City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. If I could have your attention, we'll go ahead and get our meeting called to order. I am pleased to see all of you on this beautiful Monday in Typton, Georgia, the Monday after Easter. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend and um just sort of reaffirmed our um relationships with God and and the importance of this season and what we're doing and um why we do what we do. So um so I hope that that went well for everybody. I do want to remind you that uh tonight is our workshop and uh we do have a public hearing first and then we'll go into our council workshop uh which means we'll be discussing items but not necessarily voting on items this evening. So anybody watching on YouTube just didn't want you to wonder why we weren't voting this evening. Tonight's mainly for discussion. Um so we'll go ahead since we're ready uh and called to order. I'm going to turn things over to our city attorney, Mr. Rob Wilmont, to conduct those two public hearings. So Rob, you've got it.

Application PP26-01 is submitted by 31 North Real Estate Investors LLC requesting to amend the plan development overlay on file for the property located 2202 US Highway 41 North. It's map and partial number 2026-48. by reclassifying the use of track five being a 1.51 acre track from a parking lot to use to general business. This time I'd like to ask the council of conflict questions. Uh have any of the applicants or opponents to the application contributed at least $250 to any of the campaigns for election during the past two years? None.

No. Do you or any members of your family have a property interest that would be affected by the proposed reszoning or reclassification of the property? Whether it's a positive or negative impact. Do you or any members of your family have a financial interest in any business entity that has a property interest in any real property that would be affected by the proposed reszoning reclassification of the property whether it be a positive or negative impact? No sir. Okay. All right. Probably taking public comment. I'm going to ask uh Gregory Hines, our planning zoning director, come up. Tell the council what this is all about.

Yes. So the first request is to amend the PDO which was approved in 2019. They want to allow instead of L of a restaurant and the 95 parking spaces, they're asking to amend that PDO to allow for that to be general retail at all our restaurant use. So to allow for it to be more flexibility, the PDO was approved in 2019, but it sat empty and vacant. So with this amendment, it would just allow for them to have more flexibility. They will be restricted to just that restaurant. You they could do either restaurant or retail or a combination of both. And um when it went to the planning and zoning commission on the 17th, they voted four to zero in approval of the amendment to recommend for approval. And also looking at it from a staff finding point of view, um the amendment it is consistent with our comprehensive plan as well as our land development code and it does follow the original intent of the PDO. So staff doesn't see any issue with this as well with the amendment. Thank you, Mr. H. Is there anyone here that'd like to speak in favor of this application? Is anyone here like to speak in opposition to this application? Early there been no go public comment. I ask that public hearing be closed.

Okay.

All right. Uh the next application that we have under consideration tonight is application PP25-00002. This is also submitted by 31 North Real Estate Investors LLC requesting to amend their plan development overlay located 2202 US Highway 41. Just map particle T26051. The question would be to classify the use of track 7 which is a 2.56 acre track from a dog park to general business. Again, I like to ask Council Confood questions. Does any of these applicants or opponents of the application contributed at least $250 the campaigns for election during the past two years?

No. Do you or members of your family have a property interest that would be affected by the proposed reasonzoning or reclassification of property? Whether it's a positive or negative impact, none. Do you or any members of your family have a financial interest in any business entity that has a property interest any real property that would be affected by the proposed reasoning of reclassification whether it's a positive or negative impact? No.

Okay. Again, I ask Mr. H if you come up and tell council what this application is about. So this amendment the request is similar to the first amendment in lie of a dog park. They want to have general business to allow for retail use or restaurant use. And when staff looked at it, it does meet the comp comprehensive plan as well as our LDC and it's in line with the PDO already. They're just changing it to make it more flexible because that also has been vacant. And when they went and did the market analysis, the applicant said that it no longer warrants a dog park. The hotel is still going to be there, but the dog park is no longer a part of that. So, they're just asking to amend that to allow that 2acre track to be either retail or restaurant. And when it went to plan, it also passed 4 to zero where they recommend us to um do that amendment as well. But if you have any questions, I can answer those. Thank you.

Hi again. Is there anyone here that like to speak in favor of this application? Anyone here that would like to speak in opposition of the application? Mel, I ask this public hearing be closed. Okay. All right. Thank you, Rob. All right, gentlemen. We are called to order and the only thing we'll be voting on tonight is approving our agenda and uh everything from that point will be for discussion purposes only. So, I will take a motion concerning approval of that agenda or any changes like move to approve. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying, "I."

Any opposed? And that does carry. Uh, under old business, um, we have a resolution designating Arts in Black as, uh, as a festival, uh, and you know, that's coming up in May, uh, which is a, I think Typton's oldest festival, and, um, is always very successful, and, uh, we're excited to to, um, participate in that. So, Jessica, any new information we need? It's really pretty standard. The last workshop, the only addition is their Friday night event. I think I spoke and they were trying to get that um jailed together. And so it'll be Friday, May 1st from 6:00 to 10:00 and then Saturday, May 2nd from 12:00 p.m. noon to 10:00 p.m.

Okay. Um the Friday event will happen um at the Sid Blackmore um at the SID uh and they'll close from 2nd to 4th on Love Avenue and then the seventh um the second will be held at the wood park. Okay. All right. Any questions, gentlemen, concerning that? Okay. All right. Um our next item under old business is a resolution expanding the city's enterprise zone. And uh I'm gonna call on our main street director, Abby McLaren, to uh to give us some information about that. And the information is also in your packet.

