and Zoning Commission special call meeting for March the 28
th 2018. This
meeting I assume has been duly posted and we do have a qu
orum present and so
at this time I will kick us off and I'm gonna turn it over
to Richard to run us
through the presentation of the update on the Denton code
2030. I'll be brief and
and turn most of it over to our consultant Clarion. As you
know they've
been involved in updating our DDC. We're now into module 2.
This is the second out
of the third if you recall module module module I've said
it a number of times
today. Modular 1 was the zoning districts. This is really
the administrative
procedures as well as you know application types how those
will be
processed and then module 3 which will be coming up next
month are the
development standards. So with that I'll turn it over I
think Tariq will be
giving us. Thank you very much chairman members of the
Commission good to be back here. Repeat
performance for several of you so we'll try to switch it up
and keep it fun and
we are gonna have fun because we're talking about
administration and
procedures. It's exciting stuff actually it's some of the
biggest problems that
we have heard about the current system in Denton has to do
with how things are
approved or not approved in some cases. So we have made a
lot of changes and
want to walk through what some of those are. First we're
gonna give you a quick
update on just what we are up to. Where are we in the
overall scheme of the
project for updating the DDC. We'll spend the bulk of the
time talking about the
procedures as I said and then what's coming down the road.
There are a lot of
moving parts right now some of which Clarion is working on
some of which the
city staff is working on and they all need to be integrated
together to work
seamlessly by the time the new code is adopted. So we'll
tee up those
conversations for you and then answer any questions you
have. I think we have
until about six o'clock but I know our public open house
starts at six o'clock
so we'll probably need to shift over to the chambers with
10 or 15 minutes
before then. So we'll keep an eye on time. My name is Tarek
Wafai. I'm a principal
with the firm joined by my colleagues today Matt Goble and
Jim Spung. You
probably most of you probably have met them at some point.
We are planners and
attorneys and designers. I'm not an attorney. Matt is. Jim
is a planner as
well. We do zoning codes all over the country. We've done a
lot of work right
here in Texas. Matt is from Texas. It means a lot to him to
be working here. So
this is our bread and butter. This is what we're good at.
This is what we enjoy
doing. So the main goal of the project there are several of
them. One was to
make the code just a more user-friendly document. First of
all you have two
different codes. One that needs to be repealed and one that
is the current
DDC. We can make it a lot more user-friendly just by clar
ifying that
the old DDC no longer exists. We've also included tables,
graphics, images, things
that really spell out what we mean when we have a standard
written in text. Be
clear and concise. Include and clarify the approval
criteria. We'll talk a
little bit about that today rather than just say you have
to get approved. Well
what is that decision-making body looking at when they
either approve
approve with conditions or deny a project? First and
foremost implement the
Denton plan 2030. This is a recent adoption of your new
plan a couple of
years ago. A lot of good policy direction in there
accompanied by a future land
use map which showed the direction of the community. That
is our direction. That is
our roadmap for implementation. The plan said here's who we
want to be in the
future. Now it's with the districts and uses we tried to
align that new lineup
of districts with the future land use designations. With
the procedures it's
improving governance. A lot of the things from your plan
that talked about that we
have included in this next module. And then also to align
with state statutory
requirements. Texas local government code has its own,
gives the authority to
cities and counties in Texas for some things and we need to
make sure that
we're not crosswise with those especially when it relates
to the procedures. If
you had any chance to spend with the subdivision procedures
especially we had
to strip out a lot of things that were just inconsistent
with Texas local
government code. So in drafting the new DDC a couple of
slides on this. You
remember the districts and uses that's what we came here to
talk to you all
about last summer. That is the the basis for a zoning code.
What can I do on my
property? How big can my building be? How far from the
street? Which districts
can I operate a certain use in the city? Today we're going
to spend the time
talking about that second piece administration and
procedures. How do I
get a project approved here? What types of things are
evaluated by the Planning
Commission? What types of things are evaluated by staff and
the City Council?
And are there exceptions to those rules? And we've got
several new things to talk
about today as well. Finally we'll come back actually in
less than a month from
now we'll be back to talk to you about the quality
standards, the development
standards, the third and final piece of the DDC that really
raises the bar for
development. Things that you all see around the city that
you like we have
codified those things for landscaping and parking and
building design. So that is
that's a fun piece to talk about as well. And the way we
draft the code rather
than taking your current 24 sub chapters and jumbling them
up and coming with in
front of you with something different we've done it in
modules. The first piece
there's a staff draft. Staff reviews it. Richard and Scott
have been reviewing
our most recent drafts as well as a number of individuals
from the
engineering department and all of the planners have been
involved. Giving us
the technical details what's it going to take to make sure
that it works for
Denton staff. They give us all of their comments and then
we turn around a
public draft and that is what was distributed to you all.
That is what we
will present to the public this evening as well. We've
gotten a lot of comments
on that first module. We've gotten a lot of comments so far
on the second module
and we expect to see a lot of comments on the quality
standards. We'll take all
of those into one table or one document and try to address
as many of those as
we can and turn those into a consolidated draft. That's an
important
piece and you'll see that on the right hand side of the
screen. Later this
spring probably early June you'll be presented with all
three modules in one
document. Now you can piece together how the districts and
uses relate to the
development quality standards. I can do this use but how
much parking do I need
and who do I need to see for an approval. We'll knit those
all together in one
document and that is the document that will be ultimately
presented for
adoption both to the Planning Commission and City Council.
