Committees of Council Meeting
Video Transcript
Duration: 24 minutes
Speakers: 7
2020 '5.
The elected body present,
mayor Kurt Wilson,
council member Christine Hall, council member Allen Sells,
council member David Johnson,
council member Sarah Beeson, council member Geely Hills, council member William Northland. I am Randy Knighton, chief administrative
officer along with chief legal officer David Davidson,
and our
city clerk.
Hello, Nancy Long.
Hi.
Alright. Thank you and welcome.
The purpose of committee meetings are to for the city departments to convey information
to the mayor and city council
and discuss initiatives listed on the published agendas, as well as provide updates of vital information
pursuant to the operation of city government. And by ordinance, the committee consists of the mayor and council, the elected body, as well as
the
city administrator.
This is a public meeting but not a public hearing and therefore while
certainly the member members of the public are welcome, we do not take public comment unless specifically authorized by the mayor council. Public comment is taken on second or fourth Monday of each month
in city council meetings as well as the fifth Monday in open forum.
We do encourage residents to reach out to our city team and staff if you have any questions or register any concerns
and utilize the city's web service portal as a mechanism
to support those issues and concerns.
And please as always visit roswell365.com
for a calendar of events.
The first item on the agenda is the approval
of the minutes of the 05/13/2025
committee
meeting. Do we have a motion?
Motion by Councilmember Johnson, second by Councilmember Beeson.
Any further discussion? All in favor? All right. That passes unanimously.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
The first item or second item is listed on the agenda under transportation.
Consideration to approve the City Of Roswell citywide safety action plan and adopt a vision zero resolution.
Thank you.
A vision zero resolution.
Alright. I'm looking at it.
I know I'm kind of enjoying it.
Senior vice president, miss Sharon Aizo.
Oh, mister Dana. Yes. Alright. And I'm transportation planning manager.
Jeff and Greg have left me alone this week, so I'll be presenting all the items.
You got it.
We have a lot of safety items, traffic calming and safety. So hopefully you guys like these.
So back in 2023,
the city received a $200,000
safe streets and roads for all grant from USDOT.
Our local match was paid by True North. The NFC ID said it cost the city nothing to produce this document.
The funds were designated to develop a citywide safety action plan. It's a requirement for future basically, we have to have the safety action plan to go after
the stuff that you put on the ground, the building, the implementation grants.
So now that we have that and we get this approved, we'll better go for that. That's the next item.
Part of it is also the vision zero resolution, which is basically an aspirational,
just saying, city is aspiring
to lower traffic fatalities,
and serious injuries.
You And see the resolution outlines a commitment to a layered safety approach focusing on safe roads, vehicles, speeds, and post crash care.
By implementing that, we'll be adopting vision zero principles and transportation policy.
So it's just it's an international
aspirational thing
that we're gonna aspire
to. So the past year, staff collaborated with our consultant team, residents,
you all, and stakeholders,
and that's cover of our safety action plan. It's in you all's packet.
It includes an analysis of existing conditions and crash trends involving fatalities and serious injuries that kind
of focuses on the serious injuries and fatalities,
and also identified projects and some strategies
to improve safety.
Just kind of some sample pages of it. Like I said, you've got the whole document in your thing. These aren't
anything special I was trying to call attention to. It's just kind of so we've got our our top 13 kinda recommended priority locations the consultants came up with and then a list of,
countermeasures.
Just kind of the midterm, short term strategies we can take as a city, kind of cheap,
more expensive, and very expensive
ways.
Staff recommends approving the safety action plan and division zero resolution, which, as I said, our next item is about applying for the actual implementation grants.
There's no immediate financial impact or cost to the city regarding approval of the plan or the signing of the resolution.
Any questions on that one? Alright. Thank you, mister Dan. A question yes. Council member Hall.
Thank you. Thank you, mister Dana. Could you, just step back a little bit and and,
give us a little
high level summary of how this all came about? Basically,
we applied for the planning
grant and received that grant.
Correct. And then now this is phase two where this is the actual implementation
and Well, this is the end of phase one. So we actually have the document now with the draft documents in your package,
but we'll be getting final back from the consultants the next week or so. We've had some kind of admin
edits wording changes.
But, yeah, once you approve that, you'll have we'll have adopted the city's
action plan safety action plan.
And the next step is applying for the implementation
direct step, like, one b or c right now. So
step two, those are actually applying for the implementation
And how the bigger money. How was this funded? This part? It was a $200,000 federal grant,
and North Fulton CID paid our $50,000
local match for us.
