Dec 15, 2021 Planning and Zoning Commission on 2021-12-15 5:00 PM

I will call us to order at 5 o' 4 p.m. Let the record show that Commissioner Smith is absent today. First item on the agenda is citizen comment on consent agenda items. Vanessa, do we have anyone on the phone? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to the City of Denton's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. This is our work session for Wednesday, December 15th, 2021. Vanessa, are you there? No, we do not. Okay. Thank you. All right. That will move us to our second item on the agenda, which is work session reports. Receive a report, hold a discussion regarding general topics in urban design. Hello, Julie. Hello. All right. You get two for the price of one tonight. And camera. All right. Okay. I'm Julie Wyatt, senior planner with the City of Denton, and I have Cameron Robertson, who's a principal planner with the City of Denton. And we're continuing our boot camp series and talking about urban design tonight. So just to let you know, this is supposed to be fun and we're going to have a little audience participation, so feel free to participate in the discussion. So I wanted to just go over briefly what we want to talk about tonight. First of all, we want to talk about what is urban design and why it's important. Some framing devices, how to think about urban design, what the Denton Plan 2030 and the Denton Development Code say about urban design, design in the private and public realms, rural to urban design, and then some case studies and a wrap-up. So I just want to briefly set the table and say, you know, all built environments have design elements. Tonight, we're mainly going to focus on more what you think of walkable environments or more of that capital U urban environment. So we'll touch on other contexts, but that's going to be our primary focus tonight. So first of all, what is urban design? It's an incredibly broad topic. Cameron and I struggled mightily to really narrow this presentation down. We could probably have a whole series on this alone. So we may not hit all facets of it, but in thinking about tonight's presentation, what we really looked at is thinking about that piece, as small as a section of sidewalk, all the way to buildings and how they're oriented on a street, and then all parts in between. Urban design covers all facets of disciplines. So many different people go into designing spaces. And then it also brings into account policymakers and process. So it really covers all that. It's incredibly broad. So we've found one definition that we liked, that it is the design of our cities and towns. It's collaborative and multidisciplinary. It shapes our physical setting and where we live, and it can encompass the design of buildings, the groups of buildings, and those spaces and landscapes. So that really kind of encompasses all parts of that. And then why is it important? When we were looking at urban design in this topic, we thought, okay, what does it matter? What does it care? Well, first of all, in terms of your role and the Planning and Zoning Commission, you're seeing a lot more detailed site plans. You're seeing a lot more variety of projects, particularly things like Plan Developments and SUPs. So it's coming more into play into what you do for the city. But in terms of broader aspects, we looked at tangible aspects to urban design and then intangible. So first, we want to talk about those tangible aspects. So economic, kind of the basis of why development happens. And we looked at a book by Jeff Speck. He wrote Walkable City Rules. And by his analysis, homes in Denver's walkable neighborhoods had 150 percent premium over less walkable neighborhoods. In Baltimore, 57 percent more jobs were created with one dollar spent on pedestrian facilities over highway investment. And then speaking of our own personal budgets, the typical middle class American spends 20 percent of their budget on transportation. And when we talk about transportation, that's typically a car. So car payments and insurance and tires and gas. So that's a big chunk of all of our budgets. When we're talking about walkable urban environments, they can impact our health. Places that you can walk and that you do have that active living are often healthier. And they also provide spaces for farmers market or gathering spaces or sale of local goods. When walkable places are designed well, they're safe. They're safe for pedestrians, both young and old, and take into account that aspect. Walkable urban well-designed places are sustainable. They take into account our living infrastructure, like street trees and those green spaces. They can improve our soils and our air and our water quality. And they can integrate those natural environments into our urban places. And then they can also help with resource restoration. We can improve our water runoff with good design. We can enable things like renewable energy sources and different modes of transportation. And then at a basic standpoint, if you're designing places where you can walk, you are reducing the number of miles you have to drive in a car. You can choose other modes of transportation. And those are what we thought of were the tangible aspects to urban design. But there's also those intangible, those things that you can't really quantify. And one is just a sense of community. Good, well-designed