So a lot of work to go
but we've done an awful lot of work thus far and we're
moving on a very quick
pace and again we'll be back next month to talk about that
third piece. So again
I mentioned you have 23 or 24 sub chapters in your current
DDC. We have
gotten that down to eight sub chapters. We think that's a
good improvement. If
you were to just open up the table of contents alone we've
made a big
improvement. It's easy to find material related to
development in Denton now
under this new structure. Today we're going to focus on
really the first two
sub chapters general provisions and the administration and
procedures. So let's
dive right in. In addition to the overall project goals
this module in particular
has goals that are specific to it some of them which
overlap but first and
foremost align with state law. One example specialist
exceptions. The city
attorney noted that hey we really don't have that authority
with the current
ordinance in our city to be doing special exceptions and so
we've stripped
that out. Making sure that we have public hearings for the
types of
applications that require them pursuant to state law. So
that is an important
first step that we take when drafting a code but also to
streamline the process
and when we say streamlining the process get rid of a lot
of the dreck. Right now
you have a lot of things that are in the code that simply
or should not be
located within the code. Like how many copies of a document
do I need to
submit when I submit my application. That can just be
outside in a separate
manual. Streamlining the procedures also means delegating a
lot of decision-making
authority to staff rather than having an alternative
development plan procedure.
We've introduced some other tools that we think can avoid
that lengthy process
and still offers a lot of flexibility for development. So
we will talk more
about that in the second half of the presentation. I
mentioned this third and
final bullet point. Engineering standards, submittal
requirements, application
requirements, some things just should not be in your code.
For one you can update
those on a more regular basis without requiring a full code
amendment that
requires public hearings and council approval. So we have
noted those things.
If you read the footnotes in the commentary you will see
lots of
references to outside manuals. Staff is working on criteria
manuals right now.
Several of them have already been completed and are up on
the city's
website. Some of them are still underway. It's our job to
work closely with staff
to make sure that we haven't left anything out and that
there's a home
for all of the things that are important to development. So
let's dive right into
the details if we could. Subchapter 1, general standards.
Not always the sexiest
part of a zoning code to review but this is really
important for the attorneys
especially. What is the applicability of the DDC? What is
the jurisdiction of the
DDC? How is the DDC enforced? How do we handle violations
and penalties and
remedies for such violations? In addition, how do we treat
both
nonconformities, buildings, structures, uses that were
established legally
at some point but because of the new DDC or the current DDC
no longer comply
with those regulations. We have really clarified how those
properties would be
treated in the future. Not a lot of changes to those from
your current DDC to
the new but again clarifying what happens in those cases.
Also transitioning from
the prior regulations, your current DDC to the new proposed
DDC. What happens if
somebody submits an application under the current DDC? Do
they have the
option to be evaluated under the new DDC once adopted? And
the answer is yes, they
do. Also, how we, I think I mentioned how if something was
a violation today in the
current DDC, in the new DDC that would also be treated as a
violation unless
what we have drafted, what is adopted ends up bringing that
property into
compliance. So actually I'm gonna pause there. Are there
any questions about the
overall project overview, the process that we're using to
bring this forward
or just the general standards that first subchapter one
before we dive into the
procedures? I have a question. Commissioner Sanchez. When
you, I guess
when you're going through it, can we just interject if we
have a question or do
my, I had a couple of questions but I kind of wrote them
down but I think you
answered them later. How does this procedure gonna work?
Well let me pause
and ask for a clarification from staff. Is this being tele
vised? Do the guys in
the back need to know who's speaking or can we suspend the
rules and do more of
a free-for-all? I know that's the issue is who's making the
comments for
minutes. So question. I'll say that legally we probably
ought to recognize
speakers. Okay. Commissioner Sanchez. All right. Well I
wanted to find out first if
we could ask questions. When you were talking about state
making compliance
with it with the state, does that mean, I guess my question
is if
there's a developer and he comes and he comes to and asks
he's gonna build
something and he needs to know okay this is the city
procedures, will he also be
at that point told you also have to follow these state
procedures so
you're in compliance or does he have to go out to the state
or some other agency
to find out if there's other requirements? I understand
your
question. Most of the time where we have updated the DDC to
align with state
statutes, we just recite the same text required by state
statute so we have
fixed your current DDC to align with what the state statute
says. There are
however cross references provided in the document that say
pursuant to state
statute and we even give specific references to the local
government code.
Still in most cases the city is not going to tell you oh
you better go read
the state law. They're gonna know that your application has
to rely on
compliance with those state statutes in addition to what's
in the DDC. So go ahead.
If I might just maybe add a piece to that that ultimately
the task or the
charge part of the charge was to take our our development
code and refine it
to where it is we were consistent with state law and and
that's the reference
that he's speaking to. Whenever it is that a contractor is
proposing to do
something we're gonna answer every possible question that
we can. There are
elements i.e. if someone is doing work on a text dot right-
of-way that they're
gonna have to deal with that authority and work through
text dot so there are
gonna be times that someone's gonna have to deal with the
state of Texas or the
federal government on a project if it has to do with
aviation but for the most
part this document is gonna be consistent with state law
with the
exception of any nuances that council puts into it if that
helps answer the
question. Yeah I was just concerned about small builders
you know and what they
they might face if they have to deal with state regulations
and not and not
and they're not aware of it so that's I just want to make a
comment on that. Well
it it's a really good question and I'll talk later in the
presentation about
some of the improvements that we've made to the code in
this draft to make it a
lot easier especially for the smaller small town developer
the folks the mom
and pop developers who are not doing this all over the
country or or even
frequently in Denton. The main philosophy was let's make
this easier on people
where we can without giving away the farm for city benefits
as well. Any other
questions at this stage? Okay go the next. Okay so I
promised fun now we'll get
into it the administration and procedures. This the bullets
you see here
is the basic organization of this subchapter 2 so these are
the sections
within subchapter 2. We start with just a general purpose
and organization here's
how we laid out the subchapter and then we get into a
summary table I'm gonna
show you that table it's a very useful tool that we think
provides a lot of
clarity and then we'll get into some of these in more
detail than others with
good examples that we think will be interesting to you all.
Let's start with
the table so this is near the beginning of subchapter 2.
This is a basic summary
of all of the development application types that you might
see before the
Planning Commission, before staff, before City Council.
