Council may require solicitors to register with police department

Home-based businesses in Peachtree City will face several changes if the City Council adopts a proposed overhaul of the city’s ordinance, which will be considered by council at its regular meeting Thursday night.

Some of the changes favor home businesses but others would further restrict it. The proposed restrictions would:

• Limit persons who teach lessons to no more than two students at a time;

• Forbid off-site employees from congregating on the premises, though they will be allowed to report to the home business, according to city staff; and

• State registration and licensing will be required for child day care businesses.

The proposal from city staff would also have some positive effects for home business owners, including an increase in the amount of space in the home that can be dedicated to the business. The current threshold is 15 percent of the home, while the proposal would increase that limit to 25 percent.

The proposal also would be amended to allow outdoor activities that would normally occur in residential neighborhoods, including outdoor play for day care businesses.

Other requirements in the existing ordinance would remain unchanged including that no advertising be visible from the street or adjoining property and no materials or equipment can be stored outdoors.

In other business, council is expected to consider amendments to its ordinance governing peddlers and solicitors. One of the changes will require such persons to register with the police department; currently such registration is done at City Hall. The permit fee is $25 per day.

The city has had a recent spike in the number of citizen complaints and in the number of solicitations at major intersections, according to city staff.

Council will also hear a presentation from a group of business owners about the city’s current sign ordinance, which was revised last year.

Also up for consideration is a sole source bid to convert the police department’s video records storage system from a DVD format to a hard drive based system. The service and equipment from Kustom Signals Inc. will cost $100,170. Funding is available in the current budget, according to a memo from Chief James Murray.

By having the hard drive recording video in 15 patrol cars, the storage capacity of recording time increases from the nine hours currently under DVD recording to 166 hours of video per vehicle. The video is then downloaded to the police department’s server, which is included in the package.

Under the city’s record retention schedule, certain video must be retained for five years.