Mayor and Council Meeting

I'll give this right back. Thanks. Thanks, Randy. Okay.

Good evening and welcome to the City of Roswell, Merritt City Council meeting of Monday, 04/28/2025.

I'm Mayor Curt Wilson. I'd like to introduce you to my colleagues and council members present. Council member Sarah Beeson,

council member Christine Hall,

council member Anne Pro Tem Lee Hills,

Councilmember David Johnson

Councilmember William Mortland

and Councilmember Alan Sells.

I'll now turn our meeting over to our Chief Executive Officer and City Administrator, Mr. Randy Knighton, to explain how the meeting is run. Mr. Knighton?

Thank you, sir.

Good evening, everyone, and, welcome to the mayor and council meeting this evening. We certainly appreciate your presence. In accordance with section chapter 3.7,

the city code, the city council shall hold regular public meetings.

The purpose of city council meetings are for the public to participate and speak on agenda items which constitute formal decisions by the elected body.

These items can be accessed via the published agenda,

which can be found on the city website prior to the meeting.

This is a public meeting and some items do require a formal public hearing.

A very important component of city council meetings are to hear directly from residents

on items listed on the agenda. Residents are at the top of the organizational chart of the city of Braswell,

and therefore, it is imperative

that comments and questions,

be provided to mayor and council as they contemplate each decision.

If you would like to speak on an item, we ask that you fill out a comment card, which can be found at the back of the room

in order to ensure an accurate record of the meeting. We ask that everyone, of course, observe the the principles of mutual respect

and display the appropriate demeanor during the course of the meeting this evening, which should be and is

reflective of this great community.

With respect to the proceedings,

we ask that attention is given to the person speaking.

And if it is necessary to have an independent conversation,

we ask that you that you exit the rear doors to the vestibule area.

In addition, we ask that you silence any electronic devices at this time.

The mayor is the presiding officer

and will ensure the orderly exchange of comments, questions,

and discussion leading to decisions by the elected body. We encourage everyone in attendance and the viewing audience to visit the city website for meetings, events, and departmental information.

We also encourage everyone to review and participate in the various activities and offerings in the city of Roswell and visit roswell365.com

for a calendar of

events.

There are a number of events upcoming in the city of Roswell, which promote community,

physical activity, and leisure

as we all make Roswell the number one family community

in America.

Mayor Wilson.

Thank you, mister Knighton, as always.

At this time, I have the great privilege to ask Paul Meyer, elder from Fellowship Bible Church, to come to the front and lead us in a moment of silence and for the invocation. Thank you.

Father, as we begin this meeting,

pray we'd remember the words that you spoke to Jeremiah.

You said, don't let the wise boast in their wisdom,

or the powerful boast in their power,

or the rich boast in their riches.

But those who wish to boast

should boast in this alone,

that they truly know me and understand

that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love,

who brings justice

and righteousness to the earth,

and that I delight in these things.

And I pray for Mary Wilson and the council.

Women and men who lead this community, I pray that they would long for those same things.

They would long and demonstrate long for and demonstrate unfailing love

and justice and righteousness in this community, in their lives, in their families.

Pray for your blessings on this meeting.

You would guide it. That you'd be honored.

You'd be honored by what takes place in this community. Pray for safety and peace,

blessing on it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you. Elder Paul,

mayor of the Fellowship Bible Church. Thank you, sir, so much for being with us. At this time, I have the great privilege of asking United States Army Chief Warrant Officer two,

Orland Isfel, to please come forward and lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance

to the flag of The United States Of America

and to the Republic for which it stands,

one nation

under God,

indivisible,

liberty and justice for

all. Thank you, chief Warrant Officer Isabelle. I'm gonna ask you to stay up there, please, sir, for the first item under the mayor's report,

which is a proclamation for the esteemed veteran of Roswell award, and ask the council to please come down and join me as well.

Proclamation,

office of the mayor, chief order officer two, c w two, Orland Iswell,

esteemed veteran of Roswell.

Whereas the city of Roswell is proud to recognize and honor

the exemplary service of chief warrant officer two, Orland Iswell,

who courageously

served our nation as a helicopter scout pilot in the United States Army,

demonstrating bravery,

precision,

and unwavering dedication.

And whereas CW two as well

enlisted the United States Army in 1982 at the age of 22,

completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina,

followed by warrant officer training and helicopter flight school at Fort Rucker,

later renamed

Fort Novicell,

where he earned his wings from medal of honor recipient,

Michael Novosel.

And whereas upon graduation,

CW two as well

was assigned to the third infantry division at Giebelstadt

Army Airfield in West Germany,

flying as a scout pilot in a coordination in coordination with attacked helicopter units

in defense of Europe during the height of the cold war.

Whereas, he completed rigorous and specialized training,

including

nap of the earth flight,

night vision goggle operations,

and border pilot missions near the East German frontier,

all while participating in multinational

NATO exercises

such as Reforger

with British, German, and Allied forces.

And whereas

CW two Esvelt

was recognized with the army achievement medal and multiple flight safety awards

and participated in historic moments

such as the fortieth anniversary of d day

and president Ronald Reagan's

iconic

tear down this wall speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Whereas following his honorable departure

from the army in 1984,

CW two as well,

Pursued higher education,

completing his undergraduate studies at North Carolina State University

and later earning his MBA from DePaul University.

Whereas he continues to give back to the Roswell community

as a dedicated volunteer with bike Roswell,

promoting bicycle safety

and as a supporter of The US Air Force Academy Gymnastics Team assisting with communications and fundraising,

And whereas CW two as well as legacy of service

lives on through his three sons,

all of whom serve the United States Air Force

with strong ties to Roswell through their education

and accomplishments.

Whereas,

his lifelong commitment

to duty,

education,

service, and community

reflects the highest ideals of citizenship

and military excellence.

Now, therefore, I, Curtin Wilson, mayor of the city of Roswell, Georgia,

do hereby name chief warrant officer to Orland Isbell,

an esteemed veteran of Roswell,

and call upon all our citizens

to recognize his outstanding service to our community to our community

and to our country,

and that there's no higher calling than those who serve the United States Armed Forces. Congratulations, sir.

Just to let you know,

chief warrant officer is Phil also,

I guess, rode 64 miles yesterday in the mayor's ride.

And he has two sons

that are at the Air Force Academy, which is quite an accomplishment. But I'm gonna give this to you because I know everyone wants to

Well, thanks so much, Roswell.

You've helped me so much with my children at

the Roswell Gymnastics Gym where we spent, years and years,

helping to raise all three sons through the program.

Two went on to the Air Force Academy

to perform gymnastics.

One is there now. One graduate. He's about to become a captain up in Boston.

And, the middle one is in ROTC in Texas.

Left in there, unfortunately.

So he misses Roswell.

But But this is this incredible community,

educated my children,

and taking care of us here. We really love it. And thank you so much, all of you.

Stacy, you wanna come here?

We didn't recognize Stacy there. Stacy also incredibly responsible for those three great young men. Thank you, Stacy.

Before we leave,

a couple of other items on the mayor's report. Today is

one of

our wonderful leaders in the organization's birthday. We always like to recognize him. Today is our Director of Community Development's birthday, Michelle Alexander. Everybody give birth a little happy birthday to Michelle. Happy birthday.

And this other thing I have to bring up because I'm under threat from council member Christine Hall,

who is a gigantic

bike Roswell supporter and member and,

made things happen at the bike Roswell mayor's ride yesterday.

So she wanted to make sure that everybody knew that, Jamie Gazzetti, chief of staff to the mayor,

as long as Will Morklund,

and David Johnson all showed up and rode 18 miles.

And and or with a lot of complaining, but they did it. So Christine, everybody of course, you did 64 as you always did. Right? So I wanna make sure everybody knew that. I also wanna let, everybody know about the upcoming events in Roswell, and I'm gonna let pro temp, council member Lee Hills, tell us about that. Sure. Thank you, mayor. As always, I direct your attention to www.roswell365.com.

If you would like to see what's coming up in the city of Roswell or if you'd like to promote an event that you're involved with or know about, you can go on to roswell365.com

and register for a free account, post your information with a graphic, and then it'll, go through that date and then expire on its own. So it's really low maintenance and easy for you to get your word out for a faith organization, a nonprofit, a neighborhood, anything that you'd like to have exposed and advertised to the public.

Also, coming up, we've got Tuesday night ceramics, which is fun for all ages. This is at Art Center at East Roswell Park, Tuesday, April 29 from 06:30 to 09:30.

You can join and be creative at ceramics. Their form of ceramics uses liquid clay poured into molds. The pieces come out of the mold with all the detail. And once the greenware is cleaned and

fired, make the piece your own by painting using different types of of paint. So it's open to all skill levels ages 18 or older, and you can make some great gifts.

Might be a good introduction to throwing clay later,

So give it a try. Then Thursday, May 1 is the seventy fourth annual National Day of Prayer right here at City Hall on our green,

that's out on the Highway 9 side

from noon until one. It's a tight one hour,

national day of prayer recognition right here in Roswell, uplifting prayers by elected state and city leaders and respective representatives from The United States Military, national, and local business owners, and community leaders, inspiring music by renowned artists and musicians, including the Atlanta Wind Symphony, US Coast Guard Band, and US Army Band. Our veterans, EMTs, firefighters, and police officers will be honored in prayer for their health and well-being as they keep us safe.

So that's this week. No charge, no registration. Just show up a couple of minutes before noon right here on the lawn. It's a wonderful event.

We also have coming up, I think, a much anticipated,

I've seen my garage time to clean it out type event, which is Roswell household hazardous waste collection.

This is a city of Roswell,

Hembree facility,

Saturday, May 3, and that is at eight from 08:30 to 11:30 in the morning. Roswell is hosting the semiannual

household hazardous waste collection event for Roswell residents. You do have to bring your driver's license to prove you live here. This is a coveted event for other cities, so you gotta be a resident. City of Roswell periodically hosts this event to dispose of hazardous waste materials safely. The event is held at the public works transportation,

fire facilities, not at the Roswell Recycling Center. So it's it's close, but right down the street. We also have coming up on May 10, Aquapalooza.

This is a really fun event. If you've got young kids or just wanna kinda see how things work in the city of Roswell,

it's not just a kid event. I thoroughly enjoyed this. This is at the water Roswell Water Treatment Plant, Saturday, May 10 from ten to one. And this is, previously known as the Drinking Water Festival.

It is the Roswell Water Treatment Plant's annual open house festival with games, food, giveaways,

tours, even a dunk tank. Participants can get an inside view of how we clean water in Roswell and how can and can stay stay and visit with city partners and learn about the important role water plays in our lives. This is a fun family event for water drinkers of all age. Join us for a water tastic time. My favorite thing is seeing them do demonstrations on how to repair a water main break.

Fascinating. I don't know what that says about me, but it's it's worth the it's worth the drive over for that.

Roswell Youth Theatre Kids presents Annie Kids. This is at the Bill Johnson Community Activity Center, our building, also Saturday, May 10, from one until three one until 01:30.

Based on the popular comic strip and adapted from the Tony award winning

best musical with a beloved book and score by Tony award winners, Annie Kids features everyone's favorite little redhead in her very first adventure.

And, can't believe we are already talking about the second Alive in Roswell, but the next one is right over here on Canton Street, May 15 from five until 9PM. It's every third Thursday from April to October. This is free. It's a great festival. See friends, take a friend, get a bite to eat, wander around, lots of booths and activities and music going on. So it's a good time to be had by all and an easy walk from City Hall if you get over here and park. So that's what I've got for the moment, mayor. Back to you, sir. Thank you, Lee. Thanks so much.

That ends the mayor's report for tonight.

Next is the consent agenda. There are five items on the consent agenda tonight.

Does council have any questions or comments regarding any of the items on the consent agenda?

