Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

update. First public hearing, community development. That's a hard act to follow, Rusty. I know. [laughter] Go ahead. Well, good evening. Uh we're having a public hearing tonight to officially kick off our uh 10-year update to our comprehensive plan. Um this is a statemandated process that all mun municipal governments have to do um on a regular basis. Um I'm going to turn this over to uh Kyle May. He is our consultant and our project lead from NKSK. Um, you all know them as the group that did our, uh, downtown redevelopment plan. So, uh, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Kyle. Thank you. That is a a very difficult act to follow. So, thank you very much for the agenda. Uh, good evening, council. Mayor Pam, thank you so much for this opportunity. Uh, was asked to provide a a brief presentation as we uh, set out on this process together. A couple things I wanted to cover tonight. I think one just the overall on what a comprehensive plan really entails uh what we're up to when we're doing this work uh as a community the research we're doing the conversations we're initiating I want to talk a little bit about the process itself so the engagement activities that we're hoping to uh to we actually have initiated but we also want to be running throughout the summer and then ultimately uh where our goals are for this project in terms of deliverables and final report uh and and and goals for ourselves. So thank you again for this opportunity.

I'm representing uh our project team made up of Luis who I know I believe you know Luis Calvo Brena Diaz Flores and our partners with BAE and Stantech um as a collective here we've been formed intentionally to uh to work through this set of questions that you all have as part of the process MKSK and myself really serving as uh the lead in terms of land use planning community engagement uh and the analytical work but we're also supported by BAE who's here to study market uh dynamics, housing, economic development, and our partners from Stantech looking at physical infrastructure below ground, above ground, the systems that support this what is obviously an incredible uh town. Um, couple things if I can get this to advance. I don't have to do it. Okay, sorry. Is there a mouse here? U Joey, hold on. Page down. That'll do. Okay. I can start here with just uh some basics on comprehensive plan 101. Um Georgia is among a number of states in the the United States that requires municipalities to regularly consider their land use pattern. Uh develop out a a framework uh for that land use and as well as develop policies around major topics like housing, economic development, parks and recreation. So when we do a project like this, you know, one of the things that we're really up to is studying uh the dynamic trends that are existing in your community. So you obviously exist within a major uh region. There's lots of change. There's a lot of movement. We want to understand the the the uh the the nature of those trends, how they're affecting your community, both in good ways and in ways you may wish to uh to change. It is an opportunity, a real excuse to have a a a big conversation with your community. Part of that's education.

Part of that's uh letting them know how this place works. It's incredible to have an academy by by the way like that where you're bringing community members in just to show them all the work that the great work that you're doing as a place and also how that work uh uh interlocks with regional work as well. Uh this is a chance to really develop around a cohesive land use strategy and one of the benefits of doing regular comprehensive planning is that we don't necessarily have to start from scratch. a lot of the basics around the vision, the direction, the goals. I bet a lot of that work and and a lot of that direction is actually uh quite consistent in the work that we would identify here. But ultimately what we develop in a comprehensive plan is an act of preparation knowing you can't predict the future, but how can you prepare yourself with the best information uh and the best framework for decision-m moving forward. What we don't do in a project like this, but what we may tee up is not a comprehensive zoning rewrite. We don't also go parcel by parcel and develop a a watercolor master plan. Uh this is really more about policy. It's about high level direction. And again, it's not a major departure from the work that you all have done previously. Uh and last but not least, uh we're learning here just in these first agenda items. This is a very unique community and your plan should reflect uh and and tailor uh to you.

um in terms of uh overall new challenges and this is a very dynamic time as I mentioned there's a lot of fluidity and a lot of the trends that we're going to study whether that has to do with land use or the users of that land the office market retail market even residential uh there's been a lot of changes that have come uh to this region uh postcoid planning is a almost entirely different animal so as we think about looking at you from the top down couple things that we want to do one is get our arms around what those major your trends are where there's flux and movement. We want to understand what's pivotal in that data and then we want to seize on the opportunities that exist while also mitigating some of the challenge that might come up. So a big word that we're going to be using a lot in this has to is usually started with the word re whether it's about reuse, revision, redevelopment, whatever that might be. Not saying that that's a prescription for everything, but being a community like you are kind of locked in your size. That's going to be a major topic that comes up in our conversation. And a big part of this is about anticipation of community needs uh and and ranking and prioritizing those needs as we move forward. Some major outcomes uh that we're hoping um I think to address in this and have already began to have discussions on in our committee community outreach and engagement talking about downtown talking about issues related to housing also thinking about village green park reinvestment recreation the word comprehensive we really do mean it.