So the the city of Roswell didn't have any cons No money. Towards this. And then do we have a high likelihood of of getting grant for,
the next phases of it? I believe it is a competitive grant, so they're thinking 40 to 70
recipients nationwide
in this round. But that yeah. I think we have a good chance.
We have a good strong safety action plan.
FHWA
is,
currently reviewing that to make sure that we hit all the check marks.
Yeah. I think we have a good shot. And how does the Safe Streets Roswell and that initiative play into this with
that being part of our strategic vision?
So I know, yeah, that's one of mayor and council's
big goals right now is the slowdown in Roswell traffic calming. So this ties in perfectly to it. The safety action plan kinda give us a good toolbox of
things that we can use as a city to slow traffic down.
So, yeah, I think it ties in very well.
Thank you. Council member,
Hills.
Thank you. And, mister Dain, this also is a springboard
or foundation for a number of different grants coming. Correct? We're this isn't just the next thing coming is a grant. We've we've got multiple things that we can apply for with this in place already. Correct? Correct. Yeah. This will allow us to go out there additional, like I said, federal grants. I mean, it's it's
that's kind of one of the new requirements that you have to have a safety action plan in place to kinda go after some of these traffic common federal dollars. So Thank you. Council member Johnson.
Thank you. I I think you go without saying this is my bread and butter and
why I'm here.
One thing I that was really cool
when I read this for probably the tenth time,
over the weekend
is a lot of the places that came up in the recommendations are places where we're already looking to attack. So it's really good to get good feedback that, hey. We think this place is a problem. And then,
the feedback from the the safety action plan is, like, no. It is a problem. Yep. And we're already attack you know, looking for methods and
methodology to That is yeah. We we knew about a lot of the problem slots, and they actually I know, like, Pine Grove Road was on there. We already know that yeah. We've already Pine Grove's t swaths project we're already,
you know, moving forward with this. So we are
yeah. Really, I should say good job with you guys for, you know Yeah. It was kinda yeah. You're right. They found a lot of the same stuff. We already knew about it, but they're kind of yeah. It's kind of really And thank you to True North four hundred for, you know, the grant. And, you know, it's just great to get, you know,
working in health care, you know, with the
you think something's gonna happen and you get, you know, feedback that, you know, that is what's gonna you know, I mean, it's Yeah. Yeah. Validation. It's great validation thing. Validated our our out of the weeds. I mean, I I love this and great residents out there. I mean, I I think, you know,
I've read Vision Zero stuff
way too much, but, you know, this was implemented in Europe, you know, back in the early
two thousands, 02/2010, and Oslo helped,
what's the Finland capital,
Helsinki.
Like, they've they've pretty much eliminated pedestrian deaths by implementing this policy. It's a it's a really
yeah. This works, and it's really it's really neat. It's aspiration. Yeah. The Vision Zero, I mean, it realizes humans
are gonna make mistakes. They're gonna
they're gonna be careless at times. Well, basically, it's saying the city is gonna do all it can to kinda reduce these serious injuries and fatalities and
geometry of it safer to try and reduce that.
Thank you. Alright.
Thank you. Any further comments or questions?
Seeing none, we'll entertain a motion. Motion by council member Johnson, second by council member Hills. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all in favor? Alright. That passes unanimously and moves forward. Thank you very much.
Item number three is listed on the agenda, consideration to pursue a grant from the Federal Highway Administration,
FHWA,
from the safe from the safe streets and roads for all
SS four a program.
Is that mister Dana as well? It's all gonna be me. Alright.
So like I said, this shoehorned very well in the last one. This is the next step.
So following the approval of the citywide safety action plan, we can actually apply for those implementation grant funds.
The grants range from 2 and a half million to 25,000,000.
They do require 20% locally funded match,
which would mean need we mean that we need to provide half a million to 500
or 5,000,000
on next year's budget.
We have been working with the finance department. We've identified potential funds
for the match that we can use for next year.
So, basically, we're asking you all if you if you want us to approve the or pursue this 2 and a half million dollar grant, basically,
getting $3,000,000
of
stuff for half a million dollars.
And Sharon and I were talking about this before. Basically, it we're gonna go after our okay. So we have our track transportation master plan. We had a tier one of traffic calming in that.