Alright. I think there was a question. So Jim, I'm gonna ask Police Chief Jim Conroy, Senior Vice President, Police Chief Jim Conroy

to come up and just address issue three, item three on the consent agenda

because I think there may have been a few questions. So just from a standpoint of,

my request.

Evening. Thank you, mayor, city council.

Item three is for an application

for a massage establishment permit.

There was some confusion.

We had received an email earlier today that,

from a concerned citizen.

This was a concern about the prior business that was there, not about this is a new owner that has purchased a business that has been closed for several months.

We have done a thorough background.

This is a, an establishment that has an owner and two employees. There's one massage establishment

or one

massage,

one masseuse

and one,

clerk who sits at the front desk and the owner of the only three employees that work at this location.

And we've done a thorough background investigation and they've met all of the requirements of the ordinance.

And just to be clear, is the police or is the are the police and you, the police chief, recommending

conditional use for this massage establishment?

Just as,

I do recommend the conditional use of this. Okay. Very good. Thank you, sir, as always, very much. Appreciate your

diligence and your hard work, particularly in the area. I don't I know a lot of people know the the story of the work of the last three years of this,

council and of the senior staff, but it is a record that is,

pretty impressive,

particularly out through the region is where,

this and I think you've heard Randy speak on it many, many times.

But the we are going to eliminate,

as I've said, and as part of on the you'll see it on the mayor's

thing tomorrow

as a follow-up as we're gonna eliminate human trafficking in the city of Roswell. And this is one of the ways we're doing is listening,

get wiping out any illicit

activity in any massage areas that that had been previously allowed to open. So,

very proud of this team.

Any additional comments or questions from

counsel on any items on the consent agenda?

Very good. At this time, I'll ask, are there any Roswell residents that would like to speed up on the consent agenda?

Yes, Roman. Yes, sir. Time

that I read that you're renovating

Romy, would you do me a favor? Would you please tell everybody your first and last name and where you live in Rome? Roman Persnak.

8110

Whitehall Way. Thank you, sir.

This is the first time that I read, basically, that you do a renovation

in the city hall.

Correct?

Number four.

I'm sorry. You're saying it's the first time that you've read that we're doing a renovation? I the first time I read here, oh, basically, afternoon, that you're doing

renovation in the city hall, spending $1,400,000,

something like that. Is this correct? Well, yes, sir. It was on committee couple weeks ago where we kinda went through it. Yes, sir.

So,

I would like to know

what basically because I don't know. What was the basic

reason

to do the renovation?

What's the basic reason? It's primarily along the lines to give you just a quick answer, it's along the lines of customer service for

improving

business service and resident services and and and kind of accelerating our ability to do that internally

from a structure perspective. Was this a long term project?

It's been we've been working on it for a couple years. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Welcome.

Would you do me a favor and just introduce yourself and where you live? Yes. Michael McLaughlin, 350 Maplewood. Thanks. Welcome, Michael. I'm calling about or speaking about,

item number three. Item number three on the consent agenda. Yes, sir. Yes. Thank you.

So I'm here

not only speaking for Tandra and myself that live in Canopy, the town homes,

that are where the massage bars are at the top of the street,

but also for the other neighbors and if they'd like to speak as well.

Obviously, we had a chance to talk prior and you shared

some of the background of what you've been doing and appreciate that, Mary Wilson Yes, sir. Concern.

I think that from what we've learned, you know, the previous business was shut down,

at least one time,

was able to reopen then closed.

This is a new owner.

Obviously, we're still concerned because

we assume that some of the same type of

things that we feel or may assume could be occurring there may continue.

And I think if there's any rules that can be put in place based on what you already have or that you could do to restrict

certain first of all, hours,

if we can know that the hours were limited and not up to 11:00 as they were before because that, you know, doesn't seem from a from a neighbor's standpoint a logical

hour for a massage at 10:30 or 11:00.

That's probably the most significant,

item that we could suggest.

But if there are other things that you can do as a operation,

operationally to keep them from

continuing to be in business,

if there is anything illicit going on,

obviously, that's our as residents and,

and the town homes,

your property values, etcetera, are affected by this as well as just our you know, there are kids that live there.

Chandra's daughter lives there.

So these kinds of things we'd like to eliminate if they were possible. You're, well, we echo your sentiments. It's unconscionable that it ever occurred. That's why we're serious about it. I could tell you thank you for bringing it up because I could tell you we'll be zealous about following up on this particular business.

I could tell you, it's mister Knighton and he can actually address us better than I can. He's so much more eloquent.

But they put up with me asking questions about businesses

that that I have a question about, because I'll see a certain business and say, does that are we following up on that business?

Let me give you some specifics

though. Either David, Joe, or Jeff,

we made some changes on the ordinance that were very specific to certain conditions about or Michelle, you might even be able to address this, about what there's so many things we made on the ComDev side. We made changes about

hours. There were certain things that could not occur with the business in terms of the look. I don't remember those off the top of my head, and I apologize. But my sense is we've got those. Can we pull those up

by any chance?

Got

those? So to answer your question, Michael, it's not just police involved, it's legal team and the community development team. So all three,

because it really takes

it's interesting. One of the things it's funny you say this. One of the things we discovered in the past was a business would shut down

and then read back open. Right? And so

we had to say, we can't just do this with a police perspective. We have to do it from a community development perspective and a legal perspective to outsmart

the people who keep outsmarting the law. Right.

But I hope to give you an answer of what we did Thank you. Tangibly. But, yes.

I feel confident in telling you that, yes. No. You cannot stay open till 11:00 as a massage,

therapist

in the city of Roswell. That that I believe today is already the case. David Davidson,

our chief legal officer, hopefully, will

tell you specifically what we can't do. So they are not allowed to be open past 9PM.

Perfect.

That's good. Good. Any other things that we did, David, that you can address?

So we are we require every person that's working there to be registered with the police department. If they go in and some somebody does not have an ID,

then they can be cited and shut down.

Every person that is touching somebody,

on the on their body anywhere,

must have a massage license with the state.

Those are with the police department also. We created this conditional use where you can come and speak,

regarding it. It only goes with this,

applicant. It doesn't go with the property to where before it used to just go with the property.

So we've clamped down,

very much while trying not to disturb the legitimate massage

establishments because we have several of those also. Okay.

Good. Yes, ma'am. Customer Hills.

Two other things. The windows cannot be obstructed with anything like,

plastic,

reflective type anything or curtains. So you have to be able to see through the front window.

And

if it's is it industrial light? If it does get shut down, the property gets shut down and then it's not in

if it's in any other zone than that, it it cannot reopen.

So if we've got a CD when going on and it's in a place that we decided two and a half, three years ago to set it's it's an industrial light, wasn't it? It's good. I think It's the only place they're allowed. That are allowed to open up. To reopen it. Let's say this one has done the bad thing and they're somewhere else and they get shut down. Let me ask you a question. That that property can't be used Won't that apply to this one?

Yeah. That that's what I'm about to ask.

And then two,

the coverage of the windows, I think, would be something that we know typically

is covered. Yeah. That would be addressed. I promise. No, sir. We did not shut this one down. This one shut down due to their own business situation.

Okay.

We had shut them down a couple years ago. They filed an appeal,

and we agreed to allow them to reopen. It was a

a licensing issue and it was a minor issue that was corrected.

But the time they've closed for business was for their business purposes. We did not shut them down.

Okay. This was not one of the 23 we shut down. Thanks, chief. Thank you, sir.

Michael, thank you for coming. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for bringing your neighbors.

Please say feel feel free to stay vigilant.

If he feels like there's concerns,

keep feel free to keep contacting me. Thank you. We appreciate it. Yes, sir. Thank

you.

Yes, ma'am.

Welcome.

Leslie Albazade, 215

Maplewood. I just wanted to thank you guys for the work that you are doing in the community.

I just wanted to offer an observation

for whatever it's worth. If I am a massage

parlor,

massage therapist, whatever, and I'm a business, I would not open up a shop across the street

from another one because we're we're using we're trying to eat up the same clientele.

TBK Wellness is across the street right next to the car sale used car sales lot, and they offer massage therapy as well as other services. It's a legit place. I've

used it dozens of times. If I'm a business, why am I setting up shop across the street from them? To me, there's an alternative,

use of what that space is gonna be for. So I understand you have the laws and all the things to offer

or to follow, but there's also common sense, I think, in this respect. So as neighbors, we'll be watching and offer whatever information we can to you all because if there is something that's illicit, we absolutely don't want that in our neighborhood.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Hannah Russell. I live about a block from this establishment,

and I didn't really think I was gonna be addressing this. But I think you need to understand

Of course, you know how I feel about human trafficking and the using of women.

It happens frequently in this town.

But

as on a personal note, my car overheated

a little while back and I had to pull off the road because I couldn't drive

it. And I happened to pull into the parking lot in front of this place.

And I thought, Oh, my God. What am I gonna do? It's so damned hot.

And I walked in and this lovely person said, Of course, come in. Welcome. Would you like a cold drink? Shall we call AAA? And I said, Yes. Thank you.

She let me sit there calmly on the sofa.

Couldn't have been nicer or kinder or more professional.

And I think you need to hear those aspects of people.

And as an aside, why would a person put a business across the street from a business?

Well, why would you have two restaurants across the street from each other? Or two coffee houses? Or two bars?

Why not?

Thank thank you, miss Russell.

Alright.

Any other comments from Roswell residents

on items on the yes, ma'am?

I'm gonna assume you wanna speak on item number three on the consent agenda.

Evening. Sandy Shoemaker. 165

Maplewood Drive.

I don't understand

a business that has one owner,

one clerk,

and one masseuse. I don't see how they expect to make any money. A masseuse can only work on one customer

per thirty minutes or per hour, has to have a lunch break.

So, you know, that's one person working as a masseuse is not gonna make this place much money. So that says to me, it's going to be used for other purposes.

I believe it has been before. I believe they just haven't been caught.

And so

I hope you do continue to watch this place.

I intend myself to go up there and ask them about their business when they get started,

but I don't believe it's just massage.

Thank you. Thank you, Sandy.

Any other Rasa residents who would like to speak on the consent agenda? Yes, ma'am.

135 Maplewood Drive. Welcome, Sarah. Of course,

you know, in agreement. And I wanted to see

is there some way we could maybe see an income statement

from the business,

say, on a monthly basis and see what money's coming in and out of there. I'd just be interested because the establishment before,

there was maybe

one car

for an hour.

But there was like, no cars

Yeah. And and then one for I'm like, where where is the money coming from?

Is it would that be possible to be able to see some sort of income statement if this is going on to find out to see that it's for real?

Well, the let me answer let let me Okay. What I hear is that there's a concern about a business being open and and whether that business is gonna be legitimate.

And what I think I have I can tell you that this team has demonstrated over the last three years

was nobody talked about this before three years ago. And the reason we're we're very serious and diligent about this,

and if there's an issue, it will be remedied and taken care of. And so I'm asking you to trust me and and trust this elected group and trust the seat of leadership.

If there's an issue, you have my absolute word, it will be dealt with because I have no interest in having an illegal business

as we you can if you look through our last three years, it's been

pretty pretty loud. We've been pretty loud about this. We're in complete agreement with you. If there's an issue, that business will be shut down. We will not tolerate

a business to have illicit activity or harbinger human trafficking in any sense

underneath the massage guidelines.

And we will continue to reinvent

the remedies that we need to fight that and enforce that.

So in terms of the specifics of, like, on the financial side, can we look at the revenue stream? That that's another area that probably somebody could play games with, to be quite honest with you.

But I think what you wanna know is, hey, are you gonna take care of this business if there's an issue? And the answer is yes.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

And I'm sorry you guys have to be here concerned about it. But I really appreciate you being here, being concerned about it.

And I could tell you that Jim's team, the police is diligent.

They work undercover,

and

they hear from me. I ask I bring up questions about a massage therapy

place I'll see in the town once in a while and say, is that well legit? We go check it out. Because I have the same question sometimes. And,

we will not stop

until they're all of it's eradicated.

