The Roundabout — Milton, GA

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2026 · Issue No. 46 · 7 min read

Win your tax appeal, watch your bill triple

If you appealed your assessment and won, open your tax bill. Plus Restaurant Week, corrected and priced.

Correction

Restaurant Week is September 14 to 20. Our last two issues said Milton Restaurant Week runs September 8 to 14. It runs September 14 to 20. The city’s own page had the wrong dates when we pulled the lineup, and the city caught it the same morning. Our guide is corrected, and the fifteen restaurants and their prices are unchanged.

Top of Mind

A Milton homeowner opened his August tax bill and found it had roughly tripled. Same house, same assessed value to the dollar. One column changed: the homestead exemption that shielded more than $880,000 of his home’s value collapsed to the basic $30,000.

He had appealed his assessment and won. That is what triggered it. When the county recorded the win in July, the correction reset the base year on his floating homestead exemption, and the August bill collected on the whole recalculation. His June notice from Fulton County had promised about $29,000 in homestead savings for 2026. The bill delivered about $300 of it.

“The burden of resolving this should not fall to me,” he told us.

Nearby homesteaded parcels do not look like his, so this is not obviously everyone. Which is the question: if you appealed in 2024 or 2025 and won, open your bill and compare the exemption lines to last year’s. If they collapsed, ask the county why, when your own notice promised the savings.

A county staffer took up his case this week after five days of emails. The fix so far is verbal. We asked the county how many homeowners this touched and whether corrected bills arrive before the October 15 due date, and had no answer by press time. We will print it when it comes.

The other tax number moves today: the Fulton school board takes up a proposed one-mill increase this afternoon, about $200 a year on a median Milton home. Tentative vote today, final vote after hearings. Sunday’s issue carries the result.

The Deerfield plan gets specific

Council got its first look Monday at how Canvas Planning Group proposes to stitch together the properties along Deerfield Parkway and Highway 9. The presentation moved past last year's Urban Design Manual (the "how we want it to look" document) into parcel-level concepts: where greenspace goes, where mixed-use makes sense, how retail and office blocks relate to each other. Staff stressed these are concepts, not commitments.

Council will get additional updates as the Master Plan takes shape. The work is part of the broader Destination Deerfield initiative, which you can track at miltonga.gov/Deerfield.

Source: Council receives update on Master Plan for South Deerfield

The Drive

The new signal at Crabapple and Green is supposed to go live today. GDOT’s message boards along Crabapple Road say Thursday; the original target came and went weeks ago, so “supposed to” is doing real work in that sentence. Even the city hedged its announcement: “Of course, things could happen (as they have in the past) and this traffic signal’s activation could be pushed back.” That is city hall speak for believe it when the light turns green.

If you come in off Green Road, your stop sign is gone and a signal hangs in its place. Give everyone a week to relearn the intersection, and give the driver ahead of you a beat before you honk.

The city was careful to note it has no involvement in the installation or activation. Fair. This one is all GDOT. Milton would have had it blinking weeks ago and probably under budget.

GA 400 northbound has the right lane blocked at Old Milton Parkway for road maintenance. Minor severity, per GDOT, which in 511-speak means you'll notice it but won't miss your meeting.

Source: Construction on Road maintenance operations on GA 400 Northbound at OLD MILTON PKWY. Right lane blocked. n

And if you have opinions about what driving, walking, or biking here should look like in ten years, Monday morning is your shot. The team writing the North Fulton transportation plan pops up at Bloom, by the Thompson-Hopewell roundabout, to hear from Milton residents. Come for the plan, stay for the donuts.

A camera-glasses arrest in Milton

Milton police arrested a man on a felony charge of unlawful eavesdropping or surveillance. Police say someone left a pair of camera sunglasses on top of a car in a Milton driveway on the night of June 27, aimed at a 13-year-old’s bedroom window. Detectives reviewed the glasses’ own earlier recordings and matched landmarks in the footage, down to a dog later seen at the suspect’s home, to identify him.

We pulled the case file. Christopher Hall was booked into the Fulton County Jail on August 15 and charged under OCGA 16-11-62; court records list a 30004 address. Judge John DeFoor II denied bond, so Hall remains in custody. A preliminary hearing is set for September 9. Case 26PI006476.

A charge is an accusation, not a conviction. We will follow the hearing.

On the Farm

Wednesday evening’s Equestrian Committee agenda: what Community Development has learned since the AG-1 code revisions passed in April, with a focus on feedback from larger-lot owners about how the changes are landing in practice. Also on the agenda, a welcome for Kathy Gilker, a horsewoman with five decades of experience across multiple disciplines.

Parks and Recreation partnership talks continue. The committee is revisiting plans for a summer 2027 equestrian camp, with facility availability still the sticking point. Separately, the City mailed postcards earlier this month to hundreds of horse farm and large-lot households linking to two surveys. MEC and staff are using the responses to map current needs and explore how to support long-term ownership of working farms and larger parcels.

Source: Equestrian Committee to hear about AG-1 changes that could affect large lots

The Roundtable

You were the council, and you split: 4 said activate the Deerfield development authority, 3 said don’t. The actual council did not split. Unanimous yes. The authority exists on paper now; nobody has been appointed to it yet, and the city attorney told council it can do nothing without members, staffing, and funding the city chooses to give it.

Tuesday’s sports question drew nine of you: football 4, softball 2, both 2, volleyball 1. September 4 wins the calendar slot.

One tap, no form

You be the school board: raise the millage one mill?

Raise itDon’tDepends on the hearings

For Milton businesses

Put an offer on the Discount Card, free through Crabapple Fest, October 5

Every Roundabout subscriber carries a card. You post one offer, readers redeem it on their phone at your counter, and you see who came in. No card details to start, and both Restaurant Week and Crabapple Fest fall inside the free window. After October 5 it is $99 a month, month to month.

Email Ryan

New on your card

Milton's everyday discounts, in one place

We went through the menus, the happy hour boards and the fine print, and put Milton's standing specials on your card. Forty-five of them across twelve businesses, with seventeen running today. These are open to everyone and need no card. Your card is also where subscriber-only offers will appear as Milton businesses come on.

See what's on today

Calendar

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

One More Thing

We did the math on Restaurant Week. Fifteen restaurants, set menus from $25 to $55, and the menus are public, so we priced each one against the restaurant’s own regular menu. The real deals: The Union’s $25 lunch is about 30 percent off, Tres Lunas at $30 saves about a quarter of the bill, and 7 Acre’s $55 gets you bordeaux-braised short ribs you cannot order any other week. One set menu prices within a couple dollars of ordering the same items a la carte, so check the math before you book. Every number is in our Restaurant Week guide, and we will re-run them as menus change.

This Week in Milton

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