[0:00] every you need it.
[0:02] just beat me up.
[0:19] how you doing?
[0:21] How are you?
[0:21] are you?
[0:25] [laughter]
[0:29] That's good.
[0:33] stay tuned.
[0:36] [thud]
[0:37] I call the meeting for the City
[0:39] of Richmond Hill City Council
[0:41] meeting for July 7th, 2026 to order.
[0:44] We will begin with an invocation by
Andrew McClure
[0:47] of Community Bible Church.
[0:49] And then we'll have the Pledge of
Allegiance by Council member Bose.
[0:54] Thank you for being here.
[0:55] Thank you, Mayor Collins.
[0:58] Well, I want to invite all of us to
go to the Lord in prayer.
[1:02] Heavenly Father, we thank you for
[1:05] who you are, that you are loving,
[1:07] you're good, that you're gracious.
[1:09] And from your love, you've created
each one of us here.
[1:12] You've given us the lives that we
live, you've given us the breath
[1:15] that we breathe, and we want to be
good and faithful stewards
[1:18] of these lives that you've given us.
[1:21] We can't do that apart from you.
[1:23] We confess that apart from you, we're
prone to selfishness, to our sin.
[1:27] We don't naturally love what is good
or walk in your ways, but we give
[1:30] you praise that we are not left to
ourselves.
[1:33] You sent your son, Jesus, to live the
perfect life that we could
[1:36] never live, to die the death that we
deserve to die,
[1:39] to forgive us of our sins.
[1:41] To give us new hearts.
[1:43] Hearts that are bent towards you,
hearts that live in alignment
[1:46] with your will and your ways, and we
give you all the praise and
[1:49] all the honor for this.
[1:51] Because we gather here this evening,
we specifically pray for your love
[1:54] and for your wisdom to be granted to
these civil leaders, to our mayor,
[1:57] to our city council.
[1:59] Grant them the wisdom to make good
decisions, the courage to do what
[2:02] is right even when it's difficult,
the humility to listen well,
[2:05] the integrity in every decision and
genuine love for those that
[2:08] they serve.
[2:10] Remind them this evening that every
earthly authority is ultimately
[2:13] entrusted by you, and therefore
empower them to steward that
[2:16] authority for your glory.
[2:19] We ask, Lord, that you continue to
let the City of Richmond Hill
[2:22] flourish under their faithful
service.
[2:26] Finally, Lord, we pray for this
specific meeting this evening.
[2:28] Give the citizens and attendance
clarity of mind, the ability
[2:31] to communicate clearly and in love
and in humility and give our
[2:34] leaders guidance as they deliberate
and determine the various agenda
[2:37] items.
[2:39] And we pray all of this in the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
[2:43] Amen.
[2:44] Please stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance.
[2:46] [chair scrapes]
[2:47] Please stand at attention.
[2:48] [chair scrapes]
[2:49] I pledge allegiance to the flag.
[2:52] to the flag of the United States of
America.
[2:55] and to the Republic for which it
stands,
[2:58] one nation under God, indivisible,
[3:01] with liberty and justice for all.
[3:04] You may be seated.
[3:05] [chair scrapes]
[3:07] Thank you.
[3:08] That work?
[3:11] Right, now we have the approval of
the agenda. Is there a motion?
[3:15] I'll make a motion we approve the
agenda.
[3:18] Thank you. Is there a second?
[3:19] I can second.
[3:20] All in favor?
[3:22] So carried.
[3:25] Do want to remind everybody about
public comment.
[3:27] It is limited to items that are on
the agenda.
[3:31] So when I get to a certain topic,
[3:34] if you have something that you would
like to say, please let us know.
[3:38] I don't know if anyone else that no
one else has actually filled
[3:40] out the form, so, right, Linda?
[3:43] Okay.
[3:44] Okay, so I'm assuming nobody really
wants to have any input.
[3:49] But we will move on to our consent
agenda.
[3:54] You'll see there acceptance of bonds
on there and the personnel
[3:57] with the skill bridge training
apprentice program.
[4:00] Is there a motion?
[4:02] I'll make a motion.
[4:04] I can second.
[4:05] To approve.
[4:08] We have a second. Is there any
discussion or any questions?
[4:13] Okay, all in favor?
[4:15] So carried.
[4:18] Now we move on to planning and
zoning, Mr. Crooks.
[4:23] [paper rustles]
[4:32] Good evening, Mayor and Council. We
have a few items on the agenda
[4:35] under planning and zoning.
[4:38] The first one tonight is the May 2026
permit totals and the June
[4:41] port summaries.
[4:44] Those are in your packet for any
information.
[4:48] Any questions or comments?
[4:54] Questions?
[4:55] Okay.
[4:57] All right.
[4:58] So the next item...
[5:06] the annextion of 86.445 acres,
[5:09] a portion of pin 061055 by Court
Investment Company on behalf
[5:14] of Savannah Health Sciences LLC,
doing business as Royal Health.
[5:18] This is an item for action.
[5:20] Uh, we had a couple different points
of conversation on this
[5:25] over the last several months.
