(Cleveland)- The Cleveland City Council took care of a lot of business during an almost two-and-a-half-hour meeting Monday night. Among the items were four public hearings.
The council held the second public hearing on the sales of Package Distilled Spirits. City Attorney Keith Whitaker shared with the council a couple of minor changes to the ordinance to address commercial daycare and after-school locations.
The ordinance limits the number of package stores to three and the stores are limited to city or state highways with three lanes or more. The council following the public hearing approved the ordinance that became effective with the approval. View Map
A second public hearing was held, as part of updating the city’s Comprehensive Plan and Future Land Use Map. The plan was last updated in 2021. Following the verbal comments and written comments submitted by two individuals attending the meeting, the council voted to postpone any action on this item until their first meeting in May to give them time to review the written comments. ( See below- written comments submitted by Teresa Stansel 2521 Adair Mill Road, Cleveland, Georgia and Suzie Head, 195 Head Street Cleveland, Georgia)
The council after a year-long process and following a second public hearing approved a 97-page Personnel Policy and Procedures for city employees. The last time there was a major update of these policies was in 1994. The council decided they would work to keep these policies updated every three years.
Also last night the council held the first public hearing on establishing a Leak Protection Plan for city water customers. City administrator Kevin Harris shared with the council the idea of implementing a leak protection program.
The program would be a self-insurance program to help residents when there is a water leak that could run up the utility bill. Harris said he favored the self-insured program where the city would add a $2.00 per month fee to the water bill and that money would be used to pay for repairs that residents have between the city water meter and their home. It does not cover any leaks inside or under the residence.
Harris said the program would mirror what the White County Water Authority is doing for its customers.
According to Harris if a customer determines they have a water leak between the water meter and their home they would go ahead and get it repaired and present the bill to the city for reimbursement back on their water bill, up to $1,000 per year.
The subfreezing temperatures back in January resulted in several residential customers having water line breaks on their property costing hundreds of dollars to fix.
The city will hold a second hearing and receive comments on this issue at their May 9th council meeting. Citizens who prefer to make comments without going before the Council may e-mail their comments to publiccomment@cityofclevelandga.org.
Comments that were submitted to the City of Cleveland Council regarding their future Land Use Map and related policies.
The hearing did not comply with the 10-minute minimum standard of time for standards of review. Only 3 minutes was permitted.
Teresa Stansel
2521 Adair Mill Road,
Cleveland, Georgia
Mayor of Cleveland Georgia
Cleveland City Council April 10, 2023
Cleveland Planning Commission
OBJECTION TO FUTURE LAND USE MAP AMENDMENT
AND TO RELATED ZONING ACTIONS
My name is Teresa Stansel. I live on the family farm located at 2521 Adair Mill Road, Cleveland Georgia. My family has owned the farm for five generations. I was born and raised here in White County and I frequently travel to and from Cleveland for the necessities and conveniences of life. I have submitted three Petitions to your joint venture partner in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021. Those Petitions of Right raise due process and substantive rights issues as well as abuses of public office regarding the policies and zoning actions arising out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021.
I have reviewed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021 and I have reviewed the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Rules regarding Cleveland’s proposed Future Map Update action. I have standing in these Mapping Update proceedings pursuant to the Rules of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Section 110-12-1-01 and Section 110-12-1-02 Requirements. Public participation is mandated. As shown by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021, only 2% precent of the people in White County participated in your joint venture consensus process. The public record shows that that the Joint Comprehensive Plan was not citizen driven.
