Commercial and Residential Locksmiths in Milton

MILTON, Ga. — Kyle and Cindy Hester found their dream farm on Hopewell Road in 2018, where they now train horses to compete. But in recent months, they discovered that Seven Porches Farm is under threat from a proposed, neighboring active park.

One park design, drafted by Milton city staff, shows three multipurpose fields just a few yards from where the Hesters’ horses graze. The design also includes four baseball fields.

“The whole plan was we move to Milton because we're protected,” Kyle said. “We could have gone anywhere when we retired. We could have gone back to Perry where we grew up. We chose this place…”

Two concerned residents who live nearby, attorney Ben Leonard and Don McGuffey, sat around a table in the Hesters’ barn house. The Hesters, Leonard, McGuffey and Christy Hayes, a horse owner who lives across the street from the Hesters, were responsible for creating a petition in early June opposing the development. It has more than 1100 signatures as of Aug. 10 and references plans for an indoor athletic facility on Bethany Bend.

“These farms are disappearing. As someone who came from Alpharetta, that has nothing but neighborhoods, apartments … We chose this community that markets itself as a quaint, equestrian area,” Hayes said in a phone interview with Appen Media. “... If this goes in, we might be forced to leave.”

In The Chronicle of the Horse, a weekly equestrian magazine, a Milton advertisement asks for people to purchase farms in the city.

Two-year-old plans

Kyle, the first of the small but vocal group to come across park plans, was blindsided at a Milton City Council meeting in January, where the last of about 40 total acres was finalized for purchase. At the meeting, a city official introduced himself to Kyle and asked him what brought him there. Kyle inquired about the land contract on the council agenda, as a bordering property owner.

“His quote to me was, ‘You're not gonna like it,” Kyle said. “So, at that point, I'm like, ‘What do you mean I’m not gonna like it? He goes, ‘It's gonna be an active sports park.’”

Land purchases began in October 2022, and presentation of the contracts took place at open council meetings with comments about a robust public input process. But, details about an active park on the property, which were presented internally in September 2021, remained undisclosed.

In his internal presentation, obtained through records requests by residents, Milton Parks and Recreation Director Tom McKlveen wrote that the park would include multipurpose fields, baseball fields, batting cages and field lighting. He estimated it would cost $7.5 million to construct in addition to grading and a parking lot. Because it would connect to Providence Park, McKlveen argued it would expand the city’s trail system.

Using due diligence

In an interview, City Manager Steve Krokoff said the city isn’t going to “get bulldozers” and that the public will have the opportunity to provide input on any future park development in that area.

“We would work through the planning process and the public input process to [arrive at] the best possible solution that our community could embrace,” Krokoff said.

In light of public outcry over an active park on Hopewell Road, Mayor Peyton Jamison instructed Krokoff to look into alternatives for land acquisition. While the city can’t publicize property searches, Krokoff said it is considering using the 60-to-90-day due diligence period to involve residents in a conversation.

As individuals and on behalf of their homeowners associations, nearby residents sought clarity on the proposed project but said they all have received mostly “canned” responses from city officials.

“[The responses have] been a little patronizing, a little ‘Don't you worry your little head about it Mrs. Hayes. Nothing's been decided,’” Hayes said. “I'm sorry. That's not true. [The land] was bought, paid for, plans drawn, before we even had a clue this was happening.”

But they received more direct feedback from City Councilwoman Carol Cookerly, a representative of District 1, who voiced her opposition to the proposal. Councilwoman Andrea Verhoff, the second district representative, had been more difficult to connect with, they said.

“In my opinion, [an active park] is not a good use of the property,” Cookerly told Appen Media. “I think Council and others are very open-minded about evaluating our needs, if we can do something different that really reflects a more rural heritage type of environment. I've been real pleased with the conversations we've been having.”

Taking inventory

The city’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan, approved in 2019, determined the need for park space.

To help inform the plan, 56 people participated in focus groups and 41 in the public forums. The city document also uses Level of Service standards per capita, a benchmark defined by a combination of resources such as National Recreation and Park Association guidelines and a 2016 study by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

At the time of the report, the City of Milton provided a total of 5 acres of developed parkland per 1,000 residents, which was considered “significantly below local, state, region, and national standards.”