[5:26] Uh, last week kind of spoke on this
[5:29] was there was some information and
some action with the county that they
[5:34] were handling between the annexing
party
[5:39] as well as us.
[5:42] So ultimately what kind of happened
with that was that was worked out
[5:46] between the county as well as the
applicant themselves
[5:49] without involvement with us.
[5:51] So county has not moved forward with
any other objection,
[5:54] they tabled that item, so
[5:56] in terms of this, council would be
able to move forward
[5:59] with the approval of such issues.
[6:04] Any questions on the annextion?
[6:10] Hearing none, is there a motion?
[6:14] I'll make a motion that we approve
the annextion request.
[6:18] Is there a second? Second.
[6:21] Any discussion at all?
[6:24] Okay. All in favor?
[6:28] And all opposed?
[6:32] Just for clarification, you two were
later, but everybody was in
agreement.
[6:35] Okay.
[6:37] All right. So that passes.
[6:40] Okay. So the next item is an item for
second reading and action.
[6:44] That is a rezoning of portion of
parcel number 061055,
[6:49] referred to as part pod,
[6:51] excuse me, Port Royal Pod 4.
[6:53] So this is an item specifically
related to the
[6:57] previous item for the annextion.
[6:59] This would be the zoning item to then
zone that within the city.
[7:05] They are, the applicant has
specifically requested a PUD for
this.
[7:10] We've had a couple different
conversations, couple different
[7:13] meetings on this as well.
[7:14] The PUD document is in your packet.
[7:18] Uh, essentially serving as an
extension of the existing PUD, uh,
[7:24] in terms of what those standards are,
what they would allow for basically
[7:29] a mirror image of the kind of
remaining portion
[7:32] that is there on Port Royal.
[7:36] Any questions, feedback for me?
[7:42] Hearing none, is there a motion?
[7:49] I'll make a motion we approve the
rezoning.
[7:53] Is there a second? Second.
[7:55] Any discussion at all?
[7:58] All in favor?
[8:03] All opposed?
[8:07] Okay, well then this comes down to a
tie-breaker.
[8:09] So I am going to vote to approve.
[8:18] So the next item, Madam Mayor, is an
ordinance to amend Appendix A,
[8:22] Unified Development Ordinance of the
City of Richmond Hill Code of
Ordinances.
[8:25] This is an item for public hearing as
well as first reading.
[8:29] So Amanda presented this at the last
workshop. We have had a couple of
[8:34] conversations on this
[8:37] a little bit more broadly at a few of
the different workshops.
[8:40] had a memo with some of the bigger
items that we were potentially
looking
[8:44] at making some recommendations on
some of those different sections.
[8:49] Several of those have been
incorporated here and one thing you
will notice is
[8:53] some of the items that we have been
discussing have been left out
[8:57] from those recommendations,
[8:59] so that way we get a little bit more
discussion and feedback.
[9:02] Most of those were items that would
fall under Article 12,
[9:05] those are some of the things
[9:07] that we've talked about related to
parking, uh, animals,
[9:10] things along those lines.
[9:12] Um, otherwise everything is in the
packet in terms of what those
[9:16] redline revisions are.
[9:19] I have not received any questions or
comments from Council
[9:22] from the last workshop.
[9:26] I will note that between the workshop
and today, we did get some final
[9:30] feedback that we were looking at for
some of the items for Article 13,
[9:35] and that was specific to the
requirements for uh, multifamily
[9:39] in the commercial districts.
[9:42] So what those use requirements would
look like, we finally got that
feedback
[9:46] from some of the folks that we had
reached out to on that,
[9:49] and had some conversations with them,
made some, some tweaks based on that.
[9:54] And have something that we think is a
little bit better
[9:57] than what we originally proposed.
[9:58] So between what you
[10:00] all at the workshop and what you have
now before you central to the same
otherwise
[10:06] that one provision for Article 13.
[10:09] that any questions before we open the
public hearing?
[10:14] Any questions?
[10:16] Okay.
[10:17] turn it over to you for the public
care.
[10:20] We will open the public hearing now.
This is an opportunity
[10:22] for people to give their input if
they are in support of or not.
[10:29] to this UDO revision,
[10:32] are there any persons that would like
to give input?
[10:39] See no hands.
[10:41] Mr. Clark.
[10:45] any other questions from the?
[10:52] Otherwise this is an item for first
reading.
[10:57] Mayor Council, if y'all have any
other questions in between now
[11:00] and the next meeting for second
reading, feel free to reach out.
[11:02] I'll be happy to meet with you,
Mayor, either one.
[11:05] because we're available. Thank you.
[11:07] I will reiterate that, y'all please,
there are a lot of red marks
throughout
[11:10] this and it's a lot of pages.
[11:13] So please make sure you're prepared
at the next meeting for that.
[11:18] Thank you, Mayor.
[11:23] Next up, we have new business.
[11:27] Mr. Clark.
[11:39] Good evening.
[11:41] The item in front of you regarding
Elpass Keller water tank.
[11:47] The extension from our GFA loan,
construction delays pushed us outside
the original completion date.
[11:54] we've extended that through GFA.
[11:57] You'll see in your packet that it's
to October of 2026.
