Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

These changes create a safer amenity area and they improve storm water management and they better integrate uh the features into the development while maintaining the enhanced landscape buffers. [clears throat] As I mentioned, safety has been a big concern of everyone's. Uh with that in mind, we preserve the visibility triangle at the intersection of Camp Highland and Argo Road by limiting landscaping to low height plantings and maintaining un unobstructed sight lines. In addition, we are proposing with the city's recommendation a raised pedestrian crossing with the flash and beaking signage to improve pedestrian safety and increase driver awareness. Another change to the uh project was the enhancement of the landscape buffers. We increased the side buffer from 25 ft to from 20t to 25 ft and the rear buffer from 25 ft to 30 feet to provide greater privacy and visual visual visual separation for neighbor neighboring properties. We also eliminated the requested side uh setback variance on the western side. The landscape plan includes green giants along with the with complimentary landscaping and we'll continue to work closely with city staff during the final landscape review to ensure that the selected plants meet the city standards and provide an attractive long-term buffer. We also refined the architectural design throughout the process since the original design that was proposed uh met a little bit of push back. It was a little bit too modern. Uh brick was added to the facade. Uh the monument sign was relocated to improve visibility at the corner and the overall design was refined to better complement the surrounding neighborhood while maintaining the character of the project. Another big topic has been parking. Um, each town home provides four dedicated off- streetet parking spaces. Two inside the garage, two in the driveway, and then the development also provides seven visitor parking spaces, which gives a total of 31 spaces or just over five parking spaces per home.

They we're we're we're kind of leaning on them to see what they've done to deal with some of the issues on the front end. But I it was said that the data is used for non-law enforcement sources or purposes and that's just not the case. It is kept by our law enforcement. It is not used for non-law enforcement reasons. And so I know there's a lot of chatter out there about flock. Uh I am confident in the technology. I am confident that we have made the citizens of Smyrna safer and um I stick by our decision. Um, with that we will close public comment and move on to ward and staff reports. Start tonight with Mr. Glenn Pickkins. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I just wish uh all the students a good first day of school and hope the uh year goes well. Thank you, Miss Hines. I echo uh Council Member Pickkins and I wish the same for the teachers. I'm sure the parents are happy right now. Miss Wilkinson, no report tonight. Thank you. And I skipped over Mr. Lindley because he's not here. Mr. Lindley. Uh, no report this evening. Thank you, Mr. Gold. Uh, likewise. Hopefully have a safe uh, and happy first day of school for many. And want to thanks the folks from keeps are beautiful, right? All the work that you do and thanks for leading the charge to be the first city in Cob to be a B city. Just another just another cool thing happening in Smyrna. That's great, Mr. Oglesby. Yeah, I think it's so cool that we're going to be a official B city. That's awesome. Thank you for your good work. That ties us in with Georgia Tech in any way. Right. Okay. Go dogs. [laughter] Also, uh I want to congratulate all the students who are starting their their new year of school and wishing them a very very good school year and all our fall sports.

And that does seem like something that would be in the city's remitt unlike the fuel tanker. So is there somewhere that I can find that information or do we have any conversations that are happening around that? Yeah, the um the subject property um was I guess three years ago, Brand Properties made a resoning request for um the 20 acres that this just south of the Riverview landing development. Um mayor and council, I'm sorry, mayor and council approved that request for 300 and 5,000 square feet of commercial. However, um due to financing and underwriting and everything else with inflation, that project hasn't moved forward. That property is still zoned for that and entitled for it. Uh obviously, the the the property owner now has to find somebody else to do the project. So, in addition to that, we are updating ours comprehensive plan here by 2027 because it's our 10-year mandated update. And um now that we've annexed this area from legislatively from Cobb County into Simrna, we can plan for the improvements and get them on record and get short-term work program and then long range plans for improvements. Anybody else who wanted to speak for against this? Come on. Uh, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Council or council. Uh, my name is James Mccay. I'm a resident along with many of my neighbors uh at the Riverview communities. Uh first off, I wanted to say uh thank you uh mayor and uh rec uh representative uh and everyone else. Uh what we have seen engaged is uh the city uh working to find uh help us find solutions and I am grateful and I know our community is grateful and I definitely appreciate um the time that everyone has spent doing so. Uh the first thing I'd like to enter enter into record is the last time that we were here discussing this during the zoning commission, there were questions specifically about the fuel tank.

Item A, approval of Mr. Jones, please read the consent agenda for council approval. whenever you're ready. He moves faster than you do, mayor. So, we have eight items on the consent agenda. Um, the first three items on the consent agenda are approval of uh meeting minutes. Uh the first one on the agenda is approval of committee hold minutes from October 2nd, the October 6 pre-counsel meeting minutes, the October 6 mayor and council meeting minutes. The fourth item is installation no parking signs along portions of Lexington Trace Drive and Patel Place. Item E is an authorization to add a road closure for the um College Football Saturdays for the existing dates that have already occurred as well as those going forward. Item F is approval to use council chambers for Whitfield Park annual homeowner association meeting. An approval under item G to use council chambers for Laurel Hill Laurel Hill community annual meeting on Wednesday, January 28th. And finally, the approval for the closing of streets for the Smyrna Parks and Recreation Home for the Holidays event. I have a motion and a second. Everyone, please vote. Mr. Mayor, I'll give a hand for Mayor Bini. Here, we're now to the citizen participation uh portion of our meeting. We have a couple of people signed up for public comment. Miss Rebecca Johnson, who I believe was here earlier and spoke. Um, James McKay, 6212, Pine View Lane. I invite you up now to This is the public comment. Whoever would like to speak, uh, come on. You'll just come up and state your name and address for the record, please. Thank you for being here. My name is Cody Hugley and I live at 1641 Flint River Place, Smyrna, Georgia. Um, first of all, I want to say good evening, mayor and council and city staff. I'm here on behalf of my neighborhood, which continues to be neglected despite repeated concerns.

