Mayor, we are recording. Okay. All right, welcome everyone. Glad to have you here tonight for the City Council meeting of John Screte. And I'd like to call this meeting to order this Tuesday, July 25th, 2023 at 720 PM. Next time. Next time I'll call roll. Councilmember Tudkey. Here. Councilmember Skinner. Here. Councilmember Erimelli. Present. Councilmember Council member Tukie. Here. Council member Skinner. Here, Council member Erimelli. Present. Council member D. B. Osce. Here. Council member Elwood. Here. Thank you. We have a call in this evening. Fantastic. Next item. Thank you. At this time, I would like to invite some of our girls Scouts forward from troop 22168 to lead the Pledge of Alleg the pledge of allegiance. Girls, you want to come up? Stand up here. Just start when you're ready. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God in the visible, with liberty and justice for all. Fantastic, ladies. Thank you. Fantastic, ladies. Thank you. Next item. Thank you. It's time for opening remarks. Just a couple of things really quickly. I'm sure that many of you may be experiencing some property damage, fallen trees and whatnot during the storm that we had last week. Came on all of a sudden and really strong, but I want to give a big shout out to our police and our fire, even our public works, and really our city management and the leadership of those departments. They really responded, they stepped up. A lot of them were working around the clock through the night and they did all that in service to all of us. And could we give them a big round of applause for their applause? So we are in the middle of our budget, I guess all of our local governments are in the middle of our millage rate setting and at least for the city of John Screek were in the middle of our budget season, but Fulton County is advertising a potential increase in the property tax millage rate from 8.87 to 9.722 That is a net tax increase of almost 17%. And so I would just encourage you if you have thoughts and feelings about that to let your voice be known to your Fulton County Commission. commission and they will have a series of milledrate hearings between now and when they vote on that on August 16th. So just please keep that in mind and we will be hopefully maybe doing something here as a council here in the near future to make our voices known. So keep your eye out for that. And with that, I'd like to move on to the next item. Thank you, Mayor. The next item on the agenda is the minutes. You have July 11th work session and Council meeting minutes before you. Council, have you got any chance to look at those? And so do you have a motion? I move to approve the meeting minutes as presented. So good. All right. Thank you, Council members, for the motion. And the second is their discussion. Seeing none, all is in favor. And did you get who that was, Madam Clerk? I'm sorry. I'll wait for the motion and second. Yes, we did get that. Thank you. All right. Next item. The next item is approval of the meeting agenda. I don't think we have any changes that I know of any motions. It proposed that we approve the meeting minutes as presented. Meeting agenda. Okay, thank you for the motion. Councillor Mellie, is there a second? I'll second it. All right, thank you, Councillor Mellie. Debi, I see for the second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Passes six-year-old. Next item. Thank you. The next item is our agenda. We have a couple of items this evening. Resolution 23716. Establishment of the Recreation and Parks Department and consideration of a resolution adopting the associated third amendment of the contract for professional services with Jacobs engineering, an action item consideration to accept a $700,000 grant funds for the purchase of required mitigation credits and associated amendment to the project framework agreement for the Abbott-Spirige Road from Parsons to Medlock. And then the final item is consideration to approve $1,522 contract with backbone infrastructure for the construction of old Alabama road trail. This is from Audrey Meldus' rural road. Council that your consent agenda, do you have any motions? I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, is there a second? Second. Thank you. Council Member Tunky, is there a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Tunky, is there a discussion? All those in favor? Passes six, zero. Next item. Thank you, Mayor. The next item on the agenda is the presentation of the Georgia Association of Water Professionals. 2023 Stormwater Professional Excellence Award to our John's Creek Stormwater utility manager Corey Rayburn. And we have assistant city manager, Greer, for presentation. While the mayor and council are coming down to present this award to Corey, I wanted to share a little bit about it. The Georgia Association of Water Professionals doesn't give many awards, but they do honor a professional who has made career achievement and made contributions to the profession. This matters to all of us because stormwater is something that impacts every single one of us. We need to make sure that our roads are safe and that our properties are safe and not flooded. And Corey is receiving this award as the 2023 stormwater professional excellence award. So he's pretty much the person of the year for the stormwater profession in the state of Georgia. Recognize not by people like me who just think he's amazing for having started up and stood up our stormwater utility and the amazing things he did with the city of Atlanta before establishing their green infrastructure program and being the lead person behind Cook Senior Park in Atlanta for those of you that have been down there and checked out all the amazing features to it. But he's being recognized by his peers. So other stormwater professionals across the state of Georgia said that Corey and his contributions to our profession and making this a better place was award-worthy for this whole year for the whole state. So Corey, thank you for everything. I'm going to give you a little smile. Thank you. I'm court next item. Thank you, Mayor. The next item on the agenda is public comment. And the first card I have is Kate Lee. Come on up. Everyone has three minutes for public comment. I'm Kate Lee. My address is 1050 Highgate Manor Court. And I represent Techno-Tinans. So people at the City Council, before I, Kate Lee, joined a first LEGO League team back in middle school. My only exposure to STEM has really only been math worksheets, science tests, and some STEM initiatives like lectures. And as a young student, I always questioned whether what we learned in school actually mattered in real life. Like why learn math if we have a calculator? It was not until I joined first and applied these science concepts into real life situations that I finally understood not only how fun, but also how important STEM is in our lives. Thus, I stand before you to advocate for an impactful addition to our community's market space, a dedicated first robotics field. The market space where the first robotics field will become a hub for collaboration, bringing together students, mentors, educators, and volunteers from various backgrounds and communities. For example, teams from even an hour away are willing to travel just to have an opportunity to test their robot out on a practice field, but the demand is high and the slots fill up fast, causing teams to have to wait for another chance to sign up, which there might not even be an available option. In fact, a team from Columbus even drove all the way to Marietta, which is a 125 mile distance, just to have a chance to practice a robot on a field. Our team and the other teams not only in this area, but surrounding ones as well, have to travel very far because there is no practice field in a close enough vicinity. Additionally, all first fields are also portable with carts, which allows for space to be reconfigured. A dedicated robotics-slash-stem area would accommodate more than just first teams. It could also be a great multi-use space for teacher professional development, summer camps, enrichment events, and more, which one of my teammates will address later. Also first is broadening their scope to expand from STEM to STEAM, which incorporates the element of art. Art is more than just paintings and sculptures. Art is also an architecture, engineering, robotics, and other STEM-related fields. Thus, we could tie in the John's Greek arts and cultural experience, which is very important aspect of our community to this market space. Ten my time, I would like to thank City Council for allowing me to speak today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for public comment. The next card I have is Zara Wang. Good evening everyone. My name is Zara, my home address is 155 Abbott Mill Drive and I'm here representing the TechnoTie Ends Robotics team. Tonight I'm going to bring up three reasons why having a year round Maker Space would be beneficial to the community. First of all, the FLL FTC season starts in August, meaning from then till April, the Maker Space will be used frequently. When FRC season is in full swing, there is simply not enough room for us to work on our robots while mentoring younger students. As of right now, our FLOW team is working in one room where after you put in all the equipment, there's very enough room for mentors and students to walk without bumping into each other. During FRC season, we, as the Titan Titans, basically use up the entire workspace, whether it be through programming, testing, or working on our awards, leaving younger members with little space to test their robots. Luckily, a year-round makerspace can solve this problem and with the FLL and FTC season covering almost three-quarters of the entire year, teams can make good use of the makerspace area. Secondly, the makerspace would also allow us to host more outreach events from the summer rainy to the fall. This year, we saw over 40 students our annual summer camp and roughly 30 students at each of our monthly STEM nights. We now have a mailing list of over 150 people whose children are all interested in STEM and first. However, with our current workspace, we're limited to only hosting about 40 students. With our Iran activities, a dedicated robotics makerspace, we were all used, and we could even expand the number of students that we reach and bring STEM and first to them. Lastly, school programs lasting from August to May will also be a good use of the maker space. For many children who want to work in engineering or technology related fields, our robotics programs and other outreach activities are one of the main ways for them to gain exposure and for them to learn valuable skill sets. As many schools might not have enough space or funding for these teachers and specific programs. This unstable environment can cause many schools to lose their engineering programs, similarly to what happened at River Trail Middle School a while ago. One Spanish, a year-round robotics makerspace can solve this stability issue and would allow easy access for surrounding schools who might want to have a robotics program in the future. As you can see from the three points I've mentioned, a year-round robotics makerspace would be significantly helpful to the community. We've already been doing so much with our current tiny workspace, but I can't imagine how great our FLO FTC teams would be, our schools and our outreach events with this new year round maker space. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Othman. I'm seeing a trend. Greetings. My name's Othman Singh. My address is 10100 Grand V Square, and I'm here to represent the technotines. As you know in the current renovation plan there's an area designated to for the construction of a first robust competition practice field. A concern many have had is that the practice field will only be used periodically throughout the year and thus the area the houses of the field could repurpose for a more multi-purpose environment during months when the field is not being used. While we agree that the FRC field may not be constantly used throughout the year, we believe it's in the best interest of the city to keep the field area as designated to stem specifically. While the FRC season begins in January, like Zara mentioned, there are other programs that first offers that start in the fall and take up a much larger portion of the year, such as first-legal league and first-tech challenge. These seasons begin in fall, so during the fall months and early winter months, the area could be designated more towards youth robotics, and then when January comes around in the FRCCs and officially begins, it can be given back to the first robotics competition team to work to practice with their field. This would also allow us the Northview Robotics Program to expand our mentorship program from just the two teams that we currently mentor. Year after year, we have to deny students from joining our youth robotics team just because we don't have the capacity in our workspace to house any more students. With this maker space, we'll be able to house significantly more students and create possibly even more teams such as counties in Gwinnett and Forsyth are able to do. During the summer months, the area could be repurposed for non-competitive robotics-related activities, such as the STEM-NICE already ran by the Northview Tech and Times that are currently limited by the 40-person limit in our workspace, as well as teacher, as well as summer camps, and other field trip activities. When I first moved to Johns Creek, I was in eighth grade at the time in 2019, I was a little bit disappointed to see that there was zero first robot teams in my area that I could join as a middle schooler. In my old CDI used to live in New Albany, Ohio, there was a lot of support for first robotics in that area. As part of the reason I first got introduced to robotics and I discovered my passion for engineering and the sciences in general. If we had a makerspace that would offer these opportunities to younger students like I was offered in New Albany, I feel like in the future we'll have a brand new generation of STEM innovators that we currently wouldn't have without the makerspace. Fortunately for me, I had the resources to begin my own first tech challenge team when I was in eighth grade. However, that's not the case for most students. And I think this makerspace would be a great opportunity to expand this opportunity to all The students in Johns Creek, not just people like me who had the resources to start something On their own. Overall, we are beyond grateful to the council for including the makerspace project in the Overall, called the Creek renovation project project and we're excited to see how this project will progress in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening members of City Council and Mayor and the general public. My name is Loxana Romnan and I'm a senior at Innovation Academy. I was here at City Hall in May to talk about the zoning case by provided reasons in support of saving the 191 year old oak tree. I hope that I would be here again to give reasons on why the tree should be saved. However, it looks like the decision has been made by the owner to remove the tree. But I'm here today to express the need to strengthen the John's Creek Tree Preservation Code. The code states that if a tree has 10 or less years left, then it can be removed. And I feel that there should be more restrictions on whether or not a tree can be removed such as damage and the disturbance to nature. When I heard the information about the 10 years, I was a little confused why we would consider cutting down a historic tree, but it still has a decade to live, and especially when it has the opportunity to reach a 200 years old. While I may not be an environmental expert, I'm speaking from the perspective of a local community member. From this situation and the results of the case about the public's O case, I believe that we need to adjust and strengthen the John's Creek Tree Preservation Code to conserve more trees in the future and help our community become stronger. To understand why we need to adjust the code, we need to understand why trees are important. Trees reduce energy usage, remove air pollutants, filter storm water, and cool hot city streets by providing shade and releasing water vapor. Removing trees also has some disadvantages such as structural problems. When trees removed and that tree has large roots, it pulls out the material that is attached, causing some problems to the areas foundation. While it makes sense to remove a damaged tree that is harming the ecosystem, there needs to be restrictions for normal trees. And trees cannot be removed just because they're in the place of a zoning case. These restrictions should be stricter for historic trees that John Strieg has. And I hope that in the future there is action taken to strengthen the case. And I hope that this can start with raising awareness about the environment starting with the public. Like a city pleases its people, it's also important to please the nature that provides us the home where we build our houses. Thank you. I'm Rain Sanders. Good evening. I'm Rain Sanders, student leadership, John's Creek. I'm not actually speaking on behalf of myself. One of our former students from Johns Creek High School reached out to me and asked me if I could read this for her. She is currently getting her master's degree at Columbia University in sustainability management. And she's also the global sustainability manager at Blue Yonder. So she lives in New York. Anyway, I'm reading this for her. Why should we preserve this water rope tree? This water rope tree likely provides food, habitats, and nesting sites for various wildlife species, including birds, squirrels, and insects. Across successive generations, these species called this tree home, but will now be displaced. Their displacement impacts our local biodiversity, which is ever more on the decline in the rapidly developing Johns Creek area. Furthermore, the extensive root system of water oak, trees help stabilize the soil preventing erosion and reducing the risk of landslides and flooding. The tree roots can act as natural filters, helping to improve water quality by capturing and retaining pollutants and excess nutrients before they enter water bodies through ground water flow. Healthy and well-maintained oak trees can significantly enhance the environment's well-being and ecological balance. Finally, water oak trees like all trees participate in photosynthesis, absorbing carbon dioxide, a harmful greenhouse gas, and releasing oxygen. They store this carbon in their trunks, branches and roots, thereby mitigating the effects of climate change. While this singular tree loss surely won't be felt in our local climate, it begs the question of if a 100-year-old specimen tree can be removed with little or no repercussions. What kind of example does this set for future generations? This situation reminds me of a term I learned in the first environmental science class I ever took, tragedy of the comments, when individuals acting independently and rationally according to their self-interest, deplete or degrade a shared resource leading to its eventual depletion for everyone. In other words, when there are no clear regulations governing the resource uses, individuals having incentives to exploit the resource without considering the long term consequence for the collective. While this tree may be just one tree in our community, It's a tree which has predated our existence, our city's existence, and witnessed many amazing seasons of life. I urge the Johns Creek City Council to set an example with our public plaza water oak to show our community that while we are young and blossoming city, we do have a history to treasure and to be proud of. And we prioritize the past relationship. Thank you. The time has expired. Okay. And that history, one sentence. And support again. Of our natural environment. So thank you. Thank you, Miss Anna. I put it before I was part of the death. Well, Alicia had beauty before age tonight. Tom Corrigan, 5345 Cottage Farm Road. As the mayor spoke at the beginning of the meeting tonight, Fulton County has come to the amazing enlightenment that we deserve a 17% increase on our taxes. For what, I have no idea, but I just want to caution you with your own budget, that the mayor's talked about a rollback to be perfectly clear with the increase of real estate in this city. His rollback is still an increase, no matter how you look at it. It's still an increase. We can do math. We understand that. It is costing everybody more for everything. So you need to justify what you need the money for, and where is it going. It do not tell us that you need a reserve for something later in a rainy day. Come on, really? So if you're going to do something where you're going to have Cory do stormwater plus plus plus, there are about four or five locations in this city. We want to hear about that. And they'd be interested. But you've got to show us what are you going to do with it? Where's it going to go? You've got to justify it because everybody's starting to tighten their belts. This is getting a little tougher. Things are going to get worse before they get better, okay? So I want to caution you, your rollback, is it really a rollback? Not really. It's an increase. So to keep it where it is, why? Then you better justify it. Thank you. Christine Austin. Good evening. I'm also here to talk about the budget. Like Tom said, our mayor presented a budget to us that meets all of our strategic objectives. It does everything that the citizens have asked you guys to do. And he did that with a milledrate rollback, which means that's all the money that we need to achieve those goals. So if you do not vote for a milledrate rollback, which I'm fully expecting all of you to do, then I need you, I'm asking you to acknowledge a couple of things. One, if you don't vote for that rollback, you are voting for a tax increase. I mean, as he said, we can all do math and we're not stupid, so we understand that. But also, if you don't vote for that rollback, you're telling us that you want to take more of our money and it is our money, not yours, that you want to take more of our money than you need to do the things that you've been tasked with by the citizens to do. And again, as kind of following what Tom said, I would expect justification for two things. One, an explanation of why do you think you need more money than is necessary to fulfill the task that we've asked you to accomplish. And two, what are you going to do about the budget process to fix this so that we are not having the same conversation every year? Because if you vote to keep the milled right where it is, you're intentionally creating a situation where we're gonna have another big surplus. And when you have a surplus, that means you guys spend it like your Santa Claus. And you go outside of and you circumvent the budget process when you do that, which I don't think is okay. And you can't argue anymore that that's a happy accident when you're intentionally voting to collect more money than you need, which means there's a broken process there that has to be fixed. So if you're not going to vote for this rollback, again, two things, why do you think you need more money than the budget says you need? And what are you going to do to solve this? So we're not having this conversation every year? That's all I wanted to say. Thanks. Thank you. That was the last of the public comment cards for general public comment. All right. Anybody else for doing a public comment? Anybody else? Come on up. Not related to the zone. So at this time we're not taking public comment related to the zoning. All the cards that I have, I think believe have the zoning. Do you wish to comment as part of the historic tree? Okay, you can do it now. If you want to be included in the record for the application that's before us for zoning then you would want to wait until the public hearing. But it's choices yours either way. I'll just go ahead and do it now for the sake of time. That's my markup. Thank you. Hi, my name is Nefi Sayeth and I'm a citizen of Johns Creek and I also grew up here. The historic oak tree means a lot to everyone. One because of its beauty and majesty. And two