Five, four, three.
Welcome to the Planning and Zoning Commission regular
meeting for May 24th, 2017.
This meeting has been duly posted and has a quorum present,
and I call the meeting to order at 6.30 p.m.
Our first order of business is the pledge to the U.S. and
Texas flag. Please rise.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas,
one state, under God, one, indivisible.
Our next order of business is the approval of the Planning
and Zoning Commission minutes for our last meeting.
Commissioner Ellis. Thank you. Commissioner Rossell. No, I
'm Commissioner Taylor. Sorry.
I make a motion to approve the minutes from May 10th, 2017.
Commissioner Beck. Second.
We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
We'll vote on the board.
The motion passes 4 to 0 with one refusal.
Our next item for consideration is the consent agenda.
Commissioner Beck. I move we approve the consent agenda.
Commissioner Rossell. Second.
We have a motion and a second. We'll vote on the board.
The consent agenda passes 5 to 0.
Now we move on to our public hearings portion of the agenda
.
Our first public hearing is HL17-0001, a public hearing
making a recommendation to city council regarding the
designation of O'Neill Ford Civic Complex as a local
historic landmark.
And I will open the public hearing at this time.
Chandra. Can you introduce the presenter?
I will introduce Roman McCallan up to do the presentation.
Thank you. Thank you, commissioners.
This item is a request to
HL17-0001, a public hearing making a recommendation to city
council regarding the designation of the O'Neill Ford Civic
Complex as a local historic landmark.
This item is a request to HL17-0001, a public hearing
making a recommendation to city council regarding the
designation of O'Neill Ford Civic Complex as a local
historic landmark.
And I will open the public hearing at this time.
I will introduce Roman McCallan up to do the presentation.
In this particular situation with this historic landmark,
the first one of 2017, I'm completely not worthy to loosen
the straps of this landmark designation.
It was really begun in 1993 by Mike Cochran, Peggy Capps,
and many of Denton's early preservationists who got this
started.
There's a landmark out in the courtyard here that was put
in the ground in 1993 that appears to designate the complex
as a landmark, but there was never an ordinance passed.
And what we're doing now is just formally going back
through the process once more, make sure we have an
ordinance attached with that designation.
This will assure that what is destroyed or what is built
within these boundaries in this historically significant
area will have an added level of security.
At 23 years old, in 1929, O'Neill Ford designed a home on
North Bell Street for Mary Marshall.
It's now known as the Gertrude Gibson House, and that name
was subsequent to the home being bequeathed to Texas Women
's University.
Thirty-eight years later, this structure was designed, the
building we're in right now.
So again, it's really difficult to overplay the
significance of it.
This is the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio, 750 feet
tall, also designed by O'Neill Ford.
He was an advocate for historic preservation.
This is a note from his obituary in the New York Times.
I didn't realize he had done significant work on the Paseo
del Rio in San Antonio, which is known otherwise as the
River Walk.
He also worked on the La Vijita structures, which are now a
national landmark, and those structures were built between
1818 and 1880.
Then there's this other list of buildings, the Skidmore
College in New York, buildings for Texas Instrument and
many homes for their executives,
campus of Trinity University's Master Plan and many of the
buildings on that campus, buildings at the University of
Dallas campus in Irving,
and the Selwyn School here, just to name a few of the
properties we worked on.
Here is the dining hall of the Selwyn School, here located
off of University Drive.
This is actually an endangered structure in my mind. I don
't think we'll be able to have it much longer.
The Selwyn School is relocating. It's unknown where that
property will go, but just an example of a fine building.
There was a fire in that building. You often hear there's
not much left of those buildings to save,
but that smoke damage you see over the doors in the back
there is the only -- there's a kitchen back there, and that
's really what was damaged.
The structures weren't damaged much.
This is just an interesting photo. You can't overplay the
woodwork of his brother, Lynn Ford.
This is just a home I saw listed either in Houston or
Dallas recently for $2 million.
His homes are really popular. This is a home in Dallas done
for the Brombergs, still in existence today.
This is a home in San Antonio, which I sold. This is an
article in the San Antonio Express, the Dr. Wong residence,
which was bought and then on an AIA home tour.
The archives of O'Neill Ford are kept at the University of
Texas School of Architecture in Austin.
There's a chair, an endowed chair. The first endowed chair
of that architecture school is named for O'Neill Ford.
This is the current professor holding that position.
