Planning and Development Committee Meeting

4303 Lawrenceville Highway • Loganville, GA 30052 • 770-466-1165 • www.loganville-ga.gov Planning and Development Committee Meeting March 3, 2025 The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. with committee members Lisa Newberry, Branden Whitfield and Patti Wolfe present, as well as Mayor Skip Baliles. Chairwoman Newberry made the motion to adopt the agenda, which was seconded by Councilman Whitfield and passed 3-0. The first matter discussed was the re-writing of the City’s Zoning Ordinance. Newberry pointed out that there is a growing demand for townhome-type projects in the City, and recently the Council has ended up placing a lot of conditions on these projects. As a result, while the zoning ordinance has been tweaked over the years, the City seems to have gotted away from the streamlined process or rezoning and annexations. City Attorney Paul Rosenthal noted that the last major update to the zoning ordinance as a whole was in 2014, with several modifications have taken place since. He pointed out that, in his opinion, things like the Planned Urban Village zoning classification are examples of how things appear to be piecemeal. He said that the City should consider writing codes to yield the right products. Rosenthal said the process should involve retaining the right design professionals to write a new zoning or- dinance calibrated for Loganville. The City Attorney added that it is a long process, with Monroe’s taking two years, and costly. Rosenthal also stated that it is his opinion that the City could just address certain parts of the ordinances, but that would not be a long-term solution. Discussion took place amongst the Committee members and Rosenthal about doing a moratorium, the possi- bility of doing just the residential portion of the ordinances now and doing the commercial part later, and the ideas behind New Urbanist Theory. City Manager Danny Roberts stated that depending on the costs, it would earmarked from the City’s reserves but this is a project that is warranted and is an opportunity to put something together by professionals with citizen input. Committee members agreed to discuss this further with the full Council. Newberry presented a variety of scenarios and conditions related to campaign signs. Whitfield mentioned re- moving the requirement that signs cannot be within 15 feet of curb and Newberry mentioned not being able to put political signs out until 30 days out from the election. Rosenthal said the ordinance already prevents signs from being placed in the right-of-way, but the matter is an enforcement of state right-of-way and is complex because all roads have differing right-of-ways. Committee members opted to take no further action. Newberry also brought up different ways for neighborhoods to use roadside signs to advertise they have homes for sale in an attempt to clean up the appearance of the City. Rosenthal said that the sign ordinance should be put into the zoning ordinance and would be addressed during the zoning ordinance re-write. It was decided no action was needed. Newberry made the motion to adjourn at 7:33 p.m. and Whitfield seconded the motion. It passed 3-0.