All right, good evening. I would like to call the March 4th meeting of the City of John's Creek Planning Commission to order. At this time I'd like to respectfully ask everyone to please silence or turn off your cell phone. The Planning Commission is a recommending body to the mayor and the City Council and we follow guidelines and conjunction with the public hearing to assist in formulating our recommendation. Copies of the Planning Commission procedures and staff reports are available with the entrance to this chamber in the back. The presiding officer will call cases on the agenda for public hearing. First, the presiding officer shall recognize planning staff to make a presentation of the case with recommendations. And then we will open it up to the public hearing. The applicant shall receive a time period of 10 minutes to present their case. If there is any concurrent variance, each will be granted the applicant in additional 10 minutes. The time is kept by the planning staff. The applicant may choose to use their entire allotment or reserve a portion of their time for any rebuttal. Any member of the hearing body, upon recognition by the presiding officer, may ask questions of the applicant or an agent of the application. The period of questions from the planning commission is not deducted from the applicant's time period. Opposition, if there is any, is granted an equal time period per the application to present data, evidence and their opinions. If a large number of people wish to speak in opposition, it is advisable for a spokesperson to make the presentation. The city is not obligated to provide the full-time period to opponents if they elect not to use their time. And the opposition is not granted a rebuttal period. Any member of the hearing body upon recognition by the presiding officer may ask questions of any person giving public comment tonight. After completing this process, the presiding officer will indicate that the public hearing is closed. Upon closing the public hearing, the planning commission can no longer be addressed by the applicant or opposition. The planning commission may continue to ask questions of city staff at that time. Once all questions have been asked and addressed, the presiding officer will call for a motion and are properly seconded. We'll call for a vote on the matter. The presiding officer will then state the vote and a recommendation for the record. I ask that all present occurrously and to refrain from any outbursts or comments from the audience. I would like to recognize and welcome the commissioners' attendance. Starting from my left, I would like to welcome new commissioner Judith Roths, who joins us from the zoning board and we are delighted to have you here tonight. Sitting immediately to my left is commissioner Michael Katzen. Congratulations on your reappointment. Commissioner Hamanchu, Carnwell, on my right. And on that note, first item on the agenda is approval of the February 4th meeting minutes. And I understand you weren't here, so you'll abstain, Judith, but commission to Ross. But has everybody had time to read through the meeting minutes as they were sent out For February I have chair. I'll make a motion to approve the February 4th Meeting minutes great. Thank you. Do I get a second? Okay all those in favor signify by saying aye anybody opposed opposed? That motion passes, let me see if my how good my math is tonight. That motion passes three to zero with one abstention. Okay. All right, the first item of business on the agenda tonight is land use position, RZ-24-0012 with concurrent variance 24-00909. I turn it over to you, Ms. Argerwell. Good evening, planning commissioners. My name is Ruchia Gerval, and I'll be presenting you tonight's case, which is a rezoning case RZ-24-0012 and concurrent variance VC-24-009. The subject property is located at 8483 Holcomb Bridge Road. It's 10.428 acres where you can see it in the black outline on the screen on your monitors. And the existing zoning is C1, community business district conditional. And the applicant is requesting no change in the zoning district, but change in condition so the proposed zoning would remain C1, community business district. The request is for a 950 square foot drive through only coffee shop with covered outdoor patio and a concurrent variance to allow for the reduction in out parcel frontage from 200 feet, 208.42 feet along Holcomb Bridge Road. And I'll go more in details for the actual proposal. So as you can see on the screen, the black outline shows the entire parcel for that shopping centre which is divided into two parcels. So this is the rezoning which is towards the left side. It is located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Nesbit ferry road and Holcomb bridge road. And it's bounded by Rivermont colonies subdivision to the north. Rivermont station shopping center and Chick-fil-A to the east. So technically the entire parcel is, this is, entire thing is Rivermont shopping center which is as I said previously divided into two properties. So this area is Rivermont shopping center and there is where Chick-fil-A is right there. This place is Chick-fil-A. To the east, first distance bank discount tires and nest bit ferry road to the west. So the first distance bank is there's a cutout here in the boundary. So this is the first distance bank and this is discount tire and that's where Nesbitt Ferry Road is and this is Holcomb Bridge Road right here And Holcomb Bridge Road to the south The subject bought a property borders the city of Rossville to the west and south So the Holcomb Bridge Road anything south of that is city of Rossville and west of Nesbitt Ferry Road is also city of Rosswell. The sign is zone C1 Community Business District Conditional, which is pursuant to rezoning case RZ-21-003, allowing for retail service commercial, office, and accessory uses up to 89,280 square feet. It excludes indoor and outdoor commercial amusement uses, automotive parking lots, automotive specialty shops, funeral homes, group residences, lawn remans, lawn service businesses, motel hotels, repair shops, not involving any manufacturing on the side, automobile repair garages, service stations, collecting recycling centers, and liquor stores. The site is improved with the Rivermont shopping center, a two-sweep commercial building, and a two-sweep commercial building in the southwest portion of the property, and a stand-alone drive-up emissions testing station and a bank ATM, totaling $40,480 square feet