SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2026 · Issue No. 60 · 14 min read
$26 million for the Verizon campus. The vote is Monday.
Also: Milton cut off out-of-state access to your plate data.
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In this issue The Verizon campus. Milton wants to buy 51 acres off Windward Parkway for $26.25 million, tear down three empty office buildings and build a park district. The Council votes Monday. The cameras. Milton has cut off out-of-state access to its plate data. The police told us two misuse investigations are open, and that the year of storage was approved without a Council vote. Council Watch. Monday is also budget night, with the tax rate up for its first reading. And. Cambridge opens region play with a win, fall break starts Monday, and the first full Blotter lands Tuesday. |
Top of Mind
the one thing to know this morning
The City of Milton wants to build a park district on 75 acres off Windward Parkway. Monday night it takes the first step: a $26.25 million agreement to buy 51 acres between Deerfield Parkway and Morris Road, the Verizon campus, and tear down the three empty office buildings on it.
Council votes Monday at 6 p.m. at City Hall. General public comment comes near the top of the agenda, well before this item, so that is the window if you want to be heard on it.
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The Verizon campus in gold, the 24 acres the city bought in 2024 in green. Parcel lines: Fulton County Board of Assessors.
Nobody has worked there since 2020. Verizon told us so on Friday. The people once based on the campus are hybrid workers assigned to its Alpharetta campus on North Point Parkway, or they work from home, and the company says no jobs are affected by the sale. It would not say how many people had worked there.
“We appreciate the City of Milton for being an outstanding partner in this matter,” a Verizon spokesperson said. “While we are consolidating our local office footprint, we remain deeply committed to north Fulton and the state of Georgia.”
What the city would own. With the 24 acres it bought across Deerfield Parkway in 2024 for $8.75 million, Milton would hold 75.74 acres, bought for about $35 million before demolition and construction. Fulton County’s assessors put the fair market value of the two parcels at $50 million: $22 million for the land, $28 million for the buildings. Measured against the land alone, Milton would pay about $4 million over the county’s number. Measured against land and buildings together, about $24 million under it. Which comparison is fair depends on the buildings, and the city’s position is that they are a liability it will pay to remove.
What goes there. Athletic fields first, then trails, open space and gathering areas, with land the city does not need for recreation sold to private developers to bring down the cost. “Owning the land lets the city and its residents decide where recreation, trails, and open space go before private development decides it for us,” Mayor Peyton Jamison wrote in answer to our questions. His goal is to start construction on the athletic complex in the first quarter of next year.
How it gets paid for. Cash, and no borrowing, City Manager Steve Krokoff told us. The city expects to use its pay-as-you-go capital program, with the $22.9 million already set aside for a new athletic complex as “likely an initial source,” then replenish it with money from selling parcels. The city is also applying for a federal outdoor recreation grant that would match up to $15 million, which Krokoff cautioned is “not funding that should be described as already secured or even depended upon.”
Monday’s vote is not the last one. Approval puts $100,000 in escrow and starts 60 days of due diligence, during which the city can walk away for any reason and get it back. There is no independent appraisal yet; that, an environmental review and demolition estimates are what the 60 days are for. Staff recommends a second public vote before the city commits. Closing would be on or before Dec. 1.
What it pays in taxes now. About $90,000 a year to Milton, $90,134.75 to the dollar, the figure the city gave us. That is the city’s share alone; Fulton County and the county school system levy their own and larger rates on the same parcels. Milton’s share stops at closing, because land a city owns pays no property tax, and the pieces it sells would go back on the rolls.
The full story is on our site, with the agreement’s terms and every answer the mayor and the city gave us, printed in full. Every parcel is on our interactive map, which you can zoom and tap.
The Cameras
Milton has cut off out-of-state access to its license plate data. The police department told us Friday that it “has recently changed its sharing configuration” and that Milton’s data now goes only to law enforcement agencies in Georgia, about 800 of them. Milton still receives data from about 3,000 agencies and private networks around the country.
The city has not announced the change. The department confirmed it Friday in answer to our questions. Our camera map shows all 36 of Milton’s cameras and carries its earlier answers, word for word.
What the sharing is for. Asked why the network matters, the department gave one case: in 2024 a Milton officer searched a partner agency’s cameras during an active kidnapping investigation, which helped locate the vehicle and, the department says, “ultimately led law enforcement directly to the victim, who was safely rescued.”
Note which direction that runs. It is Milton reading another agency’s cameras, and that has not changed; Milton still draws on about 3,000 networks nationwide. What changed is the other direction, who can read Milton’s.
The 16 million number is not what it sounds like. That is Flock’s own audit count of searches run by out-of-state agencies since Milton extended its storage to a year last October. The department is careful about what the number means: an agency can run one search across the whole national network, so Milton is counted whenever its data was merely eligible to be searched, not when a Milton record was actually returned or viewed. The audit tools cannot tell those apart.
