City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. If I can have your attention, we'll go ahead and get this afternoon's meeting called to order. We've got several things on our agenda. And I just want to say it's good to see all of you. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We had a busy um end of the week last week with the lighting of all the lights in Fullwood Park. That was a lot of fun and great out for that. So, I want to give a huge pat on the back before we get started with everything to Abby and to Caroline and to Morgan and to Angela and to Rosalia at Tourism for all the work that they did and to Jessica. They really put their heart and soul into it and and it was great. So, just thank y'all for the work that you're doing and uh really I know that the kids and and all of our visitors really enjoyed that. We do have agendas that are on the podium here, which you can certainly grab one of those and follow along with us. And we encourage you to do that. And um this is our workshop meeting tonight, but immediately following the workshop, we will have a special call meeting because we have a couple things we need to vote on that are of a timely issue. In the workshop portion of the meeting though, you you'll notice the only thing that we'll be voting on will be our um agenda. Otherwise, it's just discussion items. Then we'll close out that workshop, go into the special call meeting where we'll be voting. But um at this time, I'd like to go ahead and turn everything over to our city attorney, Mr. Rob Wilmont. We do have two public hearings. So Rob, I'll let you get started on that, please. Thank you.

We have two public hearings tonight. The first one is application PP250038 is submitted by Lester Chrome in downtown on Main LLC. is for conditional use permit to operate a cigar lounge located at 311 TIFF Avenue. I assume that you recuse yourself from this. Uh let me ask a conflict of questions. The council at this time has any applicants or opponents the application contributed at least $250 to any of the campaigns for election for the past two years?

No. Do you or any members of your family have a property interest that would be affected by the proposed resoning or reclassification of the property whether it is a positive or negative impact? No. Do you or any members of your family have a financial interest in any business entity that is a property or any real property that would be affected by the proposed resoning reclassification of property whether it is a positive or negative impact. This time I thought clerk Jessica like to let us know what the project is about and uh this plan is always recommendation.

Okay. This application is um Mr. Palmer has the business downtown is currently operating on Main Street and he's seeking to uh relocate to 311 Tiff Avenue. Um the property is located in the downtown Typton character area and um the comprehensive plan um is fitting for that uh this type of development fits in that area. Um he perates a vacant building. So that's a positive. It would bring act activity to that corner of highway 82 and tiff. um in his conditional use permit. Now, he has a limited um hours of operation and he's asked to also amend his hours from 11:00 a.m. to 1 a.m. He doesn't have Sunday sale. So, that's the only change that was originally approved. Is that okay? Um this was brought forward the planning and zoning board at their last meeting and they approved those um the new location and amendments to those conditions.

Thank you. At this time I ask is there anyone here that likes to speak in favor of the application? Lester Craw 112 111 Street Tipton Georgia 31794. Uh mayor mayor and council I'm requesting favorable vote on the condition use permit for the new downtown mainline location. Uh the move strengthens our downtown economy, increases traffic, and brings new visitors to Typton. Um the lounge has already shown its ability to attract tourism and the new location positions positions us uh to launch the South Georgia Cigar and Culture Festival. Um I've been approached by several organizations in Georgia and also in Florida that is interested in bringing a festival uh to Tiffan u since it's centrally located and all roads uh I call it the hub of the south. So come through Tiffan. I've been approached for those things for hopefully in 2026. And um permit supports um small business growth and expands our tourism footprint and helps keep downtown vibrant. Um what we've had happened lately is uh a lot of travelers are finding us on Google and Yelp and literally stopping into them purposefully to come to the lounge and also eat some of the restaurants. And what we do is uh once u someone comes in, we usually uh send give them a favorable uh suggestion to go to the restaurants that are close by and also uh for um shopping as well. So we're kind of a magnet right now uh even from the hotels as well. So our goal is future wise to get relationship with the

hotels and everything else. So that's it. Thank you. Is anyone else here would like to speak in favor of this application? Anyone here that'd like to speak in opposition to this application? No further public comments. All right. Thank you, Rob.