And we literally have been pushing them out of the city. I had like, we're literally pushing this out of the city of Roswell.

And I have told my sister cities,

John Alpharetta, Johns Creek,

no. I haven't really told Milton. They're not but it's really Alpharetta and Johns Creek. Like, if you guys don't take care of it, we're gonna take care of it for you. And and I'm deadly serious about that. And Jim can attest to that. Like, this is so I hear you loud and clear. I want you to know. It will not be untended. This is not a this is not a public statement. We will follow-up on this. You have my word.

Thank you.

Would any other Roswell residents like to speak? You guys are not gonna stay for the rest of the meeting. It gets fun.

Thank you guys.

Any other Roswell residents who like to address the consent agenda?

Yes, ma'am. Welcome, Courtney.

Is it okay if I ask a question? Of course. Okay. So, I was interested with the renovation.

By the way, Courtney, tell everybody who you are and where you live. I'm sorry. Sorry. My name is Courtney Rozier and I live at 540 Hembree Road. And I have a question regarding the renovation. Yes, ma'am.

Couple of questions actually.

So currently, I noticed that,

there's security.

Like, there used to be screening, but there's no longer any screening. That's correct. So with the renovation project, would that be reintroduced?

It would not.

Why?

Is that okay to like Of course. It's a very it's a incredibly valid question,

because I felt like the screening was putting the screeners in peril.

I didn't think it was like providing safety. I thought it was provide actually creating

potential harm for the people who were there at the the mini TSA stations. I didn't think it provided security at all. I thought it provided potential harm for people who we were paying,

per as part time security agents. I thought it was a terrible system, Courtney, that it created a false sense of security,

and I thought it actually put people in harm's way. I I couldn't get rid of that quick enough.

So, no, it won't be coming back. Feel like the patrols, like, having the police officers present in the

facility

is is sufficient then? Is that the reasoning

behind? Yes, ma'am. I do. Personally, I do. I think,

I think from a standpoint of one, the amount of cameras that are in the building,

two, the amount of security that's already on a lot of the offices in terms of access,

and three, probably most importantly,

having the police

active walking through the building to me provides better security.

And I'm just you can, you know, obviously, people disagree with this and I so you can have two senses of the equation. I don't like false senses of security

to create that you're paying for. And so I was I couldn't get rid of that quick enough to be quite honest with you. Yes, ma'am. Because it's fairly normal, like, when you go into the courts. And I think if Courts are different. Going to the courts. Yes, ma'am. Courts are still active. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Understand. Okay.

My other question has to do with sustainability.

And just

within the project, is there

plans

or part of the project plans

have any sustainability,

like

reducing waste, what goes to the infill

since I'm assuming there'd be a lot of tearing out.

Are there also plans about what happens with the furniture and how that might be reused or repurposed?

Yeah. Jeff is the visionary

visionaire

visioneer

behind this along with Sharon. So the two senior vice presidents have kinda been behind this.

And Sharon, I don't know if you wanna put yourself

in the in the frying pan as well, but Jeff is the one that's kind of principle behind this. Courtney, he could probably address this better than I can. Sure. So,

as part of just the overall project components, we are changing out the lighting system.

If you've been downstairs

in the downstairs portion of our building, only one side of it has windows on it. So trying to essentially create a lot of natural light within that space. So we'll be using a lot of glass, glass walls, glass windows, as well as raising the ceiling,

providing,

and retrofitting the light completely. So that'll be to today's standard as far as light light consumption and energy energy consumption.

As far as tearing out buildings or tearing out portions of the walls,

we do,

where we can recycle materials at a recycling center. Where we can't, they are diverted into landfill, but we do make a conscious effort as part of our projects,

to divert, material and equipment where possible.

As it relates to furniture, we are in a massive,

I would say philosophical approach of reusing our furniture probably to beyond and well beyond its useful life around the city. A 100%. It gets passed down from office to office to the field and to the point where it barely holds on and kinda just crumbles.

So you can't really get much more useful life out of the furniture that we have, in and around the city. And I'll let Sharon answer any other questions she may wanna add to. Do you wanna address any of the sustainability pieces?

No. I think that's fine. Okay.

K.

Courtney, thank you.

Mayor. Yes, ma'am.

Courtney, I also wanna tell you that I went on a a big, campaign last year to replace this the chairs in our two,

conference rooms, and they were the original and second batch chairs from this dais.

They were not cute. I'll also tell you there's a lot of repurposed furniture that's sitting in the council chambers, in our offices

and the, legal

office, it's like sitting in a bucket with an old granny's pillow on top of it in those chairs. I mean, I'm pretty tall and I'm sitting like this. These things are from, the stone ages. So there is a lot of repurpose,

but I am an advocate of having comfortable and appropriate chairs in the right places for our our guests and people that we're talking with for doing business in the city of Roswell. So that's why the the conference rooms were important to me, and I think they've been well received. But, yes, ma'am. We are absolutely reusing

furniture around here. But thank you for your question.

Thank you so much. David.

Yes, sir. After a 18 mile bike ride yesterday, I'm very grateful for my my chair today. So

Yes, sir.

Thank you, mayor. I I would like to sort of bring back to why we're actually doing this renovations because we haven't talked about that at all, really. We've talked about everything but that. But the real purpose of this is to

make the access to the government services you need better and easier to accomplish. It's really to open it all up. It's well thought out. It's to funnel people where they need to go, shorten the line, remove the glass walls, make it much more of a conversational,

much more of a,

in user friendly environment. That's the real purpose. And I think we should focus on that because that's a big change in our government right there. Shortening the Com Dev process,

concierge service at the comm dev, those kinds of things. That's what this is really about.

Well said. Thank you. Because it's it's it's about making your building work for you. Exactly.

Any other thoughts or comments

on the consent

agenda?

Yes, ma'am, Cat?

This is a consent agenda. Which item are we gonna address now?

Okay.

Cat Plant, 100 Lake Prince Court. I just have a quick question about the renovation because I do agree that it's

city hall is not set up in a way that is user friendly

at all. I come here way more than anybody I know,

and I never know which door I need to go to, like, when I need to pay my

my, you know, business license and all that kind of stuff. But I am I had not heard about this until it was announced

Two weeks ago? Two weeks ago? Yes, ma'am. So I know you said that it was

in the works for years, but I haven't heard about it. But where, what part of the budget does that come from? The consent agenda? No. Not the consent agenda. The renovation Sorry. My mind's sorry about that, Kat.

Jeff, how we we encumbered this money where in the budget?

Just FYI.

So we've been working on this project for the last couple of years. We've been encumbering this money over three budget cycles,

to fund the renovation. So we've been putting a little bit of savings away in the fiscal year twenty four budget,

the twenty four six month budget, and a little bit in the '25 budget to shore up the total capital improvements that were necessary as we're going through the plan. Under budget right now. So this budget this budget, cap of the 01/24 to 01/04/2017

is below what we had proposed when we started working on this a couple of years ago. Capital improvement says the Yeah. The section.

But the it's been we've been setting it aside out of the,

budget of '24,

the six month budget of '24, and the FY '25 budget. In capital. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Would any of the Roswell residents like to address the consent agenda?

Thank you so much. I'll bring it back to council,

for any additional thoughts or questions on the consent agenda.

If they're not, I'll ask is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Takes a motion by council member David Johnson. Is there a motion seconded by council member Ellen Sells? All in favor of approving the consent agenda, please show by raising your hands. Let the record show that the consent agenda passes unanimously

six to zero. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Next is the regular agenda. I'm gonna ask council member Will Mortland

to read the item under economic development. Council member Mortland.

First item under the regular agenda, approval of an ordinance to amend chapter 22, traffic and motor vehicles,

article three, parking restrictions,

section seven, to establish and regulate designated areas of the city for paid parking of the code of ordinances

of the city of Roswell. First reading presented by Jeff Leatherman. Thanks so much, Will.

Alright. This will be read by our chief legal officer, city attorney David Davidson. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, mayor. This is an ordinance to amend chapter 22, traffic and motor vehicles, article three, parking restrictions, section seven, authority of the mayor and council to establish and regulate designated areas

of the city for paid parking of of the code of ordinances of the city of Roswell.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of the City Of Roswell, pursuant to their authority, do hereby adopt the following amendment and new code section.

Chapter 22, traffic and motor vehicles, article three, parking

restrictions. Section seven, authority of the mayor and council to establish and regulate designated areas

of the city

or paid on street parking. And chapter 22,

traffic and motor vehicles, article three, parking restrictions.

Section eight, enforcement of paid parking,

the code of ordinances of the city of Roseville, Georgia

are hereby amended by deleting said sections and replacing said sections

with a new section

twenty two point three point seven, authority of the mayor and council

to establish and regulate designated areas of the city for paid parking. And section twenty two point three point eight, enforcement of paid parking, which shall read as shown in exhibit a, attached here to incorporate here in by reference and have approved this to be the first reading.

Thank you so much, David. Davidson, city attorney and chief legal officer.

At this time, I think we're gonna ask our senior vice president,

Jeff Leatherman, to present the item. Jeff, welcome.

Thank you, sir. And, just wanna run through a couple of items as it relates to our downtown parking action plan.

I had previously anticipated kind of running through these slides relatively quickly, but we continue to receive some questions about how parking will be implemented in,

this year's budget, especially related to the Green Street parking deck. And so I'm gonna slow down in the first couple of slides just so anybody that's watching

or comes back to watch the video,

is clear about what we're taking action on tonight,

that is in the ordinances that mister Davidson has read, that we're taking the first reading tonight and also then the second reading at our next meeting.

Economic development strategy is very important to the city of Roswell. We've talked about it a number of times.

We want to be clear that we are here working on parking for a variety of reasons,

variety of reasons to support business, to support future economic development, to support parking,

as a strategy for the city of Roswell. And these ordinance revisions are here to support that as well. We are limiting the ordinance revisions just to a

couple of areas in the downtown

district. They're gonna be around Canton Street, Elizabeth Way, East Alley. And as part of this ordinance reading, we've also added the Old Mill Park parking lot

as a potential future strategy for how we're managing

crowds and other people in and around, the visitation of that park.

As we think about what's coming into the future of our economic development strategy specific to downtown,

we see and we'll talk about the Hill Street development at our next agenda item. Also, our West Alley Hotel and the Chambray Hotel, just to name two projects that have been working its way through

our economic development process in the downtown district that will put further constraints

in and around parking in our downtown.

And we need to deliver a strategy to our residents, to our businesses, and to our community that support the ongoing business development and parking and getting people in and out of businesses is one of those priorities

of our economic development strategy.

We've gone through a lot of information, and I won't read or go over these five bullet points, on this slide and the next one. Other to say that I wanna reemphasize that we are not talking about the Green Street parking deck at this time from a policy perspective.

That will be reserved for down the road. We're on a schedule, and our CIP team is doing a great job for May of twenty twenty six. So we will have an opportunity

to talk further about strategy.

What we on the economic development team need to

need

to deliver to

the policy makers into the community is the technology that's available

for those future strategies. What does license plate readers potentially bring to the system that we can implement for resident versus nonresident parking? What does the technology gathering,

do for us as an economic development strategy? All of those will be coming into the future as we think about the Green Street parking deck, but also will be thought about and considered and are considered as part of our Hill Street strategy.

And then we are working on right now,

the update, which is number five to the parking ordinances

specific again, and I'll reiterate, Canton Street, Elizabeth Way, East Alley. Those are areas that since 02/2019,

we've had the ability to charge for parking. We haven't had the enforcement capacity within our ordinances

to enforce people that choose or have not paid in the past.

We know now that we don't get payment from everybody that parks in those locations, and this enforcement,

this authority

will be granted if this passes the second reading.

So as mister Davidson went over, first part of this is we are amending our parking ordinances

to allow and regulate designated areas. Again, I've already outlined the areas. I won't go over them again. We are establishing a maximum citation amount of $20 to for a failure to pay for the parking.