Along the left hand side
are those specific application types starting with site
plan review. This is a
great example where it's not very clear in your current
regulations what the
requirements are for site plan review. Most of those
requirements in fact live
outside of the DDC so you'd really have to be pretty savvy
especially if you were
an out-of-towner or a first-time developer to understand
what those
requirements are. We have developed a specific procedure
for that and as you
move across the page for each application type it shows you
is a
neighborhood meeting recommended for that application. Do
we have to notice
the public for this type of application? Do I have to sit
down and have a
pre-application conference with staff where we learn more
about the procedures
and then ultimately who is the decision-making body for
that type so
looking at site plan review. City staff there's a D in that
cell they are the
decision-making authority for that type of application and
the R means review so
your development advisory committee is going to review them
. Staff makes the
final decision. You'll see brackets and carrots here those
having to refer to
public meetings, public hearings that are required and the
A's having to do with
the appeal authority. So appeals a very important feature
of this draft does not
mean you just didn't like the decision that was made by the
applicable
decision-making body. It means there was an error in the
application of the code.
There was a mistake somewhere by that decision-making body
and so we are
appealing based on that decision and we've we've included
those in this table.
So a lot of information that was in lengthy paragraphs of
text all
summarized in this one table. This is half of it. The next
half you'll see we
have plan and DDC amendments things like amending the
zoning map, rezoning the
applications, amending the comprehensive plan so if you
want to do a future land
use designation revision there's a process for that as well
. Flexibility and
relief that's really the focus of this project. When we
were hired to do this
project we need to be more flexible where we can for infill
and redevelopment a
lot of the things that you'll probably see in Denton over
the next 10, 15, 20
years. We shouldn't have to ask for a variance or an
alternative development
plan every time we need a little bit of flexibility. So we
've got some additional
procedures here. We'll walk you through this new minor
modification procedure in
greater detail and we think that's one way to prevent so
many negotiated
developments here in Denton. So if you as a Planning
Commission I know with module
one we encouraged you all to spend a lot of time with the
use table because that
was our summary of what you can do with your property and
where you could do
that. This is a great table for the Planning Commission
even after we leave
to spend time at this table and say is this really the
appropriate type of
application to be heard by staff Planning Commission. This
is a good use
of your time to spend talking about. The next section is
really just provides the
overview of who the decision-making bodies are in the city.
City Council,
Planning and Zoning Commission, you know what you all do,
you know your charge,
what should the ZBA be doing, what is the the purview of
the Historic Landmark
Commission and in city staff as well. What is the Planning
Director's job and
what types of bylaws are there for all of these different
approval bodies. The
one I'll point out here is the Development Advisory
Committee currently
known as your Development Review Committee, the DRC. That
has been somewhat
of a vague process and we've heard a lot of inconsistent
remarks about the DRC and
whether or not that's been successful or unsuccessful but
we did know that we
needed to provide more clarity for who that body is, what
is their role in
reviewing development applications and so we have been more
thorough about that
with this draft DDC. Section 2.4, the common review
procedures. This is a new
concept in at least as far as the drafting goes for the DDC
. Right now
you've got lots of different types of application types
spelled out from
preliminary plats, final plats, development plats, not your
site plan
procedures but specific use permits and under each of those
application types
you describe the pre-application conference requirements.
You describe
noticing for the public hearings, you describe that
decision-making process. We
have taken all of those points that were really some
variation of the same thing
and we just say it once right up front in the common review
procedures. Most of
these application or most of these steps in the common
review procedures apply to
most application types in the city so we say it once and we
've been pretty clear
about what those steps should entail. This helps you keep
the code shorter for
one. It also prevents you from running into inconsistencies
as you update the
code over time so when you say it only one time and you
make a revision you
know you have captured that without creating a conflict. So
quickly looking
at this this table, the graphic at the bottom, this first
step pre-application
activities. What do I need to do before I even submit an
application? I sit down
with staff. What type of materials do I need to present to
them to be ready for
that meeting and what should I expect to happen at that
meeting? That is all
spelled out in step one. Step two, how do I submit my
application and what types of
rights do I get from submitting that application? How soon
should I expect to
hear back from the city and what is my next step in terms
of review and
evaluation? Step three, the staff review and action. For
some project types, staff
will be the review body and they will evaluate it and they
will prepare a
staff report and make a recommendation but they're not the
final decision-making
body. When it goes beyond staff to Planning and Zoning
Commission or City
Council, you go into steps four and five, sending out
notice, scheduling public
hearings. These are all laid out pretty clearly in the
common review procedures
and then finally step six, what happens after I get
approval of a project? Does
that application expire? Does my approval expire over time?
Are there other things
I need to do in terms of recording the document or what if
I wanted to modify a
site plan for example? That's all spelled out in that sixth
step and this is
important because now as we walk through those different
categories of
application types, development permits, subdivision, DDC
amendments, flexibility
and relief procedures, we refer back to that diagram and
identify the steps that
are required in relation to that specific application type.
So let's start
with the first category, development permits and procedures
. These are site
plans, specific use permits, temporary use permits, change
of use permit which
is new and I'll talk about what we are proposing there and
then gas well
development site plans which we are not touching by the way
. We're not amending
the gas well development procedures. We're carrying those
forward as is. So
starting with site plan, here's an example of how we relate
back to the
common review procedures. It was important to codify and
simplify those
procedures because most of it again lived outside of the
current DDC and then
clarify what if I want to make an amendment to a site plan?
How do I go
through that process? You'll see here that yes you need a
pre-application
conference. We give extra detail for each specific
application type. You need that
conference. You submit your application to the director. It
's reviewed and decided on by the
director. Steps four and five don't apply then. There is no
public hearing aspect of
that type of project but your site plan expires if you're
not doing any
activity on the site within two years of that approval. So
that's one example.
Now some changes that we proposed are the thresholds for
site plan approval.
When does this application type apply to me as a property
owner? If you're doing
new construction, site plan is always required. If you're
reconstructing after
you've demolished the building, well that's the same thing
as new
construction. If you're expanding existing residential or
mixed-use or
non-residential, 10 dwelling units or 10%, 2,000 square
feet for mixed use or 10
dwelling units or 10%, and then for non-residential
expansion, 2,000 square
feet or 20% of the total square footage. Commissioner Smith
. Thank you Chair.
