by Janice Daniel
The Mayor and Council of the City of Temple met for their Regular Monthly Meeting on Monday, August 4th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the William Simmons City Administration Building, 240 Carrollton Street, Temple, with all present except Ward 4 Councilmember Hiley Miller. Ward 3 Councilmember Alexsis Boles was present by phone.
The Invocation was offered by Mayor Michael Johnson, who also led the Pledge of Allegiance. There were no Public Comments.
Agenda was amended to add business item #5.
Item #1 was a Variance Request presented by David and Kellie Trefzgen for Parcel #T04 0060023, Landlot 149, District 6, for a 25-foot stream buffer variance as presented to the Planning Commission on July 15th, 2025, who recommended approval. After hearing Trefzgen, the City Council also approved the variance request he made.
Item #2 was presented by Attorney Kevin Moore regarding a request from Smith-Douglas Homes to allow house standards for Evergreen at Lakeside Phase II to be completed with the same code standards applied to Phase I. Moore stated that Deidra Walker, Community Development Director, had denied the building permit for Phase II due to some building code standards that had changed. Moore acknowledged that the Council decision regarding this matter will be sent by notification in writing to the legal representative of Smith-Douglas Homes.
Moore asked if new building code standards apply to a subdivision that has already been permitted and partially built. He stated that the standards you start with should be the standards you end with.” It’s not permitted by Georgia law to change the rules if final plats have been approved,” Moore stated. He also said that the new standards, which represent 5% more masonry on each house and nine (9) square feet additional space in the garage, would be a substantial cost to the builder, and thus the buyer. The original plan approved eight (8) home designs, and because of the new code standards, six (6) of them will need new architectural drawings and designs, which are costly in themselves, and the additional masonry alone will add $1,200 to $1,500 to each of the 85 homes they still have to build in the subdivision Smith-Douglas started several years ago.
According to City Administrator, Lisa Jacobson, the city had approved rezoning for the entire property of the Evergreen at Lakeside project on 9/7/21. On 9/1/22 Evergreen received a Land Disturbance Permit from the city for infrastructure such as utilities and roads. But then, on 12/22/23, when they submitted their final plat, Evergreen had made a decision to break the project into two phases, and the final plat for Phase I was approved by Council on 2/5/24. However, on 6/3/24, new design standards were presented and approved by Council after a public hearing. The new standards were needed due to the fact that streets in Temple are not wide enough for street side parking, and school buses and emergency vehicles were having difficulty getting through, especially where a car was parked on both sides of the street. So Council implemented design standards that driveways have to be a minimum length of 25 feet rather than the 20 feet previously required. At the same time, they implemented two other design standards which affected the Evergreen Phase II project: the minimum heated floor space of the home must be 1,400 square feet, excluding the garage, and the garage, which is for two cars, must be 400 square feet. At the 10/7/24 Council Meeting Kevin Moore was present and heard that Evergreen Phase II would have to meet the new design standards.
Now, as Evergreen Phase I is being finished, Smith-Douglas Homes applied for a permit for Phase II, which was the same as Phase I. This permit was denied because the houses do not meet the new design standards. Less than one year after hearing the new design standards at the 10/7/24 meeting, Moore presented an argument that the standards for Phase II should be the same as Phase I because Georgia law’s Grandfather Rule says if a company has vested rights in property they have applied for and received permits, they have the right to continue under the terms of the standards at the time of the original permit. However, because Evergreen Lakeside was split into two phases, the city advised that Phase II will have to be built under the new standards in place prior to their permit for Phase II.
Community Development Director Deidra Walker said the 400 square feet of garage space was only big enough for two (2) vehicles, and Phase I of Evergreen Lakeside had placed the water heater in the garage. Walker said that when a water heater, or even a stairwell or landing took up part of that space, homeowners would park only one car in the garage and the other(s) on the side of the street, thus impacting traffic flow for school buses and EMS vehicles. The additional 5 feet would allow for other vehicles to park on the driveway instead of on the street, and at homes with multiple children going to high school or college, there could be four or five vehicles. She also added that this is not much of a change in placement position of the houses on the lots.
Item #3 was a millage rate discussion. Per a Press Release regarding the City of Temple 2025 millage rates, the Mayor and Council of Temple, Carroll County announced its consideration to maintain the millage rate it will levy for the 2025 tax year at the current rate of 4.160 mills, which represents no increase from the 2024 millage rate; however, due to reassessments, this represents a 3.07% increase over the calculated rollback rate of 4.036 mills.
The City of Temple, Haralson County announced its consideration to increase the millage rate it will levy for the 2025 tax year at the rate of 3.214 mills, representing an increase from the 2024 millage rate of 1.047 mills. Due to reassessments, this represents a 328.70% increase over the calculated rollback rate of 0.756 mills.
Since both the Temple Carroll County and the Temple Haralson County 2025 millage rates set a final millage rate for 2025 higher than the previous year, Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the increase. All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the Temple City Hall, 240 Carrollton Street on Monday, August 18th at 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., and on Monday August 25th at 6:00 p.m. (the August 18th meetings were originally scheduled for August 14th, but were changed to the 18th via a second press release).
Item #4 was to adopt a $1.00 increase to the Senior Center meal rate. This item was approved by the Council unanimously.
Item #5 was to approve the purchase of myseniorcenter software automation system with a card connect option, at a cost of $8,100 to be paid from the 21SPLOST.
The Council then went into Executive Session to discuss legal matters and announced that no further business will be conducted when they return to Regular Session, so the meeting was adjourned.