All right. Our next application is PP250041. It is submitted by Tim Shell TIFF Tower Preservation LP for a plan development overlay for property located 311 East Second Street to allow for certain building renovations. Again, I'd like to ask the council questions. Have any of these applicants or opponents the application contributed at least $250 to any of the campaigns for election during the past two years? No. No. Do you or any members of your family have a property that should be affected by the code reszone and reclassification of the property whether it's a positive or negative impact?

Do you or members of your family have a financial business entity as a property interest in any real property that be affected by the proposed reser property whether it's a positive or negative impact? All right. Again, I'm going to ask Jessica if she would just let us know what this project is about.

Um, okay. This application currently tip towers is operating as um non-conforming use. It's in GB. Um that type of development along with our new guidelines would So they are seeking a BDO um to make those stipulations. Mainly parking is their their main issue. Um this is a senior development and as far as I know they have not had any parking. Um so that was the reason that they are are seeking this and they gotten the tax credit. They sent in their application and that has been funded. So they're going to do substantial improvements are planned um over the next year um for that development which also positive to that location, the residents um in our community. Um we've evaluated this um it's a sixtory apartment complex. Um like I said, currently operating as a it's a legal non-conforming use in general business. Um it the proposed resoning is compatible with our comprehensive plan, our character area map and the surrounding departmental um patterns across the road. You all know Mr. Harper has the apartments there as well. Um so staff is approving the the resolve with the video and with the conditions because of the parking. Um and Rob's going to t up the improvement for us to make it uh make sense. But um approval would be contingent on the property's continued use as a senior apartment development um and consistent with existing operations. Um they submitted a site plan. I've included that in this packet for y'all

to um see that they're going before the HPC tomorrow night for their exterior. Exterior mainly just the roof, which you can't see. This is flat roof and the windows. This was uh presented to the planning and zoning board and they recommend approval of the request. And they're also here. Um the owner and the attorney representing them if they would like to speak and say anything additional about the project. Anyone would like to speak in favor of this welcome to come on up.

Well, there you go. My name is Emily Preston and I'm an attorney with Coleman. My address is 109 South Ashley Street and I'm Todd introduce himself. Todd Wind and I'm a representative of Tim Shell Tiff Tower Preservation LP. Uh my address is 10411 at Water Bay Drive, Winter Garden, Florida.

So as you heard the plan is to do a complete renovation of primarily the interior of Tiff towers. Um there are also going to be some improvements made to the exterior, a new roof, um all new windows that will be replaced, quite a bit of landscaping and some amenities that DCA has requested. So, this is the existing layout. And then you can see that we're going to have um trees and landscaping added as a buffer. There's going to be a community garden space back here. Um, overall the parking lot, everything will be refreshed. Not resurfaced, but refreshed. And then, like I said, the bulk of the interior work is going to be done. I'll let Todd explain it, but new flooring, new appliances. It will be all of the residents are going to be professionally relocated temporarily, and then they'll have the right to come back. um the relocation, the packing, the moving of the residents, the temporary part will all be paid for by Tim Shell as part of the rehab. So they won't be out of pocket anything and then they will have the right to come back. Um and it will still be restricted to seniors. So there will be a land use restriction filed on this property which will restrict it to seniors only for the next 40 or 40 years. We have no problem doing a development agreement with the city. Um, in addition, we have a firm start date. DCA sets the start dates, so it will be started in February. Is that right?

By the end of February is is the goal right now. Mhm. So, um, they also have an end date, which I believe is April.

Yeah. Well, we're currently anticipating about a 12 month construction schedule. So, um, assuming everything goes as planned, we would close by the end of February of 2026 and then we would be complete with construction by the end of February of 2027. Um, yeah, as as Emily alluded to back, uh, it was roughly the end of 2024 that we applied to Georgia DCA for the tax credits, which essentially provide our ability to do the financing and to be able to bring in um, all of the equity to to really renovate and and do a substantial renovation of TIFF Tower. Um, we plan to spend about $60,000 per unit um on on the the development itself. And as Emily alluded to, a lot of that will be focused on the interior as DCA really kind of recommends and pushes us to do. So, it'll be all new flooring, uh, new doors, windows, um, countertops, appliances, uh, so on and so forth. Uh, so it will be a substantial renovation and and again, as long as everything goes as planned, um, hopefully be done by the end of 2027. Um, so as as it's been mentioned, uh, given the fact that the the property is currently non-conforming and the investors that we have come in to purchase the tax credits that we ultimately receive from DCA, they want to be able to get comfortable and ensure that, god forbid, something happened to the building, be it, you know, a natural disaster or a fire, that we can rebuild the property as it as it currently stands. We have no intention of changing the current use of the property, no intention of adding any additional units. Um, as Emily alluded to, there's going to be a land use restriction agreement that we enter into with Georgia DCA. Um, and really essentially all we're doing is just, you know, improving the the quality of life for the residents that are currently living in Tiff.

