PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING
Tuesday, February 13, 2024 6 PM
Hiawassee City Hall – Council Chambers
50 River Street Hiawassee, GA 30546
1. Call to order – Nancy Noblet
1.1 Invocation – Nancy Noblet
1.2 Pledge of Allegiance
1.3 Approve the Agenda as distributed
2. Motion to approve the minutes of the January 10th, 2024 meeting
3. Open discussion on building ordinances
4. Adjournment
PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES February 13, 1924
Mayor Liz Ordiales was also present. There were no other attendees.
Chairman Noblet gave the invocation which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Motion to approve the agenda as distributed was made by Committee member Ken Pollard and seconded by Committee member Paul Scherer.
Motion to approve the minutes of the January 10th, 2024 Committee meeting was made by Committee member Ken Pollard and seconded by Committee member Paul Scherer.
Chairman Noblet stated that the purpose of the meeting was open discussion on building ordinances and building issues within the city. She stated she had asked Permitting Clerk Sheryl Branson to provide the building permit process and asked the committee members to familiarize themselves with the processes.
The committee discussed the issues surrounding the Retreat on the Lake tiny homes. The Tiny homes are nearly complete with only trim work and cabinets left to finish. The committee discussed the new general contractor for the Retreat (a residential general contractor not a commercial general contractor). Mayor Ordiales stated that the city has only required that the general contractor be licensed, but not the type of general contractor license held. City Attorney Thomas Mitchell had sent an email to the committee earlier in the day advising them that the tiny homes were a violation of section 26-91 of the Planning Ordinance. He advised that no certificate of occupancy be issued until the owners apply for a variance of the 4-structure limit or demonstrate how they will meet the limit by connecting some or all the cabins. The committee discussed at length the ways in which the cabins could be connected and satisfy the limitations. Mayor Ordiales stated the homes will be connected by concrete paths between cabins 2 and 3 and 4 and 5, and in front of all the cabins (paths between the other cabins are blocked by the HVAC units) and showed photographs of the same. There was discussion about putting dummy doors between the units to connect them and this would have the added benefit of blocking the view of the HVAC units. Committee member Scherer will look at the tiny homes tomorrow to see what he feels is a reasonable height for the doors. Committee member Pollard felt that the height of one story would be reasonable. It was stated that, because the city has no zoning, all permitting is treated the same, residential and commercial alike. Chairman Noblet state she did not want to see anything torn down, but that the city may need an ordinance for commercial structures. Mayor Ordiales stated that was problematic because of the lack of zoning.
The question was asked “how do we educate the contractors that they need a permit to do work?” and the suggestion was to put an ad in the paper and on the city website. Mayor Ordiales stated that could be done easily. While much of the grading work is generally done by local contractors, often the general contractor is from outside the area. The discussion then moved to the possibility of requiring all persons who do work in the city to obtain a business license. This would require a change to the ordinance but would provide insight into who is doing work in the city. Mayor Ordiales also suggested the ordinance be changed from not requiring a land disturbing permit for anything under an acre to requiring it for any land disturbance connected with a building. Committee chairman Noblet stated that she and City Council member Amy Barrett are reviewing the ordinances to address conflicting sections (she mentioned the mobile homes sections).
The discussion moved onto the building permit process. The committee reviewed the documents and asked that Ms. Branson remind the contractors when they come and pick up the permit, that is needs to be displayed in an inspection box. The committee also asked that Ms. Branson let the committee members know by email the address of any permits that are not reviewed by the committee (interior work as an example).
Committee Chairman Noblet asked the members to attend the next work session of the City Council (February 26th) to be able to speak with the Council members about these issues.
Motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Council member Espalin and seconded by Council member Pollard. The meeting was adjourned at 6:47pm.