Voluntary being the word up there. So take a natural
disaster for example, like
something on the square that happened out there and that
might be different
because it's a historical preservation overlay but we had a
building that burned down there
that completely destroyed it. What's the line drawn between
voluntary and
voluntary? What's the definition on that? That's a good
question. This is not
intended to apply to natural disaster or hazards caused
that are not
because of the applicant's intention. Thank you.
So tornado, no that's not voluntary demolition. So these
are new thresholds.
Right now, if you don't meet these thresholds, you're
expanding your
existing residential building or mixed-use or non-resident
ial building and
it's under these thresholds, that doesn't mean you don't
need a permit. It just
means you go straight up for your building permit at that
point. There's
no need to have a specific process from the land use
perspective. You just go
pull your building permit. The building division will make
sure that it
complies with existing zoning regulations and that's how
they work
together with the Planning Department.
Change of use permit, this is really a certificate of use
or certificate of
zoning compliance. This is a really important feature
because a lot of
problems with planning agencies and city staff is we don't
know what's happening
to buildings after we've approved it. When tenants change
over, we're not
always made aware of that process and so how do we know if
they even comply with
the code? This gives you the opportunity to apply a
certificate of use change. So
if somebody's moving in to a new building, does that new
use comply with
the zoning requirements? Let's say I'm changing from a
light manufacturing use
that doesn't require a lot of parking and all of a sudden
you're putting in
offices into a same building. Well that's gonna require a
lot more parking and
there are different features and impacts from that type of
a building use that
the city would be concerned with or at least want to make
sure that any
potential impacts are addressed. So this is something that
has been proposed. A lot
of times people who are looking for something to do on
their property just
need something in writing from city staff to say can you
tell me by letter
that my site is in conformance with the current DDC? This
is another another way
for city staff to engage in that type of a conversation and
make it official
through this application type. Subdivision procedures, not
a lot to say
on this other than we have carried forward a lot of your
current standards
on subdivisions, made it very clear what's required for
each different type,
who the ultimate decision-making bodies are, and again
reflecting your
mostly your current subdivision requirements but also
addressing some
of the current inconsistencies that you had with state law
and then making sure
that we defined who the ultimate decision-making authority
is for those.
The third category was plan and DDC amendments so amending
the land use
designation, amending the map, the zoning map. There's lots
of ways to do that. We
can amend it to a base zoning district which we talked
about last time we were
here. We can amend it to a PD, a planned development. Right
now you have overlays
and planned developments and base zoning districts. We
think we've landed on a
good lineup of zoning districts where you will see a lot
less use of that tool
and we've got a couple of slides on PDs later in the
presentation. There's also
just amending the text of the ordinance. What if I want to
change the setback of
one particular zoning district? That's a text amendment to
the code and that can
be brought forward by the Planning Commission or by the
City Council but it
is an amendment to the zoning code, the DDC. This also
includes annexations, not a
lot of changes there. Again, that's another good example
where it's
important to just align the DDC with the Texas local
government code as it applies
to annexation. So plan development. Here's our slide to get
into a little
more detail there. Currently you have a lot of tools to
allow flexibility for
those really big projects. Think Razor Ranch and these are
big and they're
different and you don't really have a zoning district that
addresses
something that big and complex with a lot of different uses
and user types.
But you call them master plan communities and sometimes you
have a lot
of individually negotiated overlay districts that, "Hey I
want to rezone my
property." "Fine we'll let you rezone." "Well I also want
to change the setbacks
and the building height." So you've applied over time a lot
of layers of
band-aids over individual properties. The problem there is
that there are so many
at this point it is very unclear to staff or to surrounding
neighborhoods
what's actually allowed on that property. What's allowed on
my property? There's a
lot of different codes or documents that you have to track
down to really
understand the entitlements of individual properties in
Denton. We don't think you
should get rid of the plan development tool. As good of a
job as we can do
coming up with zoning districts and quality standards,
there's going to be
somebody who comes in the door six months from now with a
project that we
didn't think of. With a new mix of uses with a new set of
impacts that you need
a little bit of flexibility. We have revised it to require
you know really
that you're demonstrating a public benefit to the city.
Fine we understand
that you have something different. It's worthy of amending
the standards as
drafted in the DDC, but you have to document to us what
type of benefit is
the city getting? Are there additional amenities that are
provided? Is there an
affordable housing component just as an example? What types
of things are you
doing that are above and beyond the requirement to offset
the need to
amend our standards? We all agreed we're good policy
direction. So the goal
with the new DDC was just to really rather than rely on PDs
for these tools
improve the quality standards which I know you haven't seen
those yet. That's
next month, but because there's a lot more flexible
standards and parking is a
good example of that right now. Minimum parking is also the
maximum parking
amount. That's not very flexible. So by offering a lot more
options for flexible
tools it is less likely in the future that people will need
to negotiate
individual developments or apply conditions on particular
sites. So we've
introduced a new PD district same as a rezoning, but there
's a lot more detail
that's required. You need to be able to demonstrate before
you even submit an
application what is your general concept from a bubble
diagram schematic? What are
you trying to do with the site? What is the phasing plan so
that staff can have
the ability to comment very early before you submit an
application? It is a
streamlined process so this can all happen a lot quicker,
but again
demonstrating that public benefit and not just offering PDs
for everything. We
have also proposed a site size requirement. Right now it's
drafted at
five acres to be able to apply for a rezoning to PD. We're
not sure if that'll
be the number that we end up with. We'd like your feedback
on that at some point.
