City Council To Discuss Former Milton Country Club

MILTON, GA — On Monday, Mayor Joe Lockwood and city council members will convene to discuss, but not yet vote on, two former Milton Country Club items and the "Walking School Bus" app program during a work session.

Buffers/Screening Implementation at the Former Milton Country Club

At the city council's March 2 meeting, City of Milton staff presented options for enhancing the buffer between private property and public greenspace at the former Milton Country Club. Council members provided city staff with important feedback, including asking for more on an incremental approach to this issue. This may include a potential "right of entry" option that would give adjacent property owners access to city-owned greenspace property where they can install landscaping. Such landscaping would need to be approved by the city.

City staff, including Community Development Director Parag Agrawal, will provide an update on this project at Monday's meeting.

Former Milton Country Club Phase 1A and 1B of the Trail Phasing Project

As this is the first set of engineering plans for the passive park arising from the adopted former Milton Country Club Master Plan, the city council has requested more details before bids are sought for the construction of a trail through the passive parts of the city-owned property. Public Works Director Robert Drewry will offer such information and present plans to the city council at this July work session.

If and when the city council signs off officially on the trail construction plans - which could be later this summer, though it's not known exactly when that might happen - the project can go out to bid. Legally, the bid process must take at least four weeks. The work would generally begin within 30 days after the council formally awards the contract. The city's hope is for trail construction to start sometime this fall, though a lot needs to happen still for that to happen.

SMART Communities Grant Project

In June 2019, Milton was selected as one of four grant recipients of Georgia Tech's Georgia Smarts Communities Challenge. Milton's funding will go towards the study and development of an interactive smartphone application to inform and connect parents of children walking to and from Crabapple Crossing Elementary School, Northwestern Middle School and Milton High School. This "Walking School Bus" app aims both to promote safety and more families walking to school in the Crabapple area.

On Monday, members of the city's community development department will offer an overview of the program, including details on community engagement and what's been done so far. City staff will also use video showing a model of the "Walking School Bus" application and lay out the next steps for this initiative. Staff members will discuss how the app might be promoted and how information collected through it can be used in various ways.

As this is a work session, there will be no official votes and, thus, no final decisions. Instead, Lockwood, council members and city staff will dive deeper in discussing a handful of topics.

Members of the public can attend Monday's meeting in person or watch it using the Facebook Live feature on the city's Facebook page. People can also view and "participate" in this council meeting via Zoom.

Citizens can offer public comment at specific times during work sessions, so long as the remarks are germane to a specific agenda item and relatively brief. People can also email their public comments to City Clerk Sudie Gordon at sudie.gordon@cityofmiltonga.us; these can then be read aloud at Monday's meeting and entered into the official record. Such comments should be a reasonable length and include the sender's name, address and the pertinent agenda item.

After Monday, the Milton City Council's next meeting will be a regular session on July 20, starting at 6 p.m. in city hall's council chambers.