The best known structure that we -- that people know of
when they think of O'Neill Ford is the little chapel in the
woods here
of Texas Women's University campus, which was dedicated in
1939, just 10 years again.
So then he would have been only 33 years old and at that
point working with a man by the name of Arch Swank.
And he designed -- this is Arch Swank, a photo of Arch Sw
ank and a professor of art who worked on that window
that's right above her head with students. This was
actually built as a WPA project for the youth.
So many youth worked on this project.
I think O'Neill Ford must have been quite industrious at
seeking those projects.
Lava Hitta in San Antonio was also a WPA project. So he was
looking for work.
He wasn't unlike -- well, he was an architect that didn't
come from means.
And as you probably already know, he doesn't have an
architecture degree.
He studied two years at the University of North Texas and
then didn't have the money to finish
and went to international correspondence school or did his
certificate of architecture through the mail
through an international correspondence school in Chicago
and became really just one of the most prominent architects
in the country or certainly in the southern states.
Here, what we're talking about, land marking, all these
markers are on the site already.
The two state markers for Quaker Town, one state marker for
O'Neill Ford himself over by the library.
We have the Quaker Town historic landmark. It is a local
landmark already.
This beautiful fountain, I don't even know, in 1911
presented by the National Humane Alliance.
I'm not familiar with that group.
Pay no attention to Gerard Ford's 1976. I thought this
district picked up the big post office,
but it doesn't pick up that district.
So what it does pick up is the Emily Fowler Library, which
was designed by Wyatt Hendrick in 1949.
Ford himself designed the first edition in 1969 and then
the second edition was completed by the Ford-Powell-Carson
architecture firm, which still exists. It's in San Antonio
today.
You kind of see his work anywhere you go.
There you have the ceramic light fixtures, which are so
significant that were designed, probably made by his
brother, Lin Ford.
Then you have this building, of course, the Civic Center,
designed in 1966.
I'm leaving out so much. That building has a sister
building exactly like it in San Antonio with the same
spiral structure on the interior.
It's a civic complex there.
Of the pool structures, I believe this is all that's left,
these light fixtures that are on the perimeter of the pool
structure.
There may be some other element there within the property,
but I'm sorry Mike didn't come in tonight.
He was going to come and present to you all tonight. I'm
not sure what happened, but who began?
Mike was really, if you go back to your packets, when the
swimming pool structures were demolished, it really created
quite a stir
and people were very concerned about that. There were some
letters about that.
This building, I don't know who designed it, but it's our
senior center, which clearly kept in the modern style with
the low diminished structure within the landscape.
It has the ceramic light fixtures that you can see on the
left on the side of the building. I think it fits well
within the property.
The Denton Women's Club is a local landmark, and I don't
know its history. I can look at it and guess it was
probably built around 1930.
It is itself a designated landmark. In your packets, there
was a letter from the lawyer from the Denton Women's Club
that they wanted to make sure their property was a part of
the O'Neill-Ford Civic Complex.
That's why we've kept that in there. There's a picture of
that landmark. If this historic landmark passes through,
everything on the site will be protected.
Any work done in this area will have to go before Landmark
Commission, so this beautiful sculpture that's on the site
would be protected, as well as the Pops Carter site.
Everything that goes on there would have to go through that
review process. The Historic Landmark Commission met and
recommended approval, and we recommend approval as well.
Do you all have any questions about this?
Commissioner Sullivan.
Thank you.
My big concern is with the number of government buildings
that are involved. How does that work with, as you say, if
any renovation needs to be done, it has to go through the
Historic District.
What would that involve and how much additional cost would
that incur for a governmental, you know, like whether it's
the Civic Center, the swimming pool, all these things.
What is the time and dollars necessary to go through that
process and the possible saying, "Y'all can't do that."
That's my concern.
Sure. That's a good question. So we're making a local, we
're making a historic landmark designation. If this goes
through, the city is designating this property.
It's a little different. It is the city's property,
essentially, except for, I believe, the Denton Women's Club
, and I don't know if that's on a long-term lease. I'm not
even positive about that.
But it would be that any work would be reviewed by the Land
mark Commission. There's no fee to have the work reviewed by
the Landmark Commission.
But the Landmark Commission would have to approve
modifications.
For example, we kind of had a little bit of a flare-up when
the doors here to this facility recently were removed, the
wooden carved doors that were just down this corridor.
Some work was done, and the old preservationists of Denton
and Mike Cochran and the people who appreciate Neil Ford's
work and know that his brother carved those doors and
probably worked on the different beads of carving that you
see in her space between here and this.
