Milton’s Design Review Board will hold a joint meeting Tuesday with the Planning Commission focused on the proposed Deerfield Urban Design Manual – though only after conducting its own separate meeting first.

The Design Review Board (DRB)-only meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on May 6 in City Hall’s Council Chambers. This committee’s special-called joint meeting with the Planning Commission should begin immediately after the DRB meeting ends. People can attend either meeting in-person or watch them online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCpcLVgp54.

The seven-member, Mayor and Council-appointed Design Review Board reviews and makes recommendations to the City’s Community Development Director on new construction, new site development, and certain significant alterations to existing structures.

It’s also the City committee that votes on demolition requests. The three on Tuesday’s agenda are:

• For a ranch-style house, pool, shed, and two other accessory structures once used as animal pens at 140 RANCHETTE ROAD, a 2.96-acre property in southwest Milton
• For a one-story home (including all walls, the carport, decks, landing steps, gravel, and concrete driveway) at 15245 BIRMINGHAM HIGHWAY, 4.33-acre lot just north of Taylor Road
• For another one-story home, attached carport, concrete driveway, and barn at 13890 COWART ROAD, which is between Providence Road and Summit Road

This will be followed by a “Courtesy Review” for 14507 COGBURN ROAD, a 1.47-acre lot south of Hopewell Road where an applicant is seeking the following variances to:

• Reduce the 25-foot minimum side yard to 22.7 feet adjacent to north property line for an existing building accessory structure
• Reduce the 25-foot minimum side yard to 14.63 feet adjacent to south property line for an existing building accessory structure
• Reduce the 1.5-acre minimum flag lot size to 1.472 acres for an existing property
• Increase the 10 percent maximum flag stem area of total lot size to 13.41 percent for an existing property
• Allow accessory structure uses to not be constructed concurrently with or after a principal structure use  

Design Review Board members will then conduct several “Final Reviews.”

The first is for the design of a mural on the Fifth Third Bank building at 13794 HIGHWAY 9, in the Publix plaza.

The DRB will then review a fence for outside Milton’s Cuisine and Cocktails in downtown Crabapple (800 MAYFIELD ROAD). The fence that was installed differs from the design the DRB approved at its September 2024 meeting.

Back-to-back reviews – one a site and landscape review, the other focused on the building – then will be conducted for what’s in and around the Reliant office building. This is a three-story structure planned for the Market District development in downtown Milton.

After this review is complete, the Design Review Board will adjourn its meeting and begin its joint meeting with the Planning Commission.

There’s only one item on this agenda – though it is a big one. The 117-page Deerfield Urban Design Manual has been months in the making, full of details on everything from architecture to trails to civic space to lighting to redevelopment and more.

The DRB and Planning Commission will go through the content of this manual, which aims to guide those who wish to develop or redevelop properties in the Deerfield section of southeastern Milton. This pivotal document comes after extensive analysis and community input gathering, which will also feed into the broader Deerfield Implementation Plan.

To learn more about that project, go to www.miltonga.gov/Deerfield.

And to view the draft Deerfield Urban Design Manual, visit https://mccmeetingspublic.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/miltonga-meet-66b710e692644c27be3aa6e6ec9367ee/ITEM-Attachment-001-cebe6838635c48c2a4074ddc6204eec2.pdf.