Hearing & Second Read - ReZoning 13-051: Pursuant to the City of Dunwoody Zoning Ordinance, Applicant, HDP Acquisitions, LLC c/o Hotel Development Partners, LLC, Seeks Permission to Rezone Property Currently Zoned Office-Commercial-Residential Conditional (OCRc) to Office-Commercial-Residential Conditional (OCRc) to Allow For a Change of Previous Conditions.
Hearing & Second Read -Special Land Use Permit SLUP13-051: Pursuant to the City of Dunwoody Zoning Ordinance, Applicant, HDP Acquisitions, LLC c/o Hotel Development Partners, LLC, Seeks a Special Land Use Permit For a Change in the Maximum Allowable Building Height of Two-Stories to Eight-Stories.
Mr. Den Webb of Smith, Gambrell & Russell presented to the Dunwoody Homeowners Association on behalf of the hotel developer Mr. Don Boyken and the main community objection was lead by Mr. Bob Lundsten who detailed his objections on his Dunwoody Farmer Bob Blog.
I do not sit in any official capacity on the Board of the Dunwoody Homeowners Association, though I regularly attend the public portion just as anyone interested can do. As an interested member of the public, I observe and learn all I can on items that may came in front of me on the City Council and left the meeting prior to the private discussion and recommendation. Council members Thompson and Nall were also in attendance at the Sunday DHA Meeting and did the same.
The Dunwoody Planning Commission will be hearing this item on April 24th and I will also be observing that process and the presentation.
Public Comment ZBA process Change, better signs, rezoning of village prop, 90 day moratorium on rezonings due to errors, DCVB 503C6, Radar Signs requested with no school match.
Discussion of funding to purchase radar signs. (Should the PTA's share in the cost of these signs or should they be funded entirely by city? Highly unlikely DCSS will contribute. $4,000 each.)
With the amount of unknowns that the Dunwoody City Council is dealing with in setting a budget, some might say that we are flirting with disaster but my gut tells me that our City Manager Warren Hutmacher and his skilled staff will bring us very close to our financial targets. None the less, we the City Council have always taken a very conservative view in our financial planning and are questioning all discrepancies.
If Ms. Shari O'Halloran the Owner of Mudcatz Bayou Bar & Grill has her way, the Pavillion in Dunwoody will be a major music venue with a stage, dance floor and capacity to hold between 300 and 400 people with one of the possible first acts being Molly Hatchet. (Shari, please save me two seats up front.) Link to News Story.
I missed the first Dunwoody Elementary School PTO meeting on Monday (because of a four hour city council meeting) where the election of the PTO officers were taking place. I believe congratulations are in order to the proposed board whom I am guessing is now the newly elected board. Since my boys will be attending this school for the next four years, I look forward to working with Co-Presidents Peggy Stecker & Kevin Cameron, VP's Marian Sheffield & Paige Ratonyi, Secretary Kim Fobas, Treasurer Kim Mc George & Financial Secretary Richard Starks.
Someone was looking Dunwoody Maps, try here and then here.
I had the pleasure of using the services of Dunwoody Personal Computers for a little computer assistance and I highly recommend Adam, he's great and does fast efficient work. 404-702-3726.
For a website that is based on transparency, I tip my hat to a relatively new site that is doing great investigative work, http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com. The recent story on Terrell Bolton is top notch investigating and now the story has been picked by the AJC, WSB TV and the DeKalb Officers site.
Last chance to join the Dunwoody North swim team on Thurs. Info here.
Brook Run Dog Park Work Day - Saturday from 9 - 11. Link.
I was just notified that the Dunwoody PD responded to a 3 car vehicle accident and the writer of the e-mail stated that it took less than 4 minutes to have two cars on scene. Outstanding !!
Audio from Monday's four hour city council work session. Agenda
Warren Hutmacher announces City Hall & Police Station Click Photo above orClick Here
The Monday Night Dunwoody City Council meeting covered a wide range of items on the agenda and most items were approved as presented. Including glass containers of alcohol (bottled wine, ect) are now allowed in parks when an event is permitted by the city. Employee benefits were discussed at length and approved by the Council as presented except for the health club membership portion which was removed. A new public comment period was added just prior to city council votes when amendments are added from the floor. The Construction & Alcohol Appeals boards were deferred until a future meeting in order to obtain a different set of volunteers since there is no reason to have one group sit on three various boards. The other boards were seated as proposed with the Mayor completing the slate for the Development Authority.