Uh, I think when we get into this work, we start by by casting a wide net, but we also want to be able to zoom in on whether that's topics or issues that are particularly pertinent to the city right now or if it's special geographies that you all know there's just a high susceptibility to change and you all want to provide a strong signal about what that change should look like. Um, so this overview of the of a project, yes, I mean it is a regular process that we're embarking on here, but I think every project is unique in the sense of when you're doing the work and of course where you're doing the work and the community that you seek to do the work with. Um, one of the the key emphasis points from from staff as far as getting along getting involved here is about involving the community in a real way. I think a goal we have on your behalf when we think about this comprehensive plan is that everybody in this community that cares about this community has an opportunity to to participate in this process. That means that they are aware that the process is going on and how it may affect them. So that's a big goal for the work that we're going to do. We lean on leaders like you all, leaders that just exited the room as well to share the message about why this is important and why the community should get involved and to establish these quality of life and quality of place high priorities for Smyrna moving forward. Um, I'll quickly run through this just in terms of our objectives and the process that we're running. We've worked hard here to establish a base around the existing plans. A community like yours is very active. You've done a lot of topical plans, a lot of geographic work.

You also are the beneficiary of regional planning work that's gone on as well. As I mentioned, you're part of big systems, whether it's about infrastructure or transportation or broad goals around economic development. So, one of the first steps that we've taken here on your behalf is to get our arms around everything that's been said by you or for you. We want to build a data driven plan as well. So, we're developing a portal uh uh for that data, but also a key reporting along the way. conditions and trends assessment is one of our major deliverables to to emerge through this process. What you'll see in that is the most pivotal trends that you all as leaders need to be aware of right now because they're impacting you. Like I said, either for better or for worse, these are the things that are moving right now. The community vision, the strategic direction, well, that really ought to emerge from that community discussion that we we seek to be having here over the summer months and building on uh into this actionable and implementable focused recommendation. So ultimately the currency of the plan is in projects, it's in policies, it's in programs. It's really in the action agenda, the short-term work program that you all uh will adopt as part well hopefully adopt when we're done with this work as your um uh as your uh progress or or or plan to move forward. So effective implementation and long-term success in each of those actions we really want to set this group up with an implementable roadmap for how the work is done. again whether that's based on a project or whether that's based on a policy to be implemented.

We want to make it very clear about who does what eventually in this work and ultimately on your behalf deliver a plan that is is attractive is a clear signal and is very very usable for you all not just for the first year but for every year that it is applicable to you moving forward. Uh where that looks like in our schedule well we're really kind of right at the beginning right now. Uh we're going to be holding stakeholder meetings uh in a week from now, engaging in some really robust discussions with leaders from all angles into this conversation, building up this foundations and alignment statement through April and September, and then engaging in community engagement all along the way. So, we've already held one popup event. We're going to be continuing to hold popup events. with the World Cup going on, with all the exciting things happening uh in the summer, we've got a great opportunity um to bring people in, ask them some big questions about the future of this place and join this coalition of forming this new comprehensive plan. So, in terms of those activities, we've got public meetings in August and in winter, formal public meetings. Come to us. We call those meetings, but we're also going to be holding, as I mentioned, pop-up events, Junth and StillFire. uh we want to be active and quite frankly everywhere I think where people are talking about the issues that affect this community. We also know this is a very busy place and busy people need other ways to get involved. So we're also developing an online survey and an interactive map if this group and the group behind me has a chance tonight. We'd love if you guys could pop on there. I'll show you the QR code here in just a minute that will have a project website.