The proposed Future Land Use Map significantly changes the Maps published in the Joint Comprehensive Plan and the development policy submitted to the Georgia Mountain Regional Commission. On page 12 of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021, it was asserted that new development should “not sacrifice the small-town atmosphere which the city is known for.” To be diplomatic, that “small town atmosphere description” was at best an intentionally deceptive misrepresentation. The traffic in Cleveland has increased so significantly that during the day and into the evening it looks like a rush hour traffic jam in those urban centers in and around Atlanta. That small town atmosphere has been wiped off the map with the increase of fast food and convenience store chains that make Cleveland look, smell and sound like those larger urban centers to the south. It has become nerve racking and tense getting into, through and out of Cleveland. Myself and other local people dread having to come into Cleveland because of the commercialization of the town and the negative and secondary impacts of your Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021. The litter derived from your chain store type establishments and your urban sprawl carnival atmosphere are seen thrown out along the roadways throughout rural White County including Town Creek Road and Adair Mill Road that are now starting to sound and look like a high-speed garbage dump. I regularly find beer cans, beer bottles, liquor bottles, fast food bags and containers and even used hypodermic needles thrown out along the road going through the family farm.
The city of Cleveland and your Joint Comprehensive Plan partners are also promoting the sale and consumption of all kinds of liquor for which you expect to collect taxes for business licenses, sales taxes, and other exactions. Wineries, micro-breweries, and other alcoholic beverage dispensaries are being promoted and licensed all over White County, Georgia. Alternate Highway 75 is now referred to as the Wine Highway for promotional gimmickry. You have another liquor license application on your agenda tonight as well. It is well known that alcohol consumption is a contributing factor to increased automobile accidents as well as to health problems such as heart, liver, and kidney disease as well as brain damage and cancer. I will submit a recent news article and meta review study here this evening to establish the known health risks associated with alcohol consumption for your more mature circumspect, if you can even muster such virtues. It will not be possible to claim your expanding promotion of alcohol consumption as being for the “health, safety, morals, and general welfare” of the people in or outside of the City of Cleveland.
That brings this objection to the fact that your current development policy and continued zoning and economic development actions have detrimental affects that are in contravention to the “health, safety, morals, and general welfare” of not only the inhabitants of Cleveland, but extend outward into the rural areas of White County as well. Georgia Department of Community Affairs Rule 110-12-1-02 is abundantly clear that the City of Cleveland is also subject to the Georgia Zoning Procedures Law O.C.G.A. 36-66-1, et seq. As such, the “standard of review” found at O.C.G.A. 36-66-5(b) apply to your municipal decisions and actions. Nevertheless, Cleveland’s municipal zoning code makes no provision for reviewing, investigating, or consideration of the “health, safety, morals, and general welfare” of the people. Your proposed Future Land Use Map is nothing less than a craftily colored subterfuge for your preferred commercialization of the City of Cleveland and the rest of White County.
You have not reviewed, investigated, or considered the “health, safety, morals and general welfare” in your zoning deliberations and decision-making process. Your self-serving expectations of increasing your revenues and stuffing your coffers is unpersuasive. The foreseeable negative and secondary impacts from your development and economic policies and from your related actions do not stop at Cleveland’s boundaries as shown on the Future Land Use Map. Like your partner, White County, the City of Cleveland also needs to impose a temporary moratorium in order to conduct a mature review and investigation and to amend its zoning code so as to clearly mandate compliance with the Georgia State Zoning Procedures Law and to include the “standards of review” for the “health, safety, morals, and general welfare” of the people within the municipal code.
I am submitting this comment and objection in writing along with the national news article on the adverse health impacts from alcohol consumption and the referenced meta review study. I am requesting this objection and attachments to be made a part of the municipal public records in this matter.
Below is the comments submitted by Suzir Head to the Cleveland City Council:
Suzie Head 04-10-2023
195 Head Street
Cleveland, Georgia
Mayor of Cleveland Georgia
Cleveland City Council
Cleveland Planning Commission
OBJECTION TO PLANNING MAP AMENDMENT
& TO RELATED ZONING AMENDMENTS
My name is Suzie Head. I am the owner of a home located in a designated R-1
district. My address is 195 Head Street. The City of Cleveland Ordinance, Chapter
64, regarding zoning regulations and the zoning map fails to comply with the “Due
Process” mandates and “standard of review” requirements imposed by the State
Zoning Procedures Law. OCGA 36-66-1, et seq. The “Footnote” at the beginning of
the Cleveland Zoning ordinance specifically refers to the Georgia Zoning
Procedures Law but the city zoning ordinance fails to reiterate or incorporate
those mandates and standards of review in its ordinances. As a result, Cleveland
officials and more particularly the decision-makers do not review, investigate, or
consider the substantive due process issues related to the “health, safety,
morals, and general welfare’ of the people.