because corporate greed and the rampant cutting down of trees to build more and more restaurants and tiny apartments in our city has irreparably damaged John Creek, John's Creek and neighboring cities like Alpharetta. We are a city that values history and nature and we've lost so much of that lately. Corporations are trying to make this into New York City and this is not New York City nor should it be. We don't value corporations like Shake Shack, which can build its restaurant anywhere, anywhere, yet still chooses to do so at the place of a historic tree. We don't value these corporations over our history, culture, and nature. Please don't let Shake Shot cut down this tree. And please send a message to all of these corporations that are ruining our landscape that this is John's Creek, Georgia, and they have to respect our nature, heritage, and people. Thanks so much for your consideration. This is a really important issue, not just for me, but I know for a lot of people in John's Creek, a lot of people are talking about this. And I really hope you make the right decision. Thank you. Anyone else would anyone else like to make a public comment? Okay, seeing none. Next item. Thank you. The next item is reports. We have our manager's monthly report with City Manager Densmore for presentation. Good evening, Mayor and council. I know before you you have the actual two months of city manager reports since we missed last month, the one meeting. I'm going to be a little bit brief because I know you have an important hearing with everybody standing behind me. So I'll hit some highlights real quick. I'd like to take just a quick second to acknowledge some teamwork. As you know, so I first we took over stormwater billing from the county, but I'd like to acknowledge our IT team that actually started about 90 days ago working on the data transition. It was a lot of work behind the scenes, several meetings with them. They were concerned for a long time about getting the correct data to load in R software. But we made the transition, it's been working extremely well. I'd like to give a shout out to our strong water team headed by Mr. Rayburn that you talked to earlier for set being diligent, setting up the framework for that for a Q&A session for the people to answer for customer service levels. I'd like to thank him and lastly, I'd like to thank our finance team for getting the billings out. I will be happy to share some specific numbers with you at a later time. I would also like to touch real quick on current openings for the city wide. We are currently sitting at seven openings to fire two police, one in community development, one in HR, and one in parks and rec. Lastly, well, not quite lastly, currently Chief Mitchell and members of his team are at the Chief Conference in Savannah. The police department was selected and won the award of excellence. Excellent from the Georgia police chiefs for their worth at Wednesday, which they're reading program for the elementary schools. So big shout out to them. I will provide some more information to that at a future council meeting for them to get the recognition that they deserve for winning that statewide. Lastly, on a quick video we have for you to show a six month update on our status that we've had since our retreat. So the whole idea the town center came about from the idea of creating an identity for the city. We were well aware of our strengths and assets which are the schools and the neighborhoods. But we wanted a place for the community to be able to celebrate and enjoy their time within the city. That led to discussions starting in March of 2020. Distablished a town Center master plan process. That process in itself took about 12 months where it was finally approved by Council for the Town Center Vision Plan in October of 2021. We did have a theme that came out of the plan. The five themes are arts, culture, wellness, sustainability and innovation. Although those efforts were well received, I think it was well carried out by the Marin City Council, and we're excited for what's to come in this area. In order to kick off what we're calling the first phase of the town center, this project is one that is monumental. The plan that was created by Marin Council with the support of the community called for this really being transformed into both an innovation hub as well as a retail district. As many know, we're proud to announce that Medley is slated to move forward here and will be created by Toro Development. This will also serve as the home of Boston Scientific's new research and logistics hub. It's poised to generate significant amounts of jobs and capital investment in a thriving industry. And even in the midst of dramatic inflation last year, life sciences sector continued to grow. What's interesting is that the 55-acre campus is just across the street from an area that the city is developing as Creekside Park, which will be our main central node for public recreation within the Town Center. The city's decision to develop Creekside Park came out of the town center planning effort. We're past the 30% mark in design and we're actually in permitting phases. Through the end of this year we will be finalizing all the different design elements in that construction set. Creekside Park will include a lot of gathering areas and amenities for the residents and the town center area. There will be a large pavilion amphitheater near City Hall. A boardwalk will be constructed from the upper pond through the lower pond area which will be a constructed wetland to the intersection of Johns Creek Parkway and Medlock Bridge. And also the creek side will blend in with the other elements on the roadways that our public works as efforts upcoming. So right now we're in the middle of engineering where we're preparing plans for a roundabout at Lake Field Drive and Town Center right there on the south end of the old state farm property. We are also developing a new signal that he's John's crossing in John Street Parkway. And then construction should start early 2024, probably in the spring. You'll start seeing actual construction with the hopes of having it completed by the end of 2024. Fortunes of all the transportation projects, park projects and commercial projects in pre-side, they're critical to the growth of the city. And while we don't have any more land to grow into, we can redevelop in a smart and packed full way so that all residents have an opportunity to come to the town center, come to this new park and still have a great experience. The Town Center Vision and Plan identified 20 infrastructure projects to invest in the next 10 years upon approval of the plan in 2021. We're less than two years in, but we have already begun 14 of the 20 identified projects as well as three additional projects. These efforts from City Hall are the result of Council's commitment to the Town Center. For the Boston Scientific Research and Development Campus, to the Medley-Johns Creek, mixed-use development, our investment is being matched by the private sector. With all of these elements working together, we're excited to see the town center come to life in John's Creek. All right. Just wanted to provide a quick little update on that video versus a PowerPoint. So thanks to communications team for putting out to go and the rest of staff. So with that being said, happy to take some comments, questions, concerns. Thank you for the video. It was great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next on. Thank you, Mayor. I do have a couple of announcements to see. The planning commission will meet on August 1 at 7 p.m. The zoning public participation meeting schedule for August 3rd is cancelled. We're back here on August 8th. We have an 11 a.m. Millage hearing of 5 p.m. work session, and a 7 p.m. council meeting, where we'll have another millage and budget hearing. Very good. All right. Any other announcements? All right, next item. Thank you, Mayor. Nothing under old business. The first item is new business, ordinance 23-712. This is a public hearing consideration of an ordinance submitting the City of John's Creek Zoning Map. RZ23-001 concurrent variance is 23-2 and 3. This is at 5805 state bridge road. C1 to C1 to allow for out parcel development to construct a 3500 square foot rush route with a drive-through and two concurrent variance. So we have director Song for presentation. Good evening, council. In case before you tonight is RC230001 with two concurrent mariances as mentioned, VC230002 and 0003. The subject property is located at 58 of 5, State Bridge Road. It's currently 8.65 acres in size. The existing zoning is C1. The proposed zoning requested is also C1. The request is to allow for an outpour of development to construct the 3500 square foot restaurant with the drive-through and two concurrent variances. VCE 23-0-0-0-2, which is to reduce required parking from 355 to 299 spaces. And VCE 23-0-0-0-3, which is to eliminate landscape strips along interior property lines. The property is located east of the intersection of Melal Bridge Road and St. Bridge Road, it's bounded by St. Knives Country Club subdivision to the north. Melal Corner shopping center, the eastern portion to the east, the St. Bridge Road to the south, and two commercial properties to the west. The applicant intends to subdivide the proposed 0.72 acre out parcel from the subject property for the new restaurant development that's being proposed this evening. In terms of background, the subject property was originally zone C1 through Fulton County in 1990, first went into 1990 Z-0044. It allowed for retail service commercial and our office and accessory uses up to 200,000 to 3000 square feet. It excluded service stations, commercial museness and billboards. Currently developed, the subject property is currently developed with 76,649 square foot commercial building with 332 parking spaces and public Performing as the principal anchor for the shopping center The property is accessible by three access points. There's a one there's one full access curb cutoff a state bridge road One right and right out curb office state bridge and another right and right out off of bedlock bridge road And as you can see one other item related to 1990 original zoning, it did contemplate several out parcels. The area that's highlighted in red is the area that we are reviewing tonight. Specific to the proposal, the restaurant. As mentioned again, it's 3,500 square feet. There would be 1,220 square foot outdoor patio that's shown in yellow. There will be a single pickup window fed by two drive-through lanes. Menu boards and speaker posts will be placed behind the building between St. Petersburg's road. The proposed out-parts will side is presently underutilized parking for the shopping center. And again, with the addition of the proposed restaurant, two under nine non-parking spaces will remain, as mentioned again. This is part of the variance request that was requested of the applicant. The proposed sidewalks and crosswalks would also connect the existing sidewalk along State Bridge Road to the main entrance of the proposed building. building. In addition to the request for the restaurant, because of the site is considered large scale retail commercial use, there is a requirement for a 10% of open space. And as part of that open space as you can see from the diagram on the top right, the green identifies all the open space that will be provided as part of this specific request. There are going to be three distinct seating areas that are identified with the numbers 1, 2, 3, as you can see. It's further zoomed out of those specific spaces that are being provided. The seating areas will include benches and tables surrounded by ornamental landscaping, special tea pavers, boulder walls, and stepping stones that will provide for additional seating. to pay for the safety of the public. The public is not going to be going to be going to the public. The public is going to be going to be going to be going to the public. The public is going to be going to the public. The public is going to be going to the public. The public is going to be going to the public. Currently, the access point into the shopping