And then one other comment we did, if you'd like to see it, ask the current manager and the current owner to take pictures of the parking lot at different times. Um, we've got some photos if you'd like to look at them. Um, they're not dated, but they're all different times since the planning commission meeting and today. And you can see, if you have better eyes than I do, that the parking lot is, even though this lesson is required, it is being underutilized by the current residents. So, we don't anticipate parking to be an issue after we have it'll be pretty simpler. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Anyone else like to speak in favor of this application? Is there anyone that'd like to speak in opposition to the application? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you, Rob. All right. On to our workshop and we are called to order. So, gentlemen, you have the agenda before you and I'll take a motion concerning the approval of the agenda. Second.

Okay. So, we have a motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? And that does carry. All right. I'm going to invite John Dale with Ryland Environmental to please come up. Uh John is going to talk to us about some proposed changes for the recycling convenience center. So John, can you get forward?

Good afternoon everybody. Um so uh we currently have about three front row boxes over our property in Carro. Getting really good participation. Uh we're having a lot of folks crop things off. It's kind of overwhelming the boxes. U starting to have a lot stacked on the ground things. U so what we're looking at is we want to put a a big roll up box. We got it painted up nice. It's got sliding doors a lot neater, a lot more room inside it. Um be able to haul that. So it's kind of a simple change. Only difference is um when you have a raw fox u you know your charge look different. Um, front loads are charged by a month. Um, so looking, if we went to a fourth box, she'd be about 600 a month. We're projecting a roll box. That roll box to go about three times a month. So you still be looking about the same amount of money. Um, it's just a different type of box. Um, will help with help us keep the area neater and allow more room for people to continue to participate. Um, slide doors, very nice, keep it neat, keep it out the rain. um you know keep the material ready to go up there. So all very important things and um continue to allow us to grow it because continue to get good participation. Um we didn't ask to put it in the contract just to be a simple thing because recycling is so volatile. um you know in South Georgia not a lot of the infrastructure hopefully as the um markets continue to develop in the future but uh it's just something we want to keep doing we enjoy doing it but simple change

okay all right any questions of John here can I ask a question okay I went out there the other day and but as far as going to get recyclables into the container. I mean, it's like a window like this. Yeah. The box itself, right? It should be pretty easy. Slide door, right? It should be able to get it. Most folks just bring a bag, you know. Um, but if we need to cut out the doors a little bit, we can. It's just difficult to get your stuff into that smaller door where you're just dump it on the top.

Okay. I just wonder if that's the way it was going to be. We need much will be much fabricated to change it out. We have to we can always put a bigger plastic door on that. Cut the hole bigger. We have to make things a little easier. I'll take a look at it's not something that we extremely difficult. Um that people complain. Thanks. All right. All right. Well, any other comments, questions, okay? All right. We're good. So, thank you. Thank you for that information. We appreciate that. I appreciate the partnership with Ryland. So, thank you.

All right. Um, let's see. Jeff, you want to you were going to also talk about that proposed change? Actually, pardon me. Uh, madame mayor, members of the council, the next item is that is actually an item that came to light when Ryland brought this to us. I did on conversations with Jessica and the way that the way it was discussed is the rates changing as of January 1 and it would be in line with those and we realized that the last rate adjustment the wording in the resolution only accounting for trash

and it didn't account for the recycling or the commercial recycling which is also a part of the contract. This is really a housekeeping item to bring that up to make to ensure that moving forward we don't have any confusion. Right. Okay. Gotcha. That makes sense. Got it. Good with that. All right. Any questions of Jeff or Okay. All right. Perfect. All right. Easy. Easy enough. All right. Our next item on our agenda is to discuss the proposed 2026 Elnik. It is local maintenance improvement grant that we received from DOT. Uh George DOT. Uh so I'm going to call on ADOP to present the information on potential resurfacing projects.

