Milton Citizens:

You rock!  At 5:08 pm today, our petition hit the 1,000 signature milestone!  This is incredible given that we launched our petition less than 1 week ago.

Our new goal is 2,000 signatures.  Reaching this new milestone should send a clear and strong message to our City Council that citizens are adamantly against the currently proposed rezonings at 745 Ebenezer Road and Donegal Lane.  We do not want cluster homes on AG-1 land!  We do not want higher density housing!  We do not want private sewer!  Period!  Why are 2000 signatures important?  A petition with 2,000 signatories is more than all votes cast in Milton in last Tuesday’s election.

Citizens, thanks for your ongoing efforts to preserve the Milton we love.  We have 1 more request for you.  Every citizen that signed the petition needs to get just one more person to sign.  It might be someone else in your household . . . or a good friend . . . or your next door neighbor.  Just one person.  Thanks citizens.

(Note:  Today, our blog also surpassed 600 page views.)

Dear concerned citizen:

Join the over 1600 citizens and that have signed our petition since last Monday!

STOP CLUSTER HOUSING IN RURAL MILTON!  We need your help in stopping developers and other Special Interests from abusing Milton’s zoning laws to maximize their profits by cramming homes into rural areas of Milton, leaving Milton citizens to pay the price:  lower property values, overcrowded schools, congested roads, stressed amenities, and strained infrastructure.

We have created a blog with information and a petition you can sign.  We also recommend that citizens write to City Council to express their opposition; instructions are provided below.

• Sign our petition at Milton Coalition Petition Against Cluster Housing or paste the following link into your browser: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/i-oppose-permitting-less-than-1-acre-lots-in Please have each household member sign separately and include a comment.

• If you want more information, go to the Milton Coalition blog. Click on this link Milton Coalition Stop Cluster Housing Website or paste the following URL into your browser:  https://miltoncoalition.wordpress.com/

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Failing to get the Conservation Subdivision Ordinance (CSO) passed, developers are using rezoning and variances to achieve the goals of the CSO on land currently zoned AG-1 by Milton’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, including:

• Cluster homes on ¼ acre lots
• Higher density of homes
• 50% lot coverage of homes (a variance is needed to permit this vs. 20% lot coverage allowed under current zoning)
• Community septic

A new cluster housing subdivision has been proposed on Ebenezer Road.  It seems not to matter that over 800 citizens signed a petition against “conservation” cluster housing.  And even though staff and the Planning Commission (in a 7-0 vote) have recommended denial of this rezoning, a majority of City Council members have voted to approve the Ebenezer Road rezoning allowing cluster housing at the end of a remote rural road in Milton.  Fortunately, the Mayor vetoed the approval (which was upheld by Council in a 3-2 vote) and the rezoning is set for another vote on June 20^th.

Approval of such cluster housing will accelerate already overheated development in Milton.  This means more strain on overcrowded schools, congested roads, and overstressed infrastructure.  Approving cluster housing through rezoning and variances is actually worse than the CSO because the protections and restrictions of a CSO are absent.  Such rezonings are an abuse of our zoning laws, representing an end-run around our zoning code.

The truth is that developers are proposing cluster home developments to make unattractive land profitable to develop.  A developer crams homes on the most hospitable areas of the property, claiming the remaining areas as “greenspace”–much of it unbuildable or uneconomic to develop.  Environmentalism is used as a cynical ruse to achieve rezoning and variances.  In a sad irony, approval of such “green” cluster home subdivisions actually accelerates loss of “greenspace” and is the antithesis of conservation.

Approval of the Ebenezer application would set a very dangerous precedent in Milton.  If approved, Milton citizens should expect a flood of similar applications as builders rush to develop land in Milton that is currently unprofitable to develop.  The developers cash in and the citizens of Milton pay the price.  A new proposal to rezone another property (Donegal Lane) to allow cluster housing was submitted last week.

Unfortunately, developers have many advantages:  time, money, connections, zoning expertise, and paid attorneys.  So once again we have to mobilize citizens in opposition.  We need for citizens to again speak out against cluster housing in un-sewered areas of Milton.  We ask that you take the following actions:

1. Sign our petition at Milton Coalition Petition Against Cluster Housing or paste the following link into your browser: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/i-oppose-permitting-less-than-1-acre-lots-in Please leave a comment to let council know your thoughts.  Please have each member of your household sign separately.
2. Write to City Council and the City Manager to express your opposition. Their addresses are provided below.
3. Express your opposition at the June 20^th City Council meeting (6 pm at Council Chambers) when the Ebenezer application is going to be considered.
4. Please forward this e-mail to family, friends, HOAs, etc. in Milton, so they can also express their opposition.
5. Contact us at miltoncoalition@outlook.com if you would like to receive occasional updates on this issue or if you have questions/comments.
6. Post our blog and petition to your social media.