center and the traffic movement sort of going in and out is very congested and difficult. There is that request where they would push that and we'll get into a little bit more detail in the back end of that specific driveway relocation. They would also align with the relocated driveway design. That was approved as part of the scooters rezoning. That was done on the adjacent property. that was approved as part of the scooters rezoning, that was done on the adjacent property. This would provide for safer in and out access for the shopping center, and all there is just in driveways, curb cuts, landscape trips, and zoning buffers will remain intact. For the elevations of the building itself, it will be constructed primarily of cementitious sliding and nephus flat roof design with a facade offsets, contrasting building color and glass windows, providing variation in the building facade, which is compliant with section 4.4 of the zoning ordinance. Going into the zoning impact analysis, the first item is related to the suitability with nearby land uses. The commercial density for the proposed development is consistent with the Jason and nearby properties, proposed improvement to the main access into the property. Aligning it with the improvements approved for scooters will permit a use that is suitable with the use of the Jason properties. Related to impacts the existing uses, the improvements to the ingress egress driveway would further enhance traffic flow and maximize conflict points that impact ingress egress movements for the shopping center. The proposed design of the drive-through for Shake Shack restaurant allows for ample vehicle stacking traffic to flow in a single direction, improves the ability for shopping center patrons to safely maneuver in and out of the site. With the redesign of the driveway into the shopping center, the proposed development would not adversely affect adjacent or nearby properties. The property appears to have a reasonable economic use as currently zoned. Related to infrastructure, the proposal was expected to generate 996 daily trips, including 52 trips during the PM peak hour. Shake Shack open, this particular shake Shack would open 996 daily trips, including 52 trips during the PMP Gower. Shake Shack, this particular Shake Shack would open for business at 11am, therefore would not impact the AMP Gower. A traffic study was completed to analyze the impact of trips generated from the proposed development on the existing three-way stop. As mentioned, the intersection number one in yellow and the state bridge road in the middle of corner driveway traffic signal, which is the main access point into the shopping center identified as intersection number two in blue. The study identified that the proposed development would have nominal impact on the signalized intersection at state bridge. However, queuing from the signalized state bridge road would likely impede access to driveway A because driveway A is much closer to the intersection as it currently exists today. So the traffic study recommends that drive by A be moved approximately 60 feet north to align with drive by A, B again drive by B is the east-west sort of corridor that was approved and identified through the schoolers rezoning that was approved by council. And this would also allow for to incorporate a two-lane approach with stop sign control. Staff has recommended conditions to incorporate a two lane approach with stop sign control. Staff has recommended conditions to incorporate traffic study recommended driveway configuration to improve internal traffic flow within the shopping center. Therefore, the proposed development would now cause an excessive report and some use of existing streets. And when we refer to existing streets, we're referring to state bridge road specifically. When reviewing it to the comp plan, the subject property is located in the Medlock community area. The proposed development would be conforming with the Comprehensive Plan's future land use map, which indicates commercial retail shopping centers for the subject property. The proposal would provide for usable open spacing conformance with the policy and intend the other comprehensive plan in addition to the zoning ordinance requirement for large scale retail development. There are no other conditions giving support for approval of the proposal. Related to the environmental impact portion, the environmental side analysis submitted by the applicant in the case that the site does not contain any environmentally sensitive features as it relates to light and noise impacts. Impacts to wildlife, streams, wetlands, or floodplain. Staff does acknowledge that there is a 48 inch hardwood specimen tree existing on the development that was initially incorporated as part of the overall development that was constructed in the 90s. The tree bed area, approximately 5,400 square feet, is placed 4 to 6 feet higher than the current parking lot surface. Posing difficulties for redeveloping the site without raising the grade of the proposed restaurant to preserve the existing specimen tree. And also creating complications for safe internal traffic flow of the site. The single directional parking links required and preferred by public's provides limited options to develop the site without impacting the specimen tree. develop the site without impacting the specimen tree. Due to the conflict of existing topography and built environment of the property, it is challenged to preserve the tree with the improvements required by the traffic study. The city's tree ordinance does not restrict the removal of specimen trees from a site. It does require that removal be recompensed providing a greater unit density of trees than removal of non-speciment trees. The applicant proposes to compensate the removal of existing specimen tree by installing the required units of vegetation in compliance with the city's tree preservation and administrative guidelines. But by also installing a younger, hardwood specimen tree adjacent to the patio of the proposed restaurant. Staff has recommended a condition to plan a 12 inch caliber harwood tree within or adjacent to the Pateo area of the proposed restaurant. An arbor's report was provided a little late in the process and it was presented fairly quickly to the Planning Commission as part of the review. Knowing that the concerns of the tree staff also or the city also hired an independent Arborist to perform a review or an assessment of the tree as well. One thing to note is tree preservation or removal is not related to a land use matter. Evaluation of existing specimen trees, tree density requirements and tree replacement of the site is part of the land development process, which typically takes place after a rezoning process. So there's some comparisons between the two. I know it's a challenge to read. I won't necessarily go through all of them, just the one item on the first. From the applicants, Arbor's report is that it states several areas of STEM and LIM, RMDK. City's tree assessment report identified exhibiting signs of decline in the upper canopy. The applicants Arbor's report identified past the tree past the viable lifespan and has entered into the client. The city's report stated will degrade to poor condition over the next 10 years. Lastly, the applicants Arbor's report states no amount of engineering design improvements can assist in the long-distance ability of the tree. The city's report states the mature water oak tree is nearing the end of its life in a typical urban environment. Now into the review of the concurrent variance. The first one being BC23, 0, 0, 0, 2. Again, this is a request to reduce the number of required parking spaces from 355 to 299. Based on the site visit and review the historical imagery, it was observed that a significant portion of parking spaces serving the existing development were on occupied or underutilized, particularly the area that proposed restaurant due to its location being the farthest distance away from the storefronts. They continue to under-utilization of parking the site and adjacent properties development of out parcels in place of existing parking spaces adjacent to St. Bridge Road. Staff would support the approval of this variance request. The second variance request, VC 23003 is to eliminate the 15-foot landscape strip requirement along future interior property lines. Again, this is required because the applicant intends to from this out parcel essentially create a separate parcel in itself. Section 4.4.3 E3 of the zoning ordinance requires a 15 foot landscape strip along all interior property lines adjacent to non-residentry uses. The applicant intends to subdivide the 0.72 acres from the subject property requiring a 15 footfoot landscape strip along the west, north and east property lines. Providing landscapeships along interior property lines is not essential as it will detract from the overall design and functionality of the site and restrict walkability and interpersonal access. And again, historically from this development alone, there aren't internal landscape trips that are required or provided even amongst the adjacent developments and therefore staff would support the approval of this variance request as well. Based upon staff's analysis, staff did recommend approval with conditions. Planning Commission recommended denial at the July 10th, 2023 public care. Thank you. Thank you, director. So with that, I'd like to open the public hearing for RZ-23-001, VC-23-00002, and VC-23-003. The hearing will allow 30 minutes per side. All those wishing to speak in favor of this matter. Please come forward and looks like we already have someone. Thank you. Is my PowerPoint ready to go? I believe it is. Is that yours? Yes. Does it work with us? It does. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Bradbury, I remember said the council on Kathy Sicker with Smith, Kimberl and Russell and I represent the applicant in this matter. And let me say this at the outset, at the end of my presentation, which is not going to be overly lengthy, I don't believe. Thank you. Thank you. You're not going to turn my recording. It seems to be. I have a question for the committee. At the end of this presentation my request for you is going to be a deferral for 60 days and the reason is this. We acknowledge that it is an 800 pound tree in the room, so to speak. And we acknowledge that there is a great deal of concern about it that has been expressed in the community and by the planning commission. We have two separate studies that have been done at this point, one by us and one by the city, which does confirm that the tree in fact has issues. And yes, it may live for another five years. Maybe it would live for 10 years, but in the process, according to both reports, limbs will fall off, which are a danger. And ultimately, the tree will need to be removed. That said, this is one of those odd circumstances where you had a planning commission hearing two weeks ago and then your city council nearing two weeks later. And normally there is an extended period of time that exists between the two. We did not realize that we had the kind of opposition that we have in terms of or concerns about the trees until planning commission and immediately started taking steps to try and respond to those concerns. People were very kind, and we're expressing a willingness to meet with us, but only if we requested a referral so that there would be sufficient time to be able to go through these issues, which is why I'm going to be requesting that this evening. The other added benefit of it, I believe, however, is that your corner or this intersection and the shopping center are being studied as part of an ongoing effort of the city to upgrade this area. And that study is going to start hitting its public hearings within the next 60 days. So it will also give us an opportunity to get with the consultants who are involved in that. So as to try, if at all possible, to make sure that what we're doing on the side is consistent with that plan as well. With that said, let me start by showing you the aerial photo, which you all are familiar with. I know you know that it's the