And then there's two resolutions right behind that that we continue to allow and regulate parking at the three locations listed. We've added Old Mill Park as a parking lot for future consideration,

as well as the ability for the city administrator to set our fees with a maximum limit of $5 per hour set in this resolution

that will escalate annually over the course of the years. We continue to implement our strategy

long term.

Just wanted to go over those finer points. Thank you for the time and be happy to answer any questions as you may have them.

That's it? That's it. Alright.

Alright. Does council have any thoughts, comments, or questions,

on this item?

Very good. Thank you. I'll ask if any Roswell residents have any thoughts

or comments or questions on this item. Yes, ma'am.

Janet.

Uh-huh.

Overhead screen.

But, this is about parking, and I found oh, I'm so sorry.

I found this interesting article that I thought would give you some historical perspective.

The title is

Roswell Merchants Upset About Losing Parking.

It's from the Roswell neighbor, May seventh of nineteen eighty.

Let that sink in.

This is a picture

of the historic

part of Roswell Park

before it was the park.

Before when I moved here, the cars weren't quite that old, but it was a dirt lot that was a parking lot.

Just keep it in mind. Got it?

People have been bitching and complaining about parking on Canton Street since May seventh of nineteen eighty, and here we are in 2025.

And I just thought you might like to know that Roswell's Canton Street merchants favor the making of a parking lot out of their triangle parking,

but are upset that planners want to eliminate parking spaces and use a contemporary rather than historic sign.

The property totaling six tenths of an acre at, guess where, Elizabeth Way in Canton Street, I think we just heard that, didn't we?

Was donated to the Roswell with the stipulation that it be named the Marion Arthur and Mary Norvell Smith Memorial Park

after the donors.

When I moved here, it was a dirt lot with rusty pickup trucks and water in it.

The area merchants were assured.

Pug Mabry then began about seven years ago, that would be 1973,

negotiating with the Smiths. The city indicated it would spend $50,000

to develop the property.

Mabry said that the development would now exceed a 100,000.

Sounds familiar too, exceeding budgets.

The next fiscal budget and exact funds for the park have not been approved.

The park, the mayor said, is to be in conjunction with the widening of Highway 9 from Sloane Street to Holcomb Bridge. By the way, that never happened.

Sloane Street is the square. The road was never widened to Holcomb Bridge

since 1980.

We're still waiting.

Several months ago, Mabry appointed a committee to plan the park with the merchants. We gotta get those merchants in there.

Harold Smith, a former city councilman, was appointed by Mabry to be the chair, and they list a whole bunch of people who were on the committee. And they got a firm who submitted a proposal for a whopping $7,000.

They wrote a two page proposal and sent it to the mayor.

And Zachary Henderson, who was a noted architect who actually designed the area around the Faces Of War Memorial and his office was on Canton Street, said I never got a phone call from anybody.

Henderson said he donated the plans for the historic Roswell Square

in 1976.

He hired to do he was the landscape architect was designed to hire for planners and engineers.

There are feelings that it's a predawn conclusion

that many of the 36 merchants in the area say they agree with. There were 36 merchants in nineteen

nineteen eighty.

Don Talbert and Doc Staple said 26 merchants met and voted against the plans.

The plan calls for parking itself for no parking.

In addition, they said seven to 10 spaces would be designated on the West Side Of Canton Street, South of Elizabeth Way. Don't these names all sound familiar? Elizabeth Way? East Alley?

Hello?

At least 50 parking spaces would be eliminated when the parking lot is debt landscaped. Remember, that's the parking lot.

They didn't want it to be landscaped.

I think there was some sort of controversy on the West Side Of Canton Street. You know where that is,

where we wanted to make a promenade.

That area is not included in the plans.

Parking provided would be 23 parallel sides on both sides of Elizabeth Way. That would be additional spaces on the East Side Of Canton Street.

That area, it said, I think there was some sort of controversy on the West Side Of Canton Street. That area is not included in the plan.

He awaited feedback from the merchants. The planners are waiting on the final draft, very minor changes.

It would eliminate one or two more spaces.

In addition,

it said would be eliminating a couple of spaces.

And I just wanted you to know that the beat goes on.

Forty five years later, we're still beating it up about parking on precious Canton Street.

Roswell is 42 square miles. It's time to get our act together and concentrate our efforts in other places

besides

Canton Street.

Thank you, Janet.

Other Roswell residents that would like to address,

the first item here on the regular agenda?

Courtney, are you yes, ma'am.

Welcome.

I'm Courtney Rozier. I live at 540 Hembree Road. Based on the January 13 council meeting, there was no formal parking policy at that time. The The formal parking policy was

to be worked on at a retreat and then it would be presented at a public meeting. I believe it is a reasonable expectation from the January 13 meeting that the full policy would have been published in a public meeting with residents at all,

at all historic district business owners would have been held before mayor and council moved this vote forward to start implementing parking policy changes.

Therefore, I ask that the following occur before council votes to begin implementing parking policy changes.

Publish a full formal parking policy.

Hold a comment period.

Host a publicized public meeting, preferably a town hall where questions submitted in the comment period and those asked by the audience are

answered. And all historic business and all historic district business owners should be allowed to speak in order to respond to the formal policy since it was not available January 13.

Then I believe the video and the QA should be posted prior to mayor and council starting to vote and implement the parking policy changes.

I believe this process will provide transparency to say there was due diligence to inform public prior to mayor and council starting to implement

parking policy changes.

I believe these are important changes to be discussed.

Now parking is essentially free everywhere even in paid parking areas because it's free or a dollar per hour for the first two hours seven days per week with no enforcement.

And with enforcement, the community will pay twice for parking in these areas. Areas. First, when our taxes from the general fund are used for parking maintenance and operations, and second, when paying parking fees. Because the exemption is only being discussed in relation to the parking deck and there is no guarantee the exemption will be implemented or how long it will last. There is no language in the ordinance or resolutions that would guarantee the funds from the revenues will be restricted to use for parking maintenance and operation

and no longer be paid from the general fund.

Changes in these ordinances and resolutions are also important as they remove the on street paid parking limitation, which opens the door to add the parking deck and city hall as designated paid parking

areas in the future.

Begin to add city parks as paid designated parking areas

even though there is no immediate plan to implement paid parking at Old Mill Park and water access is still closed.

Changes to the dynamic rate schedules

that can also be activated and changed with no further community input or vote by mayor and council. And there is no mention in these policy changes that there is a daily maximum

or free hours like there is now, nor is it clear how employees will or will not be impacted

as one owner expressed concerns about employee safety walking to city hall at night. And I have a feeling employees will be looking for jobs where they don't have to pay for parking, possibly creating employee shortages.

The changes also allow an annual maximum increase above the Federal Reserve's 2% inflation goal with no requirement for public input or notice if rate changes.

The city just published the fiscal year twenty four reports that its finances are strong, which should indicate that there is no immediate financial reason for this vote to enforce change or expand this tax and revenue stream without first presenting the full formal parking policy,

having a public meeting with both residents and businesses, and publishing the Q and A. If there is an immediate need for enforcement and start testing technology,

why not just add twenty two point three point eight for enforcement

rate resolution for a limited period and then survey residents?

So I asked city council members to reconsider voting on these changes until the mayor and council

publish the full parking policy,

hold a comment, a comment period,

host a public meeting with both businesses and residents,

preferably a town hall,

and publish the q and a's. And again, I think it's important all historic district business owners be invited to speak at the public meeting since standard practice as business owners who are not residents are not able to speak at canceled meetings so they may not be here tonight? Thank you.

Thank you, Courtney.

Let me just say a couple of things. I can address a couple of policy issues.

There will not be

paid parking in any of the parks.

Like, you could just take that off, like, and tell there's there's no need for a policy discussion on that. It's never gonna happen. Except for Old Mill Park. Except for Old Mill Park. With one exception. Okay. With Old Mill Park. So I can just I can clear the record up right now. There's not gonna be paid parking in any of the parks except for Old Mill Park, including Woodstock. Like, I've heard Woodstock, like, the Woodstock There are yeah. There's one I always wonder about. I'm not No no paid parking there. I can tell you without

exception. That's not gonna happen.

There was something else I was gonna share with you. Something that could be built in, like, as an exception

because No. No. There's let's just say that with another mayor and council But that that that could have happened That can always Courtney, that can That'd be because you would come up with the schedule. But Courtney, on a policy, American council can always change it. Like, you're just not I can't this council, I can't

we can't preclude a future. Let's say you get elected to city council and, you know, this year or two years or four years or mayor, and you say, I'm gonna change things by guard and you get, you know, you get you get your council together and you say, you know what? We're gonna change that policy that stupid mayor,

Kurt Wilson did. I hate that policy and we're gonna change it. By all means, I can't preclude you from doing that. So that's always a possibility. A policy can always change. People saying no additional parks

because

people would or I guess it would have to come

before canceled. 100%. And then and because there's the list of designated parking areas that have to be changed. If I could like, it's exactly That's fair. We don't have the power to say you can never charge your parking. What we can say is there will be no parking there will be no charge for parking in parks in the city of Roswell,

except for Old Mill Park.

And what you may see is what they're trying to figure out through the technology.

Oh, yeah. Thanks. So that's what I forgot. City hall, it's not on the table. Let me just go and say that. So city hall, there will not be a charge for parking. Was in the December presentation. There was but they were just they were ruminating as they were going through different strategies.

And so they were putting lots of things on the table. There was a part of one part of the the parking plan is pretty detailed and long. There's a lot of potential pieces in there. But, yeah, let me just take that off the table since you brought it up. City hall will be free,

and your parks will be free with exception of Old Mill Park.

But you're gonna see I mean, this group ruminates a lot of different things. They try to keep the box open and they try to keep thinking out of the box and, like, they're trying to figure out, like, hey. We have all this money that we spend in resources towards our parks.

But,

you know, some places, there's a predominant number of non Roswell residents that are using the parks. And so Roswell residents are subsidizing the parks. They don't wanna do that through parking, but they do wanna figure out how through technology. How do I get how does I make sure the Roswell resident

gets use of a park beside head before a nonresident?

Like, that's something that's a fair discussion. Right? Why should you subsidize,

somebody coming from Forsyth County

to use your park when you and you can't get into the park?

And so I think that's why you've probably seen some of the broadening discussion. You're trying to find different ways to find solutions to that. But let me just

say, I can tell you there'll be no charging for parking for Roswell residents in the any of the park city,

Roswell parks. And that includes Old Mill Park, does it not? The strategy that you've got. Right? That's Old Mill Park as well. City Roswell residents are gonna pay anything. That's what I understood. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the Because I thought the exemptions were only for, being discussed

parking deck.

Old Mill Park?

Well, Old Mill Park so I just so two things. One is, we're not gonna charge for parking that's not on the table today in our parks,

except for Old Mill Park. But what I'll make sure is there's a distinction. Roswell residents are not gonna pay for parking in Oak Mill Park.

But

how would you con are you not then going to roll out

a parking

until there is the technology?

So that's kinda what this is. So we're not rolling out paid parking because paid parking is already in existence.

But you are expanding it into old so my question Old Mill is the only Old Mill is the only exception that but back to this to this point, which you made that that brilliant speech on.

Right? The only thing that's relevant is from my mind is we're not changing anything. We're just creating the ability for the police

and legal, the city administrator,

and his team to enforce the policy that's already on the books, which is Elizabeth Way, Can Street,

and what's the third one? Sorry. Forgot it. But you could do that with just adding twenty two point three point eight. I'm sorry? You could do that. If if the concern is primarily

enforcement,

then you could do that through twenty two point three point 8. Now you do have to amend '20 2.30.7

to add Old Mill Park. But I guess part of what I was asking is

for based on your comments with Old Mill Park,

is

the intention

not to roll out paid parking

in Old Mill Park until the technology is developed

to exempt residents. Because otherwise,

how would residents not be charged So there's a lot of different Park. So

I appreciate the question.