There's a lot of infill opportunity in Denton and if some
of the sites that
would be that would need additional flexibility after you
've spent enough
time with the draft maybe that requirement is adjusted
either up or
down. Final point I'll make here is that your existing
entitlements, what happens
to PDs that were already approved? Those don't go away. The
new DDC does not strip
those owners rights of what was established in those plan
developments so
those will still remain intact. Further discussion required
on how we better
relate that to the current DDC. A lot of PDs they give you
some of the standards
they might say here's the uses that are allowed, here's the
setbacks and height
that's required but they don't talk about parking. Well so
if it's silent on
that PD we're gonna be very clear that that would probably
apply the new DDC
standards but we need to flesh that out with our module
three. The final category
of procedure types is flexibility and relief again one of
the major focuses of
this project. Your variance applications not a lot of
changes there these are
based on hardships things that were not really caused by
the applicant. You've
got a specific feature of the site that's really different
from other
similar sized properties where you need a variance for it
to mitigate a certain
condition. This new tool a minor modification this is an
administrative
tool mostly an administrative tool where in a site plan as
an example if I just
need a little flexibility to adjust the setback or to
adjust the required
parking you now have that as a tool in your toolkit to say
yeah that makes
sense there's an added benefit to the city or this is
really a necessary
change to comply with all of the other standards in the DDC
director has the
authority to to apply those. Now it's not limited to just
the director if you were
going for a specific use permit for example that requires a
public hearing
and so at that public hearing that same decision-making
body would also make the
decision on a minor modification in that case. I'll go into
more detail on that
one we've got appeals of administrative decisions any
decision that is made at
the staff level whether it's a interpretation of use or
classification
of a use that is not currently listed in your code up to
approval or denial of a
site plan application anything made at the staff level
those can be appealed to
the ZBA and so we've spelled out a procedure for that and
then the
alternative ESA plan this is a separate process right now
that's been going on
you all are aware that this is underway as soon as that is
ready for public
distribution that is something that will ultimately be
folded into the DDC but
Clarion is involved in reviewing those drafts and we just
want to make sure that
it is aligned and consistent with all of the other
development quality standards
that are also underway but that you will likely not see
that portion in the next
draft and will come later this spring with the consolidated
draft more detail
on the minor modifications right now there are a lot of
applications that
require this alternative development plan which has to be
negotiated I want
to adjust the parking I want to move the dumpster to a
different location I want
to do something different with my building design this
allows a much
simpler procedure for making those decisions but not all
things could be
adjusted using this new procedure and we've listed those
below you can't
change the density or the use of a project that would not
be an appropriate
administrative tool you can't deviate from use specific
standards things that
are really established to protect neighborhoods or specific
environmental
features and you can't use it to get out of or modify
public improvements that
are required with with a new development we put this into a
table we like tables
I think that's obvious at this point we hope you do too a
lot of things you can
do with this minor modification tool adjusting the lot area
and lot coverage
that might apply at the subdivision stage of development
setbacks and
building standards like height and minimum unit sizes
number of required
parking spaces the amount of minimum landscaping required
you want to have
that flexibility especially for infill properties
especially for really
challenging sites throughout the city Commissioner Roseau
thank you chair we
talked briefly about this this morning but I wanted to ask
a follow-up question
how what's the organic process to nail down those numbers
are we looking at
like past cases and seeing like on an aggregate people are
asking for
variances of 10% that seem that those all pass but when we
get into a variance
of 20% then we get some pushback or how how's the best way
to instead of just
like it feels right how how can this Commission and others
know how to really
get down to where those numbers need to be finalized I'll
give you a multi
pronged response one is I think looking at past cases of
how things were
adjusted either through the ADP or through you know waivers
or negotiated
development or through variances those are all based on
your current DDC so
it's kind of comparing apples to oranges so I would not
recommend that we just
look at those past applications say all right that's
basically how much they had
to vary we need to base it on the new standards that are
being presented and
again because they're a lot more flexible landscaping based
on point
system now new parking systems that get away from that min-
max approach they're
more flexible in nature so part of it has to be relying on
a starting point
for discussion and that's what we've proposed here it's not
a science to it
quite honestly it's more of an art and we need to think
about all right 10% is
fairly modest fairly conservative if you think that you'd
like more
flexibility if you as you're reading the development
standards in module 3 and
you think boy that might not work for a lot of my projects
then we might need to
either raise or reduce these percentages a lot of getting
these right is going to
come after you've adopted the code quite honestly a year or
two from now Scott
and his team need to be very cautious and judicious about
how this tool is
used it should not just be the new norm that you're always
10% doesn't mean your
setback is always 10% less than what the code says you need
to see what types of
conditions really warrant the use of this tool and if you
always need more
flexibility and you're not able to get there using this
minor mod then maybe
you adjust that through a future code amendment I hope that
was helpful but a
lot of it is just having discussions between now and
adoption but then post
adoption as well okay so that's really the highlights some
of the things that
we thought were some of the biggest most interesting
changes from your your
current DDC to what has been proposed I want to focus a
little bit on what's
happening next in terms of process yesterday already
happened so that's
done today is mostly done and that's what we're going to be
up to we met with
several members of City Council and the Planning Commission
this morning had
very thoughtful feedback that advisory committee is really
going to be helpful
over the next six to eight weeks they're going to be
spending a lot of time going
through maybe not line by line but topic by topic making
sure that we've covered
the basis making sure that we're following appropriate
policy guidance so
that by the time it gets to the adoption phase a lot of the
bigger issues have
been vetted the other important thing and Margie and Andrew
and Larry sit on
that committee is reporting back to you all the Planning
Commission as a whole
say here's what we talked about what do you all think and
then bringing that
feedback back to the committee so we've got that going on
in the background
staff is going to be working with them a lot over the next
six weeks additional
stakeholder meetings today we met with the DCDA over at the
chamber heard a lot
of feedback about you know actually mostly open arms about
this new process
they were excited to hear that we're streamlining I think
it means different
things to different people but generally have been pleased
with some of the
direction that the city has been going under over the past
couple of months and
what's to come out of this tonight we've got the open house
not sure what to
expect hopefully a good turnout given the weather but