places foster social interactions. They are places that you can see and touch and smell. So they provide that sensory environment. And then they also help orient you to where you are. There's a seminal work that we all read in planning school, The Image of the City. And it talks about how we organize our cities using pathways and edges and districts and landmarks. So, you know, it can help you place you in your space. We all use framing devices for urban design. Not everybody in the world is embedded in urban planning, like the planning staff or planning and zoning commission. And so what we come up with is framing devices to talk about urban design. The granddaddy of them all really is that new urbanism. It's been around for several decades. It's not really anything new. It's kind of traditional town planning. It's the way towns and cities were built prior to maybe highways coming in. It's that walkable blocks and streets, a mix of uses close together, human-scale development. If you're interested in urban and new urbanism, you can Google Congress for New Urbanism and they've got more information there. A newer framing device is the 20-minute city. That everything you should need within a day-to-day is within 20 minutes walk, bike or maybe transit. But that things are really close together. You shouldn't have to travel more than 20 minutes on a day-to-day basis. Walk score, it might be something you're familiar with. It's an online tool. It's kind of cool. It uses pedestrian and transit metrics to determine a score for cities and neighborhoods. Just to let you know, overall Denton is a 33, so it is deemed as car dependent. But the square is an 87, so it is very walkable. So we run the gamut here. And then one thing I like to talk about when we talk to developers, especially at the pre-application stage, is the trick-or-treat test. So there's a planner in Canada who talks about this and he says that kids know well-designed neighborhoods because they're really great to trick-or-treat in. There's houses in proximity to each other. They have well-connected sidewalks. The houses are connected to the street. You can see the front door easily. Those are really good neighborhoods to trick-or-treat in. And then 8 and 80, public spaces should be built for everybody. You should be able to send out your 8-year-old child or your 80-year-old grandmother to the store, to walk to the store and know that they're going to be safe and can make it. And so that's another framing device. And one framing device we want to take a little deeper dive on is the Project for Public Spaces Power of 10. And the whole thesis of this is to pay attention to that human experience and that places should have things to do. And it can run from the regional level all the way to the specific place. Think of the square. So it's scalable. So in order to talk about this, we're going to look at a streetscape and come up with the things to do there. So this is a streetscape from their website. And it lays out kind of the things that the people can do when they visit that space. They can people watch. They can take a stroll. They can meet friends. They can listen to a tourist language. So it's very sensory. It has economic value here because people are spending money and they're walking around. There's connectivity. So it brings in a lot of those aspects and those important elements to urban design. And here's where we get interactive. Here is a space that we all know within the city of Denton and that is the square. So I wanted to see if you could come up with things to do, see if we can find 10 things to do within this square. Feel free to yell it out if you want to. Ten things. Barley and board, if I need an appliance, I can go to Neal's. Well across the thing there is LSA, then you have Cartwrights, I mean you got plenty of food over there. You got a jewelry store, I mean, pretty well. You've hit a lot of them. Yes. You can shop, right? Don't forget recycled books. Coffee, whatever. Yes. Absolutely meet friends, right? Recycle books. Go shop. Recycle books. Have a blast. You can live near the square. You can live near there. You can live there. Absolutely. People watch on the square. It's great. Yes. People watch. Absolutely. Get a tattoo. We've hit some. So, you know, you can photograph a mural, right? You can Instagram yourself on the square. You can listen to music at LSA. You can sit on a bench and people watch. You can stroll, window shop, visit a museum. You can relax on the grass. I've actually seen people juggling on the square before. You can meet friends. You can walk your dog if you live there. So, yeah, that definitely passes the test, right? There's 10 things to do on the square. That's a vibrant place, and we all know that. The Project for Public Spaces goes further to come up with four elements that make a great place. One is sociability. That is, you know, it's difficult to achieve, they said, but it's a place where you take community pride. Uses and activities, that's where we went over. Are there things to do in a place? Is there comfort in image? Is it safe? Is it clean? And then access and linkages. This is vital. If you can't get to it or through it, you're not going to go there. So, all of those things really work together to make a great place. And we, as part of our discussion of this, we have a couple of examples. The first one, and