Medlock Corner Shopping Center, and it has, as Ben pointed out, been developed for some time. 33 years strikes me as a very long time ago for this property to be developed. But the point I want to make is that from the outset, it was always contemplated that there would be out parcels in this development. And thus far, we have three out parcels, which are within the development itself. And additionally, then we've got the bank on the corner which sort of looks like an out parcel even though it's not part of this track. So we right now have scooters copy, we have discount tire, we have Arby's actually we have four and we have a multi tenant building which is all of which have been approved, all of which have been approved for out parcel use by the council and all of which have been approved, all of which have been approved for out parcel use by the council and all of which approved the exact same variances. So I want you to be aware that from a consistency standpoint, this is something that has been done in the past, we are requested in the past, we are not shake-shack by the way, we are the property developers and the owners of the property. So I can't speak for shake-shack in this, but I can for my client. And I just wanted you to be aware that in fact, there were a number of similar approvals that have been given and in the relatively recent past as well. The next slide shows you a rendering of what the building would look like with the 12-foot tree, I believe, or 12-inch tree. And I'll give you an idea of how that would be sized. That's the front, that's the back, attractive. And here is where the water oak is located. So let's stop and talk about that for a moment. It is in the middle right now with the parking lot, basically in front of public. And our concern is that we are not going to be able to deal with it in terms of being able to save it. And in fact, we have already been told by our insurance company that given the reports that have issued that we need to take the tree down. And this is the actual letter. I have a copy of this for you all if you would like to see it. But it is written from our insurer, Southern State's insurance company, dated July 12th. Pond review of the expert opinions offered by Mr. David DeChant of Arborgaard Tree Specialist, which is the independent entity hired by the city. As well as Scott Bertha of Georgia Forestry Consulting, it is imperative that the subject tree be removed as it poses an elevated exposure for bodily injury and or property damage in the area surrounding the tree. And there is a Georgia code section which basically makes the owner of the property liable for any damage that occurs as a consequence. And we are then told that because they do know that we have this tree and we have issues with the tree that we need to make arrangements to take it down. I am hopeful that we can perhaps look at this and come up with a way that maybe we can minimize critical root zone disturbance. I don't know yet, but I'm certainly willing to take a chance. Nonetheless, at some point this tree is coming down, folks. It's inevitable. The tree is in a state of decline, and it is not, as Ben pointed out, a zoning issue. It is a land use issue in terms of what your ordinances require, what state law requires, what your ordinances require, and whether, whether in fact we can comply with it. And I submit to you that in one sense it is superior to have this tied to a zoning discussion because that way we can come up with other things to help in terms of alleviating the conditions of removing the tree. So for example, on the next slide. This will outline for you the pedestrian connectivity from the street that we're creating, as well as the fact that there is a new large tree that is contemplated. That is the size of the tree that will replace the one that is coming down. Extremely expensive. We're happy to do it. But that gives you an idea of what we can do in terms of replacing what is coming down as a condition of zoning for a tree that must be removed. This has already been pointed out to you in terms of Ben's presentation as to other improvements on site. We understand that there may be a cemetery that people are talking about trying to get a pedestrian connection to. There are some trails in the area that we could be making a connection to. And as the consequence, we will also incorporate those discussions to see if we can go above and beyond what's already on the table and has been offered by us to see if we can offset the impact of the removal of this tree. That will give you an idea of some of the things that might be done. One of them is to increase the open space on this site. I think we can almost double it. So even on the out parcel itself, we should be able to do something that would help in terms of the impact of removing the tree if that is what we end up having to do. So we could increase the open space, we can connect a sidewalk at State Bridge along the Western line of the shops and publics in the rear to publics. And then we can also try to provide a trail and trailhead to Macedonia's cemetery, which is the one that I was mentioning earlier. All of which were perfectly willing to consider. I know this is an emotional issue, I know it's hard. I would ask for your indulgence in allowing us the time to see if there's some way to work through this. There's nothing wrong with the zoning as evidence by the fact that you all have approved similar zoning in the relatively recent past. The problem stems from the tree. So give us some time. If at the end of that 60 days you are still of the opinion that this development somehow makes the tree situation worse, then we can deal with it at that point in time. But we would ask for the courtesy of the extension, especially given that we just didn't have the normal amount of time because of summer holiday scheduling that we would normally have between planning commission and the City Council in order to try and convene meetings with the public and try and discuss that. That's pretty much all I have to say. Tyler, do you want to add anything? for us with us if you have any specific questions that haven't knows I can't answer because I do not at all Contend that I know about three to any significant degree so if you would be interested in that we have him available as well Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak in favor? I believe they're working the time from the back. Here we go. Good evening. My name is Catherine Benid. I leave it to 4 or 5, Selkore plain. So the tree might have 10 more years to leave, but it was due that big storm printed darn well. So it's still very strong. When I moved here, I moved here in 2007. And I always thought that it was very special, okay? That tree is, you know, I think we're privileged to have that tree on that plaza. And I always was very thankful that people before us protected it. Now Now and they did. I mean, Filton County in 1990 deemed it a very important tree. When you look at the bed that they built around it, they weren't joking. It is an important tree. They put a lot of effort to make sure the street would leave. But now it's under attack. So John's Creek adopted a sustainability as a strategic priority this year, right? Hopefully by your end, we finally have a historic preservation ordinance and hopefully we're applying for Tree City USA, right? So that would be in line with a mindset of protecting what we have. With all your respect, I think this is an assertion comment and I'm the West York State mine of the French audience. I don't know that we can choose whether or not to separate the two. But if she's stood up to speak, I'm not going to tell her that she can't. Go ahead. Thank you. But please don't ask my final question. She's waiting for her. Continue, ma'am. Thank you. Don't, please don't do that again. Please, thank you. Please continue. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, and yet after adopting this strategic priority, which is sustainability, we're here talking about possibly removing this tree. This makes no sense. There are lots of other places that this business could apply to install as activities. This is a three-quarter of an acre out of nine acres that this lot is across the street. The target has a million acres of where they're storing or rent this shipping containers most of the time. And I'm sure there's something that can be done, right? So there's always a better way to do it. That's not me that's Thomas Edison saying that. So this tree is one of only 17 that we have in our city, that we have preserved, or that got lucky enough to not face the acts. It's an heirloom to the city. And if, and I know everybody knows what an heirloom is, but I'll go back through the definition. An heirloom is an object passed down generations with sentimental or historical value. It is a way of preserving a family's heritage and memory. Okay. So if John's Creek is a big family, which I believe we are, okay. That's why we're here today. If we're a big family and we are the member of this family that are supposed to save Kip this heirloom, then approving the removal will be like selling your great grandma's jewelry for a new TV. So how do you think the generations before us would think of it? And most important, what do you think the future generation would think? Okay? It's not a matter of tenures. It's a matter of responsibility of what we're doing. So when voting, I asked that you picture yourself, explaining to your grandkids why cutting a piece of history for a fast food was the right thing to do. Thank you very much. Now, if I could, if I could. So right now we are in the portion of the meeting that is for speaking in favor of the applicant. That's correct. Then I'm going to ask that you give the applicant some more time. And I'm actually going to speak in support of the deferral. I think it's an honest effort on their part to work with the community. This is if we're going to address this problem and we should do that. At the planning commission, I spoke about how we need to get to a win-win situation, a win for the developer, and a win for the community. And I think he heard that, and I think this deferral is an honest request to see if we can get to a win-win. Okay, so before you proceed in deciding whether you're gonna deny or whatever, I really urge you consider the usual hand, which is the deferral. Let's not waste people's time. If you're gonna go that the furl, let's not waste people's time, if you're going to go for the furl, let's do that right now. And let the community work with the applicant to see if we can get there. You made an honest request for 60 days, which I think is an adequate time. You did it. So that's kind of where I am. Please vote in support of the furl so that we can actually do something and achieve success for the city and the applicant. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak in favor of the application? All right. Seeing none, then let's open up the opposition. You also have 30 minutes. And if you'll take note of the time, now I'm clear. It's live. Yeah. Joan Compton. Who has something bracing her? And I hope you're OK. Yeah. Hopefully this is coming off tomorrow. Just make sure I can. Okay. So I'm Joan Compton. I live at 53.55 Lathe Bank Lane, which is quite near to the public. Center shopping center and I do shop there often. I'm in opposition of the zoning case, RZ23001, for a couple of reasons. The main one, and really I get it with a tree, although I'm going to put in my word about saving the tree towards the end. But other people are going to speak to that too. Really, the opposition tonight is the proposal does not conform to the 2018 comprehensive plan. Specifically, the application does not transition the shopping center towards a walkable village note. That to me is really important. It also does not create streets for safer vehicular movement, which is part of the comprehensive plan for this area. And it also removes rather than add screen space, although I did hear the applicant say that they are willing to look at that. And if it proved, it could derail the vitalization plan for this corner. So why is conforming to the 2018 comprehensive important? Well, for me and for those of us who live in the south, east part of town, the 2018 complan promise to bring us some of the excitement, walkability, green space, and the attractions that we have jealous seeing, going to the north area of town and over to Newtown Park. So this is kind of our chance to get something really exciting for the city, but also for the residents who live close by. So, walkability, that was the first point in how it doesn't conform to the comprehensive plan. It's envisioned that the regal cinema and public-hobby lobby shopping centers would transform into a more walkable village like setting, that's from the, the comp plan on page 86. This proposal does not transition the shopping center towards more walkable village like setting that's from the the comp plan on page 86. This proposal does not transition the shopping center towards a walkable plan in any way. Having three drive-thrues in a row would negatively brand the area, would contradict the comp plan's intent for walkability. Drive-thrues don't support any of the life and vitality and amenities that suggest people might want to come to live, work, play in a neighborhood that's from a urban place of this fellow. Drive-throughs instead, and if we have three, it's even multiplied, they're primarily catering to commuters who pass through our city, not necessarily our residents. And I don't think that should necessarily be a goal. And this slide shows, again, the lack of walkability. It's a 35 square foot building with two rows of cars on three sides of it. Yes, there's a little patio, but the rest of it's all parking. One of the other things the comprehensive plan for this area specifically has as a goal is streets for safer pedestrian and vehicular movement. Again, very specific new streets and pocket park squares are envisioned in the existing shopping center parking lot to allow for public events and safer vehicular movement. Again, this isn't really happening with this proposal. And I try again and again to improve this slide. But drive-thrues do create safer, vehicular movement. They're cited as magnets of traffic and congestion, then insert hazardous crossing points, leading to accidents with pedestrian cyclists and other cars. The drive-through in this particular case is cited for an already busy traffic area of the parking lot. And I know the applicants have said that area, nobody parks there, nobody drives there, I'm sorry. I was there on Sunday afternoon, it was three quarter, the parking lots, a long state bridge road were three quarters full. And I counted the cars and cars were going through it a rate of about 10 seconds piece. So in other words, I was getting six cars per minute. And they were traveling very, very fast. And what I tried to get with the slide is the points of time select. And it's just a bunch of arrows. But essentially what you've got here is you've got a road here that's going to be in access to other parts of the parking lot and to the exit of the parking lot. That's a two-way road. Then you've got all these parking lot alleyways, I guess I'd call them, leading into that area. And then you have people trying to go this way and turn left to get into the drive-through and come this way and turn right into the drive-through and come straight through from the parking alley into the drive-through. Again, lots of conflict points coming out because you've got people going both ways. You have people trying, sorry. We'll get back to it. What did I do? Oh, thank you. So anyway, just the arrows, I got tired of making arrows. There should be more arrows. Everyone of those arrows is a conflict point. So it doesn't make it safer. Certainly it's not safer for cars. It doesn't make it safer for pedestrians. How in the world would you ever cross to get the restaurant if you weren't doing a drive-through? As far as traffic goes, the plan also negatively will impact traffic on state bridge and the intersection with Medlock Bridge. 900 plus cars may seem like a drop in the bucket, actually I guess it's closer to a thousand. But for an already congested area, inserting even a few extra cars into state bridge road is going to be a problem. The timing of the traffic lights that serve targets in public shopping centers, which will into State Bridge Road is going to be a problem. The timing of the traffic lights that serve Targus in public shopping centers, which will serve this. We'll have to be lengthened to accommodate the cars trying to get in and out of the Shake area. That's further going to slow down traffic on the main roads. Also, as far as the comprehensive plan is concerned, it proposes pocket parks and more green space specifically for this site. Pocket parks, squares are envisioned within the existing shopping center parking lot to allow for public events. The proposal though, if you see that it's not actually a rectangle, sorry, did it again. This rectangle, that's where the tree is, That's 5,400 square feet. The variance that they're asking for would allow them not to have this perimeter of 15 foot landscape strips. When you add the landscape strips together, that equals 6,000 square feet. When you add that to the 5,400 square feet of the tree bed, that they're also saying they're going to remove, all of a sudden you've got a quarter of an acre of green space. That's going to be removed with this particular zoning. The trade off. The trade off is to, the trade off is to put a 12 inch diameter tree, which actually is quite generous as far as landscape trees are concerned. But if you look at this drawing, actually let me go back to the one before even. If you look at this, the tree that they're replacing is going to go over here on a tiny, tiny little patio. There's no way you can put a big tree there. The existing tree, how big would it be if you superimposed it on the strong? It would take this entire area. How are you going to put a tree that's going to grow to that size on the little patio? It makes no sense. tree that's going to grow to that size on the little patio makes no sense. Okay, also if approved it could derail the revitalization plan for this corner. City of Johns Creek's already begun the revitalization plan. Let's not jeopardize long term planning and cohesive revitalization by approving a piece mill zoning application today that does not conform to the intent of the comp plan and the goals for that corner. Let's redevelop in a smart way. So it doesn't conform, this proposal does not conform to the comprehensive plan. It also endangers the revitalization plan and then there's a tree. It also endangers the revitalization plan and then there's a tree. Yeah, maybe we're going to lose the tree. But it's a heritage tree. It's beautiful. It has a spread of 100 feet. Imagine here, to there, and twice as wide if you're standing under the tree. Four times as high as this ceiling. It's a magnificent tree. So they've gotten two arbors reports. We actually have another arbors who's chimed in. I read the arbors reports and again, I'm not an arbors, but what it says to me is yes, there are issues. The tree is in decline. The one arbors said it's in fair condition and has at least 10 years to live. The kind of things they point out are things under an Arborist care could be rectified. So my question wouldn't be, you know, why take the tree out? My question would be why not bring an Arborist in? And yeah, so some of the things are, some of those smaller branches are dead. Clip them out. A couple of the larger branches may be impaired in a way that could be dangerous. Cut them off. That doesn't mean you have to get rid of the entire tree. There's another water oak. This one's 48 inches in diameter. There's another one here in John's Creek that is 6.5 feet in diameter, much older, obviously. It has been under an arborist care. It looks really good. It probably will live at least another 10 or 20 years too. So don't, because it's in decline, because it has some issues, don't think that it has to be taken down. And again, I'm asking for denial today based on the proposal does not conform to the 2018 comprehensive plan in the ways I just went over. And if approved, could derail the revitalization plan for this corner. Thank you. Mr. Pennington. Mr. Pennington. Mr. Pennington. Mr. Mayor, just a point of order from one moment please. Do we have an exact accounting of the amount of time that someone spoke in opposition to the applicant? So I want to make sure that time is accurately pushed back to the applicant. Do we have that? I don't know if you do, but I mean, they're going to have a fair amount. I mean, if you're not able to get all your points and we'll take a look at it. I believe that when it comes time for a rebuttal, we just have to make sure that accounting is equalized. That's all. Okay. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Lynn Pennington and I live at 110, all chart well drive, but I'm here to represent John's Creek beautification. In addition to the letter that we sent from John's Creek beautification, we do want to support everything that John has just said to an excellent presentation about all the reasons why we at this point should seek a denial. This is not the right time, it's not the right place for this particular zoning. If we really want to make this city a beautiful walkable city with more parks, we can't lose this opportunity in this tree. Number one, I really think that it's interesting that that, if the insurance company is saying, take it down, I guess the storm took care of the dead tree that they never took down in that parking lot, but it was snapped the other day. And yet that grand tree, that big old mother tree held its branches, it still looks good if you go buy it. We have 10 years, we ought to be able to use that. I think it's possible that in future developments, the area that the tree is sitting on could be extended and become a mini park right there which would give everybody a chance to take a big breath and have a chance. The current zoning has these little tiny pockets, wait the other end of the parking lot. That zoning, the applicant could have moved to that corner but they want greater visibility. There's room in the parking lot to be somewhere else but but they chose that location, which means the tree has to come down. And I think that their insurance company would back away from saying it has to come down if they had a protected area bigger than it is now, because that tree's not going to fall over. It's going to drop branches slowly. We can get those fixed or repaired. So anyway, I do want to say that one of the things that I hope will come out of this will be as a city that we work on how can we protect trees in the future? How can we look at this city? How can we identify the trees that are there, provide signage and make sure this would be a moot point, it would never have to come up again. So that is the advantage of having this controversy right now. We can make this a good situation for the future of John's Creek. So with that I want to thank you all for your time. Mr. Corrigan. Mr. Corrigan, 5345 Cottage Form Road. I invite all of you to go to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan on the website, look at the medlock node, and I'd ask you to go to page 80. And in it, they give you a background history, and they mention history. There's a whole paragraph there. It begs the question, is this just filler? But does it really mean something? This happens to be the true center of John's Creek. You have the Warsaw community. If you go to the right of Ivy Hill, the animal hospital, and you go to the back, you'll find the Warsaw cemetery. If you've never been there, it's enormous. Much bigger than you realize. A lot of history there. Then you come back to 141, the restaurant, just behind it, over near the, forget the name of the place. The Warsaw Elementary School, which in reality was first grade through high school. And it was restored by the former speaker of the house who went to school there. This is also Cherokee territory and across the road, you have the Macedonian church cemetery, which we know is actually a slave cemetery. So why do we study history? Why do