of building area. said is, if I can just quickly go back in this line here. So this is the main shopping center. This is the rezoning that we brought in front of the Planning Commission in 2021, which is to Port Leigh and two sweet retail to Port Leigh and Jersey Mike. And then this is where the emissions testing center right now is and the bank ATM which will be demolished as part of this reasoning. There are currently 242 existing parking spaces and there are three access points, one full access curb cut off of whole bridge road, one right in only curb cut off of a whole bridge road, and one full access corp code of Nesbit Fairy Road. So I'll show you more in detail those access points in the next plan. This is the existing site. At the bottom is the existing shopping center, and at the top is the emissions testing and bank ATM where the proposed coffee shop is gonna go. Next we'll take a look at the site plan. The applicant proposes to demolish existing structures, which is, as I said, the emissions testing station and ATM located in the southeast corner of the site and construct a new coffee shop. And that's outlined in red in your maps in the slide theorem. The proposal is for 950 square feet, Dutch Brothers coffee shop, which is shown in red in the graphic below, the overall site plan. With a 337 square feet covered outdoor patio, which is shown in yellow. So the actual drive-through only coffee shop is that red polygon and then outside there is that little bit of yellow that's the outdoor patio. This would be a single pickup, this would be a coffee shop with single pickup window which will serve service two drive-through lanes capable of of stacking up to 15 vehicles on the out parcel. The proposed menu boards in speaker post are shown in the pink color and the trash receptacle which is shown in brown would be set back to reduce the visibility from Hulken Bridge Road. As a result of this proposal there would be 13 parking spaces that would be provided on this a lot next to the coffee shop. There are certain measures that are taken to improve the internal traffic flow, which is to install directional signs at the entrance of the two drive through lanes, install, which is right there. So right at the entrance, the drive through lanes so there will be some directional signs guiding the vehicles and the customers installing the exit exit only and pedestrian crosswalk signs at the end of the drive through lanes. So that would be right here where the drive through comes and exit right here so that's where we are talking about the signage. Installing stop sign and 24-inch white painted stop bar at the exit point of the out parcel and closing the existing out parcel curb cut which is east in the east nearest to the entrance drive of the shopping center. So currently there is a curb cut right here which would be closed as part of this proposal and moving the entire entrance for the ravage from the main entrance of the shopping center. The proposal also provides sidewalks and crosswalks to connect the existing sidewalk along whole bridge road to the main entrance of the proposed building. This proposal will maintain all existing driveways to the shopping center in addition to the 10 foot landscape strip which is along Hulkenbridge Road and will also maintain the 25 foot landscape strip along Nesbitt Fairy Road. There is currently by the zoning condition a 65 foot zoning buffer and 20 foot improvement set back adjacent to the Rivermont colony subdivision which will be maintained by this proposal too. The applicant will utilize the existing detention pond and provide runoff reduction within the out parcel to meet the city's stormwater management requirements. Next we'll take a look at the building elevations. These are the elevations showing the elevations from Hulken Bridge Road, which is on your top left corner. Then the right elevation, which is facing the entrance driveway, right top corner, and so on from the parking lot, which is left bottom corner, and then the left entrance right through window elevations. The building facade would be constructed primarily of brick and glass in compliance with the requirements of section 12, E.3, point E.1 of the zoning ordinance. It's a flat-roof design, and the design elements such as varied wall height, contrasting building colors, and accent colored canopy would provide considerable variation in the building facade. Next we'll take a look at the seven zoning impact analysis factors. First one is suitability with nearby land uses. This development proposal is highlighted in the yellow in the chart here, which is commercial for commercial restaurant and the density proposed is 3,956 square feet per acre. As you can see in the chart, the adjacent developments are commercial retail shopping, commercial restaurant, office, which are way higher than the proposed density. So the development density is proposed would be much less than the adjacent and nearby commercial uses and the presence of existing commercial uses surrounding the subject property would suggest that the proposed commercial use would be suitable at this location. In fact, to existing uses, the proposed building would be placed towards Holcomb Bridge Road in front of the existing shopping center and would not impact abouting residential use to the north. The existing 65-foot zoning buffer and 24-foot improvement setback would continue to mitigate potential visual, light or noise impacts to residential uses. Proposed development would not require any new curb cuts and would maintain inter parcel access to adjacent commercial properties. The proposed development in an existing shopping center would not, therefore, adversely affect the use or usability of adjacent or nearby properties and would be in keeping with similar uses found in this area. The property appears to have a reasonable economic use as currently zoned. Next we'll take a look at the impacts on infrastructure. The proposed development or the coffee shop is expected to generate 358 daily trips, which includes 80 trips during morning peak hour and 30 trips during evening peak hour. Hawkeom Bridge Road is a heavily traveled to principal arterial road, and the daily trips generated by the proposed use will likely be pass-by trips. Trips associated with existing vehicles that are already traveling on the road and not new trips. And I'm say that the peak hour trips in the numbers above, in the bullet point above, includes those pass-by trips. So these are not factored out. The