Following are the e-mail addresses of City Council members and the City Manager:

Interim City Manager:  Steven Krokoff, steven.Krokoff@cityofmiltonga.us, 678-242-2570

Mayor and City Council members: joe.lockwood@cityofmiltonga.us,karen.thurman@cityofmiltonga.us,matt.kunz@cityofmiltonga.us,bill.lusk@cityofmiltonga.us,burt.hewitt@cityofmiltonga.us,joe.longoria@cityofmiltonga.us,rick.mohrig@cityofmiltonga.us

If you want more information, go to the Milton Coalition blog.  It is your one-stop shop for all information on current re-zonings.  Click on this link Milton Coalition Stop Cluster Housing Website or paste the following URL into your browser:  https://miltoncoalition.wordpress.com/  You can also contact us at miltoncoalition@outlook.com

The Milton Coalition’s longer term aim is to work with City Council to find land-use solutions (e.g., tightening our current zoning laws) that citizens can unite behind (and there are many of them) as opposed to developer-submitted solutions that are divisive and that citizens do not want.

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of Milton.  They are appreciated.

With deep civic pride,

The Milton Coalition

A non-partisan group of concerned citizens advocating for clean, competent, courageous, and citizen-centric government.

miltoncoalition@outlook.com

Seen the latest AJC article on Milton?  Milton is the fastest-growing city in Milton.  Of course, you knew that already based on all the traffic congestion around the city.  And the overcrowded schools.  And the crumbling infrastructure.  Click here to read the article.  “Growth Friendly” Milton

In this AJC article, Milton is described as a “growth-friendly” city.  Of course, “growth-friendly” is just a euphemism for “developer-friendly.”  So it begs the the following questions:

• Why are we considering rezonings that allow higher density and cluster homes in rural Milton?  Do we really need to cram more people into Milton?
• Why are we even considering rezoning for properties that are uneconomic to develop under current zoning laws?  Do we really need to put even more money into developers’ pockets?
• Why would we consider any scheme that would accelerate already out-of-control development?
• Why have we wasted so much time on “conservation” cluster home subdivisions?
• Why haven’t we toughened our existing zoning (e.g., AG-1) laws?  Or our tree ordinance?
• Why isn’t anyone looking to reform our current rezoning process to make it less developer-friendly?  Why do Council members continue to argue with citizens about this issue despite the obvious and mounting evidence of a broken rezoning process?

Milton needs to be erecting some sensible speed bumps to development.  The reality is that sensible solutions have been held hostage to a singular focus on one solution:  “conservation” cluster homes, which ironically accelerate development.  For more than 18 months, AG-1 zoning enhancements have languished while our City government obsessed over the CSO (“Conservation” Subdivision Ordinance) and now the 745 Ebenezer Road rezoning.  The CSO was voted down 7-0 by Council in December 2015, but immediately metastasized into rezonings that are an end-run around current zoning to accomplish the goals of the CSO.

Why has this occurred?  Well, blame 2 City Council members, special interests, and a few misguided “environmentalists.”  The City Council members are Mr. Lusk and Mr. Kunz.  You might recall that Mr. Lusk wanted to put the CSO back on Council’s agenda the very night it was voted down.  Mr. Lusk is notorious for the soft-ball questions he asks of developers before Council.  And Mr. Kunz is a full-throated advocate of cluster homes.  He has even argued for density bonuses for developers building cluster home subdivisions (see November 30, 2015 letter he wrote in the Milton Herald Kunz Promotes Density Bonus for Developers).  He has brazenly negotiated for developers in Council meetings.

The Special Interests are developers, some owners of large tracts of marginal land, and septic system vendors.  They show up at every meeting to support “conservation” cluster home ordinances and rezonings.  It is the same old story at every City Council meeting on this issue:  Special Interests on one side and citizens on the other side.

And then there is the small cadre of misguided “environmentalists,” who do not speak for the environmental community, much less the broader cross-section of Milton citizens.  Their motives for vigorously pushing developer-promoted conservation solutions to the exclusion of all other solutions are unclear.

Mister Lusk/Kunz, the Special Interests, and the misguided “environmentalists” have done little or nothing to promote AG-1 zoning enhancements that might have retarded/stopped the rampant development in Milton.  Why?  AG-1 is their whipping boy.  Improvements to AG-1 would dilute their number 1 argument for “conservation” cluster housing.

Fortunately, the Milton Coalition and others are putting forth sensible solutions that the community can unite behind.  For example, we recently suggested changes to toughen Milton’s tree ordinance, after comparing it to Alpharetta’s tree ordinance.  The reality is that the current penalties for tree cutting are so lame that developers can pay the fines just based on the profits from the trees harvested.

And finally, a robust set of AG-1 enhancements has been formulated and will soon be considered by Council.  CSO proponents will no longer have AG-1 to kick around any more.

Being the fastest growing city in Fulton County is clearly a dubious honor for our city. The AJC article is correct in its assessment that Milton citizens are engaged.  And you have been vigorously engaging on this issue of cluster housing in rural Milton.  Please continue to engage.  Citizens, with your help, we can put our fine city back on the right path of sensible conservation solutions that unite the community.  A first step is to sign our petition.  Click on the following link:  Milton Coalition Petition Against Cluster Housing  And see our Action Guide for more actions you can take.  Click here:  Citizen Action Guide  Many thanks!