Some of it ties into the safety action plan. We can pull projects from either one of those, and we're shooting a physical one after all the tier one traffic on the projects from the
transportation master plan,
with this. And we could potentially go into tier two if funding allows. We're just gonna need to look at some of the
cost estimates and that's up to see what we have. But $3,000,000 we can get quite a lot of traffic coming down in the city. Yes, sir. Mayor? Yes. Mayor Wilson. I'm sorry. No. I didn't wanna cut off your comments. I just I get, you know, I get I forget things if I don't get them out.
If committee approves this tonight and it goes this is this will go, to council in two weeks.
Maybe let's get with,
Bill
and
Don
and Sharon and the team. And let's see about potentially,
what we I mean, if a five to one ratio, considering the amount of transportation projects we have,
particularly rate along traffic calming,
what's the Jeremy, I guess, same question, I think, that, was asked earlier, percentages of chances of percentage of us getting this grant? This is the one that they're expecting 40 to 70 nationwide.
So, I mean, that's every community. There's some counties that are applying for these. There's some states that are applying for them statewide.
High probability, medium probability, low probability. I think we have a pretty good shot. I mean, obviously, if you're going for the 25,000,000, that's gonna take a big chunk out of the overall bucket. So that would
lower your chances. I think by going for the 2,500,000.0, I think we have a really good shot at it.
The, But it is a competitive grant. So
Well, does the amount that you apply for affect your chances of actually getting the grant? Well, I'm just saying, I mean, so at I think we have 700,000,000
total
for this round to give out nationwide.
So, yeah, I think if we're going after the higher chunk, then it may lower chances of it. But We got whatever you guys talking about there. Yeah. I got it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We've been working staff as already kind of getting this grant
prepped in case you guys do want to go after it.
But, yeah, it really just depends on kind of our local match, what we go after for the bigger number. Well, five to one ratio, obviously, if it doesn't impact the out the success outcome
and they push it back down, let's say you asked for $25,000,000
and you're willing to put up five and they push it down to 10
or five, whatever.
To me, if that doesn't affect the outcome Yeah. I would advise
doing so because
$5 to $1
are something that obviously the city could use very well for a plethora of transportation projects, particularly around Slowed Down Roswell,
unless you think it impacts the the outcome. No. We can talk,
when Jeff and Greg are back in town, the director and deputy director, but I yeah. I we could definitely spend anything that we can get. I mean, we can we've got plenty of projects and and our multiple trench facing master plan, safety action plan. Let's get clarity on the outcome probability.
I think that's because that's what I heard you say that it had to it affects outcome probability.
Yeah. Okay. Just because there is a finite amount in the bucket. So We'll work to get some clarity
on that prior. Also, council member Johnson, did you have comments? I was confused. I thought we were maybe putting on this tonight.
No. This is just getting staff permission to do something else. Last item. Yeah. Sorry. Yep. We've got a little full time. I'm confused a lot, it says.
I didn't help you. I'm sorry. Yeah. Alright.
Alright. So we'll get additional clarity there. Please go ahead, sir. Yeah. And then, basically, we've kind of talked the way through all those. We we recommend that we us go ahead and go out to our grant, and it does require the 20% local match. Do you guys need to vote on this? We need to to need for you to endorse this and move forward. Yes. So with that, if there are any other questions or comments,
we'll entertain a motion. Motion by council member Johnson,
second by council member Northland.
Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all in favor?
Thank you very much. This item will move forward with that one noted point of clarification.
Item number four,
consideration to submit a local maintenance and improvement grant,
LMIC, application for the 2025
safety action program to the Georgia Department of Transportation,
GDOT,
except the LMEK funds up to $400,000
from GDOT and a budget amendment to set up the funding upon approval.
Yes, sir, mister Bennett.
So
this is unrelated, but also related.
GDOT surprised us about a month ago and reached out and said that they got kind of an excess of money, and they offered us $400,000
in safety improvements,
kind of based on some crash data and things they were looking at.
It does require a 30% local match from the city, which we've worked with finance. We've identified a 120,000
available from the bond program to the bicycle pedestrian sidewalk
on program.
Very similar to what we've been talking about.
Projects, they have to be safety, so improved striping, raised pavement markers, rumble strips, RRFBs,
or PHBs.
We've already got so this application is due June 4. So this is going directly to council tonight after this if you guys approve it.
We do have the whole package. I just put some kind of examples out of the package.
I've got 12 spots like this around the city. So this is down
by the river at Willow and Cobb County just there to the left. So that's a heavy
pedestrian crossing. Basically, this place where all chosen
we're looking at where the pedestrians are, where the crossing, where they've been requested in pedestrian count. So,
like I said, we've got a lot of these guys pulled for out as examples.
