Milton Is Getting Ready For Its Closeup

Characters from the world of horror have invaded Georgia, and Milton wants them to come here.

“As you all may have heard on the news recently there are zombies now in Cobb County,” said Community Development Director Lynn Tully referring to the AMC TV series The Walking Dead, which was spotted being filmed across the county on Monday.

This was the perfect segue into a discussion at Milton’s City Hall regarding a text amendment to the zoning ordinance which create the Film and Movie Media Productions Administrative Permit.

“We’ve had several film permitting requests, one as recently as last weekend in the city,” sai Tully. “We currently don’t have a permit to handle those things.”

This means that if the movie industry were to move into Milton, there aren’t guidelines established to protect homeowners and citizens. The Film and Movie Media Productions Administrative Permit would be an attempt to do that.

According to Tully, the permit is very flexible to meet the needs of the film and media industry.

“Their industry moves at a very fast pace so the intent here is that we would turn around an approval very quickly,” said Tully.

The permit includes such things as written consent from property owners as well as adjoining property owners for possible events such as demolition, fireworks, street chases and other things that may occur during filming.

In the drafting of this policy, Tully and other staff members worked with the Public Works Department as well as  looked at other city and state policies including Roswell, Decatur, Savannah and California.

The proposed policy states that “film and movie media productions are subject to the requirements of other city departments, such as emergency medical services plans, emergency planning and preparedness plans, tent permits, pyrotechnics permits, food service permits, etc. Applications for permits will be considered with all haste due to the nature of the media production business.”

There would be two classifications of film and movie media production permits allowed.

One deals with low-impact activities, which the draft states are film activities that have a limited duration of no more than 14 days with little or no disruption to common adjacent and nearby uses.

The other is high impact activities, which are described as film activities that have a duration of 15 or more days and/or do not comply with the low-impact activity standards. The filming of high-speed crashes or chases, pyrotechnics or explosives or the use of aircraft, and similar actions are examples of high impact activities.

A recent press release by the Georgia Department of Economic Development reveals just how popular Georgia is when is comes to the film industry.

“X-Men: First Class”, in theatres now, was filmed on Jekyll island and other spots along Georgia’s Coast in late 2010 and is one of many movies coming to theatres that was filmed in Georgia including “The Change-Up” with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Batemen and “Wonderlust” starring Jennifer Aniston.

Several television shows have also call Georgia home recently;  VH1’s “Single Ladies “, MTV’s “Teen Wolf”, and the third season of Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva” just to name a few.

Georgia is now among the top five states in the nation for film and TV production with more than 274 productions shot in the state form July 2010 through April 2011.

North Georgia is a great place for filming according to Stafanie Paupeck, communications specialist for the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

“Georgia has diverse landscapes that work as the setting for just about any project. We have a generally mild climate throughout the year, so shooting is not as impacted by weather as it is elsewhere. Our deep and experienced crew base, along with an extensive network of production vendors, facilities and supplies, means production companies don't have to bring everything with them. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has daily, direct flights to Los Angeles and other production centers,” said Paupeck.

The revised policy should be available for a vote by City Council soon.