I don't know about that piece. It looks a little newer. But
the whole, all the woodwork, so that raised a little bit of
a stir.
And normally that work of exterior work, typically you're
just dealing with exterior work, has to be reviewed by the
Landmark Commission.
For example, we have some work that's going to be done here
in the lobby, and that work would probably just be approved
by the Historic Preservation Officer because it's just
interior work.
But not really any added cost. Time-wise, it's a local, it
doesn't go to the state, it doesn't go to the federal.
It's something we do here internally. We can expedite, we
can hold a special meeting, we can have our Landmark
Commission come together quickly to make a decision if it's
ever necessary.
If this had been done, for example, a little earlier, the
Denton County Jail was demolished here that was in the
parking lot, and I hadn't been here very long.
I couldn't find a true ordinance that protected that. I
would have liked to have a little bit broader discussion
about that building and its possibility of being repurposed
, but we weren't able to do that.
But from here forward, if someone wants to raise this
building or any of the buildings, then it would have to go
before the Landmark Commission. Now, the Landmark
Commission, say, denied something that the city or somebody
wanted to do.
Well, the decisions of that commission are appealable. They
would be appealable, I believe, to this body first and then
to the City Council or straight to the City Council to be
reviewed.
So not a lot of cost, a little bit of layer of prevention,
but then this is pretty hallowed ground from what I know in
my little time here in Denton. It includes the Quaker Town
Park area with its history too.
It just allows us to take a little breath when we're
dealing with this large sort of public land here in the
middle of the city with these structures, three of which
were affected by this very prominent architect.
So just to continue. So the Quaker Town does not have its
own designation?
It is.
Because I thought it did.
The park itself is a historic landmark. That's right. It's
kind of overlapping that. That's a good point to call out.
That park already, any work that's done on the park would
have that.
Now, I think it's important. It's probably not bad. You're
overlapping it. The boundaries overlap that boundary.
But then it's, we had in your backup plan that in the 90s
where the O'Neill Ford Civic Complex was designated and it
overlapped in that regard.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Commissioner Roselle. Thank you Commissioner Taylor.
First, I have a couple questions but I first want to say
that this was really interesting to come through and be
able to read and research.
You and I had a lot of discussions about historic
preservation so this one's more even more enjoyable to kind
of proceed forward and know his recognition. I was a
student at Selwyn and actually by circumstances lived at
Selwyn for a little bit so it's really cool to see that
kind of talked about in this discussion as well.
So thanks for being here and bringing this forth. I had two
questions just so I knew how it got here. Was this, how did
this get initiated? Was this all the way from 93? How did
it kind of resurface?
Well, I don't, I read a lot of what we had available, the
emails, not emails, but the letters that went back and
forth. And I really wish Mike had shown up. He was going to
be here tonight. I'm sure he's going to, so wherever he is
he's thinking, I forgot to come to the planning.
But those people, there were early preservationists here
and for example Peggy Capswell and Mike Cochran is another
layer. You might remember some of the other names but some
of those early preservationists, Mike really, Mr. Cochran
really spearheaded the effort to create the historic
landmark.
And I know that marker is out there in the courtyard today
because of him and he sent me an email to say I'm really
glad you're kind of putting, finishing the job. I don't,
and I asked everyone, our city secretary for records, every
record we had.
I couldn't figure out why this last step didn't go through
or, you know, if it was just maybe the planning department
was very busy and it just, somebody, the ball got dropped.
But it was begun by early preservation.
Why for you now is a little bit of a mixture of things. It
was talked about by the current historic landmark
commission but also an assistant city manager actually
brought it to my attention again.
Hey, is that, is, the question was asked, is the property
landmark or not? Is there, and the answer is there was no
formal ordinance that passed so we brought it forward.
Gotcha. That's hopefully the only other question I have is
in my architectural ignorance, it seems like the post
office does resemblance, resemble some of the architectural
themes. Why is that not included in this parcel and kind of
not.
That's a good question, Andrew. I actually just earlier
today was thinking that was that we, the boundary went
around there. I hadn't really, so what happens, I
photographed the area this morning and I thought it's a
good thing we're picking up the post office.
And then I was just reminded that the map doesn't go that
far. What I do know is that the city owns almost all the
property we're looking at designating now.
And when we do historic landmarks in Denton, I don't think
there's any precedent for doing a historic landmark without
the owner's consent.
