PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
Meeting May 24th, 2004
Full Minutes

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Chairman Bob Herb at 7:35pm on May 24th, 2004 at City Hall.

Present: Commissioners Gary Moore, Craig Belt, Skip Johnson and Chairman Bob Herb

Guests Present: Citizens- Bob Flaherty, Jackie Henderson, and George Sipe. Charles Dean -Developer, Richard Deal- employee of Charles Dean, David Braswell- Braswell Engineering, Robert Thibault- Prospective buyer, Dick Carothers- City Attorney.

Old Business: Approval of Minutes from the April 7th meeting. There was discussion about minor spelling changes. The Minutes were approved as amended.

New Business
Chairman Herb said the Purpose of the Meeting pertained to the original adoption of the Henderson Property Development Concept Plan and that the City has adopted the Gwinnett County Development Code. This has brought up two issues: the new Code does not allow development below a dam, and the Code requires the building and construction of the base floor level be 3 feet above the flood plain level.

Carothers clarified that the County does allow sub-division development below a Category One dam, which Berkeley Lake dam is, just not below a Category Two dam. Berkeley Lake dam is inspected annually by Safe Dams. However, he suggested that the plat should indicate that these lots/homes are in a dam breach zone as an acknowledgment that they know that.

Charles Dean handed out some background information about the new study. (Attached) His engineer described how the study has changed as there is now history of flood levels available which were not available when the Corps of Engineers did their original model flood plain levels of the Chattahoochee River. They were only estimations at the time. Engineers are now able to estimate flood levels from 1958 when the dam was built, to present day, and they are a lot lower than the original estimates. FEMA (Flood Emergency Management Agency) has reviewed their work and come up with the same projected lower levels. He described how flood levels are currently calculated. FEMA have not yet however formalized these flood levels though.

There was discussion about the City’s liability. Carothers said that there would not be any liability to the City as the base floor levels of the homes would be above the legal levels required by FEMA. He also said that the County FEMA maps have been under study for approximately 10 years and they know the entire County’s FEMA maps are too low because of all the impervious surfaces due to development. The levels are going to have to be increased with one exception- the Chattahoochee corridor because of Buford dam that stops the basin flowing whenever it wants to. It is likely that these levels will go down, which is where this development is located.

Carothers asked Dean if the FEMA maps are not to be revised fully until 2006, why a Letter of Map Revision from FEMA has not been issued which would be sufficient for insurance companies to issue flood insurance.

Dean said he understood it was problems with money and a change of engineers acting on behalf of FEMA. However he said his development would still be meeting FEMA requirements under their current maps. He showed the elevations on a model and described the levels.

Carothers said the issue was obtaining an amendment to the Concept Plan from the Planning Commission. He said that the City would not have any legal liability should they make such an amendment.

Dean said all his plans would clearly state that they were on flood plain, for his own protection too.

Henderson said she had never seen the river flood since 1975 when she had moved on to the property.

Sipe pointed at that the Gwinnett County Development Code was a blanket policy for the whole County but did not make sense for the Chattahoochee corridor because of Buford dam, which would hold back any floodwater. Any amendment should take this exception into consideration.

Dean described an email from Hollis Brown saying he should use all the updated data available for his plans for development.

There was discussion regarding FEMA issuing a Letter of Map Amendment. Insurance would be available as they were currently at levels above the FEMA requirement anyway. There may be an extra surcharge if the levels changed. Carothers said that it is important to look at the Map of Revision issue but the Corps of Engineers and FEMA have always been way behind in issuing revisions. Funding for FEMA is also tight and it is unlikely that it is considered a priority in current times.

Commissioner Johnson motioned for an amendment to the original concept plan that was approved on February 5th, 2004, to incorporate a minimum of 898.6 on the base floor elevation of the homes constructed. Commissioner Moore seconded the motion.

All were in favor of the motion and the motion passed.

Chairman Herb suggested that they hold the next meeting on Wednesday 9th June at 7:30 pm to hear a variance for a change of use. There was a short discussion regarding the issue they would be considering.
He said that he would confirm with everyone by email.

OTHER NEW BUSINESS
There being no further New Business the meeting was adjourned at 8:28 PM.

Correct and adopted on June 8th, 2004