Politics & Government
City Of Milton: Alcohol-Related Businesses, Equestrian Matters On Council Agenda
Milton's City Council will convene Monday to discuss equestrian matters, alcohol-related businesses, and more.
02/11/2022 2:37 PM
Milton’s City Council will convene Monday to discuss equestrian matters, alcohol-related businesses, and more.
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The February 14 meeting will start at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall (2006 Heritage Walk). Members of the public can attend in person or watch live virtually at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEWpKs8AyPI.
This is a Work Session, so Mayor Peyton Jamison and Council members will not cast any votes. But they can offer valuable direction to City staff on various issues. There are four items on the Valentine’s Day agenda, as summarized below:
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- Milton Equestrian Committee Update.
The Milton Equestrian Committee is a standing City board that considers matters of importance to the local equestrian community, sharing their special viewpoints with City leaders. On Monday, Equestrian Committee members will do just that – giving the City Council an overview of what the Equestrian Committee has done recently, what more it hopes to do, and how the City government can help promote the interests, viability, and rights of equestrian enthusiasts and/or farm owners.
This committee reflects the high importance the City government places on supporting, maintaining and embracing Milton’s rich equestrian heritage. Many past City initiatives (not to mention others planned for into the future) have revolved around making Birmingham Park an even more desirable, usable destination for horse riders/owners looking for scenic rides. Similarly, the City has worked extensively with the Milton Equestrian Committee (MEC) in recent months to share information to educate and engage the general public – even and, in certain cases, especially those who don’t ride horses – about equestrian matters, with more outreach planned for the coming months.
Equestrian Committee members are set Monday to touch on these efforts as well as other ways that they believe that the City can do more to support the local equestrian community, including riders, farm owners, and those involved in related agribusinesses.
Every two years, the City of Milton conducts its version of the National Community Survey. This scientific survey – meaning its results account for where in Milton respondents live, demographics details such as age and gender, socioeconomics information and other factors – gives a representative snapshot of the whole of Milton, within a margin of error. (This is in contrast to most online surveys that don’t have ways to accurately ascertain if they’re representative of a given population.) Most of the National Community Survey is standardized with identical questions posed to people in other cities. This allows Milton to see how it measures up with other municipalities based on how citizens view where they live. The standard NCS questions-and-responses also can be compared to how Milton residents’ answers in past surveys. These questions touch on an expansive variety of topics related to City government including policing, parks, trails, transportation, and more.
Yet the City of Milton does have an opportunity to ask unique, tailored questions. One of them can be open-ended, meaning respondents can answer at length. In addition, the City can suggest between a handful of multiple-choice type questions.
On Monday, Communications Director Greg Botelho will share several topics that the City is considering for these unique questions based on feedback from Council and City staff. Council members will then get a chance to rank them in order of priority – so a #1 indicates a topic they think is most important to be addressed, while a #8 might indicate something that they consider less pressing. City staff will use this feedback in deciding which topics to include in Milton’s version of the National Community Survey.
Milton’s City Council in recent months has had extensive discussions pertaining to alcohol-related businesses in Milton. These have delved into many details and parts of the City Code, especially Chapter 4. The Council has indicated a desire to create use permits for certain alcohol-selling establishments in the coming months. (A moratorium affecting many such new applications for such businesses is now in place to allow for sufficient time for such changes to be enacted.)
In light of that, Assistant City Manager Bernadette Harvill will engage Monday with the Council on this topic. She will seek officials’ feedback on what they would prefer in any alcohol-related use permit proposed by the City. The plan is for that proposal to then go through the public hearing/zoning ordinance amendment process – meaning that several committees, not to mention the general public, will have opportunities on multiple occasions to weigh in on the plan before it goes to the City Council for a final vote.
This relates to a proposal for a convenience store along Morris Road in Milton’s Deerfield area. The applicant is seeking a warrant to permit an off-premises retail package, liquor-selling establishment.
Community Development Department staff will walk Council through the process and application, explaining that the proposed business would be in a small strip mall at the intersection of Morris and Webb roads. They will point out the locations of other, similar liquor-selling establishments already in that same area. The goal Monday is to get City Council’s feedback on whether or not they would support this proposal.
This press release was produced by the City of Milton. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
