City Council Public Hearing
May 2024
Here is my recap and thoughts on the May 2024 Work & Regular session. I had to combine the recaps due to work travel over the weekend.
Announcements
LifeLine
Welcome to the Pet Parade! This is a wonderful initiative that I've been working on with Lifeline to help get more dogs adopted. It's a testament to our community's compassion and love for animals. Lifeline will bring one animal to City Hall to help get them adopted. Chamblee will use its Social Media to get the message out. This month, we have the adorable Sandie!
Public hearing
Three dumpster Enclosure Variances - 5075 Peachtree Boulevard - Waffle House, 2800 NE Expressway, 5400 New Peachtree Road
We now require dumpsters to be enclosed behind the property. The three properties above cannot put the dumpsters behind the businesses and require a variance from the Council for alternate placing. All three were approved with conditions.
3996 Longview Drive.
This was a new one for me and the rest of the Council. Councilwoman Robson has been on Council for five terms and has never had a Planning & Development appeal come in front of the Council in all her time.
This was a particularly complex case that required thorough understanding, but I will give the essential points. The house has a limited backyard—non-useable would better describe it—so the homeowner fenced in the front yard. A tree fell and destroyed a portion of the homeowner's fence. The homeowner elected to remove most of the fence, which hit the threshold of a new fence.
Now, here is where it gets tricky. The fence was located in Chamblee's Right of Way (ROW), and the code does not allow fences — or any structures — to be built or placed in the ROW. If the homeowner had only replaced the damaged part of the fence, they would have been grandfathered in to keep the existing fence. Since he elected to build a new fence, the code does not allow this use, and Planning and Development denied him.
He has appealed that decision to the Council, which is his right according to our UDO. The administrative decision (aka denial of the fence permit) can only be reversed if the mayor and Council find that the decision was either (1) based on erroneous findings of material fact (i.e., a mistake on a fact that would change the outcome of the decision) or (2) that the official making the decision acted in an arbitrary manner. If the Council finds either of the above to be true, the Council may grant the appeal and reverse the administrative decision with conditions. However, the Council's authority to reverse, affirm, or modify the decision is limited by all other requirements imposed by law. Thus, to overturn the administrative decision on the fence permit, the Council has to find a mistake of fact (e.g., the fence doesn't encroach on the City's ROW) or an arbitrary exercise of discretion by the planning director.
Again, this is a unique case, and a significant amount of information must be considered. The Council voted to defer this issue to next month.
New Business
Licensing & Revenue Coordinator Position
Business is booming in Chamblee! So much so that staff has requested a new headcount to speed up the licensing process. Currently, we have one city employee who handles all licensing.
Georgia Department of Transportation Procurement Policy
This check-the-box activity is needed to receive grant money from GDOT. Approved.
2024 Roadway Resurfacing Project Bid Award
We weighed different vendors to resurface the roads in the City. Approved.
Broad Street Streetscape
We are approving the vendor to do this work. We deferred from last month to take a deeper look at this. See my recap from last month for more info. The Council approved GMC as the selected company.
Discover Chamblee Advisory Committee - Hotelier Appointment
Discover Chamblee bylaws dictate we must have a hotelier on the committee. We are appointing the GM from Spice and Sky. Approved.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
770-901-1121
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