we care? How do we learn how to make things better? How do we correct the past going forward? So what we're talking about is a wonderful area right here. And actually the tree is a living piece of history, living and breathing. It's the last thing that's left. But that's my minor detail. It's all about the comp plan. When you go on to page 84 and 85, you have a vision. And the vision describes a wonderful description of a walking Community one where you can travel by foot by bicycle golf cart etc And a very different description But I ask you to go to page 85. I don't have a color copy But in all these pictures the common thread is what greenery It's also such some plants in nature. So why is the seal look the way it does? What's on it? Oh, that's right, it's trees. So this was done intentionally. This plan took two years to come up with. The first one we throw out because we didn't accept it. And some of you were here for that. This community cares about what we're gonna do in this area. So some of the problems that you have here are self-inflicted by the applicant. I'm sorry, but if you were to go over to the corner where the bank is and you had a creative landscape designer and that slope there, you can actually build levels of seating outside. You're below the roadway. The sound is less noticeable. You're not on display if you're reading outside. And if you actually had paths going to it, oh, by the way, what happens if you had a guitarist with an amplifier? Well, you've got a shake-shack that you don't find anyplace else. But that takes gray matter. That takes listening to what the public wants and what we want in our neighborhood. We don't want Buford Highway. We want the nature and the beauty that we have here. So work with it. Come on. And I'm old. I don't think they're gonna get rid of me yet, but I got a new hip and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, the trees old. You don't think they get rid of it? There's so many opportunities here. This is about does this make the feel and the look of what you're looking for? Does this fit the comp plan? That's what we're talking about. Does it? Thank you very much. Katherine Benetz. Katherine. Katherine Beniz. Sarah Katherine. Be in EAT. Okay. The next person is Mr. Ray. Are you? Good evening. My name is Craig Ray. MD. 10599 Bent Tree View, John's Creek, Georgia. I'm here to defend the tree. Now, the tree ordinance says that if the tree cannot be cut down if it's conditioned as a certain level. It's a fair level, that protection. There has to be a certain size or larger that protects it. The hooker comes in where it says it has to be a life expectancy of 10 years. Now, not 11. I mean, if we had said, the report had said, it is likely, that is not a fact. It is likely to degrade to poor condition over the next ten years. It would have been nice if they could have just speculated in seven, set eleven years that would have protected it. But this tree is estimated by the arborist to be possibly as old as 130 years old. Now the average water oak trees life expectancy is 60 years, 60, and some sources say as much as 80 years. Now this tree could be as old as 130 years, so you may say, well, it's old, what do you expect? But this tree has something special going forward. I don't know if it's genetics, or maybe it gets an extra splurge of CO2 from all the cars going around it. But which it rewards us back with oxygen in return. Now, some of the causes that were listed as being a problem, branch inclusion is ironic that the picture that showed of the top getting thin shows five cars parked in the shade of it and none of the cars are under the tree limbs. This shows that the top is 15 percent, I forgot the wording for it, but that leaves 85 percent of the crown that's doing okay. The overextended limbs, some trees have cables holding them up. They have numerous epicormic sprouts. That does show stress in a tree, but it's the tree's way of compensating for the stress it's under by producing more leaves. So in a way that helps negate the stress that is under. So I would just say that this is a special tree and you can't just say it's only got ten years left because it's been around a long time more than its life expectancy and it says it's a fair tree now The bottom part of the tree is fine. It's got some problems that can be treated by bracing with a bark inclusion or Cables with extended limbs which can be trimmed a little bit. You know, I don't trim them all off with a lot of rep Repairs that can be done to that tree to preserve it. Thank you. Mr. Steiner. Edward Steiner. Hello, Council. I'm Edward Steiner. I live at 790, absolutely way here in the city. I want to congratulate the city for what I saw earlier in the evening town center. That gives us a vision of what can be done. And that's the vision that is in the comprehensive plan. Now, the tree, I don't think anybody in this room hates that tree. I think everybody likes that tree, but that's the poster child for this issue. Now I wrote to all of you separately, and I hope you read my comments, but I hope you will take into account the fact that the Comprehensive Plan gives us an opportunity to make it right. So let's take a look at what we can do rather than what we can't do and as we come forth in the next few months and years with our Comprehensive Plan, let's implement it and take advantage of the topography we have there at Medlock Bridge and State Bridge and turn it into a town center. Wouldn't that be something? So I ask your indulgence on that. Whether it's denial or a deferral, I think now is not the time to approve the current plan. So thank you for your time. We appreciate you. Jean Veneman. I'm Jean Veneman. I'm a resident here of Johns Creek at 11975 South McNallya Circle. I'm here to oppose the zoning. Now I heard tonight about the request for the extension. I wholeheartedly support that extension to allow the community and everyone else more I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I a lot to be said. As a resident for over 30 years in John's Creek, I've seen it grow and develop extensively, seen it become a city, seen lots of development. Most of that development has been extremely positive, and I'm for that development. But what really enlighten me is as I've walked the communities with my children that have grown up here, and we see the placement of signs of what this area used to be and what it is now, the mere fact that we have so many communities, OC, Warsaw, ShakeRag, and many more smaller communities that make up John's Creek. As we see the signs posted about what's history, all we have left is signs. And here we have an opportunity in an area that is requesting development. And at the point of taking down a tree that is over 100 years old. And that is a living, breathing representation of this long standing community. That there are still quite a few people that live in this area that their families have been here for many, many generations. Now, I'm not one of them, but I appreciate and respect their community. I chose to live here, I've raised my children here, and it's a great community. And I think it's time that we really take a look at that planning and that comprehensive plan and make sure that we are doing and committing ourselves to what that plan represents. John's Creek has a lot of our opportunities for growth and becoming a great city. We already are a great city, but we need to think through as we work on these plans and make sure that we don't arbitrarily allow individuals to come in and not abide by our comprehensive plan. So I ask that at a minimum, either you deny the zoning request tonight or extend that 60 days and give others an opportunity to really weigh in on what this means to our community. Thank you Tim Bailey Is there Tim Bailey and may I you why? Okay, nafee site I just see also Okay, Wendy Bailey Gary the human Okay, Wendy Meiley. Gary Beheman. Parks Taylor. Malia Taylor. Mr. Reineke, you Royce Reineke? You wish just- Okay. Okay, I have no further cards. Would anyone else like to speak microphones? Irene Sanders again. One of the things I left up there was this particular young lady called probably 25 arborists to get their opinion about the tree. And she found one who would come and look at it, which he did. And his report is on that first page that I gave you, where he is recommending immediate interventions to save it and a long-term care management. He also believed that there was longer than 10 years for it. And both of them wanted me to make a point that the city needs to figure out a definition of a heritage tree as opposed to a specimen tree. And if we don't have a tree protection ordinance which we don't, that protects heritage trees, the city needs to make sure that they work to get one. And just on my point is, do we really want to be the generation that kills this tree? So that's all I have. Mr. Mayor, City Council, first of all, thank you for all you do for John's Creek. My wife and I have lived here since before it's John's Creek and we love it. And you do a great job. Very quickly, that intersection that you're, we're talking about, everybody lives here. The gridlock there is without question. It's terrible. There's no way this wouldn't contribute to that gridlock number one. Number two, we're talking about the life of the tree. We can debate that. I promise you, or it would be willing to bet you that that tree in whatever state it's in, it's going to last a lot longer than the fast food restaurant that would go in there. The average life, I put this in a note that you were nice enough to answer Mr. Mayor. The average life of a fast food restaurant is 4 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1- five years and then it moves out and what moves in their next. It's just a problem waiting to happen. We have too much gridlock and thank you for all you do for the community. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have any council? My name is Dale Huff. I'm 110 ginger gate court. I just want to make my comments very briefly. This issue has been reviewed by the Planning Commission. There's already been a vote that's the recommendation. I want to point, I won't remind the council about that recommendation. All of these things were discussed at that hearing. They've spent a lot of time reviewing that. I'd like to speak in opposition to a deferral. I think the decision just needs to be made. It's very clear this is going to cause a reduction in walkability. I for one would not walk from publics over there with that traffic going there. It's bad enough as it is. And so I just want to encourage you to move ahead with that comment. It really is an economic issue. The corner was on the original parcel, and there is, but it's not working for them economically. I understand it's not a tree issue, it's an economic issue. And so thank you for taking here my time. I think with that I think that those are opposition have gotten to say their piece and do you want to make rebuttal? Yes. Very briefly. First of all, let me make it clear that I do have the arborist with us who did our study and if you have any questions about longevity, what failing of the tree means, how it may be possible to protect it, what have you, please feel free to ask questions, he'll be happy to answer them. And everything has been said supports what I've asked you to do, which is to defer this for 60As, to see if there is a way that we can do that. If you want to turn it down at the end of 60 days, if we are not able to go through it, then that's fine. I have had a lot of work in John's Creek where I've worked with civic associations and community members, and I think this is a reasonable community, and I think that it's distinctly possible that we will be able to work through our issues. And if that actually results in an ability to save the tree, we We got to win, win both ways. So all I am asking is in an effort to try to reach, go through this and reach a resolution that will be satisfactory to everyone. With that said, town center was actually my application, and if you notice the pictures, you'll notice that they were clear cut. You don't have a tree ordinance that requires that