We'll let you know everything that's going on, everything we learn. We'll post there. We'll grow that site as we grow, but we'll always give people a call to action, an opportunity to share their voice and their idea. I have a QR code for those leaders uh behind in front of me right now. If you'd like to go on and and peruse the website, the first thing that we'll share with you is that interactive map where you can zoom in, you can take a look uh at Smyrna from the top down and tell us the places, the spaces where you think there's opportunity, where there may be challenges uh and ultimately where you see this community moving moving positively forward. So with that, I want to thank you all for this incredible opportunity to guide this process and I would ask that you join us in this really critical work uh on your behalf. If there's any questions, I believe Rusty, happy to take those otherwise. Thank you, Kyle. Appreciate it. Uh, anybody on council have any questions or I have a question for you, Kyle. So, when you're doing those popup events and you're going to solicit public input, is your focus specific to the people who live here in Smyrna or the people who visiting or passing through and and using the businesses and the facilities here? That's a great question. So, one of the things that we always want to do as we're having community conversations, whe those are big events or it's an online survey, we always collect what's called an exit questionnaire. So, as we're collecting data, we're going to collect a little bit about demographics, location, and also their relationship to the city. So, as I mentioned, one of the key tests here is if you care about the city, we want you to be involved in this process, but we also know that people are coming at this from different angles.

So, one of the ways we'll be able to parse the data on the back end is do you live in Smyrna? Do you own a business in Simmer as we learned about today? Are you raising children? These are different ways to look at the data and help to understand where some of those priorities are coming from. But we'll absolutely be asking those questions. Yeah. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you very much. So, this is a public hearing. If anybody like to come up and uh have comment, please come up and be sworn in by your city attorney. Great. We got one person Good evening, Mayor Pro and Council. Please uh let the let the Scott swear you in. I do. Thank you. Uh please state your name and address for the record, please. My name is John Saunders. I live at 2446 Reed Street here in Smyrna. Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I would humbly like to suggest a few um guiding goals and possible methods for the city to consider during this comprehensive plan update. Uh, as a person who lives in Smyrna and loves it deeply, I I hope that the council and mayor will consider efforts to vastly improve the affordability in and near downtown to ensure that the shops and restaurants and offices in the new downtown area will have uh the requisite critical mass of patrons in walking distance. That we'll take the opportunity to grow the tax digest to ensure financial support for Smyrna's great plans. and that we'll take the opportunity, even though it's not necessarily a built-in part of the comprehensive plan update process, to codify what we love about Simrna's character, to protect and enhance it. And to do so, I I humbly suggest that we take the opportunity to update the future land use uh map and the walkable and bikable core of downtown.

that we also update the residential zoning classes and requirements that we concurrently and preemptively upzone these areas to match the future land use map uh to facilitate development as well as provide uh opportunities for missing middle housing options. I have this report that I'd like to submit to the clerk for distribution if that's possible. Uh yes, there should be a copy there for him as well. Okay. Sorry. Yep. Thank you all. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you. Any uh anybody else like to speak? All right. Seeing that we'll close the portion of the public hearing. There's no vote required on this and unless anybody on council has any other comments or questions. We'll move on. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks, Rusty. Thanks, Kyle. Um, item item 7B Z26-101, plot approval allow subdivision of 3490

Pineree Drive into two parcels within the R20 zoning district, 1.01 acres, land lot 555,

3490 Pineree Drive, applicant to Shawn Murphy. Um I think if Rusty or Joey are you going to speak with us? Joey Stabs, planner two with community development. This is a 1acre um property that has an existing home on it. The applicant is requesting to subdivide the lot under the R20 zoning district. It meets all the R20 requirements. Um so we're just bringing it to council for formal approval. Anybody in council have any questions for for staff? Mr. Cochran, would you like to share any insight on this particular application? No questions. All right. Like to entertain a motion. So moved by Council Member Oglesby. Do you have a second? Second by Mr. All in favor motion passes 52 I mean 550 5. Thank you. Uh moving on to item Z26-002.