So last month I presented um the information about just expanding the enterprise zone to include this area across the street. It would be a contiguous um addition to the enterprise zone. just making sure that we encompass some of these new developments for vacancies and blight. Um, which this property across the street met all of those standards. Okay. Any questions, gentlemen of Abby, concerning that? All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Abby. All right. Under new business, uh, we have Georgia Cities week coming up. So, I'm going to call on our own Caroline Abbott. She's going to give us some information about uh Georgia City's weeks and Georgia City's week and what we'll be doing that week.

We've got another fun week planned this year. You may have seen these signs when you walked in and that's part of our branding for the week because the theme is love your city which is really fun. We get to love on Typton um April 20th through 25th. So, we've got great events planned that will showcase our city services for our residents. Um, some of the events we have planned are like the free secure shredding. People love that when they come year after year to bring their papers they need shredded. That will be at Libro Rogers in city hall. We've got students taking field trips to city hall to read with our mayor and to tour and learn about city government. We've got rock painting for Earth Day in the community garden with KTB and the urban forestry department. Um, and then we have a table at various job fairs that week as well. We've got a tire recycling event that's Saturday, so a good day to clean up your yard. Um, and then we've got a line dancing in downtown on Friday night, which is great. Free line dancing, free music at the yard on Commerce. Um, and so that's the reason I wanted to talk to y'all today. We want to ask to designate that Friday as a festival um to allow people to explore and sip and stroll our downtown. We just really want people to discover how wonderful our downtown is. So, we hope that night would be a great opportunity for that. Um, so if anybody has any questions about Georgia C's week, they can contact me. Any of the and they can ask me now. Y'all can ask me now, but any of our residents can reach out to me um or visit me in city hall.

Okay, wonderful. It sounds like a fun week. So, thank you all for working on that. I know you've been you put a lot of effort and time and it's obvious. Any questions, gentlemen? All right. Are y'all going to go learn how to line dance? No, it's going to be a fun week. All right, moving on. Our next item I under new business is a resolution authorizing participation in the NA nationwide opioid litigation settlements with six remnant defendants. So, Rob, as the city attorney, I'll turn that over to you to explain that to us.

Uh, Mayor C, this is very similar to the other opioid uh settlement agreements that been entered into nationwide. Again, these are two these are six regional distributors that are entered into a settlement agreement. Um it's going to result in about $98 million that's going to be distributed among various entities that participated in these settlements. So this is res resolution just basically authorizing us to enter into uh the settlement and hopefully receive some funds. Naturally the funds are restricted to opioid um remediation and prevention. Right. So, uh, certainly this is something we've done in the past in in other settlements and certainly recommend that we go forward with this. Sure.

Okay, gentlemen. Any questions concerning that additional funding? Okay. All right. And um, we are now um at the point where we can review those two zoning applications that we heard in the public hearing. Any questions or comments, feedback, concerns? Either Rob or Greg or Bobby? No. Okay. Pretty pretty straightforward. Good stuff. All right. Moving right along. Call on Mr. Bobby Bennett for his city manager report.

Mayor and Council, just a few things. The the storm drain work in the park should be completed by tomorrow weather permitting. So, we're going to be good with that. And then paving will start shortly after. So, the park will be good to go. The water lines on Love Avenue have been replaced. So, not exactly sure when Reeds is going to start painting, but it but it'll be soon. And uh I'm sure everybody will be tickled to death about that. So, I've been around town looking at sidewalks. MJ was asking about sidewalks. I started driving everywhere and looking and we have a lot of sidewalks that's had a lot of issues. So, we're going to start working on them immediately. Um trying to fix those. And then the uh first street extension. I was there Saturday for the uh uh farmers market and uh we got a lot of holes that has been there and I got a contractor. We'll start working on them Wednesday.

Good. So we need some work done and we going to get with it. So that's all I got. That's all. Well, that's a lot. That's good. That's good. All right. Um we are at the point on the agenda for mayor and council comments. So gentlemen, turn it over to you for any comments or concerns or ideas or suggestions. Y'all are quiet tonight. It's Monday. I know it's been a day. Going away from each other. I know we have been away from each other for so long. Come on, Michael Franks. I know you have something to say.

Um I was trying to think. I'm I this this I mean this really doesn't have any anything to do with the city other than this is a community in Tiff County, but I'm excited about the you know right now as we speak they're having the the grand reopening of EB Hamilton. Um uh you know it's a a needed um it'll benefit everybody. Um absolutely. you know, uh talking with uh with the rec department director, you know, he's got big plans this summer to have several u tournaments for the weekend, which obviously impacts our city because, you know, they're playing out there in the county, but they're going to they're going to stay in our hotels. They're going to eat in our restaurants. So,

so it's a win-win for everybody. So, I'm really excited about that. Um kudos to the county for sure for uh for seeing this through to to the end. And um I'm excited. I'm actually coaching a little team. We've got we got a double header tomorrow night. So, it'll be excited. I'm excited to play on the new fields and get get uh out of the the fields here in town and and it also give the the county an opportunity once we get all the teams off of those fields to do some some renovations to those and so uh when it's all said and done, we'll have some as far as recreation goes, have some really nice nice facilities. So, excited about that. Good. Lester, anything? Oh, good. All right. Josh,

I just want to say thank you to all the staff for all your hard work. It is notice. I promise. Absolutely. It is. All right. Well, then that will wrap us up. So, um, thank you all for being here this evening. Our 10-minute meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Y'all go out