typically we do get a
lot of people that show up and give us their their feedback
on not only the
process but what they'd like to see out of the procedures
and the districts and
uses I mentioned that the next part is the quality
standards a lot of people
find that to be the most interesting part of the code
because we're talking
about things that they can picture in their heads trees and
landscaping and
parking we'll be back on the 17th and 18th that'll be Jim
and myself we'll be
here to run through basically the same set of meetings that
you see here
another opportunity for you all to comment hopefully you'll
have a chance
to review the draft a little bit in advance before those
meetings but we
will be back to talk about those and then you'll have a
better picture of how
these three pieces relate to each other a big component of
adopting a new DDC
especially a new set of zoning districts as well how do we
map this right now
you've got 28 zoning districts on the books well we're
going we're proposing
to get that down to 14 zoning districts so there's a
mapping component there
that's required how do we convert zoning districts as we
have proposed
consolidations of some of those NR districts and our
districts and other
districts we've created new mixed-use districts well how do
those apply to the
map cities have lots of different ways of handling this
process oftentimes
they will just take a very light touch and say yeah we're
just going to do the
conversions right now from renaming one district to
something else other
communities really use this as an open door opportunity to
say let's fix all
the problems that we know exist out there let's open the
door to property
owners and say what do we think your zoning should actually
be this what do
you think let's let's really have that dialogue and make
sure if we're going to
go through this process of updating the map that we get it
right I will tell you
that most cities land somewhere in the middle and we think
that's where Denton
will land as well you want to take a relatively
conservative approach and
make sure that we've captured the new lineup of zoning
districts to align with
your future land use plan but also fix some of the issues
one that's been
brought up repeatedly over the past couple of days is a
property that zoned
for residential but there are so many gas wells there that
you really can't do
residential uses there so it probably should be zoned
something else so that
it's not really misclassified and I think there are several
of those within
the community staff has taken the first crack they have
developed a draft
methodology for how these conversions will take place and
we have been working
with them on that as well they are going to roll out a new
map starting in late
April and going through May to take this out to the
community to really open it
up hey we're telling you here's your current zoning on your
property we have
proposed a new zoning district and in some cases it might
be more flexible I
would I would guess that in most cases this will create it
will really open
doors for things to happen on properties rather than
restrict them but that
conversation needs to be had they have prepared comment
cards it would be
shipped out to every property owner and allow that
conversation to take place
and they might also be considering an opportunity to come
in and if somebody
wants to rezone their property rather than requiring a rez
oning application
that is usually fairly lengthy and tedious that might be
able to be rolled
into this zoning map change with the overall DDC update so
a lot of
discussions still yet to be had on this issue but you can
see these these
meetings are coming up quickly and they're going to take it
around to all
of the respective council districts as well we hope you all
have a chance to
take part in those mapping discussions I think it's really
important not only for
your personal property that you may may own in the city but
your constituents as
well
this is kind of a rehashing of what we've already told you
so I won't spend
time there spend some time on the Denton code 2030 comm
website if you're looking
for a document that has been released to the public you
should find it there
staff has been very good about maintaining that website so
that's where
you can look for any future it's kind of the project home
base for everything
that we're doing and that is the presentation I know a lot
of talking to
you so now we get to open it up for conversation
Commissioner Smith thank
you chair you're riffing so well I don't want to interrupt
you earlier we were
talking about PD's you've mentioned that you know right now
our current code is
five acres you said that to a certain degree lessening that
can be be
beneficial last more flexible how much less because though
and there you're
right there's a lot of infill in the area that we need but
we don't want to
make it to where every single you know new subdivision that
comes in here wants
to develop you know then I even really I wouldn't call a
subdivision every little
new neighborhood that wants to come and develop a two or
three acre tract of
land basically build its own zoning handbook at that point
in time does that
make sense so yeah it does what what what what level of
minimum do you expect
if we don't have a solid number right now what level of
minimum do you would
you would you recommend or would you see I'm not I'm not
certain I wouldn't
venture into a specific number have you seen other
communities do this is a
starting point I think we'll have to see what comes through
the comments on the
third and final module quite honestly okay that's gonna
give us a better
roadmap for adjusting that PD number if it looks like
people are generally
satisfied with the proposed parking and landscaping and
building design then
there's probably going to be less use of the PD tool at all
if it seems like we
were getting a lot of comments and boy I've got a parcel
that's really unique
it wouldn't meet any of these standards and there's a lot
of the two to three
acre folks out there they're gonna have problems with those
standards maybe we
would cut that back a little bit five acres may be where
you stay we just
don't know until we have fully vetted the code the same
thing goes with the
zoning map we're gonna make adjustments to the use table we
're gonna make
adjustments to the lineup of zoning districts but when the
map is released
for public consumption that's when you really start getting
feedback from the
public they might say you know I'd be comfortable with that
district but not
if you allow this type of use in that district so a lot of
the changes are
gonna happen at that consolidated stage once we have fully
vetted each piece
I got a couple of questions I made notes on I noticed here
through the
administrative particularly in the appeal process there's
time limits that
you have to appeal decisions but I didn't notice and I may
have just missed
it because I read through quickly are there time limits for
the city to
respond take action review plans and if they don't meet
those timelines it's
approved as is instead of being caught in the situation of
we go week after
week and are there any considerations contemplated about
those types of things
being added to our code at this time likely not a lot of
those integrated
directly into the DDC those are the types of things that
are developed as
processes under Scott's direction processes that are
documented sometimes
in the administrative manual in the development criteria
manuals they're
important it's important to make sure that staff is keeping
up their end of
the bargain I will tell you that in working with Scott over
the past few
months we've already seen a lot of changes to how things
are are handled
for development in the city we expect that to be fully
fleshed out in the
manuals and between the DDC and those manuals there will be
a very clear
procedure of what to expect and should be covered at those
pre-development
applications as well and mr. chairman to your point yes
there there absolutely
will be documentation of that no different than the
expectation today
whether it's it's not written is that a project manager
ultimately when there's
a submittal placed that a project manager is reaching out
within 48 hours
so there should be contact from the city to the applicant
to say I have your
