Special Notice From Council Person Julie Zahner Bailey

Milton News from Julie Zahner Bailey:

Dear Milton Friends, Neighbors and Citizens:I hope everyone had a terrific July 4th. Milton's first citizen parade was well attended and is sure to become a great annual tradition. The Milton Herald highlighted the parade in their July 11th addition. A few photos from the parade are included in this release. Enjoy! It was a great day for Milton and for America. Thanks to all those who were able to participate.

Please note there is a Special Called Meeting being held today at City Hall at 4:00 p.m. The agenda for this public meeting relates to: permits requested in the Highway 9, Hopewell Road and Crabapple areas;and existing limitations of the current Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Fulton County and the related sewer service delivery area. This meeting will require comparisons of these various parcels with existing sewer and no sewer policies. Scroll down for more details.

Facts regarding recently publicized information regarding Fulton County tax assessments can be found below in this release.Since my last release and update, there have been several new developments on the topic of sewer/no sewer. As I reported, the Mayor and Council had a Special Called Meeting on July 3 to address the permits for Sembler. Because the Sembler development - which includes Target, Kohl's, etc. - was about to have its' grand opening, Milton staff wanted to ensure they had the input of the Council regarding how to proceed. As I hope you read at the time, the Sembler project is located on a parcel that was not covered by the current Intergovernmental Agreement ((IGA) with Fulton County. Based on a number of factors that distinguished this parcel(s) from others, we unanimously agreed to provide staff the direction to proceed with the CO and related permits. The motion to approve the permits and ultimately the connection to sewer were specifically outlined in a detailed motion citing the following facts: The parcels are in the Big Creek Basin, the parcels are not in the Etowah Basin, the No Inter Basin Transfer Policy does not apply to these parcels, while the current IGA with Fulton County and related map did not include these parcels, these parcels had always been intended for sewer via Fulton County.

The list of distinguishing factors goes on, but you get the idea. Also noted during the July 3rd Special Called Meeting was the fact that other permits along Highway 9, in Crabapple and along Hopewell need to be reviewed by the Mayor and Council in concert with data provided by staff to determine how to proceed. The circumstances of the various parcels all vary. As an example, they are at varying stages of development, are in different basins in some cases, i.e. some are in the Big Creek Basin while others are in the Etowah, while still others may be in conflict with the No Inter Basin Transfer Policies while still others have no conflict with that long standing no-sewer policy. AJC articleFast forward to today, Monday, July 14th, the Mayor and Council will have another Special Called Meeting at City Hall beginning at 4:00 p.m. It is a public hearing and everyone is of course welcome to attend.

As always, there also will be time allotted for public comment. The intent of the meeting is to review the 25-30 parcels noted by Milton staff as needing direction based on near term permit or site plan requests along with the current IGA. The Community Development Department will provide Mayor and Council with the specifics of each situation and parcel and we will have to evaluate what next steps are appropriate for each of these situations. Following the Special Called Meeting is the regularly scheduled July 14th Work Session beginning at 6:00 with a focus on the 2009 budget process. I encourage you all to attend and to begin to think about and share your expectations for the city's 2009 priorities.Thank you for allowing me the privilege to serve you.

All my best,

Julie Zahner Bailey
Milton City Council
770-664-5529 (h)
404-310-6344 (c)
Julie4Milton@mindspring.com
Julie4Milton