“We're just overcrowded,” Krokoff said. “We've got teams sharing fields.”

With the 8.5-acre Legacy Park sports complex on Cox Road, the document projects the city will need 47.5 acres by 2027 and will be short of four multipurpose fields and six baseball fields.

“There are other things that can be done,” said Krokoff, when asked about alternatives to Hopewell Road for active park space.

The city is expected to take another look at viable land through a joint work session between the Equestrian Committee and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. The open meeting will take place sometime in September or October, Krokoff said.

He said the city could look at its passive parks for active park development, but it would have to reimburse the greenspace bond fund for that amount. The $25 million bond, passed by 80 percent of Milton voters in 2016, requires the money be used to acquire land for passive parks, trails and greenspace including conservation land, wildlife habitat and natural areas.

McGuffey, sitting at Kyle’s table, referenced the Master Plan’s methodology and said the bond referendum didn’t involve “handpicking” 41 people. He lives in a cul-de-sac in Brookshade, which borders Providence Park and the city’s new parkland.

“It's people showing up at the polls,” McGuffey said. “That's a better count to me.”

A previous partnership

Residents off Hopewell Road wonder about opportunities for collaborating with the City of Alpharetta. North Park, a 97-acre site in Alpharetta that includes five lighted tennis courts, six pickleball courts, two multi-purpose synthetic turf fields and eight lighted softball fields, is about a mile from where the new park would be in Milton.

“My family and my neighbors use the Alpharetta parks, and they’re perfectly fine,” said Leonard, who lives near the proposed project in Hopewell Plantation.

In the past, Milton and Alpharetta participated in joint programming. Between 2012 and 2019, McKlveen said Milton paid Alpharetta “substantial dollars” each year so its residents could participate in Alpharetta programs.

In 2018, Milton residents accounted for 14,300 registrations for Alpharetta-based recreation programs. Only 413 Alpharetta residents participated in Milton-based park programs. During that same year, Milton paid Alpharetta $453,100 in fees.

When that agreement expired, McKlveen said Milton had more financial flexibility and resources to allocate toward investing in its own programs and parks for its own citizens.

“And that is exactly what we’ve done,” he said. “This aligns with the growing popularity of our existing parks and programs, the increasing population of Milton, plus recommendations for expanding our parks’ offerings as outlined in our Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan.”

Future problems

Most of the city’s proposed project site on Hopewell Road, around 34 acres, was once owned by Lee Bates and cost the city $3.5 million to buy. But several issues are associated with the property, delineated in a Phase I environmental assessment obtained as part of the residents’ open records request.

United Consulting, the group responsible for the assessment, interviewed Bates who said Roundup had been used on the site and that there were two wells and three septic tanks. He also listed Providence Park as an “environmental concern,” a Hazardous Waste Site until 2014.

About half of the Bates property also lies in a flood plain, 14.5 acres valued at $174,000.

But Krokoff said this area would be used as passive park space. He also said several inspections, including stormwater, would be conducted before any of the property were to be developed.

Residents have also raised questions about a 2007 report conducted on a dam that retains runoff from the headwaters of Cooper Sandy Creek, which flows through the Hopewell Road property. The structure was identified as “High Hazard” in the report.

They also worry about what kind of impact an active park could have on the area’s already congested traffic, though traffic studies are expected to be part of the city process.

The city’s purchase of the property on Hopewell Road, with intentions to develop an active sports park, was a process of inductive rather than deductive reasoning, one resident said.

“It was, ‘We want an active sports park, and we're going to find a way to justify it by walking it backwards and putting in our talking points and our facts to support the end result we already know we want,” Leonard said.

MILTON, Ga. — Earlier this month, Fair Fight Action published a coalition letter about voter access in Milton, and the city’s residents had something to say about it.

Fair Fight Action is a national voting rights organization rooted in Georgia and founded by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. It is backed by nonprofits, like the New Georgia Project, which works to register, civically engage and empower “New Georgia's” majority Black, brown and young voters, and by Common Cause Georgia, an advocacy organization that promotes public participation in government to ensure that public officials and institutions are accountable and responsive to citizens.

The letter holds the view that the Milton City Council has directly limited voting access for Black and brown voters, with its May 1 resolution. The measure established two polling places on Election Day: Milton City Hall and the Milton City Park and Preserve.

