Gwinnett Daily Post

SUGAR HILL - After five years without an increase, residents will now pay about 5 cents more per bag for garbage pickup. The rate for a 90-gallon rolling garbage can will increase by about 50 cents per can.

In 2001, Sugar Hill contracted with Roberts Sanitation for garbage collection. As gasoline prices rose, Robertson Sanitation's overhead increased, too, and they began asking for a raise. This year, they got it.

"They help with a cleanup day, and that's expensive," said Bob Hail, city manager. "People have asked for cardboard recycling services, and they have agreed to that, too. They've done everything we've asked them to do."

Sugar Hill residents purchase garbage bags stamped with the city's logo from local grocery stores, rather than paying a monthly fee.

Density standards set

City staff and council members spend a lot of time hearing requests for building variances. The number of those requests will now drop. City councilmen voted Monday to set the number of homes that can be built on an acre.

A lot zoned RS-200, which represents a 20,000-square-foot lot, can hold 1.8 homes per acre. A builder can construct 2.1 homes per acre on an RS-175 lot sized 17,500 square feet. In RS-150 zoning, which means a lot contains 15,000 square feet, builders may erect 2.5 homes per acre. The maximum density Sugar Hill allows falls under their RS-100 zoning, sized 10,000 square feet, at 3.7 homes per acre.

School bus turnaround completed

on Oakgrove Drive

City workers have constructed a school bus turnaround area on Oakgrove Drive. School buses can now pickup the 17 students living there. Until recently, those students had to walk to busy Level Creek Road, sometimes before dawn, to wait for the bus each morning.