Two possible-misuse investigations are open. “The Milton Police Department is currently investigating two matters involving potential misuse of the Flock system,” the department said. It will not say more while they are open, and says any substantiated violation goes through the disciplinary process.
The Chief and the City Manager set the year. The move from 30 days to 365 happened at the start of the 2026 fiscal year, last October, “authorized by the Chief and the City Manager.” Asked whether the Council ever discussed it, the department said: “We can’t recall if it was specifically discussed during a Council meeting.”
Why a year, in their words. The department says the period came out of investigative experience. Vehicle information often does not surface within 7 or 30 days, it says, particularly when detectives are waiting on cell phone records obtained through legal process, and in several cases old plate records have corroborated evidence that arrived later. It adds that plate data is not treated as proof on its own, but as one tool alongside others.
We went looking. The city’s budget book for that year runs 336 pages and mentions plate readers once, in a list of police initiatives: “Expansion of stationary LPR program to enhance city wide coverage to include upgraded software to extend retention of data.” No number of days. No dollar figure. No vendor named. The budget up for adoption Monday does not use the words Flock, license plate or data retention at all; the cost sits inside a police contracts line that is going up 19 percent, and the increases the city explains are a jail agreement, animal control and body cameras.
Renewals work the same way. The agreements run in one-year terms that end Dec. 31 and renew automatically each Jan. 1 if the city funds them, and the city can cancel any time on 30 days’ notice. No separate Council vote is required along the way. Asked who approves a renewal, the department described the process rather than any particular decision: “The Chief of Police provides a recommendation to the City Manager regarding the continuation of the Flock program through the annual budget process.” Krokoff put it this way: a renewable agreement “generally does not require additional approval during the renewal period beyond the Department Head establishing the need, the City Manager approving that need and wrapping it into the annual proposed budget.”
Flock changed its own advice in August, cutting its recommended default to seven days and calling for elected officials to sign off on longer periods. Milton’s year predates that guidance. The city says it will “seek further guidance” and look at whether a Flock feature still to come can preserve records for open cases under a shorter general window.
Milton has no public page of its camera rules. Some Georgia police departments keep a public page that lays out how long they hold plate data, which agencies they share it with, and what an officer must have before running a search. Milton is not one of them. We asked whether the department would build such a page.
It said it is “currently evaluating” exactly that, and that such a page “could help residents better understand how Milton uses its license plate recognition system.”
The security question is still open too. The city’s information technology manager reviewed Flock’s published security flaws in March and reported to Krokoff that they appeared to be fixed in Milton’s system. The memo rests that conclusion on what the vendor told the city, and names one outstanding item: the results of an independent security test Flock commissioned, which the company said in August it would publish this month.
Questions we sent the city Sept. 16 are still pending as well: whether Milton runs any Flock cameras that record or stream video rather than still images, and whether the department has asked Flock for quotes on more. The police say those answers come this week. We will print them.
Reader poll · One tap Should Milton’s camera contract renewals get their own public vote? As the city describes it, a renewal moves from the police chief to the city manager and into the budget, with no vote of its own. The contract renews every Jan. 1.
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Results Tuesday. Our first story on the year of data has the department’s earlier answers in full.
Council Watch
what the city decided, and what it is about to
Monday is budget night, on a long agenda. The full agenda and packet are on the city’s site.
The money. A public hearing and vote to adopt the 2027 budget, plus a vote to amend the 2026 budget that ends Sept. 30. The city’s tax rate gets its first reading the same night, which is a presentation and not a vote; the rate is adopted Oct. 5. The city has advertised an operating rate of 4.193 mills, the same as last year, plus 0.302 mills for the 2017 greenspace bond, its ninth year of payments.
A flat rate is not automatically a flat bill, because assessments move. Georgia makes a city run two comparisons, and the packet reports both: against the rollback rate, which accounts for reassessments, 4.193 mills is a 0.3 percent decrease; against the five-year history of levy, which does not, it is a 0.4 percent increase. Staff will show Council other rate options Monday, but anything above 4.193 would require fresh advertising and more hearings. Our table puts Milton’s rate next to every other Fulton city.
The Deerfield package. Three items travel together: the Verizon purchase, a 30-day freeze on new rezoning, site plan and land disturbance applications in South Deerfield while the city studies the area, and an application for the federal recreation grant. The freeze area is bounded by Highway 9, Webb Road, GA 400 and Windward Parkway. The city says no applications are pending that it would affect.
The trails. First reading of an amendment that would take the Milton Trails Blueprint out of the development code. At the work session, Council sounded ready to replace it with a trail plan written with residents.
Next door. Roswell holds its final hearing Monday and votes Sept. 28 on a tax rate that started as a 56 percent increase and is now about 19 percent after packed hearings.