The decision primarily affects precincts ML05, ML06A and ML06B in the city’s southeast corner, an area that Appen Media found to have most of the city’s Democratic voters.

The three precincts also have the highest number of Black and brown voters, according to the letter, published more than a week after Appen Media’s findings. It says that 30 to 50 percent of this area’s voters are people of color.

A member of Fair Fight’s data team said he used voter files for registered voters in each precinct, which includes demographic information. In the three precincts combined, 38.4 percent of voters are people of color.

Not everyone is on board with Fair Fight’s conclusion, though.

“Unfortunately, Mayor Jamison's prepared statement and amended proposal has provided Appen Media with their talking points for the unfair article in last week's Milton Herald,” Milton resident Nia Cortsen said during public comment at the May 15 Milton City Council meeting. “Their article was the impetus behind the Twitter post from the Stacey Abrams very partisan Fair Fight Action group and four other divisive political organizations.”

Mayor Jamison read a prepared statement at the May 1 council meeting, advocating for a third polling location at the Public Safety Complex in District 3. But his motion failed to garner a majority.

“I am confident that any reasonable individual would agree that equal opportunity and equal access to all citizens is being provided,” Cortsen said.

The coalition letter says the lack of a polling location in District 3 exacerbates the disproportionate wait times that Black and brown voters already face.

According to 2020 analysis, co-published by ProPublica and Georgia Public Broadcasting, Georgia's voter rolls have grown by nearly 2 million people, yet polling locations have been cut statewide by nearly 10 percent. The growth in registered voters has largely been fueled by younger, non-White citizens, the study says.

In the nine core Metro Atlanta counties, the analysis says four out of five new voters are people of color. It also says the same area holds nearly half of the state’s active voters but only 38 percent of the polling places.

“The growth in registered voters has outstripped the number of available polling places in both predominantly White and Black neighborhoods,” the report says. “But the lines to vote have been longer in Black areas, because Black voters are more likely than Whites to cast their ballots in person on Election Day and are more reluctant to vote by mail, according to U.S. census data and recent studies.”

Organizations within the coalition were contacted by concerned citizens in the city, said NGP Policy Director Stephanie Ali, but had been monitoring the idea of self-run local elections that had spread through North Fulton municipalities earlier this year.

“People who have everything else going on in their life — kids and work and any other distraction going on — may not have the capacity to go a little bit further across town to access one of these two polling places,” Ali said.

In an interview, a Fair Fight representative said the group will continue to educate Milton citizens about what’s going on and directly advocate on their behalf to the mayor and City Council regarding discriminatory impact.

Other speakers criticized the partisan turn of Milton’s municipal election process May 15, with a keen eye on Jamison’s outlook.

Milton resident Brett Chromi said he didn’t “escape” from California to Georgia to “get woke policies dictated to [the City Council] from a Marxist organization like Fair Fight.”

“There’s no support for a woke mayor or a woke council in Milton,” Chromi said. “Get your act together, Peyton, and start being a leader instead of enabling Milton to plunge into a ruined leftist future.”

Several others, some from neighboring jurisdictions, also voiced support for the Milton Municipal Election Feasibility Committee’s recommendation for two polling locations.

But there was one Milton resident, Kevin Shigley, who said it would be “great” to offer as many polling locations as possible.

“Making it easy to vote is something that we should do,” Shigley said. “I would ask you to reconsider and perhaps put together one more location for our fine people of Milton.”

Shigley said he may be among the minority. However, his wife Debra started a petition asking that Milton put a halt to running its own election with an alternative option to add a third polling location. As of May 17, the petition carried more than 55 signatures. In an interview, she said plans to continue raising awareness, specifically in District 3, then regroup about next steps.

“Things are pretty far down the road, and I'm not sure what makes sense, right? Because we want to continue making our voices heard,” Debra Shigley said.

In addition to voter access, she voiced doubts about the election budget that’s been presented to the council. It now sits at around $83,000.

Debra Shigley said she isn’t sure if she’s an “activist,” but she knows she’s a “concerned mom,” who has done some research.