my children are in this presentation, by the way. The first image, you may have been there, the Cherry Orchard. It's within Denton, and it definitely hits all of those elements. It's easy to get to. It's definitely a place that Denton folks take pride in. There's things to do there, and it's pretty comfortable, yes. Where is the Cherry Orchard? It's in a neighborhood that you're going to be the... So, it has a couple different names, but it's at Idiott's Hill, Woods' Neighborhood, up there. Yes. Oh, well, we'll have to... I'll make sure to get everyone a map. Yeah, so it's just got a bunch of chairs where you can go out and visit it. People take wedding photos out there, and they just go like there's... Yeah. The square definitely hits all four of those elements. And then another picture, it's a great streetscape. It's definitely comfortable. It has stoops, so it's got the sociability, and it's got the access and linkages. Not a lot to do on this street, just to walk through. So, it doesn't quite hit all the marks, but it definitely has a lot of good elements to it. And now we're going to have Cameron come in. Thank you, Julie. Okay, so we're going to really be focusing on this photo here right now, when we're looking at the public realm versus the private realm. So when you're first looking at the public realm, we have that right of way. So that includes your streets and sidewalks, so as you see this photo, those pedestrians and those bicyclists are accessing that street and that sidewalk. You also, what's included in that right of way, you have parkways, you have bike lanes, trains and alleyways as well. Moving on, we have that semi-public spaces. So these are kind of the spaces in between the street and the buildings themselves. So it does include the sidewalk, but it also includes those spaces in between the buildings themselves in terms of those little nooks and crannies that you pass by. And then lastly, we have those publicly accessible spaces. So our parks such as Quaker Town Park, our square, plazas and courtyards. And when we're looking at the parks themselves, we kind of also have those different layers of parks. So we have regional, neighborhood, we have active and passive spaces where you can read a book or you can play soccer. And then lastly, we have our trails. And then when we're looking at our private realm, if you follow the arrow for the first, we have that, what we're really focusing on is that relationship to the street. So we're looking to see that those buildings are built up to that sidewalk or that right of way. And then the next thing we're really looking at is that building size. Is there increments of development? Are there different building heights? Is it one story versus two story? Are there different facade finishes? And then we're looking next at our parking locations. When we're looking at an urban context, parking is not the main focus here. So parking can be on street parking, but as you see in this image here, there's no parking to be found. So that parking is hidden away, whether it's in a parking garage, whether it's behind the building or elsewhere in parking lots, you know, maybe on the perimeter of the urban area. And then lastly, in terms of the private realm, we have those sticky edges. So those are those facades that kind of provide activity at the ground level and they really draw the members of the public in. So there's kind of four breakdowns of that. And the first one is no blank walls. So as you see in this photo, we kind of have different textures and varieties of these buildings on their facades. We also have vertical articulation with the columns on the ground floor. We also have that limited repetition. So yes, in the closest building that we see, we kind of have that, you know, similar cornice line that carries all the way through, but it's broken up with those different architectural features, whether it's awnings or signage or even the flower baskets hanging from the ground floor portico. And moving on, we're looking at that Denton Plan 2030. So as Julie stated, you know, this is really our guiding piece that, you know, you all as planning and zoning and as us as staff, you know, this is really our guiding light. This is something that we want to work towards for the Denton and how we want the city to look like in the future. So we really focus on this in element four, which is our community character and urban design overview. And the place that we first focus on is our existing character areas. And these are our existing urban and mixed use environments. And usually those are historic resources. So that includes our historic districts, as well as our individually designated properties. Usually these are mostly congregated in our more urban areas. And then the next area we look at is our Denton downtown Main Street program. And then moving on from that is, once again, looking at urban design and our future development. How do we want people to view our community? Whether they're from this community, whether they're passing through, or if they're just visiting. And then we look at our urban design principles, kind of as connectivity, whether it's sidewalks, streets, variety of texture on our buildings themselves, building orientation. Are they directed towards the street or are they set back? And just location of parking and street trees as well. And then lastly, we're