site has multiple access points, sufficient internal connectivity and ample parking spaces available. Fulton County has confirmed adequate water and sewer capacity is available to service this development. And the proposed development would not create an excessive or burdensome use of existing streets, transportation facilities, utilities or schools. Next is consistency with the complaint. This property is located within the new town community area where the future land use is commercial, makes use low intensity for this property. The proposed development would provide for improvements to walkability of the site, which is one of the development aspects encouraged by the comprehensive plan. Proposal would be a continuation of commercial use around it by existing commercial retail uses. Therefore, development as proposed would be in conformity with the general policy and intent of the comprehensive plan but not the future lunches map as it says mixed use low intensity. Other considerations the presence of an existing drive through emissions testing station and a standalone drive up ATM on the subject site along along with the other commercial uses, would drive through, which is first citizens bank and Chick-fil-A, service by inter parcel access would provide supporting grounds for approval of the proposal, which is the drive through only coffee shop. Environmental impacts. Environmental site analysis indicates that the site does not contain any environmentally sensitive features. Applicant will replace over 2,000 square feet of impervious surface with grass and landscaping and provide for runoff reduction to comply with the city's stormwater management requirements. Now we'll move on to the concurrent variance review, which is VC-24-009, which is the request to reduce the required art parcel frontage from 200 feet to 108.42 feet. Section 3.3, 0.15.0 of the city's zoning ordinance defines art parcel as a portion of a larger parcel of land generally designed as a site for a separate structure and business from the larger track and out parcel may or may not be a subdivision of a larger parcel. Section 4.13.C of the zoning ordinance requires out parcels to maintain a minimum frontage of 200 feet on a public ride-of-way. The intent is to foster plans developments with a coordinated on-site vehicular circulation for out parcels, with the primary development parcel to reduce the number of unnecessary curb cuts on arterial roads. Existing property service by a single full-axis driveway Hall Combridge Road connecting to an internal driveway for East West connectivity. The proposed drive through facilities extended away from the main access driveway and provides ample area for stacking of patron vehicles within the outpour zone. The proposal will not impact internal vehicular circulation of the shopping center. And therefore based on the proposed vehicular access design, staff is of the opinion that the variance request if granted will be in harmony with the general purpose and intents of the zoning ordinance. With that staff recommends approval with conditions of the rezoning case RC-24-0012 and the concurrent variance VC-24-009. Thank you. That concludes my presentation. Great. Thank you very much, Ms. Argo-Wall. With the applicant like to come forward and make their presentation, then just do me one favor, state your name and address for the record please. Thank you, good evening. Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the Planning Commission. My name's Alex Brock with Smith-Gamberal Russell. Office of Dress is the 11-05 West Peachtree Street at Lane in Georgia. I'm here on behalf of the applicant and joining me tonight to have members of Genesis Engineering, the Civil Engineer for the project, if the commission has technical questions. Staff did a very thorough job of the background packs of the engineer for the project if the commission has technical questions. Staff did a very thorough job of the background facts of the application, so I'll keep my presentation brief. But there are a few things that I would like to reiterate. Here you can see the aerial map and I believe we are aware of where the property is. This is forward, right? Let me close mine for now. Let me close mine. If we could pause the time for a moment. Oh, sorry about that. I think he opened everything before. So I'm just going to's the overall Rivermont Station Shopping Center on Holcomb Bridge in between Nazmat Ferry and Barnwell. Here is is the portion of the shopping center that we are taking into consideration tonight. This is a currently developed with a emissions testing facility in Bain KTM as well as 34 parking spaces. These parking spaces are located in an area of the shopping center that has very low usage for the shopping centers often vacant. The emissions testing is the most used this area gets. Here is the zoning plan which Ms. Archivall threw. In what we are here tonight is to request rezoning of the property but it's not your typical rezoning. We're not asking for a different zoning district. We're not asking for a new use. We're asking to amend conditions of an existing zoning. The site was developed in the late 90s, early 2000s. The initial zoning was conditioned to a site plan. So we're here tonight to request another amendment of the site plan. The same property had subsequent amendments in 2008 and then in 2021 for other site plan amendments. The latest being the Chipotle development that was approved in 2021. Here is the overall site plan with our proposal for the Dutch Brothers Coffee restaurant. You can see it is adjacent to the main entrance to the Rivermont station shopping center on Holk and Bridge. That is a signalized intersection. So it does have full access, signal access out onto Holk and Bridge. And here is our site plan, what we're proposing. Again, staff did a very thorough job of going through the elements of the site plan, but there are a few things that I want to point out. One, the location of the building is set back from Holcomb Bridge to be an alignment with the adjacent buildings along Holcomb Bridge. The bank building, Chick-fil-A, and that is to give a visual uniformity for the frontage along Holcomb Bridge for the entire shopping center. The proposed drive-through lanes are designed in a manner to maximize stacking so that we do not affect the internal circulation of the Rivermont shopping center as well as we are closing existing curb cuts in that area. So we are reducing the curb cuts down to one. We do