Athens City Council discussed increases in city revenue and a change in the open spaces ordinance at last night's meeting.
The increases in revenue include a 4.6 percent increase in income tax from last year, a projected 2.5 percent total increase for next year and a $50,000 increase in parking ticket revenue - which might have been because of new technology that was recently installed at the Athens Police Department.
Although some areas of city money were down this year, the projected total revenue of the city is up $100,000, said Kathy Hecht, city auditor.
Also at last night's meeting, the open spaces committee proposed redefining the city code to allow the new open spaces plan to be suited for Athens instead of just a generic code.
The Open Spaces Committee wants to change the name from the open spaces zone to the culture and recreation zone.
This clears up the contradictions of preserving open space
said Milt Greek, who is involved with the Open Spaces Committee.
The original ordinance did not clearly define green space and stated that 80 percent of the land in a green space cannot have a human built structure on it. The new ordinance will allow more flexibility with this issue and state that permeable surfaces are not part of structures on the land.
One example of a permeable surface is a gravel parking lot that allows rainwater to enter into the ground without contaminating ground water.
The goal is to preserve environmental features of Athens said Jim Sands, D- at large.
Also discussed was a provision that no changes be made to the landscape as it is. This includes no slope changes and not cutting hill tops, which were both issues brought up by council.
Despite the discussion, no changes will be made any time soon with this issue. To make any changes to the code, a public hearing will need to be held.
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Meghan Nicholson
