NOTE - Any called meeting can occur upon 24 hours notice. Agenda is posted on the lobby bulletin board, but not always on City web site
Council meeting agendas can change, so the Public needs to monitor all meetings despite the upcoming holidays and Spring break vacations. The Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals denied a variance request (5-0) by the owner of 35 Williams Street property on February 28, 2008. The owner has the option to appeal the decision to Superior Court within 30 days.
If they're not doing the right thing,
then what's the game?
Note: The articles on this page concern issues in 2005. So far, in 2006, the new city council is taking a different approach. Save Historic Norcross will continue to monitor the city council’s activities, commending when they do the right thing and calling it to the public’s attention when they don’t.
City Council has been actively approving rewritten segments of the city code, pieces of rezoning, bids, and expenditures, in what appears to be an ever-evolving plan, without due impact studies and creation of a Master Plan.
In its January 2005 meeting, the City Council awarded two contracts totaling $200,000 to develop the Cultural Arts Center architectural concept at Lillian Webb field on College St. The contracts were awarded without issuing bids first. In February 2005, the Council approved the rezoning of Cemetery Street from C-3 to the city's first Design Concept Development for Mixed Use and loft apartments. The approval of this and other DCD rezonings virtually eliminates zoning protection for adjacent or other nearby property owners. Many citizens have repeatedly asked for a Master Plan, and asked for a town meeting that provides the status. In other business, future DCD zonings are tabled for 180 days, but no provision has been made to define or improve the concept.
Without usual and customary protection as we had prior to DCD rezoning, and without the local Historical Ordinance to align with the state's Historical Preservation Act which we once had;
We all are unprotected.
May 1st Community meeting on "Facts and Myths about an Historic Preservation Ordinance" was well attended. Over 30 citizens gathered to hear Keri Stevens, community development coordinator for the city of Roswell, discuss how a historic preservation ordinance protects and enhances all properties, private and public.
Charlie Riehm, chairman of the Progressive Development Committee, presented a talk on the PDC perspectives on the School House Project and the opportunity to purchase the old Methodist Church property.
We are continuing to monitor City and Council news as it relates to maintaining our small historic town. Please review the articles in this web site located on the top tabs on Press Articles and City and Council News. It is becoming clearer to us, the founding members of Save Historic Norcross, that the job of saving Historic Norcross is more complex than the job of the usual preservationist activists (i.e., the usual activities of working with the National Registry, saving house, relocating houses, establishing and maintaining standards, etc.). Unfortunately, our small city government is operating under many unusual stresses that detract it from proper city planning and zoning.
