or properties that have prior conditions on the property before the incorporation of the city of Stonecrest. And those businesses have been legally operating, but non-conforming to the ordinance as it is outlined for the city of Stonecrest. So they're legally conforming, for example, a business that may have a, I don't know, an event center in the middle of a residential area. They're conforming based on the conditions that were set on them prior and they're legally conforming based on that information that they received or any conditions or zoning that was placed on that property. And if they're required, for example, to have a business license, then they have a business license that has been renewed on time at that location. So they are legally operating, but they are nonconforming based on that zoning district.

So legal non-conforming means that you are operating prior to the city, is that what I'm hearing?

No, what I'm saying, that may not always be the case. What I'm saying is that they're legally operating based on the conformity of what the city of Stonecrest is requiring today. But if you are to look in that zoning district, that particular use may not be on the list of permitted uses. so they could have come over. That particular business could have been operated prior to the incorporation of the City of Stonecrest or doing some process of zoning or rezoning, and it is a condition placed on it that would allow it to be. Yes, sir.

Mr. City Attorney, can we continue? Oh, she's back. Never mind. I thought we were below a quorum for a second.

Does anybody else have any questions? Okay, I'll ask another then. So, what would require, I mean, what would, constitute a business to follow the channels of going through the SLUP process. In the SLUP process, there are several steps in that process. The community gets to speak and weigh in on things that's happening versus if they continue to come to the city and the city continues to give them special event permits. What would, there's nothing, how many special event permits could one apply for annually, within a year?

I don't think there's a maximum number of special events that a, not to my recollection, I don't have the special event application in front of me, but I don't think there's a maximum number of special events. I think the must is to apply for a special event permit for that particular special event. Now, if you're having a party at your home, that's a party at your home, not a special event that's open to the public. Even though there are people at your home, that's not a public. You do use some of the conditions that we would use for our special event, but that's a private event. A special event permit is an event on, as we would say, public, even though it's private property, on public property that you will allow others to come and,

use the services or the place where you're using to conduct a special event especially is that your question um my question is if we have this special event process right um you're in a residential area and we have a special event process for a special event special would mean one-offs those type things special But if you're using it over and over and over and over again, that doesn't make it a special event anymore. That makes you, you're changing the usage of whatever your land is at the moment because you wouldn't have to go through a special permit process if you had a slump in place or if your property was rezoned for something else, right? Rezone for what you are utilizing the property for. What stops me from coming back over and over and over again, rather than going through the proper channel, which would be to apply for a slip? What stops me from continuously coming through this process

That would depend on the applicant. If they feel like it's economically feasible for them to get a special land use permit and not have to submit, because again, you will have to submit for a special event permit. Even if you're a location like a business, you have a grand opening and you want to have flags out and food trucks and that's a special event, even though that's a business. So it will depend on that particular applicant to see if it is economically feasible to continue to apply for special event permits at that location or to submit for special land use permits.

so what's the purpose of i mean i can just continue to pay for the special event permits because it now excludes a lot of pieces of the process it excludes the community which this does not include the community outside of, let me change that, it's not being enforced, it does not sound like, because I did read something in here where it says that a communication needs to go out to the businesses surrounding the property. It's interesting that it says businesses in here and it doesn't say, I didn't see, it didn't say residents when you're in a residential area. but it highlights the surrounding businesses to whatever the event is. So what I'm saying is this is a loophole. It does not require a person to go through the proper channels that they should in order to have a business operating. So if your business is to constantly have events in a residential neighborhood, then you should have to go through a process to ensure that that area, your area, your property is zoned right for whatever the business is that you're constantly doing on that property what stops my neighbor from having a day party on the vacant lot on her vacant lot what stops her from having a day party um advertising it collecting the money on it and having the day party uh every month on the property. If she comes through the process and she does all this, then it sounds like you guys are going to say, okay, you've done everything on the checklist. This is a special event. So this is something that we really need to take a look at. Again, it's a loophole. And if people are allowed to abuse the usage of a loophole, then they will.

at your recommendation um councilwoman smith is there a maximum that you're trying to set or is there more language that you would like to have tightened up in the special event permit process or is it the special land use permitting process that is in question um so a little bit of it all really

Um, I can't answer that question right now on the spot, but it is something that I, um, I know that council should look into a little bit, putting more guardrails around special event permits, especially when they're happening in residential areas. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Councilwoman Smith. Any other questions?

Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilman Turner.

Ms. Cowley, you present this to us this evening as a potential update, as that's what I read. It says, in fact, the City of Stonecrest has conducted several stakeholder committee and public meetings. During these meetings, staff has received feedback And edit recommendation to consider staff is presenting an overview of the comments on the consideration, so these are just comments that we are to consider before you enter into the rewrite of the overlay and what else.

the overlay and the zoning ordinance update. Again, yes, that is correct. This is the feedback either we received online from the overlay, the Stonecrest overlay and zoning update website, or we've received in person. um we've we have received some informal feedback and some of those comments were listed here but i wanted you to be aware of the comments that we have received thus far in case that some of the sections of the ordinance were not specifically addressed because we did not hear that feedback so at this time i wanted you to be aware of the feedback that we have received thus far and whether or not if the public wanted to make comments from now until the end of, I think it's July, that we're still gonna receive feedback. But this is as of when we've gotten started in the public hearings that we've had, this is what we've received and heard.

So really this is not a rewrite of the overlay, nor the zoning codes, it's an update.

Update.

So where we see that might be an opportunity to improve in certain categories the language yes we can offer those tidbits of improvements and not rewrite the whole thing that's correct okay just want to be clear is that then you're under no direction to rewrite the overlay now the zoning codes just clean it up when we see that there's a need to improve it a little bit and if we find that it's perfect as is we won't touch it that's Okay. And how many people have participated in this process so far, you know?

We have received, we've had 80 participants. You said 80? 80 participants. I have not counted the online comments that we've received from the consultant team, but these are in-person meetings that we've received this feedback from.

Okay, just want to make sure we get adequate input because we, of course, you know, half dozen people can drive this whole process and that would not be good.

One person can reiterate a comment several times.

Yeah. Okay. So let's follow it closely and keep us informed. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Councilman Turner. Mayor Pro Tem. Councilwoman Smith.

In conclusion, I just want to highlight that our expectation is that we're following what is in the special events packet. So that's our expectation, Director Q. And the other one item that I had that just slipped my mind.

Well, thank you, Councilwoman Washington. It is our goal to remain consistent with all of our residents and our business owners to give them the same information across the board and not be biased to anyone.

I appreciate that. Oh, I remember. Um, and if you could provide me a, um, output of data for any special events, um, applications that are in the pipeline or approved for district five, I would appreciate that.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Smith, director Q. You must miss a councilwoman Washington.

I know what her questions would have been.

Thank you. Um, council, is there any need for executive session? This has concluded our agenda. I will entertain a motion. Councilwoman Smith.

I move that we adjourn this meeting. Second.

The motion has been properly moved in second by Councilman Turner. Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of the motion, please respond with yay. All those opposed nay, starting with District 3. District 4?

Yay.

District 5?

Yay.

District 1 is yay. This meeting is now adjourned. Thank you so much for coming out today, Stonecrest, and I'll see you at the next meeting. Have a good night.