Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

I appreciate. I'll take him up with me. I'll take lots of pictures. They don't going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Uh, thanks y'all for being here. Uh, sorry we're getting started a little bit late. I want to introduce um the Honorable George Mixon who is our uh mayor for the day. Um, and I'll talk a little bit about him in a minute. Uh, but he's going to help me run the meeting today. Uh, we have with us tonight also, uh, Pastor Christian Zazillo with, uh, Life Church Assembly of God at 4100 King Springs Road. I'll invite you up now to lead us in the invocation and pledge. And everybody, please rise. Let's pray. Lord God, we give you thanks for your goodness, for your faithfulness, for the scriptures declare in Psalm 100 that the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. Lord, I give you thanks for this community. I pray for our leaders, our businesses, our families, all those who live and work here. May we seek your wisdom and counsel in all that we do and give you the glory and honor that's due your name. Finally, Lord, I pray and I extend my prayers to those even in this room tonight within the sound of my voice who may need a touch of God in their own life. Lord, there are countless needs, struggles, burdens on our hearts tonight as a people, as families, as husbands and wives, as children, as parents. And Lord, I pray that you would minister to those who are in need tonight. And I thank you for your very real presence to do that. We give you thanks, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. May your name be glorified now and forever. Amen. And amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, pastor, as always, for being with us. We appreciate you. Uh, we don't have any agenda changes tonight. um the

mayoral report. Uh I'll continue my introduction of uh the honorable George Mixon. He is a rising third grader at Nicac Elementary. He's here with his parents Matt and Adrien. And his grandmother Lynn is here also uh here to see him help um help us. He's very interested in gaming. He's interested in reading, a voracious reader. and taekwond do and is well respected by his fellow students and his teachers and I hope to see him soon and we talked about this at lunch today at a mayor's education awards. We had lunch at Zuka uh in the market village and then he had a big day with the police and fire and has had a a tour of city hall and it's been a a really good day and and a real pleasure to have you here. So, thank you and thanks for helping me run this meeting tonight. Also in the mayoral report, I just want to mention it's been a minute since we met as as is typical in the summer. Um the all-star game festivities and what that meant for this city. Uh I just can't tell you the Clydesales coming to Smyrna, Georgia. Uh we had more people come out for that than almost any event we've had in a while. uh in in uh tandem with the the concert that we did. Uh we had the 680 the fan cornhole tournament and just a ton of activity uh surrounding the the All-Star game. Um and what a what a great thing for the city of Smyrna. I know we've had some other activities since we last met that a lot of the council members will talk about in their reports. Uh but I'm just thankful to live in Smyrna, Georgia, and I and I'm that that the world descended on Cobb County and our city is is pretty awesome. uh to show everybody what we have to offer. Uh we don't have any proclamations and presentations tonight except I am going to bring Mayor George down with me to have a picture. Can you come down with me? Vietnam title honorary mayors here mayor special 21st day 2025 Wonderful. All right, you can set that wherever. We're going to move on with the rest of our agenda. Um, we have a couple of community development items tonight.

First is item A, Z25- Z006. This is a public hearing for zoning request Z25-006. Allow reszoning from R20 to R8 conditional for the development of three single family homes at a density of 4.28 units per acre. 7 acres land lot 664, 2583 Davenport Street. This is Signature Homes of Georgia. Um, I'm assuming you want to turn it over to Rusty for any background. This is in Ward Two, uh, Miss Hines District. Rusty. Oh, no. This is There we go. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. Sorry. Usually we're prepared. Joey's not here, so my cheese pass. It's all right. all out of whack. Um, this is resoning KZ25- Z006, the applicants, uh, Signature Homes of Georgia. Um, this resoning went to, uh, PNZ on June 9th. It came out of the PNZ meeting with a recommendation of approval by a vote of 70. The applicant is requesting to reszone uh 2583 Davenport, which is zoned R20, and they're requesting to change zoning to R8 um for three single family detached homes at a density of 4.8 4.28 units per acre. Um so they'll tear down the existing home and build three new single family detached homes. The feature land use map categor categorizes this property as um highdensity residential. There is no uh there is no future land use change required for this uh reszoning. Here's the proposed site plan. If y'all remember a year ago um the property that he that adjoins this site to the north was reszoned for three single family homes as well. um by the same applicant. Uh so this is will be a continuation of that uh development with um with three new homes in similar setbacks. So you have three single family homes that are fronting on Davenport Street. They have setbacks with a front setback of 25 feet, a side setback of five, and a rear set back of 25, which is consistent to uh the reasonzoning to the north.