[12:01] However, the tank itself is in the
process of being finished within the
next month to six weeks.
[12:07] as far as it being able to be
serviceable with water to the area.
[12:12] But this is still a portable document
that the GFA requires
[12:16] to complete the loan and to complete
the construction project
[12:19] as originally presented.
[12:22] If you recall back in 2024, we did
have some issues with
[12:25] the foundation type of the tank,
[12:29] that led to about a six-month delay
and that's the reason for this
extension.
[12:36] Nathan, when did you say the
extension was to?
[12:38] We have to October of 26.
[12:41] Well, mine says February 1st, 2027.
[12:45] Oh, okay.
[12:46] Is that right?
[12:50] Yes.
[12:52] We extended the official, and if you
look at exhibit three,
[12:55] the completion date of October of 26
is
[12:57] what we believe will be 100% complete
by then. But then
[13:01] to February of 27, which is six
months after that date.
[13:07] Thank you for catching that,
Councilman Scollin.
[13:13] Any other questions?
[13:16] And the city attorney has reviewed
and he's already signed off on all
his documents.
[13:22] That is correct.
[13:24] All right, is there a motion?
[13:26] I make a motion to approve the
extension of the GFA loan.
[13:29] Is there a second? I can second.
[13:32] All in favor?
[13:34] So carried.
[13:36] Okay, I am going to actually move the
communication portion up
[13:40] because we're going to be going into
executive session
[13:42] and we will not be voting on anything
when we come back out.
[13:46] So, there are several things on here.
[13:48] I do want to say thank you first to
everyone that had a part of the
Fourth of July event.
[13:53] It was phenomenal.
[13:54] The fireworks were amazing.
[13:57] We know how many hours go into that
and the time and effort that is put
into all those special events.
[14:03] So thank you very much. It was a
wonderful night. The rain did not
win.
[14:07] And it was a great night for families
to be out. Everybody
[14:10] was smiling and happy and
[14:12] it was just a great community event.
So thank you.
[14:17] Several of us attended a GMA
conference, June 26th through the
30th.
[14:22] And I'm going to be asking some of
the attendants of classes
[14:25] just to share some updates
[14:27] at our next workshop about that.
[14:31] I want to remind everybody about the
National Night Out, which is going to
be held at JF Gregory.
[14:36] Thanks to our Richmond Hill Police
Department on August the 4th from 3
to 7.
[14:41] We're inviting all the families to
come out.
[14:43] It's going to be a lot of fun for
everybody there, not just the kids.
[14:47] We're going to have fun as adults as
well.
[14:50] Also want to remind everybody about
the Mayor's table that's meeting the
second Monday of each month.
[14:56] This next meeting next week though
will not hold the
[15:00] morning session because I will be at
Fort Stewart.
[15:02] So we're going to have to cancel the
9:00 to 10:00 in the morning,
[15:05] but we will be at the Weland Center
from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
[15:08] That's an opportunity for you to come
out and ask any questions,
[15:11] share your input, uh, suggestions,
ideas and
[15:15] and so far it's been very well
attended and, um,
[15:18] got a lot of good input from the the
community.
[15:21] Uh, the last thing I do want to share
is,
[15:24] if you notice that we have our new
agenda.
[15:26] Um, those that are watching this
through social media,
[15:29] don't see all that we have,
[15:32] but eventually we're going to get the
entire packet uploaded,
[15:35] so as this is being streamed, people
will actually be able to see
[15:39] not only the agenda, because I know a
lot of times when we talk
[15:43] consent agenda, we're looking at
what's on the consent agenda,
[15:45] but the people don't know what's on
there.
[15:47] But it will actually have the entire
packet that we all received.
[15:50] So y'all can actually see all the
documents as well.
[15:53] So I'm looking forward to that,
[15:54] that should hopefully happen in the
next couple months.
[15:59] With that being said, we are going to
be going into executive session
[16:02] and Council member Hunter will be
taking us into that.
[16:05] But I do want to thank all of you for
coming.
[16:07] You're welcome to stay for when we
come back out, um,
[16:10] but we won't be voting on anything.
[16:13] All right, motion to enter into a
closed meeting of City Council by
[16:17] 7 of 2026. Councilman Dan Hunter
makes the following motion.
[16:20] That this mayor and council now enter
into closed session as allowed by
[16:24] OCGA 50-14-4 and pursuant to advice
by the city attorney.
[16:30] for the purposes of discussing the
following: legal matters as
[16:34] authorized by OCDA 50-14-2-1.
[16:40] That this body in open session adopt
a resolution authorizing
[16:43] and directing the mayor or presiding
officer to execute an
[16:46] affidavit in compliance with OCGA
50-14-4
[16:52] and that this body ratify the action
of the council taken in
[16:55] closed session and confirm that the
subject matters of the closed session
[17:00] were within the exceptions permitted
by the open meetings law,
[17:04] said resolution to be in the form of
an attached hereto.
[17:11] We need a motion for approval? Yes.
[17:16] I make a motion to approve.
[17:17] I second.
[17:18] I'll second.
[17:19] Okay. We're going to enter into
executive session. Thank y'all.