specimen trees be preserved. And maybe that is something the city ought to be considering most jurisdictions do. But right now you don't. And right now that tree can come down, provided that there is recompense. There's nothing in your codes that prohibit that at all, whether it's sick or not quite frankly, not that you would want to take down a healthy tree, obviously. But that's something for the city to consider on a long-term basis to maybe avoid this kind of problem in the future. But that's where we find ourselves today and your code simply does not say that you are not allowed to take down these trees. This is the first I've heard that there is an independent arborist who has been retained by the community. I would be delighted to see that report. I would be delighted to speak with that arborist. I'd be delighted to put our arborist with him or her in an effort to see whether there are, in fact, things that could be done to save the tree. That's not off the table. So with all of that said, the professionals here, your planning staff has told you already that in your view, their view, this application is fully compliant with the comprehensive plan, which goes to land use. And he's also applying to you that the amount of traffic that will be created will not cause a significant problem. A lot of using this kind of a facility is what's called Paths by Trips. They're already on the road. So again, your staff has already reviewed all of that. We did do a traffic study. It was, in fact, looked at an examined and was addressed to the satisfaction at least of your own professional staff. So with all of that said, I again reiterate my request for the deferral for the 60 days to give us an opportunity to see if we can work through it, which is I think reasonable for everybody. through it, which is I think reasonable for everybody. All right. And that concludes all your rebuttal. So with that, I'd like to close the public here and with that council of four jurors. Direct the song. Director Song. In your professional opinion did the sorry for, I'm sorry why I don't know how to refer you, the applicant, did he meet anybody on the community before? Not that I'm aware of. We did have a public participation meeting, which is a requirement of the resounding process. And we do hold that as city hall notifications are sent out and no residents were in attendance at that time. Thank you. The lady, can you please come up? How do you intend to communicate with this, with our community, which has brought a lot of valid objections? Absolutely. I believe that there were cards turned in this evening, and I can certainly get emails off those cards and create a list. Alternatively, I can pass around a legal tab here tonight and anyone who wants to put their email address or phone number on there, we will be happy to include them in any meetings that we have. We can also put an ad in the paper if that or with civic associations, if that would be something that would be of interest to you. The question that you just asked is exactly my point. There was nobody there before we didn't know we had this problem until planning commission, and now we've only had two weeks. So that's exactly what I was getting at. See, two people can talk past each other. I know. Or my point specifically, how are you willing to listen to them I have a lady who's a historian here who just told us the trees canopy extends almost this length and twice this if you do replace something can you replace something comparable in terms of age in terms of canopy obviously not in terms of age, in terms of cannabinoids. It's not obviously not in terms of age. I mean, I don't think they're not in. What I'm saying is, how are you going to arrive at some kind of compromise with them? Well, first of all, first we have to look to see whether there are in fact measures that can be taken to save this trade. And I'm certainly willing to look at that and so is my client. So that's the first, that's obviously a priority for everyone if that's a possibility. And I'm willing, as I said, to meet with their arborist, to look at their report, and to respond appropriately and to see if we can do that. And then if it does not work, then we have worked with your staff to try and compensate for the removal of the tree. We have to, that is in your code. Whether that 12 inch wide tree is sufficient compensation at this point? I don't know. So that's a data I cannot answer. I'd like to make a motion. There's any more questions or comments here. Perhaps it can be in the context of the motion. I'd like to make a motion to deny this any application before us. I'll second that. Okay. So we have a motion to deny by Councilmember L Wood and a second by the Mayor Pro Tem. And a discussion on the motion. So I wanted to just, we got our motion already. I wanted to have a couple more conversations here. You're welcome to still... You're so welcome to do that, but now you know have the posture of the motion. So I guess my point here is that you've honestly put this dius and this council in a really tough position. Because number one, the information, everyone probably in this room has been to this public. And so the managers at publics, everyone knows that this was coming to council and the tree is potentially going to be taken down. But this is not about a tree. This is about a land issue, and that's a legal definition of why we're here. But the optics of taking down a tree is horrible. So we're in a position of having to do the legal aspects of this, but also having to satisfy the optics of this. So it's a bad position. Also, at the Planning Commission, the Arborist letter that you received was late. It came in late and was delivered late. And now we're hearing you've brought to us a letter from your insurance carrier and you've made a statement that this tree's coming down no matter what so If we were to go with a deferral We you were at a point right now where that that tree's gonna come down one way or another Versus a denial okay, which puts you back 12 months versus a denial, okay, which puts you back 12 months. So it's a position that, you know, we, I don't think anyone here likes that position. So I only say that because we have the whole community engaged. Over 200 emails have come to us. And so I would ask in the future because you're a landowner that's been around John's Creek for a long time. You know how we are, You know how we operate. I think we've all probably been in the same room at different events. I think it's important that going forward, if you do come back with another application, if the denial is approved, then let us do the homework. Let us understand the land issues that we're working with as well as what the community wants because after all, public is a part of our community. It's all around. And when I look at just the comprehensive plan, the issues and the comprehensive plan, the orientation of the building itself, the back of its face in state bridge. And who knows what mechanical issues are being shown there. I know that there's other issues that potentially moving it down towards the bank. Why is it that we couldn't explore that further versus where we are today? So I guess my point is we have a denial and emotion on the table here. So I felt I needed to say that at this point. Anybody else? No, I have nothing further. Okay. Well, I did just want to add, first of all, thank you for now, you know, trying to work with the community. But I can't bring them out here again the third time. They've sent emails. I've seen this on Facebook. I've seen this on next store. So the time to work with them would have been, you know, a while ago. But I do appreciate you trying. And I hope that you will do the right thing and take the efforts to try to protect the tree. But my reason for denial is actually because it doesn't fit with the comp plan. So there's no community buy-in, so that was my reason for supporting the motion. Actually, and not related to the denial at all, but just for point of information for everyone that spent time coming out here, the city is considering a tree preservation ordinance to be part of the tree city's USA designation, and that should be coming to us maybe in November. So if this matters to you as an issue, please definitely keep paying attention. And also historic preservation ordinance, possibly in October. in October. I also think in terms of traffic, previously I was personally denying an application to the scooters folks, because I thought they didn't make sufficient effort to mitigate the traffic issue, especially in one of the busiest and one of the most accident prone intersections of John's Creek. So that was one of my main concerns and of course I can't replace history. I would like to thank the applicant trying to work with the residents. Our decision is basically looking at the comp plan, so I would appreciate you trying to work with the residents. So keep doing that one ender. We look forward to working with you in the future. And I'll just say that, you know, I've done my level best to put the tree out of my mind because it's really not supposed to be pertinent. You know, if we're acting as judges in this case, I do enjoy that tree. I think it's probably the apparently most beautiful, healthy looking tree I've ever seen that's apparently in decline, but the But to everyone's point here the conference of Lane use plan, you know, that's what we got to hang our hat on and I don't think there's a question about that and so I'll be supporting the motion Anybody else? motion. Anybody else? Anybody else have anything additional? All right. Do you have something? I just want to add some more. You know, I do want to thank you for what you do in our community. And I don't think this is probably going to work out this evening, but I do want to thank you for everything that you've tried to do, and I would encourage you to come back with something else that potentially is more in line. And if there's a way that you could work with this third party arborist and try to potentially save that tree, I think it would give you some uplifts around. Thank you. All right. If there's nothing new, nothing additional to add. I'm going to call the question. All is in favor of the motion. All right. There you have it. Is denied. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody, I know that you may want to have a conversation. If you will, if you'll take that out in the hall and we'll get to the rest of the meeting. But thank you everyone for coming out and thank you to the applicant. Thank you. I'm still I I'm going to put it in the rest. John. Do we need to, do you need a, alright? Everybody, I'm going to put us in recess for five minutes. We're recording again. All right, magically we're back. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn to executive session. Pardon me, I don't mean to interrupt, but that's out of the order of the rest of the agenda. It is. Or if you can do Madam Clerk. Okay. Okay. All right, so let's just wait. All right, did we have no other business crack? All right. All right. And next item. We do have another opportunity for public comment. Okay. I'm not really seeing a lot of folks. Okay. Mayor's comments? I have none. Perfect. Executive session. All right. No. I would like to make a motion that we adjourn to executive session. Second. Second. Second. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? We were adjourned to go to executive session. Executive session, we have been discussed. Land legal and personal matters. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you All right, is there a discussion on the motion to come out of executive session? Seeing the discussion all those in favor and where you are out of the executive session. Thanks guys. Next item. There's no further items of business on the agenda this evening. Okay. Just takes one. There. So considering I would like to make a motion to adjourn tonight. Oh, that's fantastic. We have a motion to adjourn all those in favor Ah, very good I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the Oh my gosh. Those kids break this chair and this is classic. Why not? I'm doing it. Put in the air back on.