have a curb cut to allow inter-partial access to the adjacent bank building. That's existing today. That's a two-way access. We are maintaining that, but the curb cuts to the north are being reduced down to one. We are also proposing sidewalks along the frontage and through the parcel. And that is to promote pedestrian connectivity to the restaurant. We will have a walk up window as well as outdoor seating area for those patrons that wish to walk up and sit down to drink their coffee. One other item that staff mentioned is the trip generation. In your application packet, you'll see that we provided trip generation memorandum. There are 80 trips in the morning, 30 trips in the afternoon, and as Ms. Argoval pointed out, a number of those are pass-by trips. That is not deducted from the trips that are there, so the 80 and 30 account for pass-by trips and just to explain a little bit further on what pass-by capture is. Pass-by capture are trips that are already on the road. So take, for instance, somebody traveling from home to work, their destination is work. So they're on the road already. They see Dutch Brothers coffee, they pull off to drive in there. So we're not generating those trips. It's something that's captured from vehicles that are already on the road. And that would account for a majority of their trips. The variance that we are requesting, again, it is a reduction in the frontage as required by John Screak-Ordon in section 4.13.c, which requires 200 feet of frontage for any out parcel. We are not subdividing the parcel. This will be a lease line. It will still remain part of the Rivmont shopping center. Nothing in the plat book or visible to anybody going to Rivmont will know that this is a least area. It will still maintain the same visual frontage, nothing will change from that. But just due to the configuration of the parcel, especially adjacent to the main entrance drive and the curb radius for that drive, the frontage along whole conveyor, immediately in front of that Dutch brothers is reduced to 108 feet. But the overall appearance would be closer to 240 feet when you account for that access drive into the shopping center. Elevations, here are the architectural elevations. These are substantially similar to another Dutch brothers location that is going in John's Creek off of Medlock Bridge road. This is, their other location will be replacing a jiffy Loube on Medlock Bridge just south of state bridge. There's a jiffy Loube that's vacant now and it's adjacent to a waffles. This is substantially similar to those architectural renderings that were, or elevations that were submitted to the city of John's Creek for that location. Dutch brothers is primarily a, most of the restaurants are in the western portion of the country. This will be their first location in Georgia. And this along with the Midlock Bridge location will be the first two in Georgia. These elevations, just another point, these elevations will comply with the City of John's Creek requirements for FISOB materials and elevations. These were designed and compliance with that code for the Medlock Bridge elevation in. The one at Rivermont will be substantially similar. One final note, to go back to the elevations, utility, wall-mallion utilities will be on the rear of the building, so they will not be visible from Holcomb Bridge Road or the right of way. They will be hidden behind the building in screen as necessary. So with that, I will leave it there for questions. I'll reserve any remaining time for a bottle if needed. Great. Thank you very much, Mr. Brock. We appreciate it. Is there anybody from the community that would like to come forward and speak in favor of the project, the applicant? All right. They're being none. Is there anybody that would like to come forward and speak in opposition to the project? I guess that means no. That's a good thing, right? Okay, so on that note, I'm going to close the public hearing officially. I know my time keepers over here will keep me honest in terms of the time. So probably have a few questions before I turn it over to our colleagues here on the stage. You answered the question on daily trips because I had that circled in the document from staff, but I think you did a good job of explaining it that it's not actually creating new trips on Holcomb Bridge Road, because that was going to be my question. But clearly it's not. It's just a question of they're going to be going into the coffee shop, but they're already on the road anyway. That's great. People aren't going to drive from wherever just to go here. Maybe they will. I hope they will, but that's, but that is not the, the intent. A couple of questions for you before I turn it over here. The sidewalk that we mentioned, you know, I've driven by this a thousand times when I used to commute down to the perimeter and from my job, but I know you're putting in a sidewalk. Does the sidewalk extend the whole way now? When we say we're putting in a sidewalk, what's this sidewalk lead to? Or am I not understanding the sidewalk? So the sidewalk currently is in front of the previous rezoning where Chipotle and Jersey Mink is. It kind of ends there before it moves on too. So there is no sidewalk in front of First Horizon Bank, the bank, the cutout that I showed you. So with this proposal, they will be building the sidewalk along Dutch Brothers' site. There is a little bit of startup to entrance the driving but there is no sidewalk But just they will be a gap Sidewalk is there still like a big guy there will be a gap that exists because of the bank and that is a gap That the city may have to look into in conjunction actually with the city of Ross walk Okay, no, it's curious because you know if somebody's walking they walk along and it's nice that you guys are putting a sidewalk in, but we also know how that's a very busy road as we know. So I appreciate you putting a sidewalk in. Hours of operation, I just had a question on that. It was one of the bullet points I read. I know we specified. Just out of curiosity, not that I have any issue with the hours, but why did we need to specify hours of operation? What drives that staff? It was carried forward from the previous rezoning conditions, zoning conditions. So that's why. Okay, and I just was curious. And my understanding is that, you know, here in the documents, it says it's a drive-through only coffee shop. So does that mean there's no seats in the restaurant or are there seats in the restaurant? There's outside seating. There's