project etc etc and that's not written anywhere that's not
codified codified but
when we get to the administrative manual all of that be
laid out so that yes we
are accountable to the applicant the citizens as well as
the citizens and the
applicants are accountable to the city so that's great is
there a mechanism
that's going to be put in place that if you exceed those
timelines that those
things are approved or they just held up until they get
looked at well I was
gonna respond to the first part so generally speaking as we
try to remove
most timelines from the code you know those are things that
you want to be
able to be nimble on and respond to you know bigger
projects with taking a
little bit more time smaller projects move through more
quickly so most
communities take timelines out of their code they put them
in an administrative
manual some communities do make them hard and fast
deadlines but most keep
them advisory because they want to have that flexibility so
that's just a
general rule there is there are a couple of specific
timelines that we did put in
the draft one is application completeness you know which is
Texas
government code so that's the 10 business days after it's
filed the
director has to make a determination of completeness that
one if they don't get
a response about completeness within 10 days that is deemed
complete so that's
one of the few places where we do have a deemed complete
review in there we
actually have added some language here that you don't have
now that you might
want to take a look at this is on page 30 of the draft when
you get a chance
and we have clarified what happens if someone submits an
application that is
determined incomplete and there's actually more process
here than you have
now more clarity and it says if the application is
determined not to be
complete the director shall provide written notice to the
applicant notice
shall specify how it's incomplete and then the director
shall provide this
notice no later than the 10th business day after the
application is filed then
the application expires on or after the 45th day if the
application filed is if
the applicant doesn't provide the things that were said to
be lacking in the
application so there's more process there generally
speaking most communities
don't have deemed approvals that's not something we would
recommend put in a
code most communities have gotten away from that if there's
ever a deemed
automatic action it's a deemed denial but that's a policy
decision for you all
to have but we don't have anything like that in the code
but this this is
directly responsive to your first question so I just wanted
to put that up.
Okay thank you my second one is the times in the past when
the city has done
these you're correct these are very complicated and there's
a lot of moving
pieces on it is there a mechanism for and I just wrote a
note on here
unintended consequences or conflicts that to your point we
make a large change
and somebody comes forward and goes there's an issue with
my project is there
a mechanism in here of how that gets resolved and you're
not hung up with
your your project is no longer in compliance because we've
had a change in
standards yeah I think there there are several mechanisms
that have been
integrated into this draft one of those is just the minor
modification tool that
gives you the authority to make some adjustments without
having to go through
a public hearing process you realize there's something
about that site that
is particularly challenging and you're willing to make an
adjustment because of
that what you haven't seen yet is actually baked directly
into the
development standards like the landscaping and the parking
there are
escape valves there there too let's say look we know these
are the standards you
can come to us with an alternative approach for landscape
design as an
example if you're showing that you meet the intent of the
code but it's got to
be something different because again you have a particular
site challenge if you're
meeting the intent of the code you can present something
that way the same for
parking if you're willing to show a demand study that says
something
different than the requirement then you have the authority
to be reviewing those
things which is a more flexible approach without having to
negotiate in a public
forum at a public hearing you've got a lot of baked-in
tools within the
standards beyond that this is where those percentages come
into play if if
you're just asking not to play by the rules because you don
't feel like it then
no that that's no let me clear up my question and what
might it might be a
variance for other let me clear up my question because what
my concern is is
that we're doing a complete rezone of the entire city yeah
and we're changing
the rules yeah of how zoning is the standards and the
requirements people
who've purchased property for people who are developing
property that have begun
projects whether they may have made an application or not
let's say there's
some of both there's pre applications and there's people
who may have done
applications they may have some relief as far as vesting
per se but for people
who've bought properties with the intention of developing
under zoning
codes currently in place and we change those when the city
re zones the whole
city now when you bring your project in you will now fall
under new zoning
requirements that may be different than the zoning
requirements were as you
purchased or in process and haven't made application and
and that's where my
question goes to those types of instances because it is a
zoning it will
have a completely it will control what can be done with
that property now and
so if there are unintended consequences if there are
conflicts and it's greater
than 10% how do those instances get resolved in a timely
manner versus they
fall into an administrative black hole of it's no longer
compatible and now it's
gonna have to be non-conforming all types of issues that
may come up in
those types of instances I hope that maybe clarifies what
my concern is yes
thank you now I better understand your question and I will
say for the most
part and I think I mentioned earlier there should be more
opportunities
rather than fewer opportunities under the new DDC but there
will be instances
where a site is made non-conforming we have tried to reduce
the the number of
times that we think that might happen that's always a
question that we ask of
staff if they were to suggest well let's just change that
setback requirement
well how many non-conformities are you going to create in
doing that so that's
always in the back of our minds as we're drafting I think
we'll try to minimize
those now is the time to get involved there is a lag period
between adoption
of the code and adoption of the map and the effective date
of the code in the
map and there there will be property owners that decide you
know I actually
am not satisfied with where this ended up and I'm gonna get
my application in
now rather than later because I want to come in under the
the current DDC versus
the new adopted DDC there are others that are gonna wait
conversely and say
alright I'm gonna wait until this is effective because I
really like the new
rules better than than what I have see Matt wants to jump
in yeah one
additional comment I didn't realize you were going down the
best team road
that's a category of issues that I would just say up front
we need to spend more
time working with the the staff and the legal staff
especially in terms of
incorporating into the common review procedure framework
that we've got it's
gonna be in there in some way I want to make sure that we
do it the right way
it's sometimes you know as you know is gonna be automatic
for certain types of
applications not for others in Colorado we have a slightly
different scheme you
know we actually have a you have to make an affirmative
request for vested
rights in certain ways and so we structure it as a discrete
permit I don't
think we do it that way here but we still need to talk with
your legal staff
about the best way to do that but if that if your question
is primarily
especially about the automatic approvals going down the
investing road that's my
response I don't know the answers I'm just yeah no it's
thinking out loud that
if you're doing things under current zoning and the zoning
changes and it's