“When you do peel back the curtain a little bit, you see, ‘Well, that doesn't sound right. That doesn't look right. What's going on here?’” she said. “That's sort of what's activated me because I just think if nothing else, we can help shine a light on things …”

MILTON, Ga. — After months of controversy within White Columns subdivision, a community that bans “golf carts” but not necessarily “personal transportation vehicles,” the Milton City Council voted May 15 to modify its ordinance governing the transports.

At stake is the precedent set by city code and how it affects homeowners associations’ covenants across Milton.

Residents of White Columns had complained their homeowners association was using a city ordinance loophole to allow all personal transportation vehicles on their streets, which have gated and non-gated sections. Close to 10 residents came forward during public comment, reiterating the same concerns.

Golf carts and PTVs have carried separate definitions for more than 10 years, when Georgia passed legislation to address access to public roadways and paths. But the covenants for White Columns were written in 1994, before the new nomenclature entered state law.

At the May 15 City Council meeting, Milton City Attorney Ken Jarrard presented examples of neighboring cities that consider “golf carts” as a colloquial term for PTVs and suggested Milton follow suit. In its current code, Milton makes no reference to the term “golf carts,” whereas cities like Flowery Branch, Roswell, Woodstock, Canton and Duluth do.

But the code change may not quell the concerns of White Columns residents.

Adam Hollingsworth, secretary of the White Columns Community Association, emphasized Jarrard’s previous point, that PTVs and golf carts are not interchangeable under state law.

“We believe that should have been emphasized for all HOA residents and that a change in ordinances does not necessarily translate into a change in private covenants,” Hollingsworth said in an interview.

Hollingsworth cited an exchange between Milton Mayor Peyton Jamison and Jarrard at the May 15 meeting, noting the “lack of effect” of the City Council’s measure.

Jamison said, “I just want to make sure — no matter what side of this you’re kind of on — that PTVs are still legal on city streets as long as they meet those definitions.”

Jarrard responded, “That is correct, Mr. Mayor.”

Jarrard said statements from other jurisdictions, which reference “golf cart,” are for intent and clarification. They alert citizens that those devices which have been historically described as “golf carts” may operate on city streets, he said, so long as they are modified with required safety equipment.

“I believe it is a means of aiding the citizens in understanding the concept. Almost everybody knows what a golf cart is, right?” Jarrard asked. “But the word ‘PTV’ is not as readily understandable. That is a refined concept of the General Assembly. A ‘golf cart’ is a traditional concept…”

In 2020, the Milton City Council adopted an ordinance that allows personal transportation vehicles on public streets with a posted 25 mph speed limit. The city’s PTV ordinance, like state law, requires features like a braking system, a reverse warning device, a main power switch, head lamps, reflex reflectors, tail lamps, a horn, a rearview mirror, safety warning labels, and hip restraints and hand holds.

Two years later, it passed the Personal Transportation Vehicle Plan which proposes multi-use golf cart paths around the city in addition to a registration process for residents who wish to drive PTVs. Drivers must be at least 16 years old and have a valid driver’s license.

In a 4-2 vote, the council agreed to Jarrard’s suggestion. The modification is intended to provide some clarity to homeowners associations across the city, whose covenants may not include PTV nomenclature.

Jamison and Councilwoman Juliette Johnson cast the dissenting votes. Councilman Paul Moore, a White Columns resident, excused himself from participating.

“It disturbs me a little bit that we have not heard from other neighborhoods,” Jamison said. “If we heard from other neighborhoods, I think I would be more inclined to support that.”

Before the vote, Mary Cronk was the only non-White Columns resident who provided public comment on the item. She asked the council to thoughtfully consider any unintended consequences of the code change.

“My concern is that this amendment may conflict with covenants of communities other than White Columns,” Cronk said.

Around 10 White Columns residents came forward during public comment. All asked for the city code to be modified, and some noted the City Council’s posture on interfering in HOA matters — further solidified by a March letter from Jarrard, who said the city’s PTV ordinance “should not serve as a bar from such covenants being privately enforced.”

White Columns resident Rebekah Jones said, “The first time you got involved was four years ago before the ordinance was crafted… Intentional or not, that involvement was a scheme initiated by one resident to force golf carts onto our private section streets by pushing you to pass a city ordinance to put them on public streets in our non-gated sections.”

Other White Columns residents reiterated previous observations of seeing PTVs, or golf carts, carrying children with no seat belt.