no seats inside the restaurant. That's correct. There will be an order window if somebody wants to walk up to order a coffee. They can. This is why you have the 13 parking spots, but the 950 square feet is basically functional for the Dutch brothers of this facility. That's correct. Anybody driving there that stops is using the 13 parking spots, I believe. That's for patrons to sit outside. That's correct. Anybody driving there that stops is using the 13 parking spots I believe that's for patrons to sit outside. That's correct. Just a little clarification. The 13 parking spots are required because it's a restaurant. Whether it's drive through only or not, you know, it's required for the cooling. Yeah, just when I saw 950 because 950 is not a small space and so when I see drive drive-through, et cetera, I made me wonder, okay, are there actually a few seats inside? But you have a patio where people can see. All right, I'm gonna turn it over to Commissioner Katson. Or when we start with you, and then we'll go down the line here. Yeah. Sure, thank you. You, then you. Question for, I guess Mr. Brock and possibly your civil I don't know if you know but looking at these elevations I do not see any exterior roof downspout so is the roof drainage all interior drains that go to storm. Has the architect shown you enough to know that? I don't believe we have, yeah, we don't have that design yet where it's down, whether or not. The reason I ask is at the Planning Commission, we look at these nice documents and they're architected a good job. It's a nice concept package, but we do like to see those other features on the building. We don't like seeing something built that wasn't what we saw. So I'm curious, it looks like it could be, might be interior drainage, looking at some of the other ones around the country. It looks like it is just something maybe to bring back. That's something that we can clarify with Dutch brothers on their prototype. Yeah. And then have that for other people. Thank you. And then a question for staff. There are two signs, right? And then there is the cool logo that they have. Are logos that big considered signage? Yes. Okay. That's included in the two signs. Okay. Very good. Thank you. And let's see. You mentioned HVAC equipment is on the ground? No. If it's roof mounted or if it's to the rear of the property, it would be screened. That's one of the conditions required or request by- Do you see rooftop equipment at least dashed in on the elevation? And it looks like the architect's done a good job getting the parapet high enough to screen it, but it's just something to remind the architects of that. It needs to be fully screen, not partially screened. So they could do possibly a quick sight line study on that parapet. There is a little rise on the road, not far from there. It looks like should be fine. Okay, just something to bring to them about. Again, what we see in concept to what we see built. That's all I have. Thank you chair. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Commissioner Ross. Okay. Well thank you. Appreciate it. Commissioner. Yes. Yes. So I have a couple of questions around. How did you come up with a number of 15 cars going to the drive? Is there some through some study or is that what? On the stacking. On the stacking. That was for to meet code requirements for the stacking and the typical operation for Dutch brothers. This is a prototypical design of what they do at other locations. Okay. And how much time does it take for a window to clear a car like, you know, to a customer? I don't have that information. Just to see that if it's flowing through quickly or it's going to be stacked. It is, it is typically faster than a typical fast food restaurant because it is drinks only, it is coffee and energy drinks are not making food. So you're typically not waiting for your order when the car reaches the winter. You're not anticipating more than 15 cars stack, right? Yeah. Because you know if you look at in the back it's directly going back to the shopping center okay. And then also you have this dumpster there right will that be screen covered? It will it'll have a screening wall around that dumpster. And then the sidewalk that's coming in all the way after in front of the window, right? Yes. So there is no issue with the safety out there, like people going all the way across. So that is why we have put a condition for the cross sidewalk with the signage. If you see there is a crosswalk which is taking people on the other side and connecting the parking spaces. So yes, there is a conflict you write but we are requiring to have the signage watch for crosswalks or pedestrians and that's a conflict, but that's the way we have to sign it. And then, is the road where the cars are going to and throw is good enough? The width? Yes, 24 feet is our standard. We actually require 22. Where the zoning wardens is 24 feet for two-way traffic. For the out parcel, we're saying that the out parcel is in line with the bank, right? Like what we've been requested. So the bank already has less than 200 for the out parcel? I was saying the building is aligned with the... The building is aligned. It does crack. The front edge is similar to where you know. The line up. Yes. They have... within the line, that's what I'm saying. That's the. The frontage is similar to where? The line up. They have buildings a little far behind within the line. That's the same. The front of the proposed Dutch brothers would be in alignment with the bank building. So why do we then need 200 to 108? That is the width of the frontage along the front. And if you can, I can use the pointer. So your setback will be that it'll look like we're a painting. They'll look like they're properly placed. Correct. So you don't have on this match. Not in front of it. OK. Yes. Right. That's all I had. Thank you. Oh, great. I did have one additional question. Mr. Brock, it's probably not an issue. But I think you mentioned here I read that there's no environmental impact. I guess there's an admission station and they've already done that work to determine that there's no oil in the ground and all that kind of stuff. I know you guys would go through that already anyway, but it's not a jiffy loop that was there or something. It was an admission testing station, right? That's correct. I mean, they weren't expecting any, it's not like a gas station or a dry cleaner. But there will be, I guess, part of the development, Dutch brothers may elect to do a phase one of our mental analysis, which would identify any contaminants to the ground. And just out of personal curiosity for me, Dutch brothers has how many restaurants around the country? Any idea? I had that information earlier today, but it's in the hundreds. Most of those are along the West Coast. They do have restaurants that they've opened recently in Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. So they are making a larger presence in the East. We should be honored that you're building two of them here. Which one's going to be done first, the one on Medlock or this one? Medlock required a, yes, it required a variance, but that's already been approved, and I believe it's impermitting. I think, yeah. Okay. All right, I don't have any other questions. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. I would like to entertain a motion from the commissioners to approve land use position, RZ-24-0012 with the concurrent variance, 24-009. Can I get a motion? Chairman, I'll make a motion. I motion to approve land use petition, RZ-24-0012 and VC24009 presented in the package of the Planning Commission meeting March 4th, 2025. Great, thank you. I like how you did that. Great. Can I get a second? I'll second it. Okay, all those in favor? All right. Motion passes for zero. Congratulations. We look forward to it. Thank you very much. All right. The next item of business on the agenda is director Song. Thank you. Turn it over to you. All right, good evening. Planning Commission members. It's always an honor to be able to present because it rarely happens. So this is a text amendment that staff is initiating. It's a text amendment to define and establish standards for group home use in residential zoning districts. Staff proposes establishing standards through the administrative permit process to manage group home use in the city. And just for information purposes, administrative permit essentially is not a permit percent. It's just an area or an article in our zoning ordinance that would hold the standards if this was to be adopted and it would be represented in that particular section. In terms of background, the zoning ordinance currently lacks specific guidance and regulation of group home use. The group home typically provides housing for unrelated occupants with disabilities, often in conjunction with service operators that reside in provide services to those individuals. Currently, we apply as a city the family definition to define such situations, which allows up to four unrelated individuals to cohabitate, occupy a residential dwelling unit. To better serve and provide appropriate parameters for group home use, the city needs to establish and hence the request for the sex amendment, proper definition and standards for the use. Staff reviewed ordinances from adjacent and near-budget restrictions for group homes and identified applicable requirements for regulation purposes. And as mentioned, we are going to seek to add a definition for group home and standards of use in our article 19 for the actual administrative permit. And this is long, but I think it's appropriate to read into the record for the definition. I'll go ahead and read that if you don't mind. So group home will be defined or is proposed to be defined as a residential dwelling unit containing four or fewer persons, excluding resident owner or no more than six persons, including the resident owner, who live together as a single house keeping unit and a long term family environment in which the resident owner serving as the primary caregiver to the residents, provides care, education and participation in community activities for the residents with the primary goal of enabling the residents to live independently as possible to live as independently as possible in order to reach their maximum potential. The term group poem shall not include halfway house, a treatment center for alcohol, a more drug abuse, a work release facility for convicts or a home for detention and rehabilitation of juveniles, a judge, the link went or unruly and placed in custody of the state or other housing facilities serving as an alternative alternate in incarceration. The term group home show also not allowed the use of dwelling as an apartment, rooming house, or duplex. A group home show not allowed the use of dwelling as a home for individuals on parole, probation or convicted, and released from incarceration for any crimes including child mode station, aggravated childation, or child sexual abuse as defined in the Georgia code, or individuals required to register as sex offenders pursuant to the appropriate Georgia code as well. Continuing, a group home may include a home for the disabled, as used in the subsection, the term disabled shall mean having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of such person's major life activity so that such person is incapable of living independently or to having a record of having such impairment or being regarded as having such an impairment. A physical or mental impairment includes but is not limited to conditions such as orthopedic visual speech and hearing impairments, neurological impairments such as stroke, Parkinson's disease, and cerebral palsy. Brain injuries, autism, and developmental disabilities. However, the term disabled shall not include illegal use or addiction to a controlled substance, nor shall it include any person whose residency in the home will constitute a direct threat to the health and safety of other individuals. And with that, we also have established administrative permit standards. And so the group home would have to, they would have to go apply this specific standards to all the residential zoning districts if they were to seek a group home. And the standards are as follows, there are four. First, as a group home cannot be located within one mile, measured in a straight line from property lines to property line without regard to intervening structures or objects of any other group home. A group home shall be limited to a single residential dwelling unit or structure. All areas of the dwelling or structure except individual bedrooms shall be available for the common use of all persons occupying the dwelling in a family like environment. And lastly, one parking space shall be provided for each two bedrooms of the dwelling unit. But at no point shall the visible storage parking on the property exceed four vehicles. So with that, staff is requesting that the Planning Commission approve this proposal for the group