The big news of the night was the decision to enter into an agreement with the newly created Development Authority for the City of Dunwoody to sign a ten year lease for a co-mingled City Hall and Police Station at 41 Perimeter Center East, Dunwoody, Georgia 30346. This location is near the mall, off Ashford Dunwoody and located directly behind the Ravinia Building Complex. The City will lease almost two full floors (1st & 2nd floors) whereby the Police Station and the Court Room / City Council Chambers will be located on the First Floor and the Second Floor will be the administrative offices of City Hall.
I am not allowed to speak about what is said in executive session but believe I can state that the City Hall decision was a difficult one for all members of the Council (it was for me) since I like many were hoping for an ideal location in a different part of the City, but it just did not make financial and logistical sense to do so.
The almost four hours of audio from the meeting is now available as shown below.
Dunwoody City Council Meeting - Public Hearing at Dunwoody United Methodist Church (1548 Mt. Vernon Road, Dunwoody, GA 30338). Date: 1/26/2009 Time: 7:00 PM
A year ago the City of Dunwoody only officially existed in the plans of those who were working towards their final objective of creating a City. Though much work was done to get us to that point last January, several difficult hurdles needed to be overcome. With the help of Fran Millar, Dan Weber and hundreds of volunteers, we are now celebrating this holiday season officially in the City of Dunwoody.
From my family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or for you Seinfeld fans, Happy Festivus.
On December 29th there will be a budget hearing where I believe we will be announcing that Dunwoody will be operating in the Black in year one. Compare that to the news stories above from September.
We've come a long way since last January but there is still much work to be done, I'm just happy to have been a part of it. Thank you.
Working on the Dunwoody City Council has been a blast so far and I believe that I and the other City Council members are making a real difference in the future quality of life for all citizens of Dunwoody. That being said, let me say that the hours are very long and today was no exception, in fact I took a vacation day from my full time job to work on city issues.
At 10 am, I met with Mayor Wright, Jim Redovian of the DeKalb County School Board, Robin Burch of the Dunwoody Homeowners Association and Page Olson, President of the Dunwoody Chamblee Parents School Council to tour the new 4th/5th Grade Elementary School on Womack; along with the County construction supervisors. The tour started in the construction trailer reviewing blueprints and raising questions that were brought up at the public meeting which happened several weeks ago.
Issues discussed were like the school clinic being too small, there are plans for two play areas and $75,000 set aside for playground equipment, each room has its own AC/Heat, we reviewed construction material choices and were looking to change the color of the roof, asked about increasing the sidewalk width on the property, possibly adding a few screening trees along the property line to block the school from the several highly affected neighbors on Windhaven Court. I asked about the originally planned Kindergarten rooms and if the mini toilets were going to be installed or if they were only going to stub the rooms for a future conversion back to an elementary school? I was informed that the little bathrooms and toilets were going to be installed as were shown on the plans I obtained a while back.
At 1 pm, I met at Boyken with our new City Manager Warren Hutmacher and Council Members Adrian Bonser and Tom Taylor to discuss city implementation issues. As I was arriving Council Members Shortal and Ross were leaving with Adrian Bonser who was staying for the second meeting.
At 3:50 the meeting was over and I crossed the hall to tour the new temporary Dunwoody City Hall which is very nice and contains 14 offices, a kitchen, conference room and reception area.
At 4:00 pm I witnessed Boyken logging in the last of the RFP bids, many of which were contained in boxes and the numerous submissions filled two carts.
At 4:30, I rushed home to review & print a number of items for the City Council meeting and have a quick dinner with the family.
At 6:00, I was meeting with the Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce to listen to their opinion of the Business License Ordinance that we have currently under review. The ordinance is based on DeKalb law which is all messed up and it appears that DeKalb's answer is to just not enforce anything that is problematic in the current code. I would rather fix the regulatory problems now and have fewer headaches later. One example is that the your neighborhood Swim Tennis would currently need to pay business taxes and I would rather see that rule corrected vs being not enforced.
At 7:00, I had the Dunwoody City Council Work Session, Audio here.
At 8:30, the meeting was over but talking to the various people in the room is an important part of the job. This evening, I introduced my friend Pattie Baker who writes the blog Sustainable Dunwoody to the City Manager and inform him of her efforts and ideas for the community (example in the video below)
At 9:00 pm, I returned to talk to the Dunwoody Chamber regarding the Business License ordinance and started to slowly hammer out a few of the issues. Three of the other city council members were returning to Boyken to review and grade the RFP's that were due today.