Because I think what I heard from you was, Kurt, lay out the entire policy.

Well, yes. That's And so and part of and part of your question But that is part of the follow-up though in the conversation we're having. We are trying the very first thing we're trying to do, two things.

Just simply say, you already got a paid parking policy on the books, just enforce it.

And in conjunction with that, we are not trying to solve for all of Old Mill. We're trying to solve for part of Old Mill. I would like to solve for Old Mill today. I don't have the technology ready to solve for all of oatmeal.

So this is the first step in cell for it's first step. It's not the total step. So I can't answer your question in totality. It's a good question, but I can't give you the total answer yet. Kinda like, hey, man, Kurt. Please tell me the whole policy. I

can't give it to you yet because we're still cooking. And by the way, Jeff was saying and Jeff and Jeff and Jeff

and Jeff and the team have been meeting routinely

with the Canton Street businesses.

Like, there's we're seeking out their opinion big time. Like, we wanna know what they think. He's meeting with them.

We we're at their disposal.

Honestly, we're at their disposal to find out

solutions that will work for everybody. Hopeful if we all meet together so that we're all getting the same I've been to two of those,

what you call them? Public or Those two of those public things. I held two of those on the Canton Street Promenade.

I didn't find those particularly productive.

I found those kind of a one way affair

for people to come be angry

and make a lot of claims and narrative about narratives and facts that weren't true. I didn't find them helpful. And I'm a public servant, and I'm trying to serve the public. I'm trying to serve the public. So I'm trying to serve the public, and all I'm doing is being accused

of irrational narratives and lies and corruption and all kinds of I didn't find that helpful. I didn't find that a prod I didn't I didn't find that a particularly useful process. I found it counterproductive.

So But I think that could be though preempted

if there was a full parking policy published.

But but that's what we're working on, Courtney. I mean, we I realize that but we're also starting to make votes and I A vote on existing That is There's an existing policy.

This is an existing policy. So it's to change the narrative. Change. That's why you're having to change the policy. So we can enforce an existing policy.

Can I just be clear on I I think so I've I've given the presentation, and I just wanna be clear for a couple of things? So this is the third time that we've had a conversation about parking and where we're headed with parking,

over the course of the last two months. I've been at this diocese and our committee meeting, and we've been very clear with the community about limiting our park our policy parking conversation to the existing footprint

with the exception of Old Mill Park. Old Mill Park, we have some unique challenges at that location right now. And I think we all are are relatively aware for those of us that are paying attention to the community, the tremendous amount of influx of people that we have coming into a very small neighborhood, into a very small parking lot. And so we are trying to give ourselves some latitude that as we're able to discover what technology is potentially available to us, we can act on that with relative speed and quickness. And and to be clear about your earlier question, we are not intending to charge Roswell residents at Old Mill Park. That's not part of our strategy.

We've been very public about that. I've said that a number of times just here at the dias and along with with council.

As you start to lay out a parking policy,

what you're gonna find is is that there is uniqueness in the downtown corridor, in our Mid Midtown corridor, and expanding into our East Roswell corridor that we haven't even begun to unpack as we think about the economic development strategy moving forward. We rolled out our parking plan that we had in the December,

and this council has been very clear about walking that plan back and limiting it just to the areas around the downtown corridor so that we can continue the discovery process and the implementation

process moving forward.

We have met with our resident or our businesses along Canton Street. We're having monthly meetings with them right now, and I rolled this out to them well before I even went to committee to make sure that they were clear on what exactly we're trying to accomplish, which is just the policies that we have in place.

We have realized in working with council,

that we've got some ordinance cleanup and some resolution

cleanup that were necessary,

to have the right policy framework moving forward.

That was a combination of how do we set fees moving forward, how do we set locations moving forward, and doing that by resolution is the most appropriate way, not binding those within the ordinance structure

policies so that we could be clear with the community where they applied and how we were gonna move forward. So And I just want to clarify one other thing in regards to

best enforcement

to the current parking policy.

The resolutions are also gonna be changing the rate

and is to that dynamic model.

And there are some things that I think are are valid that I pointed out in my comments in regards to that. There's currently daily maximums

whereas there's not gonna be

maximums

in the, resolution.

There's also for the annual increase,

that

4%

that's in the resolution.

It can be implemented

no

notice.

So based on the resolution language, since there's nothing baked in there.

Yeah. Let me just respond. So to be clear to Roswell residents, anybody that that respond or that comes down to the downtown corridor, we will be implementing a dynamic

parking management to support other businesses.

It's important that we're turning parking spaces at the front doors of our businesses

so that they can maximize their profit. They can maximize their table turn. They can maximize,

if they're, cutting hair or if they're selling art, that they've got places that people can park in front of their businesses. It's I don't think any surprise right now that people camp out for the entire day. They don't pay for parking and have the potential to

impact negatively businesses in our downtown district. And that is really what we're trying to accomplish is how do we best support businesses.

We will have a dynamic pricing model.

It will be based on demand, but we have put limitations in place. It's not much different than right now. If you come to our the paid lots that are not controlled by the city of Roswell, some days you pay $5, some days you pay $10.

It depends on the demand that we have in the downtown area, and that's driven by the market.

And you won't know until you show up.

We will continue to work, with our businesses, with the residents to set those appropriate fee schedules based on the demand. We don't have the intention right now to be changing that. We're just working on how does this framework function within the city. And then we'll be looking at our demand models to understand how do we continue to turn parking at a reasonable rate to support our businesses. Did you say that there's personally they don't know Courtney, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. No. I and I do appreciate you

making this statement about the parks in City Hall. Thank you, ma'am. I really appreciate you saying that, Courtney. Thank you.

Yes,

ma'am. Daryl. Welcome, Daryl.

Daryl O'Hare. I live at Arbor Creek,

in Roswell in their twenty seven years.

Why aren't the resolutions

up for us to see? Because I know are we are y'all voting on those two resolutions tonight?

They won't be adopted until after the ordinances are adopted. It's the first reading. And the second reading. Right. Okay. So may I Sorry. One out. I don't have

the only thing there are a couple of things I have.

One of them,

it says that whereas the mayor and council of 2019

agreed to according to ordinance and section and whatever.

And then the next sentence on this not this one. It's the other ordinance. Sorry.

Says

something like we will get whereas

because of that, but the next one will get rid of that. So I was a little confused about that statement.

I thought that these would be

available during this meeting for everybody to see what's

in

the

resolution

so that

we know what y'all are going to change, you know, by resolution.

Am I making sense? Yes, ma'am. Okay. And then,

just a spelling error on one of them.

On the seventh paragraph, on the resolution to establish parking fees for parking operations within the city of Roswell,

further in the last, it is further resolved. It's been spelled, but I don't know. I thought that was being voted on tonight, so I put that out.

But,

in that one, it says whereas

on 08/12/2019,

it brings up

the resolution of 02/2744

and then further resolve that that shall be repealed.

So based on it,

does it I'm getting confused by the language of it. Whereas, we're using that,

but we're going to

further resolve that we're gonna get rid of what we brought up as whereas.

That doesn't make any sense

from my I mean, not for y'all. Just, I'm having a hard time with it. The other thing that I'm concerned about is that

I understand that we have the particular areas mapped out that you've mentioned. There is a verbal agreement that we won't use the city hall, the public parks.

I hope the community center,

cultural arts center

It's not a verbal agreement. I'm telling you, it's not gonna happen. Okay. Well, yeah. And,

the cultural arts center, I'm assuming would be included in that as well, but I don't know.

I'm sure there's other the other thing that I'm worried about is

when

some of the,

historical properties and museums

end up having parking there, will that also be paid? I'm concerned about the parking areas that are to be built in those areas too, but I don't know if that cover is covered under this particular section. Daryl, which pieces are you concerned about? I'm sorry.

Sorry.

The resolutions

themselves,

they're not put up here. I thought y'all were actually talking about the language of the resolutions

tonight. Wait. Is that what she's talking about? Yeah. Does that need to be put up on the board?

No. They're not being discussed tonight. They're not being discussed tonight? Okay. It's on the it's on the agenda packet tonight, so that's why I am,

and I had them only because I pulled them up from that's why I was confused. They weren't up. So

In other words, we're not voting on it. You're not voting on it tonight? Yes, ma'am. The language could be different

next time?

You're saying we're not clear on our language, which is fair?

If I if I hear you right?

Yeah. I apologize.

Yes. Those those are the two. So the first one here in that one,

okay. So those ordinances

sorry. Yep.

The ordinances, the way they are drafted,

once they are adopted, the these resolutions will follow because they relate back to those ordinances that will be adopted after the second reading. So they can't become, I guess, official ordinances until after the second reading. So the resolutions

follow those ordinances

be because they relate back to them and the resolutions are allowed by those ordinances. So it's a it's a sort of procedural

mechanism, if that makes sense. Sorry for the So is tonight the ordinance actual change?

So it it's the first reading? There has to be first reading, second reading, and then it's adopted. Thank Yeah. Thank you. That's where I was I've been reading the resolutions and thinking that that was actually being voted on tonight. So therefore, I was thinking that how do we have that without the ordinances

and got a little confused.

And I was able to give you a spelling check. So that was What you had a question you had another question though. I think the other question was really You had a question that I think I didn't I didn't wanna bypass It was something that you were asking about parking in one particular place. Cultural arts center was one of the areas that I was thinking about. The other thing is that there will be additional parking being added to the, historical,

properties and museums that we have.

And,

just wanna make sure that those

are

parking is sort of an additional issue with those to me.

And then with the

technology package, the only thing I do have a concern about is how will people's,

cars be monitored and just,

safety protocols about how you use people's,

licenses and stuff like that for things. I I think the technology is already there, but not sure it's always

notifying the public that it's out there like we do in the speed zone. So

thank you. Have a good night. Thank you, Daryl.

Other, Roswell residents?

Yes, sir?

Welcome, Roman.

I address again? No, sir.

Thank you, though.

I personally was a little bit, getting information

about the parking since

since last year was on the budget that we'll have 1,000 parking spots

and charge $6 per

parking spot, and we'll have 1,000.

So this is

very good information because we've been talking we have 400

spot parking here around the city,

and we've been saying, oh, I'm coming to the meeting. I need to pay parking.

It was an was unknown. So I thank you very much that we can park here for free.

Yes, sir.

A question. How many parking

spots are involved?

I could give you a specific number because it's not many.

It's eighty four eighty seven. I'm sorry. I should know the time number at top of my head.

Okay. So I believe that we'll be unable to have already 1,000 spots. Or if we remove the 400 around the city, it'll be only 600 spots. We had a budget for parking, and I think this is very important

that the revenue will be 2,200,000.0.

But I definitely said it will never happen.

Do we have any plan

where the additional

parking from the 84 to get to high numbers?

Well, this

the kinda Courtney is asking about the overall parking plan. I think you're asking about the overall parking plan. That is not we're not prepared to present that to you because we're still working on it. This is really just simply saying on the where there's a current policy about

paid parking,

we would like to create the ability for the city to be able to enforce that. That is really what that's what that's what tonight is about. And in addition,

adding the ability to create a parking mechanism

at Old Mill Park

because we have some challenges there that we need to address and they're they're timely.

Do I understand that you're going to charge $5

per hour for parking?

No, sir.

Maximum. So I can park

four hours and pay $5. Right? It is unknown at this time because we haven't set the

Oh, thank you very much. Thank you, brother. It's unknown like it was before unknown. That's fair.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, ma'am. Kat,

welcome. Do me a favor. This time, would you tell everybody your name and where you live in Roswell?

I didn't get your first time.

At plan, I still live at 100 Lake Pines Court.

Can you tell me if since we talked about what the maximum per hour would be and what the maximum increase would be,

is

at what point will we say what the

maximum

well, at the committee meeting, you mentioned your story about Athens and how,

the police chief was trying to

scan the system.

And so the

periods of time reset,

will that be

presented

like the hourly maximum?