There'll be a 5-ft sidewalk with two-ft grass strip that goes um down Davenport in front of these houses and then continues around the corner on Argo Drive. These are the proposed locations of the uh water quality uh facilities for storm water and there's no variances requested uh with with this resoning. These are the proposed home elevations. These are the same elevations that were proposed with the uh with the resoning to the north and then pictures of the subject property and then adjacent properties. Community development is recommending approval of the resoning from R20 to R8 conditional uh for three single family homes at a density of 4.28 28 units per acre with following conditions um from sta standard conditions from section 1201. Uh number one being dealing with the composition of the homes. Number two, uh requiring the utilities to be underground. Number three, uh the developers responsible for any traffic improvements. Number four, no burring of debris on site. Uh number five, uh compliance with the city's tree ordinance. Six and seven uh or six deals with uh those tree plans being developed by a landscape architect. Number seven, all areas common areas are to be solded and landscaped. Eight is just a planting schedule for each of those lots with either three four three-inch caliber trees or three 4-inch caliber trees. There's some special conditions. Number nine deals with the setbacks um outlined earlier. 10 uh establishes the minimum lot size at at 9600 square ft. 11 establishes the minimum lot width at 50 ft. And then 12 requires a minimum driveway length of 22 feet from building face to back of sidewalk. Uh 13 requires the sidewalk along Argo and Davenport. Uh 14 requires the developer be responsible for any sanitary uh sewer or water improvements deemed necessary by public works.

Um and 15 uh limits the maximum height of the the homes to 35 ft. And then 16 and 17 tie the zoning of the property to the site plan and building elevations that you've seen here. Um, with that being said, I'll be happy to answer any questions for you. Any council members have questions? They're minimum 50 foot. The the two to the north are probably 50 feet and the one is the one to the south is a little bit larger. besides and and Rusty, this may be more of a a question um for the developers um because I think I remember this of course from before and there was a concern from one of the neighbors. I just want to know if there's been any outreach for this area that's being redeveloped or being the request for the three. Have has there been any outreach of any neighbors around in that area? There was nobody at the PNZ meeting and I don't I don't in talking to Joey I don't think there was any uh we didn't receive any calls or emails regarding this resoning and and I have not either. I just want to make sure that we if there was anything or if if anybody addressed any of those possib as far as the you'd have to ask the developer what they did and they'll be they'll be coming up in just a second. Yeah. before this to uh let let the neighbors know and get their concerns. Any other questions or comments? Miss Wilkinson. Um for clarification, um so the lots meet the standards for R8. Is that what she said? And so there's no variances with no variances requested with this and no land use change. Okay. Right. And if there's no other questions, I'd like to invite the applicant up. Come on up. Be sworn in by a city attorney.

Not thank you. Introduce yourself. Anything like you'd like to say about the development or uh uh Yes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. And uh Mayor Mixon as well and city council. Um yeah, so so uh the the project for you tonight is basically a continuence of what I'm trying to do on this wraparound corner of Davenport and then wrapping around to Argo. This is what I call my phase two. Phase three is going to be 25 hopefully be 2581 Argo which is the other abandoned house next door. So we're just trying to make a continuous wraparound. Um we'll continue with the same architecture um same exterior design uh just for nice continuity in that area. Uh that craftsman style home that has become so popular here in this area. Uh I mean Russ has done a wonderful job this evening. I'm here to answer any questions I I can. Any questions? I know. Did you want to ask that question? Yes. and and um thank you for being here and and I'm always available for any other outreach if you're continuing to develop in my ward. Um so did you do any surveying of the neighborhood or talking with any of the people or I mean I know there's the church that's also over there as well but did anybody reach out to you or say anything about any concerns or did you go and survey anybody? No one no one has no one has uh no one has reached out to me. Uh I have spoken with uh some of the neighbors uh the neighbor contiguous to the and north of the 2571 property at that other corner. Uh they they seem to embrace it. I spent some time with the church across the street with the pastor and his wife and uh uh they they indicated to me they were very much in favor of of the improvement that that this would bring to the area as they were with 2571 as I'm sure they'll also embrace 2581 Argo as well.