At 11:00 pm, I returned home after a long day to update the blog and figured I didn't have much to say, so instead I just recapped my day for the world to see and call it a night.
As the photo above shows, the questions to the RFP's along with other documents were posted on Friday to the Boyken site and are now available by clicking here and completing the form.
At 4 p.m. today, I hope to picking up a number of comprehensive proposals to implement, manage and operate a wide range of services/functions for the new city. There are currently four areas of city operation that are currently open to bid and they are, Public Works, Community Development, Finance / Administration and Banking. Interviews start on Thursday the 20th with possible vendor selection taking place on Tuesday, November 25th.
Welcome aboard Warren Hutmacher as today is your first day on the job as our esteemed City Manager. Make us proud, serve us well and together we can create the best city in Georgia.
On Friday, November 7th there was an RFP pre-bid conference where questions were asked and items were clarified. Boyken has published the addendum to the RFP's as well as listed the participants for the three bid areas on their website. If you are interested in obtaining this information, please visit the link below to Boyken's site to register for the information.
If you are interested in bidding on a majority of Dunwoody's operational work, there are three Requests for Proposals that are now available on the Boyken International's website; all of which close on November 17th. There is also a Pre-Proposal Mandatory Conference on November 7, 2008 for all companies intentending to make a bid.
I have downloaded the RFPs and would have posted them on my site but Boyken would prefer that interested parties register on their site prior to being allowed a copy of the document; therefore I will provide the best link to get you there.
Financial & Administrative Services which includes Revenue, Capital and Investment Administration, Accounts payable/receivable, Budgeting/Forecasting, Risk Management, Purchasing, Information Technology, Website, GIS, Telephones, Contract Administration, Physical Plant, Administrative Communications, Public Relations, Records Management, Human Resources, and Election Support to list a few of the areas.
Community Development which includes Planning & Zoning, Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Building Inspections & Permiting, Geographic Infromation Systems, and possibly Code Enforcement.
Public Works which includes an inventory of City Assets, GIS, Comprehensive Transportation Plan, Street Maintenance & Striping, Sidewalks, Gutters, Stormwater, Traffic Signals, Parks & Recreation, Emergency Preparedness & Capital Improvements.
I didn't write the RFPs but as the past Chairman of the Citizens for Dunwoody Transportation Task Force I recognized a number of the points in the RFPs that were taken dircetly from the advice presented by the various task forces that were comprised of hundreds of Dunwoody volunteers. If I was going to be submitting a proposal, I would make sure that I was at least familure with what those committees put togeather, (not that they are perfect nor is there confirmation that the ideas presented would be followed by those currently elected) to see what they produced.
Just prior to Monday's City Council meeting I was e-mailed the Boyken contract and several exhibits that went along with it. I was going to post them to my site late Monday night but a member of the City Council found a typo or two therefore I was going to allow the document to go final prior to my posting it. The City Attorney was very busy today working on the Alcohol Ordinance and therefore may not have had time to forward me the typo free documents. Because of this I am posting the documents I recieved just prior to the meeting.
Dunwoody officials and their newly hired consultants are in a flurry of activity this week, racing to get services in place for the city’s start of operations on Dec. 1.
On Monday, the City Council approved a $575,000 contract with Boyken International, a management firm, to help with the candidate search and setup of Georgia’s newest city. Ads went up online and in newspapers this week for a police chief, city clerk and finance director.
And Mayor Ken Wright has called a special meeting for next Monday night to review his recommendations for city manager.
“We are excited to try to get moving forward,” Wright said. “It’s time for us to get running.”
Plans call for the city manager to select and hire a police chief.
The Boyken firm’s role, meanwhile, will be to hire interim finance and court consultants and recruit for key permanent posts: municipal court clerk, city clerk, administrative director, community development director, public works director and a code enforcement officer.
The Boyken contract is retroactive to Oct. 16 and calls for the city to pay the firm $275,000 through year’s end to help set up the city. The contract will be extended through April 30, unless the council votes to cancel it with a 15-day notice.
Company president Don Boyken said requests for proposals for administrative services, planning and public works will go out by Friday. They will be due by Nov. 17, when a city manager should be on the job to help cull candidates and conduct interviews.