It's a good question. It's a good question.

So right now in the ordinance, the fine is limited to the $20. There's no,

repeatable offense of every hour that fine renews.

That still can be something that has changed between the first and the second reading. In conversations with the council, that would really be that is our only discussion from,

policy making perspective, that we've talked about and that has the potential to change between the first and the second reading is still understanding. I think the reality is is we want people to

pay for parking, to not violate our parking requirements.

Of course, if we need to, we will issue citations. That is not our preference. It's not what we want to do. And so we're trying to find the right balance between welcoming and supporting our businesses, but also

having the enforcement capacity when and where necessary,

but not to the point where,

it's so egregious that people feel frustrated about coming and visiting and supporting our businesses here in the city of Roswell. So there's a a fine line there that we're trying to balance, and the policymakers

have the challenge of trying to thread that needle, frankly. I have the same question, Kat.

Yeah. I want you being all sneaky on that one. I I would like to know if that would be, like, something that would be

something that would be as part of the dynamic thing. Like, is that something that could vary

where, you know, like,

on

today,

it's if you, you know, every two hours it resets, but on Friday night, it's every 40 five minutes,

you know? Like, but I do I would like to say that I did really appreciate that y'all are have taken note of what is going on at a certain place that has certain lots of people upset about parking because I would hate for that to happen

citywide

because it's bad. Like,

they have ruined their reputation.

I don't wanna do that. So anyways, you don't have to answer

agree. Like, what is the period and what is the reset?

I think your example of Jim Conroy and I is a great example. And I really do have that question. I'd we that is

we didn't wanna present it to you tonight because it wasn't agreed upon. So we presented tonight the things that basically were agreed upon. That one is still in discussion. I think it will be presented. I think you'll see it on the second reading, but that's my guess. I could be wrong about that. It really depends upon the rest of the electeds and what they think. But yeah. Because I think you have to address that because somebody can game the system and then therefore, it's kinda counterproductive to what you're doing. Right. Yep. I have the same question. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Any other Roswell residents that would like to address,

item

one on the regular agenda?

I appreciate everybody's thoughts and comments very much. Thank you. Bring it back to council for any additional thoughts. Council member sales?

I would like to thank miss Russell for doubling the amount of data we have on parking on Canton Street with one picture.

Yeah. That's that's that's that's like I mean, the part the whole purpose of this,

is that we need the data to make the policy, and I appreciate that. I I wish you could've gotten their plates, like, how many of them for from Cobb County. Because, you know, we talk about this, and we talk about it all the time about we we think that some 75%

of the people on Canton Street are from outside of Roswell, but we really have no way to know that. And so this is about taking that first step

to try to to find out what we got. And the city council

took the bold, bold step to,

put put paid parking but not enforce it a few years ago. And so we're finally, finally doing that.

But the data is really what it's all about. You know? That's that's what we're doing this for. And and I I you know, we call we call it economic development, but obviously based on that article and the one that Scott Long brought in the next, last time we were talking about this. This is a quality of life issue. It's not just economic development. So we're trying to fix a problem that has been

in the press at least two times in eight 1980

and, then mister Long brought one from 1996 or '97, I wanna say. This has been going on for a long, long time and so finally, we're doing something about it. And Jeff, I appreciate your hard work on it, my friend.

Thank you, Allen. Customer Johnson.

So my in laws come to my house to watch my kids two days a week, and my favorite mother-in-law,

told me this story.

He volunteers at the Inman Park Festival every year, or not volunteer, helps with a friend or the vendor. I don't really know.

But she had a park.

And so

she goes to park, and it's $25

And that was on Saturday.

Vendor, aren't you? And she goes, yes. He's like, I should be charging you a $100.

Because you're taking up a spot from a customer

coming to the festival. And and I this guy is like the prime parking so customers vendors are parking there, not the customers.

And I say that to say, when

mister Davidson comes from Cobb County and parks,

or sorry,

Cherokee County,

and parks in on Canton Street

and stays there for six hours. And I come from East Roswell, and I can't find a parking spot, and I get frustrated and drive back over to East Roswell

and, you know, the restaurant over there because I can't find a parking spot. This is why we're charging for parking. Because

another example is I was meeting a constituent for lunch at

some restaurant on Kent Street, and I was trying to pull into Elizabeth Way to find a parking spot because I was running late, and typically I just park at City Hall and walk.

And,

we go with the flow restaurant was in construction,

and there were seven trucks there

taking up the spots.

Right? And I guarantee you, they were not paying for parking.

And so my point on this is saying, guys, we gotta develop churn, and that's gonna help the restaurants. If we

Canton Street business. You might not think so, but there's already paid parking in Roswell. Okay? If you're going out, you're going out to one of these lovely restaurants, and you're spending a $150,

$200, and you're coming from Cherokee County or Cobb County or whatever county, you're not gonna care about paying $10 at Twelve Oaks. You're gonna pay. You know, it's not even a a thought process in your mind. It's just part of going out to dinner that night. You know? So it and if employees need a place to park, the West not, the old Wells Fargo spot is toll free. We're not charging there. They can park there if they want to. And another thing I wanted to just say,

you know, as far as accessibility that the Canton Street business owners have, the owner of Deep Roots has my cell phone number. The owner of Grace's Plenty has my cell phone number. The owner of a stairment tone and table main has my cell phone number. The owner of 1920 has my cell phone number.

I can't think of it. The other

there's numerous businesses

on Canton Street that have my cell phone number, and they can call me

anytime that they want to, preferably not between the hours of 11PM to 7AM.

But, you know, a lot of nights I'm in I am awake at that time. So

we I I've had new I don't wanna mention anyone's name, but I wanna mention his name because, I mean, he's mister Parking Roswell.

I have had hours of conversation with mister Ryan Pernice, and I think we have

a a differences

on some things, an agreement on some things. So, you

know, you at the end of the day, paid parking exists in Downtown Roswell. We are cleaning up the ordinances to make this enforceable and to make it work for both the the citizens of Roswell, because, guys, if I can't find a parking,

spot in Kansas Street, that's not good for our city coming from East Roswell. That's not good. Alright? And it's gonna work for our businesses, and we'll adjust if we need to. You know, this isn't written in stone. I mean, it kinda is because it's enormous. But

but, you know, overall,

this is a good start on trying to figure out where people are coming from.

Right? What's the revenue

revenue source for this? And getting these cars to move so the prime parking spots are not taken up all the time.

Thank you, David.

Any other thoughts, counsel?

Down on this end?

Lee, your end?

Okay. Thank you everybody for weighing

in. Appreciate it very much.

Will, this is underneath you. Would you like to make a motion, sir?

Yes, sir. Motion to approve an ordinance to amend

chapter 22, traffic in motor vehicle,

motor vehicles, article three, parking restrictions, section seven, to establish and regulate designated areas of the city

for park paid parking of the code of ordinances of the city of Roswell.

This being the first reading. Thank you very much, councilor Morrison, for the motion. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by council member Johnson. All those in favor of passing the motion on his first reading, please raise your hands.

Let let the record show that the mash motion passes unanimously on its first reading six o. Thank you very much. Councilor Wharton, there's another item under economic divide

next item and last item under economic development. Would you read it, please, sir? Sir, item number two, approval of resolution authorizing the mayor to execute the Hill Street Land Exchange Agreement being presented by Jeff Leatherman. Thanks so much, Will. Jeff, welcome.

You're gonna, I guess, present the, the LEO, the Hill Street Land Exchange agreement.

I am. And, just before I I get started, we're gonna show a video, to give some proximity to the community and those that are watching and what we expect to see.

But just by way of orientation for those that are in the room, we are talking about our Hill Street property, which is to my left, the council's right, right across the street from Hill Street here in our downtown district.

And before I jump into the video, didn't know if mister Davidson, he's been working tremendously over the course of the last,

couple of months and beyond,

on this for any introductory comments as I get the video started.

Thank you, Jeff.

Yes. This basically will allow the city to exchange property for property that's more valuable than the property the city will be,

giving away

not giving away, exchanging for.

The city will give away interior property, approximately 1.3 acres,

and we will be receiving the corner property here at Hill And Highway 9.

The estimated value is is much greater on the corner property, obviously, because it's on the corner of,

State Highway and Hill Street.

What that will allow us to accomplish is through the DDA, we will have a mixed use development that I think mister Leatherman is getting ready to show.

That

I think mister Leatherman is getting ready to show,

and bring economic

development to this, more economic development to this area, of the city.

Alright. I just wanna take some time to transition into a little more commentary about the land exchange agreement that mister Davidson, of course, introduced. This has been a project,

that we've been working on,

as a council and, an economic development team really since 2022.

It began before that in 02/2019,

and I'll give, some brief brief background and a couple of slides. And,

later in the presentation, I will, kind of give some shout outs to people that have been involved, but I have to continue to reiterate

as I continue to talk about economic development both at committee meeting and out in the community and here in our council chambers. This is a tremendous amount of undertaking. This is truly a team sport,

across the city of Roswell.

And as I think about the people behind me and our various departments from the police, fire,

public works, community development, our economic development team, our legal team, just to name a few,

all have been instrumental in continuing the work of our development around the Hill Street project.

I also just wanna iterate that this is just the next step in a process of economic and redevelopment

of this parcel. And as you can see in the overhead here,

we've got the opportunity as the city to be engaged and involved because we own property at this particular location.

You also see we have, some old, tired, and worn out parcels that are at the end of its useful life and an opportunity as we continue to talk about a great example for gray field development,

with an old automotive restoration area, an old sign shop, and other buildings that have run its useful life in and around the city. This is an opportunity for the city to step in with the DDA, with a partner on the development side with Atlantic companies

to truly transform

six acres of our community into

its next iteration that will last twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years down the road. This also brings in an opportunity for the city to participate in different ways than we have before. The land exchange agreement, again, is just one one part of the puzzle that we have,

with many steps to come between now and October.

Again, we wanna look at the overall connectivity and our focus. We've been working on the downtown district. We will continue to work on the downtown,

but we will also be transitioning into our midtown areas, into our East Side as we think about and prioritize

economic development in and around the city.

This is not the only place that we are working. This is just the project that you have before you right now. Again, started in 02/2019,

with 25 Hill Street. This was a a project with 96 entitled apartments that had some commercial on the Ground Floor and really was just the corner property of Highway 9 and Hill Street.

It did not take into account or did not leverage the opportunity of using city property, which we have now been working on and put forward before you in this next iteration of project.

I'll also say that this is part of our strategies. We think about the expansion of our public safety center combining

our police department and our fire department,

bringing them together at what we're calling the Summit Building there in the center of our city, connecting the East Side and the West Side is creating room and the opportunity

to us for the city to rethink how we are using

our property owned along Hill Street, which brings together both a developer, the DDA, and the city into this conversation.

These are the parcels that we're talking about. Again, just right across the street from City Hall.

The green is the earlier 2019

project that was owned by the developer.

The purple and yellow is a property that is owned by the city of Roswell, and the blue has since been acquired

by the developer but was a private parcel.

I do wanna also point out that you have the Water Tower parcel that's there in the center.

That is independent of the land exchange agreement,

but will be incorporated in the project as you saw from some of the exhibits.

This will give you a general overview of kind of the massing of, the project.

You also will see the parking deck, about 350 vehicles there in the upper left hand side of the slide along with the 14

to 16 townhomes,

about 72,000,

square feet of commercial space that's envisioned to be a combination of retail,

restaurants,

and other uses,

350

structured parking spaces as I mentioned earlier, and up to a 143

multifamily

units. We're working today on the land exchange agreement. We also have other agreements moving forward, which I'll outline at the end of the presentation so that the community and the council, of course, the economic development team all have clarity of what we're working on between now and October fifteenth

of twenty twenty five.

Also wanna point out some of the strategic,

work that we've been doing as an economic development team. We've been reducing the density from the original 2,019

project, about 74 units per acre down to 24.

