2025-04-24 April 24, 2025 Mayor and Council Combined Work Session_Retreat Meeting Minutes - DRAFT

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January 09, 2025
12:00 PM
City of Smyrna
Mayor and Council Meeting
Lanier Islands
Legacy Lodge & Conference Center
7000 Lanier Islands Pkwy
Page 3 of 5
Downtown Surface Lot:
Original contractor hit a spring and cannot finish
Total of 44 parking spots
Should be completed by July
Castelaw Site Purchase:
Zoned for high density, LOI, general fund may fund its purchase rather than bonding
Walton has a master plan for that site, three weeks to a month for appraisal
Future recreation use
They wanted to have senior living in the back with city use in front
IGO Land Purchase:
Approved a 290-unit apartment – Worthing
Funded from parking deck line item
LOI with Worthing, placeholder for future city facility
Downtown Bathroom/Playground:
Part of the Splash Pad with the reflecting pool was a design disaster
Bathroom will go where the train park used to be
Delay on the playground equipment
Hoping everything will be done in July
Bids and plans took longer than expected
Street Resurfacing:
2022 SPLOST overages will go toward this = $10M
$20M can go toward bond debt
Bridge over Cobb Parkway 
$3.3M city portion
Partnership with Cumberland CID
Attempting to get funds from ARC and other entities
Mayor Norton explained that these projects were discussed for a couple hours earlier. The 
overarching theme of that discussion was how the story is being communicated internally and 
externally. Communication was the focus – signage, website, updates, etc. Councilmember 
Lindley said he would like to see a Coming Soon button on the website for updates of the city 
projects. 
Russell Martin, Community Development Director
Staff worked together as a team to put together prior to the last retreat a strategy for the 
delivery process for city projects (workflow), and it felt like it was not well-accepted 
Councilmember Lindley complimented Community Development staff for their good 
working relationships with developers
Staff tries to work with developers to make it more accommodating to come into the city 
as long as state and local laws are followed