It's just a logical uh improvement. Oh, I'm sorry. This uh I spoke I spoke to the the the pastor at the church across the street and and his wife and and they were they were very much in favor of of the improvements. They were as they were with the the last petition just contiguous and to the north of this at 2571. This of course being 2583. But yes, they were they were very much in favor of of these improvements to the area. Uh the price, you're asking me what I expect the prices to be. Is that your question, ma'am? The prices on these homes would be uh north of 600,000. Any other questions for the applicant? Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who's here tonight who wishes to speak for or against this item uh to please come up now? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and we will turn it over to Miss Hines. Um not seeing any objection. I haven't heard any. And um anytime we're able to get more single family homes in an area, that's always a good thing and it's going to improve the area. And Davenport needs some help. And um so if that'll be something that'll help, then I make the mo the motion to uh approve. Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Lindley. Everyone, please vote. Wilkinson. Wilkinson is having technical difficulties and I should mention that um Mr. Pickkins is not with us this evening. He is traveling so there's just six this evening and that is approved 6. Thank you for investing in our city. Appreciate the good work you're doing. Thank you. Thank you, council.

All right, we're moving on now to item B.

Ordinance 2025-007, approval of ordinance 2025-007. This is annexation request. The 100% of owners requesting annexation 1.6 acre track zone R20, parcel number 17034100300 0. All that tractor parcel of land lying and being in land lot 341 17th district 2 second section Cobb County Georgia 660 Church Road uh Georgia 300080 will be effective August 1st 2025 and part of Ward 5 and authorizes the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. Miss Robinson background please that 660 church property owned by the city of Smyrna but is within recommends the property be annexed to the Thank you. Do any council members have questions? No questions. All right, I'll entertain a motion. I'll make the motion to approve item 7B. Have a motion by Miss Wilkinson to approve. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Oglesby. Everyone, please vote. That's approved. 6. Thank you for helping me. All right, we're moving on now. We don't have any privilege license or show cause hearings tonight. We have

uh six items under formal business. The first is item A. This is a public hearing and adoption of the 2025 mill

rate and authorize the mayor to sign and execute all related documents. This is our third and final public hearing on the millage rate. Uh I know Miss Robinson's going to give the background, but I'll just say this is the 17th or 18th year in a row we haven't uh raised the millage rate has remained the same, which means that no homestead of property in the city of Smyrna is is receiving a tax in property tax increase from the city. Uh we're proud of our fiscal responsibility and keeping that millage rate the same. Uh any other background that you want to add, Miss Robinson? Y'all hear me better on this now? That better? No. How about now? Okay. How about now? Right. Little technical difficulty. All right. All right. The FY26 budget approved by council included revenue projections for property taxes based on 8.99 mills. This is the last of three required public hearings before the formal adoption of the 8.99 miller drake. Tax information was received by Cobb, I'm sorry, from Cobb County on June 23rd, 2025. Per the information provided, the city would need to roll back the millage rate to 8.936 to not advertise a tax increase. In comparison, last year's mill rate roll back was calculated 8.244. The official notice, all required information was posted in the Marietta daily journal on July 5th and 6th and again on July 12th and 13th. Press release was sent to the Marietta Daily Journal on June 24th and has also been posted on our city website. This is the last required public hearing. Additional hearings were held on July 14th, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. and this morning, July 21st, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. This is the formal adoption of the military. Thank you, Miss Robinson. Any comments or questions from council? Uh this being the third hearing, we we have not had anyone come to speak at the previous two. Is there anyone who wishes to speak for or against uh this item this evening? All right. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing and I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2025 mill rate. So moved by Mr. Lindley, second by Mr. Welch. Everyone please vote. And that's approved 6.