One of the key,

processes that we wanted to be able to put forward is truly looking at mixed use development

in and around our downtown corridor to support not only residential, but also commercial uses.

We are seeking and will continue to seek mixed use projects consistent with our economic development strategy. Again, downtown, Midtown,

Uptown, and the East Side. Long term revenue streams will be a large component of this project as we think about land lease agreements. We think about other revenue sources. Right now, we're generating about $28,000

of property value on the parcels across the street. We will be transforming that into a strong mixed use development.

And part of our, phase between now

and October, we'll continue to be looking at the economics for what this project will and how this project will support revenues in the city. It also supports parking as an economic development tool for the city of Roswell as part of our contribution and support of this project with the DDA

moving forward.

Again, just another view of the site plan, and I'll walk everybody through, the concept plans that you saw in the video. We'll move relatively quickly because we did show the video. They are included in the packet as part of the exhibits, but this give you an overall view shed of,

what we're working with and what we're transforming as part of this project. There was an early conversation about what are we doing as far as,

reusing

materials in and around the city as part of our resident business services

philosophy. And I will say this project has one of the probably the highest and best examples of a reuse type philosophy that we have in the city of Roswell of an adaptive reuse of our,

public safety center and our law enforcement center that police can currently occupies.

Building G on this map is the existing structure,

there along Hill Street that will be reused as part of this project. A component of,

the current Public Safety Building will be demolished to fit the parking deck in the townhomes, but the long building along, highway or along Hill Street, again, Building G will be an adaptive reuse of that structure,

moving forward. So we're not demoing the complete. We're using what we can and driving that project philosophy forward,

throughout the project.

These will be some renderings that you'll see. We'll do our best to orient you. We're gonna start on the Highway 9 and Hill Street corner, which you see in the upper left hand corner of the slides. And then as we move down Hill Street,

you'll see some additional buildings that were shown in the in the videos. These are primarily

the retail and residential or retail and restaurant areas of the project. As you move through

different areas, you'll see the opportunity

for how the buildings and structures will be used.

I know a lot of people have when we've talked about this of what exactly is going within each building. We are way too early in the process to understand what the exact mixed use will be, within this structure, but we have planned for 72,000

square feet of a combination of office, retail, restaurant,

uses

along this project, and that is fixed as part of our land exchange agreement and the negotiations that we are working our way through. Again, some other iterations of the building, we've got a a combination of ways that we we can use these buildings. They can be split up into different, uses or combined for a complete use. Meaning, if somebody a retailer wanted to take on 20,000 square feet, you could combine the two buildings on the bottom right hand side to be working together, or they could be separated into two independent retail or

commercial

structures depending on the needs and the leasing agents and the work that they do moving forward in this project.

This is the adaptive reuse of our existing public safety center. You can see, the entrance right on the corner of Hill Street,

there on the upper left hand side and the backside of the police department building.

Not a lot of people have seen that. It's currently, protected by,

our our fence and our, block wall to keep our police officers,

safe in in the backside. But this will be an adaptive reuse on the backside of that building as we think about,

people moving in and around the project.

As we think about Hill Street project negotiation team, as I said earlier, I just wanted to,

take a moment and identify the mayor and council,

as the economic development policymakers moving forward. Peter Sorkoff, the lead negotiator.

Daryl Conley is part of our economic development team and our economic development director. Our legal team, both David and Joe.

Hudson Parker has been part of our legal support. Da Vinci, part of our project analysis, and our bond counsel along with KB Advisors on the economic impact. I share this with everybody because I want to understand I want the community understand the tremendous team and effort that it takes to put a deal like this together. This is not just a simple negotiation of a couple of months. This is protecting and supporting the taxpayers' dollar,

throughout this investment. We have property. We have value. We wanna make sure that we're protecting the taxpayers dollar and their investments in the project, but also understanding what the long term economic

benefit and the legal structure that is necessary in order to move this project forward.

Letter of intent timeline, this was back in March when we first talked about, the preliminary due diligence, developing the concept drawings, and then working our way through to the land exchange agreement that you have before you tonight on the twenty eighth.

Then we have a lot of next steps. Again, as I said earlier, this is not just,

about a land exchange agreement. We move on to the next part of the process, which is described in the land exchange agreement of developing our development agreement, our ground lease agreements,

the parking management, the townhome builder selection, so on and so forth as we move through till an October 15 closing date. So we have a tremendous amount of work as a team, to continue to get done as part of our economic development team, our community development team, and, of course, our project team. So I wanna thank them all that are here, those that are watching,

project

team. So I wanna thank

them all that are here, those that are watching. It is a significant undertaking,

to take on one of these projects, and we are continuing to move this forward.

The formal land exchange

agreement is the yellow parcel without the, water tower to the green parcel. So those that's the function in which we are, asking for your approval tonight are those parcels.

And we have the recommendation of approval of the resolution to authorize mayor and council and or the or the mayor and or the city administrator to sign the land exchange agreement, which you have before you tonight.

That's all I have, mayor. Thank you, senior vice president Jeff Leatherman. Well done. Appreciate all your leadership and incredible hard work on this project, and we'll continue to be

moving forward on this project. You have a lot of work ahead of you as you know, but well done, Jeff. Thank you. Does council have any thoughts, comments, or questions on this matter?

Councilman

Worthler.

Very quick question.

Jeff just brought up the statement,

approval of the resolution

authorizing the mayor to execute Hill Street Land Exchange Agreement. And he said, may or or He just got nervous. That's just Jeff. He just got nervous. I think it's just the mayor in this case. Mayor. Got it. To answer your question specifically. Thank you.

Good question though. Any thoughts, comments or questions from council?

Thank you very much. Any Roswell residents? Yes, ma'am. Jenna Russell, welcome.

Comfortable chairs.

You'd understand what citizens do to see hit these meetings. They're not nice.

I think this is an interesting concept. We've been waiting and waiting. At the previous meeting, when you discussed this,

there was no mention of reusing any of the existing buildings.

I brought it up

because of the environmental

damage when you tear down a building.

So I'm glad to see that you're gonna keep the police department.

It's a shame you're not keeping

what was the jail.

That could be adaptively

reused also instead of for another parking garage.

But I have a couple of suggestions. I know it will probably fall on deaf ears.

I suggest that you make this a sustainable project and make it totally solarized.

That would eliminate

electric wires all over Highway 9,

and it would be more attractive.

Secondly, because this falls within the City Of Roswell's water district,

not Fulton County,

is our water treatment plant going to be able to handle the additional

water requirements

for this large of a project?

I don't believe any of you sitting up there get their water from the City Of Roswell because you live in the Fulton County water areas. I live within the City Of Roswell's water supply.

We're going to find out about the clean drinking water again as we do every year. They do a great job. But I want to know, do we have the capacity

to take care of this or are then the people of Roswell

going to have to pay to increase the capacity of the water treatment plant to provide for this project? And will impact fees cover that or did the city of Roswell people who get their water from Roswell

get the privilege of paying for it?

Thank you, Janet. I'll answer a couple of those questions. Specifically,

I I wish I was

a City of Roswell customer,

and Sharon's got it as one of her many, many projects. It's just down here on the list in

in terms of the comprehensive project the city has in front of them because we would like to make every resident in Roswell a City of Roswell customer,

City of Roswell water customer.

Much easier said than done, pretty expensive,

and,

but something that has been talked about and discussed because we too have the same desire. In terms of the capacity,

yes, ma'am, it's been reviewed, but I'll let the expert Sharon,

express

comments on that.

I'm sorry. Can you hear me now?

Alright.

When we,

sized the treatment plant,

in 2016

when we built it, it was for additional development in this area. So we are we are fully able to handle the capacity that is needed here. Appreciate your bringing it up because I too watch,

water,

conservation, and it is very, very important. But, of course, these will be new facilities, and we'll all have,

conservation

fixtures and such. But either way, we are prepared to handle it at the water treatment plant.

And

Yes, ma'am.

I've kinda let this conversation go a little bit outside the bounds of purview of what we're talking about. It's kinda my fault because, really, we're just talking about,

authorizing the mayor to execute the Hill Street land exchange agreement. That's really what this discussion is.

So thank you, Janet, so much for your comments. Are there any other comments in reference to

are there any other comments in reference to, item two, the approval resolution authorizing the mayor to execute the Hill Street Land Exchange Agreement?

Yes, ma'am.

Quite here. I've never come up this much.

Still cat plants, still at 100 Lake Pines Court.

I just have a basic

actually, I would love to know about the power grid, but I will save that that for another day because I too lost power today.

My question is about the actual land exchange.

The the city is giving up the chunk in the middle

for the corner, which is better,

but it's all part of

the same

I'm confused of, like, how are we actually giving up? Because aren't we leasing

it?

We have a fifty year lease agreement.

So

isn't the part that we're giving away or swapping

still part of the same

chunk?

I don't understand

the actual

exchange.

You want me to go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. So the actual exchange of the property is

the part in green is what we're getting,

and the part in yellow minus the water tank is what we are giving up.

So we will actually own the part in green.

We will then

give it to the DDA,

who will incorporate

all of this along with the police department into a mixed use development. And so everything except for the yellow,

part

is not part That's that's the part

not part

That's that's the part that we are giving up and the Right. So it won't be part of the It'll be part of the overall,

development. The develop But the developer will own that part. But it won't be part of the ground lease. It won't be part of the lease. Correct. Right back. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you.

Very quick. Good question. Okay.

Any other thoughts, comments, or questions from Roswell residents?

Thank you so much. Bring it back to counsel.

Any thoughts, comments, or question council member sales? Just to reference,

miss Russell's picture one more time. I'm certain that some of those cars were probably serviced at the

the transmission shop right there on the corner. So this is this has been a long time coming.

You guys have worked very hard on it.

So I'm glad to see that this

incredibly

unproductive

piece of real estate is going to produce something for Roswell residents' quality of life, both in terms of tax relief, because it's going to increase the value of this property to the city,

coffers significantly,

and also quality of life in that this is gonna be a destination,

you know, take some of the,

bring bring some of the good from down Canton Street on down to here and

increase economic vibrancy in an area that's been blighted for a good long time. So I am very, very excited about this. Well, congratulations,

Alan, to you and the council and, Randy, to you and the team because,

the second week I was in office, I was introduced to this this great folks at Atlantic,

and they were letting me know that they had been approved for,

96 of multi stand alone, multi apartment apartment complex.

There was supposedly 10 7,000. You've got 10 in there. But at the time, it was supposedly gonna be 7,000,

quote unquote retail on the building.

So at that time, the city had here on this premium piece of real estate, 1.33

acres,

a 96 apartment stand basically, stand alone, apartment complex was gonna come in.

The rest of the block was not there was no plans for redevelopment of the box. No no plans to activate anything else to block. And thanks to y'all's leadership

and the economic team's leadership,

in the past three years, been through several matriculations, it has moved into taking

the deescalated

the density of the apartments by 200%

from 74

to 24

per acre,

significant.

It's escalated the retail,

and office component

minimum

by 700%

minimum.

It's also added 14 to 16,

probably $2,000,000

brownstone townhomes to the equation. And it's gonna act as an economic activation for Downtown Roswell to help support the area in something that was really

and it's gonna bring an additional source of revenue to the city of the tune of about 7 to $800,000

on a ninety nine year ground lease, if I remember correctly.

It's going to Janet brought up the impact fees. That's just

for starters.

The city is gonna participate.

It's got a we've got a 10 we've got a significant in,

stake in the participation. That's right. Not only in the carrying, but on if they sell.

Right? The city participates in a way that most governments don't participate

in the sell. I mean, this thing's been structured very, very well from a very kind of an entrepreneurial perspective.

So that benefits the government of Roswell, I e, the businesses and the people of Roswell. So,

it's a real and it's it's a great project, and it's gonna activate this this this area and help. It's gonna help support

the businesses that are already in Downtown

Roswell and bring more people.

