Plans for Downtown Alpharetta Revisited

publication date: May 22, 2008

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author/source: Jonathan Copsey / STAFF

By Jonathan Copsey/ STAFF

URS Corp., the city of Alpharetta’s planning consultant, presented a revision of their study of the downtown area of Alpharetta, having been given comments and direction from the Alpharetta City Council. The plans were presented at last week’s Council workshop.

The previous iteration of the study included several options for fixing traffic that Council members decided were so unlikely to be chosen that they removed the options from the report.

One such option was extending Haynes Bridge Road past Academy Street to swing around and link up with Main Street further north. The option would have cost several million dollars and taken many years to complete, leading Council to immediately dismiss it.

Instead, Chris Chovan, URS project manager, presented alternatives or “early winners,” which he referred to as, “relatively inexpensive things that could go into place right now or in an very small time frame that do not require multi-millions of dollars and do not require right of way acquisition.” Examples of this type of project are a raised median on Main Street or mid-block pedestrian crossings.

  
A full section of possible funding options was added in the report. The raised median and mid-block pedestrian crossing were suggested for submittal to the Livable Community Initiative, a funding arm of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

As pointed out by Councilman John Monson, very little could be done to Main Street until the state road designation was removed and control given to Alpharetta. According to Chovan, the town of Marietta accomplished this for the same reasons in under two years. However, whichever road the state route is moved to would have to be given up to state control.

Eight-Minute Response Time
North Fulton is fairly well covered by ambulance service, but not enough to meet adequate coverage. The shortcoming is largely due to Sandy Springs not having enough ambulances. Eight minutes’ response time is the standard, but currently there is a 12-minute average response time in North Fulton.

Fulton County has recently decreed that ambulance control be given over to the municipalities instead of the county, and the five cities of North Fulton – Roswell, Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek and Sandy Springs – have decided to band together to provide full coverage for the entire area. Each city will pay for the ambulances required for the area to meet the eight-minute response time. Sandy Springs will pay more to compensate for their ambulance shortage. Alpharetta is hoping to add two more ambulances to its response unit.

Also, Alpharetta is hoping to appeal to the regional emergency response board to give North Fulton a seat on the board, further helping the area gain resources and a voice in the decision process.

Budget
During the budget discussion, as director of finance Tom Harris showed, the city’s income rose in 2009 by a factor of just over 3 percent over 2008. On the down side, expenditure rose by almost 4.5 percent.

The largest area of growth income came from a whopping 6.6 percent revenue increase in the local option sales tax.

As far as expenditures go, rising fuel costs and salary/ benefits increases together added more than $1.5 million in costs. Some of the expenditures will be one-time costs, such as resurfacing some roads and updating the police 911 services. The elimination of some expenses added almost a million dollars to the fund, such as stopping a subsidy of ambulance service (see below). There are more than $6 million in capital investments planned, leaving $211,000 left in the fund; conversely, there are more than $2 million of unfunded projects.

Millage rates have fallen a full 8 percent since 2001 to 5.8, which is certainly good for residents. Add to that the homestead exemption of $30,000 which equates to about one mill, and you can see why Alpharetta was named by Money Magazine as one of the best places to buy a home in the country. Mayor Arthur Letchas said he would like to see that exemption go up to $40,000 by the time he leaves office.

 
“Is this a must-have or a want to-have?” said Monson on the list of expected expenditures, echoing the mantra of the night of Councilman D. C. Aiken. A general feeling of belt-tightening hung over the budget review in view of the current economy.

Public hearings on the 2009 budget will be held June 2, 9 and 16.

Command Control Center Furniture
Public Safety Director Gary George presented his request for furniture for the new emergency command center once again, returning with information the Council had asked for.

Among the requested information were other bids for the necessary furniture. One bid was over $200,000 higher than the original bid of $67,000. George also pointed out that the vast majority of funding for the command center was coming from sources other than the city.

Aiken reiterated his mantra of “want-to-have and need-to-have.”

“I’m not saying that this is something that we can’t have down the road, but I think this is the wrong year,” he said, referring to the expected downturn in the economy. “Things have changed in the last six to nine months. The price of gas has gone from $2 to $4 a gallon…. If you’re asking me today to vote on $67,000 for new furniture when we’re looking at doubling our fuel costs at a minimum? No.” 

The rest of the Council was generally supportive of George’s proposal, citing that the money had already been allocated for the furniture in the mid-year budget. 
 
Speaker Cards
Procedures on public comments and comment cards were discussed, with Councilmembers Cheryl Oakes and D.C.Aiken leading the discussion.

The aim of the discussion of implementing new rules was to bring Alpharetta closer to what Fulton County currently does. A time limit on speaker comments was suggested, both for citizen comment and for Council discussion.

“If we expect the public to have a time limit, we should have a time limit,” said Oakes.

Further discussion was made regarding the term “authorized” on the public comment cards, where a speaker must say if they are representing a group of people.

While the Council did not seem to take very kindly toward any action limiting their ability to speak or that of the public, they all readily agreed to modify the comment card, requiring all speakers to fill one out. According to several of the Council members, there have been times where a speaker has approached the Council with very dubious claims of representing groups of people. It was generally agreed that time limits (both public and for Council) and the handling of public speakers should be reserved for the mayor to exercise. 
 
Youth Council
The Council workshop began with a presentation by the Alpharetta Youth Council.

Jordon Nave, the chairman of the Youth Council for 2007-08, began the presentations and her fellow students told the Council about their programs for the year and the results, including:

• Project Perfect Prom, which collected 100 prom dresses for girls in foster care.

• A donation drive that was held in conjunction with the Fulton County Community Charities to collect food and household necessities for needy families.

• Old cell phones that were collected and given to the Help Them Call home charity, which donates minutes for each phone returned. Over 13,000 minutes collected to allow soldiers currently serving overseas to call home.