After nearly an hour of public comments and discussion, the Flowery Branch City Council voted Thursday to approve a personal transportation vehicle ordinance that will allow golf carts to be driven on a number of city roads.
Under the previous laws, golf carts were not allowed to be driven on roads, yet residents from some city neighborhoods said they had been using them regularly for several years and wanted the vehicles covered by an ordinance. Some other residents, however, opposed the ordinance, expressing concerns over safety.
Two residents spoke against the ordinance during the public comment portion of Thursday's city council meeting, but several more chimed in as city council members and staff tried to hash out potential changes to the law. One of the changes suggested was whether or not to allow neighborhoods to elect to remove themselves from the list of permitted roads.
"Give us a way for a (homeowner's association) or people to come forward and opt out," resident Bridget Peroni said. "If you want it in Sterling on the Lake, power to you, if we don't want it, give us a way to say 'we don't want this'."
Councilwoman Amy Farrah made the motion to approve the ordinance, which passed 3-1 with Councilwoman Mary Jones being the only opposing vote. Mayor Mike Miller was not present.
Farrah and other council members said they want the city staff to create and present an amendment to the law that will allow for neighborhoods or residents to petition to the city council for a road or set of roads to be removed from the current list.
Most of the roads the carts will be allowed on are within subdivisions or small neighborhoods. While they won't be allowed on most major roads in the city, such as Atlanta Highway, I-985, Phil Neikro Boulevard and Spout Springs Road, they will be allowed on some smaller roads in the downtown area such as Church Street.
City Councilman Christopher Mundy said after the meeting that while some residents wanted those streets removed from the list, some of them would need to stay to make the downtown area accessible for people in neighborhoods where the carts will be allowed.
"If you take away Church Street, then you kind of isolate other parts of the area that might be interested," Mundy said.
Councilman Joe Anglin, who served as Mayor pro tem for the meeting, said that the issue of golf carts is one that the city has been trying to solve for some time.
"I think it's just important to know that this obviously is something that has been looked at for months and months, and it's been an issue that we've been dealing with for years," Anglin said. "The state law has changed a couple of times in the times that we've looked at this over the last eight years, and now it is a situation where you have to have a local ordinance in place in order to allow golf carts, and we heard enough, or enough people came forward and said 'you know, let's push forward with an ordinance'."
Peroni asked the council if they could place the ordinance on a referendum for the November ballot, but City Attorney Ron Bennett said that state law would not allow that.
The law will require a $15 fee for a permit for the vehicles.