And that's why there's a parking garage there because it's gonna bring more people. You gotta you gotta keep continue to, to like, ten years from now,

guess what? We're still gonna be talking about parking. We're just gonna have more people in Downtown Roswell.

So thank you guys for your leadership. Any other thoughts, comments from council?

Appreciate you guys. So council member Werklund, this one's in your wheelhouse. Would you like to make a motion, sir? Yes, sir.

Motion to approve a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute the Hill Street land exchange agreement. Do I have a second?

Seconded by

Allen, councilor Bursells.

All those in favor, please raise your hands.

Let the let the record shows that the resolution approves is approved six to zero by unit as we thank you very much. Sarah, thank you for being with us. I know you gotta go. Good luck. Good luck.

Good luck, indeed. Alright. Next on the agenda is the finance department. Council member Hall, would you take care of this?

Yes, mayor. Thank you.

Woah. Item number three, approval of a resolution declaring the city of Roswell's intent to issue a second tranche of the general obligation bonds and for other purposes.

And this will be presented by our CFO, Bill Godshall, and

David Davidson,

I believe, is I don't Dave David's out to we got David. He's not doing anything on this one, I don't think. It's just old Bill. Just Bill. You don't think you don't think you're doing anything

I think I've heard David speak more tonight than the last five nights, accumulated.

That's true.

Go ahead, both of us. Welcome, Bill. Thank you, mister mayor. Thank you, counsel.

So to cover the,

topic at hand,

we are, discussing the second tranche offering of the bond.

A little bit of history on the first tranche.

The first tranche was offered after the general vote, general obligation bond vote in 11/08/2022.

Mayor and council adopted bond resolution to sell the first charge on 05/22/2023.

And then on June 8, series twenty twenty three a,

which covers public safety, parks and recreation, and series twenty twenty three b, the parking deck, bonds closed and were issued.

In connection with that bond referendum,

the voters approved a $107,600,000

question, related to parks, recreation, bicycle, pedestrian paths, and sidewalks.

Also approved $52,000,000

for a public safety question

and $20,000,000

for the downtown parking deck, question.

The allocated,

amounts between the questions was 53.1

for recreation parks, etcetera,

13,100,000.0

for public safety, and 20,000,000 for, the public parking deck,

for the first tranche for a total offering of $86,200,000

Example of some of the parks,

bond projects that were started and

or completed under the first tranche,

Our two big public safety,

acquisitions

also under the first tranche.

And then,

the most recent

contract that the mayor council approved to begin the construction of the parking deck with the completion of May 2026.

So in our

original tranche one, we raised 53,100,000.0,

for parks and then 13.1 for public safety.

Because of some opportunistic situations that arose in public safety,

we allocated 10,700,000.0

from the parks question to public safety.

That will be, by nature, the second tranche reversed. There won't be a separate resolution for that. It'll be handled through the funding mechanism.

We have so far spent and have under contract $21,000,000

for parks and recreation

and $17,000,000

for public safety,

leaving

available for the rest of $20.25,

$21,400,000

For parks, it's 6,700,000.0

for,

public safety.

This does not include the premium received on the bonds or any of the interest earnings at this point.

So we propose issuing the full amount

question two.

Bell dot just a little prettier.

The proposed timeline is that, we would ask you to approve the resolution to begin the offering process tonight.

And then on Friday, June 13, we would post a notice of sale and preliminary offering statement.

This will allow our bond counsel and our investment advisers to then begin,

putting the deal together, seeking, bid solicitations

for the interest rate and so forth.

We would come back on June 23 for a final resolution

where mayor or council would approve the actual sale of the bonds.

And then after some closing documents and and processes, that would fund, no later than July 15, and that's when the cash would would come into our our account.

It's not on the slides here, but

I I think it is,

noteworthy that in the discussions around the first tranche, mayor or council did expect to fund in,

the second quarter of twenty twenty five. So we are right on schedule with the plans that were originally,

proposed and approved back in May of twenty twenty three.

So we do recommend selling the bonds at a premium.

The benefit for this is that we will receive more cash in above the legal question, which means that we will be able to add more funding to the projects.

It will result

an example of this is that we will sell $93,400,000

of bonds,

in pursuit, pursuant to the legal question,

and we could raise an additional $2,000,000 to $3,000,000

by using the premium mechanism,

allowing us further flexibility

in building

our capital projects.

So on a millage rate impact,

the assumption is that

the value of one mill is approximately $8,800,000

Interest for our markets have been interesting in the past few months, but since committee, they've settled down some.

We still are expecting to come in at about 4.5%

for the for the total interest rate on this offering,

based on our analysis of the property tax digest,

as it stands now and as we expect it to be.

The mill increase would be 0.3

mills for debt service.

Originally,

it was projected

a bit higher than

that. So it would be a little bit less than than anticipated from our first discussions.

And then the impact in the 2026 property tax would be for an average home around $575,000

be about $69

per homeowner.

I've compiled a table. Our current millage rate for maintenance and operations would remain the same at 4.049,

and our debt service would move from 0.9 to 1.2.

So it would have an overall increase to millage, but it would only be through the debt service fund. It would not be through maintenance and operations at this time.

And, that's the end of my presentation. Again, we recommend, adoption of the resolution to proceed with the second tranche. And, happy to take any questions. Thank you, chief finance officer chief financial officer Bill Godsoe. Appreciate your work on this as always, sir. Thanks for your presentation.

Does counsel have any thoughts, comments or questions on the matter?

Thank you very much. I'll ask if any Roswell residents have any thoughts, comments or questions on this particular matter at hand.

Thank you very much. Bring it back to councilor sells. Yes, sir.

Mister Gotcha, is the, is the interest rate I know on the, parking deck bonds, we did those as taxable bonds because we weren't sure quite what we do with them. Are these,

tax exempt bonds or what? Yes, sir. They're tax exempt bonds. At 4.5.

At 4.5.

Okay. Thank you. Hopefully, it'll trend down, but we have to plan for for what the market gives us. Right.

Are you planning on buying some? I might. I might. Exactly.

Any other thoughts, comments, or questions from council? Thank you very much. Council member Hall, would you like to make a motion?

Yes, mayor.

Motion to approve item number three, approval of a resolution declaring the city of Roswell's intent to issue second tranche of the general obligation bonds and for other purposes. Thank you very much, Christine. Do I have a second on the on seconded by council member David Johnson.

All those in favor of approval of this resolution, please raise your hands.

Let the record show that the resolution passes five zeros unanimously. Thank you very much. Appreciate you, Bill. Thank you.

Next on the agenda is the city attorney's report. Chief legal officer, city attorney David Davidson, would you read the first item under the city attorney's report? Thank you, mayor. The first item I have is an ordinance to update section three point seven point one eight, craft beer and wine market of the code of ordinances of the city of Roswell. What this ordinance is intended to do is to allow the consumption on the premise

of one variety

of distilled spirit,

whether that

be whiskey, vodka, gin, tequila or rum,

provided all the other requirements for our craft beer and wine market are met.

And with your approval, I will do the first reading. This is the first reading. Yes, sir. Please, sir. Thank you. This is an ordinance to amend chapter three, alcoholic beverages. Article three, requirements for consumption on the premise license, section 7.18. License,

section

7.18.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Roswell, pursuant to their authority, do hereby adopt the following amendment.

Chapter three, alcohol beverages, article three, requirements for consumption on premise license,

section 7.18,

craft beer and wine market, of the code of ordinances

of the City Of Roswell, Georgia is hereby amended by deleting said sections and replacing

replacing said section with a new section 7.18,

craft

beer and wine market, which I'll read as shown in exhibit a attached here to incorporate here and by reference. Never proved this is the first reading.

Thank you, David, so much. Does council have any thoughts, comments, or questions on this matter?

Councilman Lee Hills. Thank you, mayor. I think this is a great example of how this mayor and council can, listen to our our, local

businesses that have an have identified an area where they can make more money and serve their,

their clientele better, and we've been able to do this tweak and and be able to put that into play. These type of establishments are popping up here and there,

where the foot traffic and clientele calls for it. So this will be a champagne bar that'll be able to offer,

bourbon and whiskey. And other other establishments can do the same, but, this was created specifically for one that would give us really a unique,

road stop over here on the Canton Street downtown area. So delighted to have the support here tonight to do to be able to do that for one of our businesses. Exactly. Thank you, Lee, so much. Right on spot. Council member Hall, I know you wanna you wanna add some comments?

No. I just wanna, echo what council member Hill said. It's a great opportunity

for our businesses. It's something that we're keeping very tight,

as to the specific

as to the specifics, so this is not opening up,

a major,

to have bars or something like that. That that's the concern,

in Roswell. So just something that can enhance some of our businesses that operate under the craft license currently.

I I've got a question.

Yes. David, this is for you. Sorry to do this impromptu.

So for example, if I'm like David's friend, Deep Roots, and I have wine, can I add a spirit

underneath this particular

potential,

update to section 3.718?

So you can add one if you are, craft beer and wine market. Yes. Okay. So if I have Deep Roots, for example, I could add one. Right. You could add add, but it's only one. Only one. Got it. Got it.

And this is you're doing Lee, we're doing this the business that we're might as well promote them Yeah. That you're doing this for is for Pop Ellie. Pop Ellie. On Elizabeth Way. On Elizabeth Way in Canton Street. Champagne bar? Champagne bar. They have, craft beer, and now they will offer bourbon,

rye, whiskey.

I'm probably leaving some out since I'm not a brown liquor girl, but the all that fit in that family. Yeah. We don't we we don't know we don't I don't I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not looking specifically at you, mayor.

We'll let Randy ask that. We know he's the hardcore

alright. So thank you, counsel. Any thoughts or comments from, Roswell residents on this particular matter?

Thank you so much. Bring it back. Any thought final thoughts, comments, counsel?

Alright.

This is under David. Who would like to make the motion on this?

David Johnson would like to make a motion. Would you read the read the motion you're making, please, sir? Sorry.

This one has problems with doing it right.

This is a motion for approval of an ordinance of the section 3.718,

craft beer and wine market of the code of ordinances of the city of Roswell, first reading. Thank you very much, David. David Johnson's made a motion. Who would like to second it?

Seconded by council member Lee Hills. All in favor of the first reading of approval of this motion, please raise your hands. Let the record show that the record is the vote is unanimous five two zero. Thank you very much. I think we've got one other item underneath our chief legal officer, City Attorney David Davidson. Please read the next item, sir. Thank you, Mayor. The next item I have is authorization for acquisition of the right of way

at 1066

Alfred Street as part of the Green Street mobility project. This is actually the right of way and some temporary

construction easement to get from basically Highway 9 to Green Street,

for the entrance to the parking deck.

And the price would be $300,000

$300,000

and how big this is a right away, right? Correct. $300,000

for the right away

off of Highway 9, correct?

Off

of Highway 9 going to Green Street, yes, sir. Perfect. And this is part of the parking deck project? Correct. Very good. And this is not gonna make is this going to hamper any business that's $300,000

is being purchased from for the right of way?

No. Other than a little bit of construction

issue. But Construction issue, but not in terms of being able to actually, it's not gonna hamper the business. Correct. Correct. Okay. Very good. Counsel, any thoughts, comments, or questions on this issue matter?

Thank you very much. Any Roswell residents would like to address it?

Thank you very much. Counsel,

would anyone like to make a motion? Yes, sir. Councilman Johnson?

This is a motion for authorization for acquisition right away at 1066 Alparo Street as part of the Green Street mobility project. Thank you very much, David. Is there a second to that?

Seconded by council member Lee Hills. Thank you very much. All in favor of the authorization of the acquisition of Rightway 1066 South Florida Street as part of the Green Street Mobility Project, please raise your hands. Let the record show that the vote is unanimous. Five to zero. Thank you very much.

We've already had our closure meeting earlier being that there are no other items. This mayor and council meeting of 04/28/2025

is adjourned. Thank you so much for being with us.