Good evening, mayor and council. Um it's it's kind of old hat but uh we we look at every year doing some road improvements and um we to do that we also try to get elig money from the state who um who graciously provide us with somewhere around normally about $250,000 and um and that's based on road miles and stuff like that in different communities and I have pieced together a um pretty comprehensive list of streets um that that of of locations that we feel best need by based on our um our street conditions index. And um as as you'll see uh in your packets, I've got them kind of wrote down. Each each kind of u council district has a has a pretty good portion somewhat equivalent. Um and so I just wanted to present these um we need to get it voted on so that we can submit um this list to the state so that they can then in turn provide that money and that's got to be submitted by the beginning of February. And so that's why I wanted to bring it in December. So we did have a little bit of time if we need to do some tweaking somebody you know wanted to look at and say well I really like this street in there. We can make some adjustments. So, we have a little bit of time, but um suffice it to say, if you'll just look, it's the street name and then from and to is is you know, how far we're planning on making that paving go. And I also added the um the length in there because it's kind of important to know um the the footage of of road that you're getting paid. Some streets are just wider than others. We've all ridden in in certain areas of town and and some streets are almost 48 ft wide and we need to pave the whole

section. So, we tried to still make that evened up and and I think with the footage we showed that that's actually fairly even as well with the money being spent in each in each area. So, um I think it was I think it's well planned out, but I just wanted to kind of present that to y'all and let y'all take a look at it. And like I said, if there's any questions or want to get together on something, please let me know. we'll make some adjustments prior to submitting to the state. Okay. And you can see those are those streets are broken down by your district. So review those and then like Adam said if you have any questions you need to talk through anything just skip them and um and we can certainly amend things if we you there was a situation that that called for that. So

and also I just wanted to add too I know um there are some streets that we've been wanting to get done. Um some are eth street I know is one that you know everybody's kind of pushing on. Just know that that is in a TIA um the second phase of TIA. There's some other streets that are in that. We're trying not to dig into those pots to allow that um that trans spots money to be spent there. Um although I'd like to get it done quickly. Um as I'm sure each of you would. I also like to um just know this is kind of spending our money wisely is the way way I try to look at this. inside since we know that others come.

You bring up a good point. Thank you for doing that to remind the public that there are different pots of money. It may all come from Georgia D. But how we can use it and where we use it and maximizing the effectiveness of those dollars is is that's the different acronyms that we talk about whether it's local maintenance improvement grant or the transportation enhancement act money and various things. So people um hopefully be patient with us. will eventually get around all of that. You're right, 8th Street is one that we all do get a lot of calls about, but that is in the TIA plan and so that's coming and um so we just have to be mindful of the dates on that and which potent we're pulling from. But thank you for that, Adam. I know this is big. I know we we've done a lot of paving the last couple years. That was a commitment that we had as a council to improve our roads and streets and safety and and everything. So um and getting around town. So, we appreciate this coming to us and hopefully we'll get some extra elme money if the governor feels uh generous. Maybe he'll help give us a little bit more like we've had in the past. And

I did add some alternates just in case we got I see that. Let's plan and make positive. I like that. Yeah. So, and we'll all be in Atlanta next month to uh to talk. Um it's our legislative, you know, with leg legislative weekend with the George Municipal Association. So, we'll certainly every city is looking for that extra element of money in their budget. So, we'll certainly make sure they're aware of that. So, we appreciate that. All right. Thanks. Any questions, gentlemen, or comments for Adam? All right. Uh, moving along now is a review of the zoning uh application to request the reszone at 311 East Second Street. We just heard about that in our public hearing. Um, Jessica, anything else we need to consider before we move along? Any questions?

