The Roundabout — Milton, GA

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026 · Issue No. 43 · 7 min read

A church owns 29 acres at Arnold Mill. Nothing has been filed.

The city answers on the Arnold Mill church land. Plus: budget levers, poll results, your new homes toolkit, and winners Sunday.

Top of Mind

A church owns 29 acres at Arnold Mill and New Providence. Nothing has been filed.

Restoration Church of North Atlanta is the owner of record on two adjoining parcels at the Arnold Mill and New Providence crossroads: 14 acres at 12965 Arnold Mill Road, 15.06 more at 12950 New Providence Road. County records show both transferred on December 18, 2025, from the estate of Judy Puckett Burton. Both are zoned AG-1, the agricultural district that is most of why Milton looks like Milton.

The purchase surfaced publicly on August 3, when a resident raised it during public comment at City Council. Since then the talk has run well ahead of the record. So we put six questions to City Hall about where things actually stand. On Wednesday, the city answered.

Nothing is in motion. "The City has not received anything on either parcel," communications director Greg Botelho told us by email. No use permit application, no rezoning petition, no pre-application meeting, no concept review, no land disturbance permit. Nothing scheduled or expected either, and the city "would not want to speculate."

The path, if a church campus is ever proposed there, is fixed: a place of worship on AG-1 requires a use permit approved by the Planning Commission and then City Council, with public comment at both. There is no version of this that happens quietly.

Two more answers frame what is even buildable. The city says these parcels were envisioned as residential in the Arnold Mill Small Area Plan, next to a corner envisioned for commercial. And there are no plans to extend sewer in that area, so anything of size proposed on that land would have to solve wastewater without it. For now, Fulton County taxes both parcels as ordinary residential land, not under the exempt class that covers operating churches.

We reached Restoration Church for comment Monday and had not heard back by press time. Worth keeping level: owning land is not a development application. As of today there is nothing at City Hall to support or oppose. The moment something is filed, it lands on a public agenda, and you will read it here.

Around Town

The cut-through problem on Summit Road

A SeeClickFix report filed Tuesday flags a safety problem on Summit Road near the Milton Trail and Summit Hill Elementary: GPS apps are routing cut-through traffic during rush hours to avoid backups on Redd/Freemanville and Redd/Hopewell, and drivers are speeding through a corridor used by joggers, cyclists, equestrians, and kids walking to school. The report notes frequent speeding well above posted limits during peak times.

Summit and Brittle are part of the Milton Trail network. The complaint calls out specific risk to children walking to Summit Hill Elementary and bus stops at Summit and Freemanville. On the thread, the city posted an acknowledgment of receipt the same day, and the ticket is closed.

The gravel road wear is a secondary cost issue; the primary concern is pedestrian safety in a school zone during the hours when traffic volume and speed are both elevated.

Source: Traffic/Safety Issue

If app-driven traffic on a school route sounds like your street too, there is a place to put that this month. The North Fulton Comprehensive Transportation Plan, the multi-city effort that will steer road, bike, and trail priorities across our corner of the county, has its public survey open only through the end of August, with adoption expected next summer. Take the survey, or dig into the full project.

Three levers on next year's city budget

Council took its third pass at the draft FY27 budget on August 3, and Deputy City Manager Bernadette Harvill named the three things that could move the numbers: the millage rate, which gets its own hearings later and depends partly on a Fulton County tax digest that still is not final; whether voters approve another round of TSPLOST for transportation in November; and a market study on what city employees are paid compared to their neighbors. Her comparisons carried one line worth keeping: Milton has historically run among the lowest per-capita spending in North Fulton. Final adoption is expected at September's last meeting. The full presentation is at miltonga.gov/FY27DraftBudgetWorkshop.

Crabapple's new outdoor room

Market District Crabapple's outdoor event space is open, with its first concert held August 7 on the development's eastern end, across from Hyde Brewing. The stretch along the eastern side of Heritage Walk already holds restaurants, beverage stops, offices, and a yoga studio; this adds the gathering spot. What's ahead, per the city: the Milton Farmers Market will set up there, Market District is looking at an outdoor skating rink starting in November, and the monthly Crabapple Live mini-festival returns next spring. A permanent stage is planned, with a coming office building and landscaping as the buffer to the neighbors behind it. More reasons to linger downtown after the coffee run.

Best of Milton

Best of Milton 2026, Readers' Choice

Voting closed Monday night, and the final count was not a first-year number: 346 neighbors cast 3,534 votes across all 29 categories. Every ballot has been through certification, ties and all, and the results are locked.

Sunday morning's issue reveals every winner and honorable mention at once, and the full list goes live at readroundabout.com the same moment. If a place you love takes a category, Sunday is the day to tell them so. See you then.

House-hunting this weekend while you wait on the winners? Every active Milton listing is on our directory, sorted by school zone, neighborhood, or price, and updated nightly.

Amber Kuhn

Milton Homes is brought to you by

Amber Kuhn · At Home Property Group

Our founding Featured Realtor: a proud Milton resident with $80M+ sold since 2018, who knows this town street by street. Meet Amber →

Building Milton

We rebuilt the Milton Homes page into a toolkit

Our homes directory started as a clean list of what is for sale. It has grown into something more useful, and all of it is free.

Thinking of selling? There is now a seller's briefing that shows the market as it actually is: roughly two in five active Milton listings have cut their asking price at least once since late May, and among the homes that cut, the median wait for the first one was 34 days. Band by band, updated nightly, no cheerleading.

Every listing now carries an estimated property tax bill built on the adopted millage rates, labeled as what it is: an estimate, before exemptions. And every number on the page answers to the city boundary, not the ZIP code. That distinction is not small. "Milton" stats you see elsewhere count all of ZIP 30004, which is 644 active listings right now. Only 220 of them are actually in Milton. We filter every one to the city's own line.

There is more in there: dining spots near each listing, a monthly market report with a proper archive, pages for 229 named neighborhoods. No accounts, no paywall. If a neighbor is house-hunting, send it along.

The Week Ahead

Two lists: the government you can watch, and the weekend you can enjoy.

Every meeting below is at City Hall and open to the public.

See the full Milton calendar → · Got an event? Submit it

And one for the fridge: on Saturday, September 12, the City of Milton and Stonecreek Church throw a free Touch-a-Truck at 13540 Highway 9 North, 10 AM to 1 PM. Fire truck, SWAT vehicle, cement mixer, a hot air balloon, and yes, the Ghostbusters cars, plus food, music, and inflatables. A sensory-friendly hour runs 9 to 10, before the engines and the crowds arrive. Kids climb, everybody wins.

One More Thing

We asked how the first week of school is going. Thirteen of you answered, and the town could not pick a lane: "still miss summer" led at 31 percent, while "locked into the routine," "the carline will break me," and "what is sleep" tied at 23 apiece. Milton is running on coffee and optimism in roughly equal measure.

One tap, no form

Winners drop Sunday. Which Best of Milton reveal are you refreshing for?

The restaurant categoriesCoffee, obviouslyThe parks, trails, and stablesScrolling the whole list at once

Results, as always, at readroundabout.com/polls.

Supported by our founding partners

At Home Property GroupEQUITAX Property Tax Advisors Meet our partners →