Despite the fast track of activity, one councilman voted against hiring Boyken as a consultant. Councilman Tom Taylor referred to a proposal from CH2M Hill — a company that offered complete privatization of city services, except for police — as the better and quicker answer for the city.
CH2M Hill withdrew their proposal earlier this month after Boyken approached the city at the request of state Sen. Dan Weber, though some city officials said they are trying to get the private management company to reconsider bidding for some services.
“We had a valid proposal on the table, and we had a state legislator come in and disrupt that process,” Taylor said. “It cost us a month that we can’t get back.”
City officials remain locked in negotiations with DeKalb County to hash out paying for some services such as water and sewer and determining how the city will begin its own police operations.
The Boyken contract calls for a hiring process for officers and staff to be in place by March 1, with police operations to begin no later than April.
At last night's Dunwoody City Council meeting we moved on a number of items, approving our Municipal Court Ordinance and our Ethics Ordinance with a couple of minor edits. We approved Boyken International as our start up, project management consultant and the Mayor announced that he will be calling a Special Meeting for next Monday to review his choice for City Manager.
We have decided that the City will be collecting our own taxes (Business, Liquor, etc) and that an intergovernmental agreement will be put in place for the DeKalb County Tax Assessor to collect property taxes as is routinely done elsewhere. It was also decided that our normal meeting location for future meetings will be changed from Peachtree Charter Middle School to Dunwoody United Methodist Church.
Finally the big topic of the night was our proposed Alcohol Ordinance that has now gone through a number of revisions since it was first proposed. The big issue is that the city is proposing to roll back the serving hours from 4 am to 2 am. The City Council was initially informed that this change would only affect two establishments but as it turns out the ordinance will be affecting many more establishments like Cafe Intermezzo, McKendrick's Steakhouse and many of the city's hotels.
Prior to the City Council meeting, I met with the Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce who opened my eyes to a number of technical problems with the ordinance outside of the 2 am issue. That being the case, a committee of residents, liquor license holders and members of the City Council is now being formed to go line by line through the document in order to hammer out the technical issues so that middle ground can be obtained.
The audio of the meeting is here (60 MB) and I will be attaching a number of documents tomorrow regarding the Boyken proposal as well as the contract that will be signed in the morning once a few minor technical edits are made.
Today is election day for the middle third of the city, go out and vote for either Adrian Bonser or Larry Pankey. The current City Council members are looking forward to the assistance and the unique skills they each bring to to the position. AJC Article.
At this evenings City Council meeting we took a few steps forward on a number of issues. We are working towards signing a contract with Boyken International for them to provide us some short-term consulting services. AJC Article. These services will cover three areas:
Provide start-up project management and consulting services.
Assist the city in seeking qualified bidders, proposals (RFPs) and quotes to provide city services.
Assist the city in recruiting a small number of key personnel to manage vendor contracts and performance.
This evening we have selected Brian Anderson/Riley Lewis & McLendon as our city attorneys. They were one of the three firms recommended by the citizens task force selected by Mayor Wright to review the dozen or so proposals we received. They bring a great deal of experience to the city and I have been very impressed with the depth advice already provided by the team.
We had the first official reading of our alcohol ordinance which rolls back the serving hours from 4 am to 2 am and it will be discussed and possibly voted on at our next meeting. Currently there are two Dunwoody businesses, Gilly’s and Firebirds, who currently stay open until 4:00 am and they are opposing this change, as is the newly formed Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce. We need to pass this ordinance in the next week or two so that we can use the ordinance as the basis for sending out liquor licenses and invoices to the appropriate Dunwoody businesses in November. The audio from the meeting is here and a few of the other documents are here.
Another Murder in "soon to be" Dunwoody. In case you didn't hear of it on the news or in papers, there was another murder early Monday morning inside what will soon be the City of Dunwoody's borders (effective December 1st). The AJC headline highlighted the fact that the DeKalb resident lived in an apartment off Peachtree Industrial and it never mentioned Dunwoody. Come December, I'm thinking that the headline would have been a little different but it wouldn't change the the way I currently view my responsibility for serving the area. I was elected to serve the entire City of Dunwoody, including the residents who live in apartments, including those who may not speak English; therefore in the coming months I will be thinking of Mr. Alejandro Perez Morales, age 32 when I help hire police officers and set the budget.
Finally for all the anguish caused to the neighbors by this Dunwoody resident the only thing that needs to be said, is goodbye and good riddence.