Uh but I think um I think the finished product has really been uh something that um that we can all be proud of. all of the businesses that are kind of behind Atkins to all the ones on the main drag here in Smyrna. I've talked to most of them. All of them have se said that their businesses up anywhere from 10 to 30%. So, the extra foot traffic and I know parking is a little bit difficult, but um people are still finding their way to downtown Smyrna and it's thriving like it never has before. So, very very nice to see and I'm proud of what we've accomplished there. Mr. Cochran. Miss Heather. Miss Heather. Ain't nothing about the elections yet or we're waiting to hear from the election. Okay. Thank you. Uh with that, if there's no other business be brought before this body, we're uh adjourned in the Jonqual City at 8:06.

And I think that's what led myself and a lot of my neighbors to believe that this was a conversation that uh allowed for the fuel tank. And since we were asking questions specifically about if that was allowed or not during that meeting, I think that's led myself and a lot of my neighbors to believe that it was a continued part of the conversation. And I'd love to see where it's noted specifically and where it was discovered by the council that the um temporary uh container office and the uh fuel storage were separate because when we uh were told about the plan from the city council, uh we were specifically p told that yes, it was a fire permit, but the fire permit was to be considered by the council. And then when it was voted on, we then were told that it was up to this council to vote on the next step. So, we just learned a little bit of different information during the first meeting. And uh I know we might not be able to do so now, but I would like to put it in the record. We'd like some clarification on uh what was said during that zoning commission and specifically the questions and how the fuel storage tanker was uh spoken about and presented to us as a community. Uh and then secondly, uh I'm going to go back on to my spiel, uh that many of you heard and unfortunately many of my neighbors have heard. Uh but I am uh a lifelong resident. Uh I uh remember being a very small child and driving on Riverview Road with my father and I remember him pulling off uh and stopping at the Chattahuchi River so we could find turtles and bring them home. That was a favorite pastime of mine.

Um the evaluation team and purchasing recommend awards to the firms referenced above. Thank you, ma'am. Any questions or discussion? Not I will take a motion. Motion to approve as presented. All in favor, please cast your vote. Motion carries unanimously. Next up, 9C, RFQ26-004, authorization for the approval of RFQ-004. Miss Robinson. Yes. This is the first of three agenda items related to acquisition of police vehicles. Um there was a budget for FY26 for a total of 13 vehicles. This first item is for seven Ford police interceptors. Uh quotes were received for these on September 4th, 2025. And um the the award is going to go to Hardy Chevrolet um at a cost of 288.90 per vehicle. Um and then with outfitting everything else, it's going to be 57780 per vehicle. Staff recommends authorization and approval of this item. Thank you, M. Robinson. Any uh questions or discussion? If not, motion by Mr. Oglesby Pickkins. All in favor, please cast your vote. Carries unanimously. 9D RFQ26-005 authorization for the approval of RFQ26 Miss Robinson. Um I apologize the background I had on the last one is repeated. So this is the same thing. Um these are going to be for um All right. So this is going to be two GMC terrains. Um these were purchased off of the state contract. And this uh price includes the um the purchase of the vehicle and all of the um related outfitting for the vehicles. Questions or discussion? I'll take a motion by Mr. Pickin. Second by Mr. Welch. If everyone will please cast their votes. Motion carries unanimously. Item 9E, RFQ26-00006, authorization for approval of RFQ26-006. Um, this is the last of the total of 13 vehicles. Um, these vehicles are going to be purchased um again just go to this. Um, they're going to be purchased from Atkins um from Akens Ford in a total amount of $180,000.

If you would like to be a vendor or a sponsor, there are still opportunities for both, please contact Jodie Mills in our parks and red. You can email her. That's probably the easiest and quickest way to get her at jillserga.gov. And of course, you can also reach out to myself and I'll I'll help direct traffic and and with that also. With that, Mayor, I yield back. Kristen, anything tonight? Mr. Cochran, Mr. Jones, I've got a list of things I'd like to go over, but in the interest of keeping my new position, I'll just uh forgo that and get with you individually. Nice. All right, Miss Heather. All right, that concludes our business. If there's no other business to be brought before this body, we will say good night from the Jonqual City at 8:54. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. That's a little bit better. Is that any better for mine? No, it's a little bit better. Hey, how y'all doing?

[snorts] 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, for being here. Appreciate it. All right, we have one thing to do before we have special recognitions and we have one agenda change. We are adding an item to the agenda uh authorizing um King Street closure. We're going to close that keep that road closed uh until further notice to vehicular traffic uh right here in the downtown and uh it'll be used for still used for festivals and all of those things for the food trucks and all that. So, may I have a motion to add that to the agenda? Moved by Mr. Lindley, second by Miss Hines. Everybody, please vote to add that to the agenda. And that's added with a 70 vote. All right. Now, two important things. We have two state champion Little League baseball teams from Smyrna, Georgia in here tonight. And I'm going to go through the