In 2021, during the pandemic emergency stress and duress, White County, and
the cities of
Cleveland and Helen developed, presented, and approved their Joint
Comprehensive Plan while using the “consensus” process and with the use of
written surveys. As the published Joint Comprehensive Plan record shows, only
440 survey responses were received. Only 2% percent of the people in White
County participated in the comprehensive planning process. “Consensus” is not
“consent.”
Question #5 on the written Comprehensive Plan survey asked participants to pick
two of the 7 prechosen economic development priorities that should be
undertaken. The “Summary of Survey Results” show that only 29.94% percent of
those survey participants considered “commercial development” to be within the
two “top priority” concerns. “Commercial development” was in 5th place out of
the 7 offered priorities. Your joint venture development scheme is not citizen
driven.
Your own preferences and prejudicial biases are reflected in your arbitrary and
capricious zoning policy and decisions that have and continue to repeatedly
ignore the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the people who own
property within the jurisdiction of Cleveland, and who come to this community to
acquire the necessities and comforts of life.
The City of Cleveland web page shows two zoning maps. The first is an outdated
conceptual map form 2015. The second is your proposed “future” development
map. Your web site does not show the Cleveland zoning map published in the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021. City of Cleveland officials and personnel
submitted those 2021 maps so as to achieve or otherwise maintain the “qualified”
municipal status needed for federal and State loans and grants. The undisclosed
“Generalized Existing Land Use’ map for Cleveland is published on page 15 of the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021. Your self-conjured “Character Area Map” for
Cleveland is found on page 38 of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of 2021. Your
newly proposed “Future Land Use Map” makes significant changes to the 2021
version. You have converted many, if not most of the agricultural zones and
properties in Cleveland to high density development or to commercial
development zones. You have also converted single family residential zones to
other zoning prescriptions that may be or are inconsistent with the grandfathered
use of those single-family homes and properties. As has been clearly seen, and
shown as a matter of public record, this city’s economic development
commission, zoning review body, and zoning decision-makers totally ignore the
substantive rights and preexisting interests of property owners. I object to your
“Future Land Use Map” upon grounds that each of you have ignored the
paramount duty imposed by the Georgia Constitution, failed to perform under the
State minimum standards for procedural and substantive due process for zoning,
and have failed to review, investigate, and consider the “health, safety, morals,
and general welfare” of the people.
It is abundantly clear that your self-conjured and self-serving development policy
and related decisions are “only for the money.” I am certain that Mayor Josh
Turner who signed the May 25, 2021 “Comprehensive Plan Update Submittal” for
the City of Cleveland can attest to the myopic and overarching revenue and profit
motives underlying the city’s current zoning and development policy and zoning
decisions. Then Cleveland City Administrator, Tom O’Bryant, who sat on the
advisory committee of the 2021 Joint Comprehensive Plan, can attest to that
myopic self-serving development and zoning policy that is fixated upon revenue
and profits. You are not the only “stakeholders.” Under our Georgia Constitution,
Article l, Section l, Paragraph ll, you and each of you have paramount duties to
perform to protect the person and the property of the people within the City of
Cleveland from arbitrary and capricious zoning actions. Your proposed ‘Future
Land Use Map.” significantly changes the small rural town character and benefits
of Cleveland while evading and willfully ignoring that “paramount duty.”
I and other citizens have objected to your development planning scheme before.
Those substantive interests were totally ignored by the elected local decision
makers. Zoning actions and decisions are not “just for the money.” I am
submitting this “objection” to the “Future Land Use Map” in writing to the City of
Cleveland zoning body and request that it be made a part of public record.
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