home tax amendment. And I'll be happy to answer any questions. Okay. I'll keep it up with just one question that I have. You know, I read through the federal guidelines here as well, I guess the Fair Housing Act or whatever it's called. So just out of curiosity for me to understand a little bit, what drives the one mile criteria? What drives the one mile criteria? Why is it one mile? Because a mile is pretty substantial. In terms of distance, we wanted to make sure that we're not in violation or none of our standards would violate in any acute way the Federal Housing Act. The Federal Housing Act talks about not necessarily requiring additional standards or requirements that you would not necessarily impose on a regular residential dwelling. So it's a little bit unique, right? Because we don't put those kinds of standards of separation from a home-to-home except for a building separation. That's more for fire purposes. But in this case, in light of knowing that the Fair Housing Act exists, how do we come up with reasonable guidelines where we don't necessarily see proliferation of such uses in one particular neighborhood, but being able to somewhat reasonably space them out, accordingly, within the city. And so based on that, we use the one mile radius. Because I think the Fair Housing Act, if I read it correctly, and again, it's more a lot of stuff in there, is that it's basically saying the city or the jurisdiction can kind of decide their own guideline. I didn't see any requirement per se in there about any kind of density, so to speak. To a certain extent, right? And I think the measurement of how restrictive standard would be is how is it applied to other situations for residential use? And so be mindful that we want to make sure that again, it's looking from, let's say, from neighborhood to neighborhood as opposed to street to street. And so we thought that one law radius was appropriate. Great. I'm going to open up to questions, Commissioner Carnwell. Any questions on your part? Yes, yes. So what is the cost of this experiment? Now, I'll be seeing more group homes applications. Are there any incidents? Yeah, there was one incident in a subdivision where this use exists today already and it's not in every subdivision by no means and we don't run into many of them. This is just one incident that we ran into and we determine one thing is we don't have a lot of different standards. There's no way to truly regulate it. Except for as mentioned, we have the definition of family. So now we go and investigate and if there are more than four unrelated people then that's when we can regulate on that situation but not necessarily on a particular use or if there are other circumstances that arise from people being housed in a similar situation, how do we deal with those situations if something was to go awry. And so having these standards. I think it puts us it gives us the foundational aspect it defines it it better defines what a group home is and so that separates it from a typical or Someone may be sharing a home right with four or three other roommates if you want to call it allow group homes or not? Subdivisions do. I mean, they have their own bylaws that they could create, obviously, with their covenants. But it's just, it's a different, we won't be the ones who are executing those requirements. It would be the subdivision H ways themselves. Now, just like us, they would also be subject to the fair housing act. Right. And is no mention of the guidelines around children, the group homes. So we're not touching that or changing that. We already have in our ordinance group residents for children, and we also have group residents of shelter. We have two different types of uses that doesn't necessarily apply to group homes because we're saying that it is An a program that would have to be Qualified by the state. Okay, so it's different in terms of the use Also, I have seen that a lot of people have been now trying to do like make a group home with a rental Situation where they have four tenants rent a home to four tenants. Is that something that will apply here? Or it's totally different? Yeah, this is different because this one is specific to disabilities, right? The disability will be different. And that one, we regulate based upon our definition of family. But people have the ability to rent out their homes if they would like. The way we regulate is we regulate short-term rentals. So essentially rentals that are less than 30 days, then that's what we deem as short term. Anything beyond 30 days, they'll just fall under the family definition. If it's for unrelated people renting out a home, it's fine. Thank you. So I just have an additional question. So just out of curiosity, if somebody has a group home, does that mean they need to follow ADA guidelines in the home? Potentially depending on who's occupying the home. Right. I mean, that's a big issue. You could get expensive pretty quickly. Correct. Correct. We haven't seen that. Right. But hypothetically, that is correct. They would have to meet that. It's going to be tough to make them ADA compliant with 48 inch. Correct. But mind you, when we think about the civility, obviously, we have a certain definition that we have. This one is very broad. Right. Understood. Commissioner Katzen, any questions? Thank you, Chair. Commissioner Holtz brings up a good point. So if a person or a company wants to convert a residential unit in a neighborhood to a group home. And it's existing, would they be exempt from having to upgrade for a DAC and whatnot? Do you know that answer? No, I don't. My thing is this, from experience, in those situations, they themselves understand who they're housing. And if there's federal dollars associated with it, let's say, worst case scenario, then they would be required to comply. Now, have we seen that? We haven't seen much of it at all. Okay. And then, who oversees that kind of operation? Is there a health department inspection? How was that? No, there isn't. So really it's a combination thereof from a city service standpoint. Depending on a lot of times if issues arise it does come through a complaint of a neighbor or someone in the neighborhood and so there will be a combination sometimes between code compliance and police. And if there is a problem that a person who is staying there has with the people who are operating that would be up to that person or that person's family to bring a complaint either through the courts or bring it to the city or or something. Right. There's different avenues but there isn't just one. Okay. If a person or a company has a house is it possible for them to buy a house next door and do the same thing? Yes. Is there a density that can be considered? Per the fair housing act? No. Wouldn't it be in violation of the one-mile rule? Well, that's what we're putting that in there. But yes, but I'm saying it hypothetically, if we didn't put that in there, yes, they could do it. Would there be anything else that we could do against it? No, but that's what we're putting that standard in for those. So they wouldn't be able to reserve the property, try to bring it here and make it one property and have two buildings on it doing the same thing. Oh, you mean like to actually combine? Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. uh... reserve the property try to bring it here and make it one property and have two buildings on it doing the same thing oh you mean like to actually combine yeah no no that's it with your yes would there be like the existing group homes that you mentioned that we have in the city already would they be impacted impacted by this in any way? Would they be grandfathered in? Technically, they'll be grandfathered in to a certain extent. That may be, it's only truly from a placement standpoint. Now we have these other standards that they will still have to abide by. But you wouldn't make them move for calls in May? No, we can't ask them to pick up and correct. Correct. Correct. If they're existing, then they're existing. And now we only know of one, truly. OK. Really? OK. Mm-hmm. Thank you. 20 years ago, now that'll change. What last thing, Chair? I recall we took an action two years ago maybe about a group home. Like this? Do you recall? Oh, this seems like something that has- It was a text in my mind. I'm sure. I'm sure. Got it in this gracious. No big deal for it. It's similar, but yes, it's similar but different. Yes. Great. So can I get a motion to approve the zone ordinance text amendment? Yeah, I'll make a motion. So I'll make a motion to approve the item A dash 25 dash 002 dash zoning ordinance textment meant to define established standards for group home use to be approved as presented. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Can I get a second? All right. All those in favor? Anybody opposed? Motion passes for zero. Thank you very much. All right. The next, thank you very much, Director Song. thank you very much director song that was very good enjoyed that one so the next item on the agenda is departmental updates are there any departmental up to just a quick one that we will meet again our next meeting is April first and we have one reasoning case yep what there is a meeting and we'll have a Henry Farms one reasoning case. Yep, what there is a meeting. And we'll have Emory Farms' rezoning case on that agenda. So I forget is that the only one? That's the only one. Yes, there's no text amendment and no other cases. We'll be brought to you. And we do anticipate another meeting in May. So there is a case that we'll be bringing forward in as well Okay, all right good and I don't know if I had a chance I know you all met our previous planner who was on staff Shane she's no longer with the city So we have since then advertised the position for planner three and we have made an offer to somebody coming from private side actually but the extensive knowledge about you know comprehensive thing that we do so that person would be starting mid-March March 17 so hopefully by April 4th meeting I'll be in a position to introduce him to you all. Yes. And I also know, do respect to you. We couldn't take a picture tonight, because three of your colleagues couldn't make it tonight, which is very unusual for this body. I have never seen that in three or four years ago. I was gonna write that. I was like, shot, because so apologies. But when we have everybody here, we will make sure we get a new picture. So that can be yours. I was going to write that in the might email, but then I remember Commissioner Annen is not going to be here. So that's why I didn't propose that. So we'll do it when we have full house. Yes, absolutely. All right, well on that note, I'm going to ask. I'm sorry, excuse me, David. sometime by mid-year will you all be able to put another work session for this group on your radar? Yes, we can plan that for maybe shoot for May meeting May 6th. After your new staff members on and stuff. Great. We try to finalize something at the April meeting. We're hopefully we have seven people here and they can kind of get to. So that'd be good. Just because we do have that meeting in May, but I don't think we have one in June. We don't have one in June. So do I get that previously when we talked about it, it was preferred to have the work session when we have a meeting. If that's not the case, June so far, we're not anticipating any meeting unless a text amendment comes up. Doesn't matter to me. Okay. The way we did it the last time was we just met earlier than the planning commission meeting so that people already kind of had the time blocked and we just decided to meet early but I'm pretty flexible on this. I'd be interested in your all's perspective of input you've received and what we can do in a one hour versus maybe an hour and a half kind of situation. I think I gave you enough information for at least an hour and a half. Yeah, while I was going to say we could do hour and We didn't want to have our in the house last time. Was it? Yeah. Yeah. Think about that as you Get it back on your So let's just say right now tentatively scheduling it for the date of in May prior to the hearing just I Think that maybe bus just because June and we don't have one just to maximize and we'll be most efficient with the time If you want to do that maybe I'll shoot an email to our colleagues or maybe unless you want to do that Yeah, I think we showed so that people kind of marked their Their calendar or something so that you know people travel etc. Yeah, I'm gonna start like a five right and So that way it may end up being hour and a half anyways because of everything in between. But yeah, at least it gives us some buffer leading into our meeting at seven. OK. All right. That's it for updates. I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Can I get a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Anybody want to stay? No, it's getting. OK, motion passes. We are adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you, staff. As usual.