Last Call
Today is the last day of Milton Restaurant Week, and we priced all 14 menus against the same dishes off each restaurant’s regular menu. Three are real discounts.
The Union’s $25 three-course lunch is the steepest, about 30 percent off. Tres Lunas is about 25 percent off at $30. Hyde Brewing is about 14 percent off at $30, on a softer comparison, because its ahi tuna tacos are not on the regular menu at all.
Three kitchens are cooking something they otherwise do not sell, which is a better reason to go than a percentage. 7 Acre is plating Bordeaux-braised short ribs over comté risotto at $55. Smoke on the Farm turns its $17.50 Broast on Toast sandwich into three plated courses at $30. L’Antoinette is doing a seared redfish that is not on its regular menu.
Our guide has all 14 menus, with a link to each restaurant’s regular menu so you can see the math yourself.
The Scoreboard
every game, both schools, the night it finishes
Football. Cambridge opened region play Friday with a 28-22 win at Centennial. Milton was off. The Eagles open their region schedule Friday at Johns Creek, 7:30.
Softball. Cambridge is rolling: 15-0 at Centennial Tuesday and 13-1 over Blessed Trinity Thursday, eight straight. The Bears play at Buford Monday and host Cherokee Tuesday. Milton lost 8-2 at Riverwood and then 13-12 at Lanier, a one-run game Thursday.
Volleyball. Cambridge beat Chapel Hill and South Cobb Tuesday, then Northview and Sprayberry Thursday, all in straight sets but the last. Milton fell 3-0 at home to Alpharetta and 3-1 at Dunwoody.
Flag football. Cambridge lost 21-0 to South Forsyth Wednesday. Milton lost 13-7 to Greenbrier on Saturday.
The first full Blotter runs Tuesday: the week’s police and fire calls worth knowing, by street, each one pinned on our map. The section started in Thursday’s issue.
This Week in Milton
the calendar, day by day
Hot and dry to start: 91 Sunday and 92 Monday, then storms move in, most likely Tuesday afternoon, and it cools to the low 80s by Wednesday. Fall starts Tuesday.
Fulton County Schools are out all week for fall break, and the Milton library has built its schedule around it. Nearly everything below is free.
Sunday, September 20
- →Milton Restaurant Week, final day · Participating restaurants across Milton
Monday, September 21
- →11:00 AM · Red Cross Blood Drive · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
- →1:30 PM · RPG Alliance: Fallout · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →2:00 PM · Monday Mah Jong, drop in · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →6:00 PM · City Council Regular Meeting · City Hall (free)
- →6:00 PM · Monday Math Tutoring · Milton Branch Library (free)
Tuesday, September 22
- →1:00 PM · Friends of the Library Book Club · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →3:30 PM · GeekCraft: Cardboard Castles · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →4:00 PM · Development Authority Meeting · City Hall (free)
Wednesday, September 23
- →10:00 AM · The Writer Support Network · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →11:00 AM · Fall Break Art Class with Ms. Lara · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →1:30 PM · RPG Alliance: D&D 5e · Milton Branch Library (free)
Thursday, September 24
- →10:30 AM · Stories for Shorties · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →11:00 AM · Community Crochet Circle · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →2:00 PM · Scrapbooking Class · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →5:00 PM · Volunteer Orientation · Milton Branch Library (free)
Friday, September 25
- →11:00 AM · Family Cooking with Skye Estroff · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →1:00 PM · Mah Jong Meet Up · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →1:30 PM · GeekCraft: Comic Book Collage · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →7:30 PM · Football: Milton at Johns Creek, region opener
Saturday, September 26
- →8:00 AM to noon · Household Hazardous Waste Collection · Cambridge High School, registration required (free)
- →11:00 AM · Saturday Morning Math Tutoring · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →12:00 PM · RPG Alliance: Teen D&D · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →2:00 PM · Financial Literacy for Kids · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →6:00 PM · Live Music · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
- →8:30 PM · Harvest Moon · Matilda’s Music Under the Pines
See the full Milton calendar → · Got an event? Submit it
Also going on in Milton: AR Workshop Adult/Teen Classes, Art with Rani, Beginner Fishing and Baby & Me Fitness Classes (free). Plus 14 more on the activities page.
One to do this week: register for Saturday’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection. It runs 8 a.m. to noon in the Cambridge High parking lot, it is free, and it is Milton residents only. Registration opened Sept. 14 at miltonga.gov/HHWCollection and the city says spots have filled quickly in past years. Paint is mostly not on the city’s list, but Cambridge High’s theatre program runs its own paint recycling fundraiser in the same lot at the same time, for a fee and with no registration.
Looking ahead: Crabapple Fest is Saturday, Oct. 3, with its first stage. Our guide has the map, the parking and the shuttles.