Dave Leveille referenced the White Columns HOA Board’s lobbying for radar control and speed signs because the board claimed White Columns Drive is the “most dangerous street in Milton,” where he resides. He said the signs have multiple recordings of speeds over 70 mph, according to a recent speed survey.

“My wife and I may be in the minority with this example, but we still have a home phone. Many people now call that a landline. But that doesn't make it any less of a phone,” Leveille said. “And a PTV is just a golf cart with modifications, but it’s still a golf cart.”

MILTON, Ga. — Charlie Roberts, former chair of Milton’s Design Review Board, resigned the post after endorsing a city council candidate from the dais at a July 11 meeting.

“I will bring politics into the room before we adjourn,” Roberts said, “and say that our good friend Doug is running for City Council … It’s been great working with you for a year and a half, so I’m endorsing you.”

Doug Hene, Design Review Board (DRB) member, announced his intent to run for the District 2, Post 2 seat in June.

Roberts looped DRB member Reid Casey into his comments, who affirmed his own endorsement of Hene.

Roberts then invited the public to attend a “party” to “clap, and jump up and down for Doug.”

In a July 12 letter to Roberts, Milton City Manager Steve Krokoff deemed Roberts’ actions “improper” under the Milton Ethics Code and cited Sec. 2-855, “Political recrimination and activity.” The code states “no city official ... shall make use of government time or equipment to aid a political candidate…”

“For the Chair of a Milton-appointed board, like the DRB, to publicly endorse a candidate for Council in the course of a meeting carries with it the specter that the Milton government, or at minimum an influential Board in the service of the City of Milton, is formally endorsing a candidate for public office,” Krokoff said.

Krokoff also said he would work with the city attorney on DRB training to “ensure all are familiar with the rules.” Milton City Attorney Ken Jarrard said the instruction would cover limitations on the use of city resources for political purposes.

Jarrard’s office provides some training to city committees over relative subject matter, which may involve some aspect of ethics. But Jarrard said a training session exclusively focused on ethics and transparency will be new.

Krokoff told Appen Media that neither Hene or received a letter from the city in reference to the July 11 DRB meeting. Hene also said he does not plan to step down from the Board during his campaign.

In his letter to Roberts, Krokoff said the unethical conduct “must cease,” but did not request his resignation.

Roberts responded with his resignation that same day, apologizing for his “inadvertent and unintentional oversight.”

“I firmly believe that any City Official or Employee that serves the public should be held to a higher standard and that any person who violates the Ethics Rules, inadvertent or not, should resign their position immediately, because they have broken the public’s trust,” Roberts said.

Appointed by Councilwoman Andrea Verhoff, Robert served as DRB chair for the past two years. The Board is responsible for reviewing and approving design aesthetics of site and building developments.

“I resign with the comfort of knowing that I leave the City in a better place than I found it and that I made a difference with my service.”

MILTON, Ga. — A judge has ruled in favor of a metro Atlanta man who was forced to defend himself in court after filing an ethics complaint against a Milton City Council member.

Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray has been following the story since Tony Palazzo found himself facing legal action for speaking up about alleged wrongdoing by a member of the Milton City Council.

“I think it’s about transparency and accountability in government,” Palazzo said.

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Palazzo spent more than $30,000 of his own money to stand up and fight a writ of certiorari filed by City Councilman Paul Moore that named the city and Palazzo as defendants.

In March, Channel 2 Action News reported that Palazzo filed an ethics complaint against Moore for not recusing himself from a vote related to the subdivision where he lived.

The City Ethics Board ruled that Moore did violate ethics rules.

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Moore then filed suit and listed Palazzo as a defendant and demanded the decision be overturned and Moore’s legal fees be paid.

“I thought it was a simple process. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have to retain legal counsel,” Palazzo said.

Palazzo says this should serve as a reminder to other citizens to speak up.

A Fulton County judge has now dismissed Moore’s case.

Moore’s attorney released a statement to Gray that read,”

“We respectfully disagree with the Judge’s ruling, and we intend to appeal. We will do everything in our power to see that Paul is ultimately vindicated, as he should be.”

Richard Griffiths with the Georgia First Amendment Foundation told Gray that he believes the judge’s ruling was a win for good and open government.