FOCUS iSSUES

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Sandy Springs has a very strong Public Safety track record. A multi-pronged approach is needed to maintain the City’s well managed Public Safety posture. In addition to funding, equipping, and training, we also need to reduce the factors that lead to crime.

Continue to ensure First Responders have all the resources to do their jobs, including:  

• Maintain Financial Support 
• Maintain Adequate Equipment to keep all of our citizens and First Responders safe from any harm
• Retain Staff we have and attract good, qualified new hires  
• Continue to Enhance Training Programs with additional training on situations involving people suffering from mental illnesses. Georgia has poor rankings from Mental Health America in terms of adults having a higher prevalence of mental illness and lower rates of access to care, therefore our 1st responders need to be well trained to manage situations involving the mentally ill.

• Bring Focus Back to Crime Prevention - focus on crime prevention overall has waned nation-wide and needs to be rekindled.  We need to engage with Community Leaders and subject matter professionals to enhance the programs that we already have in place, inclusive of investigating the feasibility of programs that the City can implement to improve services and support of the mentally ill.

• Develop a Police Technology Plan if one does not exist or update the existing plan – keep equipment and technology updated to current or near-current levels and have the ability to quickly pivot and adopt new technologies. This can be part of the overall Technology Plan for the City or its own separate Technology Plan. A Technology Plan will help make more efficient use of our resources and stay ahead of crime.

Ensure transparency and ethical conduct of all of our Elected Officials. We must communicate with our citizens regularly keeping them well informed. More engaged citizens lead to a more effective and prosperous community. Communication promotes transparency. 

• The City offers an abundance of information on its website, including meeting agendas and video recordings of meetings, ordinances, codes, and more. The City also publishes and follows a very structured calendar of meetings and meetings can be attended in person or virtually—there is no restriction on attendance. Even though the information and public meetings are readily accessible, the awareness level of the citizens seems to lag the availability of information that is accessible to them. We need to step back and determine what actions can be taken to raise citizens’ awareness level of city operations and challenges.
• Encourage and support citizen participation in developing solutions to the challenges facing our City through civic leaders drawing from HOAs, Youth Groups, and other Interest Groups such as Leadership Sandy Springs and its alumni. 

Our neighborhoods with their tree canopies are beautiful and lovely; they are the essence and character of our City. We need to curb density growth to maintain and enhance neighborhood character and quality of life. 

• Restrict re-zoning that creates ‘flag lots” or reduces the minimum lot size requirement.
• Encourage to Developers to explore alternate housing options, like the “Missing Middle” of the “Plexes—duplexes, triplexes, quadraplexes” as a means to add housing without adding significant density. This strategy was used to mitigate the housing shortage after the end of World War II and has been overlooked for many years.
• When office buildings and retail centers experience financial solvency issues, encourage Developers to explore other land use options to mitigate tax revenue erosion while balancing Community concerns of increased density.