I think it's it's a great project. I'm excited about it. I think it's So, Nobody's No, it's fully occupied right now. There might be one or two vacant units, but yeah, it's it's fully occupied and running. We would be acquiring it from the existing owner and then as part of that acquisition, we we received the tax credits that we were awarded from Georgia DCA, which provides the funding for us to be able to do the so

they'll be they'll be uh relocated. Yes, we've we've engaged a relocation expert that we're actually using on another property in Peach Tree City. We're up in Peach Tree City. Um, and so they'll be helping us with the relocation and we'll more than likely be doing it floor by floor. So we won't vacate the entire property, but they assist us in getting them properly housed for roughly the 2 to 3 weeks that it should take for each one of those floors to be completed. Okay. So they are taken care of. Absolutely. Yeah. At no cost. No cost. That's correct. At no cost to the res.

No cost to the res. Yeah. Which is important. So I think this is this is good. this that's something that's been needing to be done for a pretty good while and um Titan's got a great partnership with the Department of Community Affairs whether it's through tax credits through grants through various programs and so we'll we'll look forward to working with you and with DCA once we get all this hopefully approved and and you can start the process. So won't be voting on it this evening but we will be voting on it our next meeting. So um Okay. All right. Anything else we need to discuss before I call this meeting of the workshop uh to a close and we open the special call meeting? Anything else we need to go over? All right, we will adjourn the workshop meeting. And now we are going to open uh and call to order the special called meeting. And um under that special called meeting, we have one main new business action item and that's for uh the ordinance providing conditional use permit for downtown Maine. and we just heard about that through our um through our public hearing. Um we can vote on this because we're in a special company and we need to vote on that. So I know Lester will need to recuse himself from voting. So um so I'll open the floor up to either of you to make a motion concerning that um conditional use permit with for the cigar store.

Make a motion for approval. Okay. Second. So we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor please say I. I. Any opposed? So that does carry and I will not comm say thank you for that. All right. Um next item is our city manager report. So Jeff, I'll turn that over to you.

Mayor, members of the council, you have our written report. Uh additionally, uh I would like to announce that today uh or staff met with regard to hometown holidays and we've been watching the weather very closely. and pardon me. And with right now, we're looking at a fairly high risk of inclement weather Saturday evening for the hometown holidays. And I would just like to make an announcement for everyone. Please pay close attention to our social media. Uh we will be making decision on a bill or no go by Wednesday at noon uh based on weather reports and what we have. And if we do need to postpone, we're looking at having a winter wonderland type event in January after the first of the year uh to tie in with a I believe mayor said second Saturday uh to tie in with that as an accommodation in case the weather is beyond use.

So we'll stay tuned. We'll we'll be making announcements, right? Cautiously optimistic that the weather's wrong, right? We will carry on with the Christmas parade, not necessarily on um the 7th. That would be announced also on Wednesday for a later date. But, uh we're going to do everything we can to accommodate and make sure that the community has this event to enjoy. Whether it's on a specific date, if it's always been or not, we're going to we're going to make sure that um we're going to have a great time. We just don't know when yet. Stick ahead of that. I'll come back to it. All right. Anything else you've got, Jeff, to report on this evening? No, ma'am. Okay. All right. Mayor and council comments, Jonah, do you have anything you'd like to talk about or share or uh I do?

Okay. Um I just want to invite everybody out to uh on the December 20th at 1 p.m. It'll be my fourth annual family fun event at Pucket Park. Um community Christmas is typically what it's called. And u the highlight of it is the fire department and police department uh doing uh what they do with the fire trucks and uh the cars and the popcorn and food as well. So um just want to encourage everyone to bring gifts for children um infants to 10 years old 13 years old. So okay thank you. Thank you for doing that. You got anything?

All right. We do need to go into a short executive session for legal. Okay. Legal purposes. So, um we'll go ahead and adjourn this meeting and take just a minute and then we'll come back in for executive session. Can I can I slide in one thing? Yes. Yes. The net drop. Okay. I just want to remind everybody of the net drop. Where's the location going to be at? It will be at Tuk County Park. Two county record. And if the mayor or someone from the council, they will come and rewelcome. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.

All right. So, we have information going to executive session. All favor. Okay. collaboration.