Saturday, April 8, 2023

Dunwoody City Council Agenda for Monday April 10, 2023 (SLUP Decision, $55 Million Bond discussion) and a Recap of City Retreat Discussions.


 DUNWOODY CITY COUNCIL MEETING
April 10, 2023 - 6:00 PM
DUNWOODY CITY HALL - DUNWOODY HALL
4800 ASHFORD DUNWOODY ROAD
DUNWOODY, GA 30338

Agenda 6 pm  - City Site Agenda 

City Council meetings are live-streamed on the City of Dunwoody’s Facebook page

They are also available for viewing (no two way communication) on Zoom,
https://dunwoodyga-gov.zoom.us/j/83571238287  or  phone +14702509358,,83571238287#

You can access the video after the meeting on the City of Dunwoody’s YouTube page.

Invocation

Public comments - in person 3 min each / 30 min max with additional at end of meeting if needed.

Stage Door Theater Presentation (Justin Ball)

City Manager's Report (Eric Linton)

Funding Authorization for 2146 Brendon Drive & 5175 Hathburn Court Storm Repairs

Resolution - Readopting Ethics Principles and Pledges for Purposes of Being Re-certified as City of Ethics

Approval of a Contract for Citywide Pavement Assessment Update

SECOND READ for SLUP 22-03: Special Land Use Permit to Allow a 7 Resident Personal Care Home at 1822 Mount Vernon Road.

Discussion of Capital Needs and Potential G.O. Bond Call

  • Retreat Update from March discussions.

I hope everyone had a relaxing Spring break from school & enjoyed the holidays with family whereby you are now ready to return to the normalcy of April & May, with everything that it brings (Lemonade Days, Food Trucks, better weather & end of the school year). My family drove to Chicago to see our parents who are getting up in age therefore my city blogging / informational duties fell behind a bit.

On March 22 & 23, the City Council met with representatives of Canton, GA and then regrouped in Dahlonega, GA for internal discussions on numerous topics. Here are the official minutes from the retreat that will be approved Monday and let me point out that the last several pages of that document outline the action items for staff & council.  All of the documents used in the retreat are listed below but let me highlight a few.  

The Dunwoody's Own Direction document starts us off with our goals from the Comprehensive Plan and how we have been working towards them this year vs last years accomplishments.  We discussed changing city demographics, improved diversity opportunities, our work on Dunwoody Village improvements, and Pedestrian Safety.

We discussed Public Safety with Chief Grogan, the push for EMS changes and police staffing needs that we believe will be detailed in the upcoming Berry-Dunn Report.  

We discussed Communications, specifically improved public engagement & feedback on citizen Code Enforcement & See Click Fix issues and then we discussed how to improve City Contracting of large public works projects for better results.  

The 15 million dollars of Federal Funding / American Rescue Plan was discussed, we went over the expenditures.  Council requested assurances that expenditures will be made within the Federal timelines and on appropriate allowed subjects.

Bond Referendum - The last big item we discussed was the funding of Capital Projects and whether a Bond referendum is appropriate for this coming November.  A citizen committee was convened to discuss this topic and made a list, the City Council may finalize the list of desires and call the question to hold a referendum, but it is the citizens who will need to approve or deny the call to raise taxes for capital improvements.  The capital discussions have routinely been around the improvement of Parks, Transportation / Street Intersections, and multi-use Paths.  

I am against the City's construction of 12 ft wide concrete paths in front of single family homes and I prefer three referendum questions so that citizens (like me) could vote for some projects and possibly against others but it appears that may not be the plan?  Ideas on path locations are not set in stone and at the retreat some path ideas being pushed previously were removed (probably because of the backlash) and new ones were being added without vetting to to public nor having any engineering designs to really discuss the proposals.  The Chesnut community has been vocal for needed improvements on North Peachtree between Dunwoody Village Apartments and Peachtree / Brook Run, therefore this idea was just added for a new trail and as much as I want improved infrastructure for safety, I still believe a 12 ft concrete path is overkill.   The other new addition calls out Dunwoody Village path improvements but I believe it is really a 12 ft concrete trail along Chamblee Dunwoody from Womack to the new Austin Park.  Neither of these projects have been engineered, vetted, or even discussed with the nearby residents

I raised concerns on the one question idea, I raised the fact that we just received 7 million dollars from the sale of land on Shallowford that was originally intended for parks; therefore the City should plan for spending that money prior asking the citizens for more.  Finally I still have long term budgetary concerns based on the rising cost of government operations (Public Safety in particular) and general maintenance vs the possibility of an unstable business tax base when we have several large office buildings vacant.   The last item on Monday nights agenda will initiate a discussion for a $55 million bond referendum whereby a single question will be brought in front of the citizens.

City Retreat Minutes & File Location for Retreat Attachments

00a Meeting Agenda 3-22-23.docx
00b Meeting Agenda 3-23-23.docx
01a Dunwoody's Own Direction.pptx
01b Canton Road Map Details.pdf
01c Last Year's Recap.pptx
02 Public Safety.pptx
03 ARP.pptx
04 Diversity Opportunities.docx
05a Committee Education and Acknowledgement.pptx
05b Dunwoody Training.pptx
06a Capital.pptx
06b Previous SPLOST Referendum.pdf
06c Previous Bond Presentation.pptx
07 Dunwoody Village.pptx
08 Safe Streets.pptx
09 Communications.pptx
10a Constituency Repsonse Customer Service
10b Contract Flow Chart.docx
10b Liquidated Damages and Traffic Control
99 APPENDIX
99 BONDS
Retreat_Minutes_04102023_approval.pdf

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