One of the proposals, they replaced the RRFB out here with an actual PHP, so it matches the one crossing 9 or to Canton Street. Mark, can you explain
the
So, yeah, an RRFB is what's currently between City Hall and variant.
It's the flashing
signs on each side. A PHB is the actual overhead
red light will come on, like, crossing from City Hall over to Canton Street area, Elizabeth Way.
So this would be pulling the RFB out of this location and putting a PHB in there since we do see a lot of see a lot of crossing there. So,
this one at Riverside, they see Martin's Landing. We've had quite a few resident requests, and that's a heavily crossed area there getting down to the river.
Then what up by Roswell High School also, a lot of students are crossing over into the Publix shopping center. So
because I have the other examples. I just pulled a few. Just gonna show you what we put together in our application package.
Yeah. These are locations that our city traffic engineer in which top of us come up with,
which we can change this. But like I said, it's all kinda data driven. It's where we see people crossing, where we've had people asking about it. So,
but once again, we recommend applying for this. It's a 30 local match, and we have the identified funds from the bond program.
I think one of the things that's really exciting about this is the ability that that the application, once it's received by GDOT,
those funds become immediately available to us. So these are going to be projects, 10 to 12 projects that we'll be able to execute on fairly rapidly and probably have in place,
before the end of the year. And so this is very, very transformational.
It fits right within the,
slowdown in Roswell initiative that you all are embracing and are asking us to work towards.
So this is gonna be an immediate,
impact here in the city. And so this is really exciting.
We're able to take that a $120,000
out of our bond proceeds
to be able to support this request. So it is it is
very exciting, and and I just wanted to make sure you all knew that these are gonna be things that were gonna be very fast,
as far as implementation. So it's great stuff.
Thank you.
Alright. Yes. Council member Hall.
And I assume that these can be repurposed because Riverside Drive will be under construction
fairly shortly. Hope, fingers crossed. And the one on Norcross Street, so we'll actually gain another one because you can repurpose that one to another location.
We'll start the equipment. Yeah. That was a good point. So the the larger federal grant,
we won't even know if we receive that by till December or something. So that's a much longer term one. This one would be a a quick turnaround
Money
there.
Alright. Thank you.
Any other questions or comments regarding this item?
Seeing
none, we'll entertain a motion. Motion by council member Johnson, second by council member
Hills. Any further discussion? I'll saying about moving the street to Council John.
It's already on It's on the is we actually yeah. It is on the agenda. That is correct. Yes. We anticipated you. It wasn't a
Alright. So we have a motion by council member Johnson, second by council member Hills. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all in favor? Alright. That passes unanimously as well. Thank you very much.
Item number five, consideration for the mayor and or city administrator to authorize the sale of city owned
right of way along Shallowford Road and Hightower
Road.
Okay. So
we've got a developer in town who's built several single family homes.
Four or five of them. They have a decorative fence and decorative columns or portions
come into the cities right away.
We've met with building builder numerous times,
regarding their move and their replacement.
The right of way being encroached upon is not we've looked at all of our plans. It's not gonna affect any future plans for any kind of multi use trails or anything.
You can see the addresses there. They're looking along Hightower And Shallowford Roads.
This is the builder has agreed to pay us $5,000 for the sale of the right away.
I think total combined, all of it is less than 200 square feet or it's not
a whole lot. I wasn't super involved that that's Jackie.
Actually, if you guys have any
specific questions. She,
was involved in that, but
we are trying to sell the right away.
That way, basically, it's the it's on the voters' properties. So if something happens, it's not the city. It's not at fault. It's on the city's right away any longer.
I'm assuming that was under the advice of chief legal officer David Davidson as well. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Alright.
Thank you. Any further comments or questions or any questions regarding this matter?
Alright. Seeing none, we'll entertain a motion.
Motion by council member Johnson, second by council member
Orthland.
Any further discussion?
All in favor? Alright. That passes unanimously as well.
Would would wanna make we do ask for one adjustment to our agenda.
We would like to ask that we add,
closure session
to discuss personnel, real estate,
land acquisition,
real estate. First, not real estate. Real estate.
So we'll ask that the this body
convene a closure session,
with your approval at this time.
Motion by council member Hills, second by council member Johnson. All in favor?
Alright. That passes unanimously. Thank you very much.
Yes. Before adjournment,
council member
Hall, did you have a question?
You have a question? Oh, okay.
I'm sorry. Okay. Turn that off. Hello? Alright. Okay. Alright then. With that,
we will enter into closure. Closure. Oh my gosh.