And I don't know but it might be a federal, federally owned
property, the post office. And so it's not owned by so I
rather than dig into that question too deeply I thought to
myself well, getting, getting that approval or consent of
that owner to Dan who designated might be a challenge
anyway.
I'm glad you appreciate the bill. A lot of people don't
appreciate, I think that bill is pretty fantastic and in
about 100 years if it's still here it's really going to be
special.
But it's got to get there first. And so right now it doesn
't look that appealing but you when you land on that with it
's probably when you land on that with your personal flying
device it's going to fit right in.
It looks like the Jetsons, you know, the doors slide up and
fly out of it or something like that. I mean it, it, it
happens and then it's right across of course from the much
older old federal post office which is in private hands I
believe today.
Another fantastic building. So this to me was, I would love
to have that boundary pushed over but boy, I don't think T
rey would, I mean, consent, you know, getting consent from
the federal government how would we have gotten that, and
we can.
Certainly something could be brushed when time allows to
see. I don't know. Sure.
Well I'm excited nonetheless of what we have what you've
done and the historic commission, putting this through
unanimously to us so thank you. Okay.
Thank you. Any further questions for.
Thank you. Thank you.
This is a public hearing. Anybody who wishes to speak in
favor or opposition can come forward at this time.
And please state your name and address when you get to the
microphone.
You'll have three minutes to speak.
Hello.
My name is Masood Ibrahim. I own the property at 406 North
Bell. I've been there since 1994.
And the question that I have is what restriction is going
to put on the property owners once you pass this zoning.
So, the, you're asking about restrictions on your property
on both to build or to tear building down or something like
that.
This is all of that zoning that we can we can have staff
answer that question.
Hello sir, if you're, if you're not in that area.
You have really no effect.
Any permitting you do or anything you do with your
structure just adapts. There's no. Yes, it's a good
question. Sometimes when you have some cities have a have a
boundary that they say if you have a local landmark, then
within a certain number of feet around it.
But we don't have that.
This is a public hearing. Does anybody else wish to speak
in favor or against.
Seeing no further interest I will close the public hearing
and open this to discussion.
Commissioner Beck.
I move we approve HL 170001.
Commissioner is out. I second that.
Is there any further discussion.
Seeing no further discussion I'll call for a vote on the
board.
And the motion passes five to zero.
Our final item of business tonight is the planning and
zoning Commission project matrix.
Does anybody have anything that I have to add or review.
Commissioner Ellis. Thank you, Vice Chair.
Question on where we stand with the tree ordinance. I kind
of I'm confused at where that is now out there. So can we
get an update.
We actually postponed. Well, we we postponed moving forward
on that until the state legislature could wrap up this
session because there was some bills that would affect the
way we calculate and implement tree mitigation and
preservation.
So after they close at the end of this month, we do hope to
present a schedule for how we will resume with the tree
code update. But it's we should read restart that in June.
And do you know just you're just going to start from the
beginning again or okay.
Okay. Okay. That's what I want to know. Thank you.
Commissioner is out. Thank you. And we shouldn't start over
on that. Just keep going.
I had a question about and I think there's my name and
email. So forgive me if I am missing an email. But what's
going on with the staff initiated subcommittee for rezoning
.
There was we had that subcommittee planned and then there's
got table. Then there's gonna be a city council meeting
together. Then that got pushed.
And so I just wanted to see where that stands. I think
there's a subcommittee meeting coming up. But if I could
just get a status to address that question.
Commissioner result that committee is still in place.
Unfortunately, we are directed to not conclude a meeting
until or commence a meeting until we have that joint
meeting with the council.
That being said, we have also the development code update
that's that's up and going as well. So a lot of that's
pending that that process as well.
So really, we've got some items that we want to take
forward, but not ready to do so until after that meeting is
scheduled with the city council.
And there's been no set definitive time on that meeting.
Not not yet. It's time now. Okay. Yeah. Thanks.
I did want to remind you guys that we do have the open
house, the public kickoff meeting for the DDC rewrite
coming up on June 6th. I think is a Wednesday, June 7th is
a Wednesday.
And then we also will meet that week with the for the first
time with the PNC subcommittee on the DDC rewrite. So just
that's on the 13th.
So committee or is the seventh. It's that week is the week
of the fifth. So I have an email about that. Okay. I'll see
. I'll send that out just to remind everybody.
That sounds awesome. Thank you.
Seeing no other request to speak. I will close.
The planning and zoning commission concludes its meeting at
7 p.m..