no longer in compliance what what is your relief and if it
's ten percent that
may not meet the standard and then you're put in a non-con
forming or some
of these other issues and so that was just a question if if
there is going to
be a mechanism of there's a certain amount of time to get
your projects done
under the old rules or the new rules or to your point it's
adopted and after six
months or 12 months this is it I'm just curious how that
process is and and and
if we get to see what that process is to evaluate it I don
't think it's an easy
answer I think you've got a collection of different types
of entitlements out
there you may have to get by the mic the little a little
snow cone like went off
so I think I think it's you'll definitely have a chance to
to weigh in
on that strategy it'll be part of the overall kind of you
know collection of
things that you you ultimately recommend approval on I don
't think it's gonna
make you maybe a uniform strategy for all the different
entitlements that you
have out there because we've been talking with staff you
have a variety of
things that have been approved over time and some of them
may be ambiguous as to
whether or not they are subject to the new code standards
and so we need to
work with your staff and figure out kind of the best
approaches for those
different things that are out there I trust you I will work
through that I
just want to raise those couple of points and I appreciate
the feedback
Commissioner Ellis thank you chair I guess going back to
this question if there
is a project in process and has been approved with the old
code and it's not
complete and and this gets approved and adopted and and has
an effective date
nothing does have to change on that current project though
correct
Commissioner Beck thank you even though the zoning has
dramatically changed it's
it's locked in correct well yeah the application they're
gonna build single
family residential but the zoning change where there's like
NRM you know quite
dramatic but their applications already locked in so
despite the zone change
ill-state correct okay well I'll ask just to clarify if
there's a project in
place does the zoning stay with what it is or is it going
to go to the new
because if the new requirements zoning wise are more string
ent than the old
ones you may have projects that do not meet the new zoning
requirements for
example let's just throw a white elephant out in the room
let's say your
setbacks are different you have current zoning in place we
've talked about
setbacks and the setbacks change so you have projects that
are being developed
with certain certain setbacks but you don't have building
permits being
requested now so in six months twelve months building
permits are requested
for projects that have been developed under certain
guidelines you go to pull
building permit for those you look at the zoning here are
the setbacks and now
the setbacks are different than what the sizes were for the
property the way it
was originally developed that property should be evaluated
based on the
earlier setbacks that were in place when the complete
application was filed okay
even though it's two different things it's developed as a
certain deal but it
doesn't have a building permit pulled until a later date if
I can just clarify
for single-family residential at that in that particular
instance there wouldn't
be a site plan that's technically done really through
preliminary and final
plan so I guess at that point it would be guess what we
look at when that final
plat was approved if it was based on a current zoning
district that's just
something we need to work through so there's also changes
to piggyback on that
there's changes being talked about with places being
required for two-car
parking out front and two-car parking in garage for four
parking places there
projects in Denton that have single garages with a single
parking place so
somebody's developing projects for that type of product
they don't haven't pulled
a building permit now they come in a year from now when
their development is
done to pull a building permit to go build a house and they
have to have four
parking spaces that product cannot be built on that
developed lot that was
done under the old zoning I think this is part of the
overall best thing
conversation that we need to have with your attorney's
office as well what what
happens to those current types of situations I don't want
to spend all of
our time giving specific examples there a lot of other
people here with questions
I just want to throw a couple out that was the point of the
question and I
thought you gave a good answer but I won't make sure that
there's enough
detail and enough mechanisms to address very specific
questions that aren't
going to be 10% for car garage or for car parking to two is
50% so my question
is every time in the past I've been in didn't a long time
we've done major
changes like this I'm sure you guys will do a great job I'm
sure staff will do a
great job nobody can get everything those are two small
instances to throw
out that may be not in consideration I think there should
be some kind of a
mechanism when you run into those types of things that
somebody who started a
project under one set of criteria doesn't get caught up in
unintended
consequences of what otherwise is an embraced cleanup and
good change in our
zoning ordinance that they go to pull a building permit and
you can't build that
indent anymore and they go well we have a hundred lots
developed for one car
garages with one parking place and you got to have four now
my point in just
bringing it up I would like to see is just a throw on the
table there's some
sort of mechanism to aid in the transition that people
understand from
here on out there are not be any more those types of
products developed but
the ones that were already started or in play can go on
even if it's outside of
the time frame that you're talking about yeah I've got I
think there's two
responses to that one is inside the code and one is outside
the code inside the
code I think one of the things that will need to enhance is
those transitional
rules that Tarek talked about because one thing we often
talk about is if
you've got a staggered set of approvals where later appro
vals to correct early
approvals I think we need to be a little bit more detailed
in that section about
the fact that subsequent approvals if you've already got a
preliminary plot
that was approved under the old code your final plot then
doesn't have to
comply with the new code you know that just has to comply
with the prior rules
and the earlier approval of the preliminary plot so we can
we can
clarify some of those rules and talk with you more about
that I think the
outside the code answer though is more important and that
is that this needs to
be rolled out as part of a comprehensive education effort
and one of the things
that should be done is training programs for the
development community where you
talk about hey guys this is a new system and here's some of
the key differences
that you should be thinking about and here's the some good
examples of how
you will need to be developing differently and in the
future and here
are the specific rules that will apply during the
transition period those are
just kind of key things that we can talk with your staff
about kind of you know
programming in to a series of educational campaigns but it
's not an
on-off switch it's not just like all of a sudden you move
from BDC on day one to
DDC to on day two it's going to be a transition process and
there's going to
be an adoption date and there's going to be a lag time and
then there's going to
be an effective date and it's going to be up to the city to
use that time
effectively to have internal training sessions with staff
and external
training sessions with the public and to bring you all up
to speed and to make
sure everybody kind of understands how life changes so it's
not that's not a
small thing we recognize that but we've got experience kind
of helping
communities kind of program all those transition activities
it's a really good
point.
Other questions? All right great well I guess we will close
our presentation here
at 522 and then I guess there's going to be a for those
watching you will go
through your presentation again it starting at 6 in council
chambers and
that's open to the public. The public's invited to come
attend.
you