looking at our focus areas, which are kind of our like urban centers or our corridors, such as I-35, and our gateways, as well as our travel centers. Another thing that staff and you all as Planning and Zoning Commission use is our 2019 Denton Development Code. So that's really what we focus on when we're looking at these projects that come through our three main areas. So three main chapters. And the first chapter is our subchapter three, which is our zoning districts. And this really tells us what those minimum setbacks are, minimum lot sizes, maximum heights that we're looking for in certain zoning districts. And the next thing that we're looking at is our subchapter five, which is our use regulations. And when we're talking about an urban context, we're really focusing on our mixed use neighborhoods, that MN district, our mixed use downtown, as well as our mixed use regional areas. And then lastly, we look at subchapter seven, which is our development standards. So this is really focusing on building orientation, where parking is located, relationship to the street, landscaping, and more. So that first one we're focusing on is access, which is 7.8. And that's looking at neighborhood street connections, sidewalk connection, pedestrian walkways, and also how people get to and from a lot, whether it's via bicycle or transit. The next thing we're looking at is parking, whether parking is permitted. For example, front parking is not permitted in our MD, MN, or our MR districts. And then there's no commercial parking development in our MD. And then what we're also looking at is our site building design. So that's kind of layered into our single family, multi-family, non-residential. So it's kind of broken down into the DDC for you. And then lastly, we're looking at landscaping. How do we want our streetscape to look? Do we have buffers in between different types of uses? Do we have street trees? So basically, what do we want our community to look like from the roadway? So before we move on, because we're kind of changing topics, does anyone have questions for me and Julie? Commissioner Pruitt? Sorry. Stop me if you're going to cover this later at all. But one of the things you mentioned was how we try to encourage development in a certain method in that last slide, building design and that sort of thing. Do I guess with the exception of our historic areas and our downtown district overlays, are there any DDC requirements or goals that try to focus this type of development in specific regions? Or are they all based on the type of use and the building and that sort of thing? I would say that in our development code, we have additional standards for our mixed use districts. So really anywhere where you've got the MD, the MN, and the MR, they should have elevated more fine-grain, walkable type design is really the intent. And then I would also say that with, and Tina may want to jump in, with our PDs, we're often applying in particular that sub-chapter in the Denton Plan 2030 regarding urban design, looking at those elements on that table 4.1 and seeing if that project checks some of those boxes. So maybe not a specific locale, but specific zoning districts do have that intent. Okay. So maybe I'm stepping out on a limb here, but it sounds like the development code is kind of general based on the zoning category, but where some of these things might be specifically applied would be where some of the small area plans come in. Is that one option? Well, the area plans can benefit, especially if we are looking to have areas develop in a much more urban format. Keep in mind when we adopted the 2019 code and we assigned the MN, MD, and MR zoning districts throughout the city, we conscientiously made a decision that in these areas we want them to develop in accordance with these standards here, which are much more urban form, urban design standards compared to some of our other zoning districts that we have in the city. So I would say through that action, that's where we made a conscientious decision as to how we want that area to evolve. Presumably, and let me know if I'm speaking incorrectly, Julie, and especially maybe Ron over there, because one of the things, and we'll have some more of this conversation when we talk about the comprehensive plan and the comprehensive plan update that we're working on, but in the comp plan, we have the preferred growth scenarios map, and that map identified areas where we are interested in having greater, denser development. And so these zoning districts, when they were established, were likely established in concert with the preferred growth scenarios map, as well as the future land use map in the designations that were provided there. So hopefully that helps address your question. That does. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Okay. Thanks. So now we're going to move on to types of development. So kind of giving you that foundational discussion of rural development all the way to urban development, as well as some case studies. So here you have rural development. So this is just north of Salina. As you can see from the aerial, it's a lot of single use, low density, likely auto oriented. You see unpaved and paved single lane roadways. You see no sidewalks, meaning it is not walkable, or if it is, it'll take you a very long time to get from point A to point B. And in these kind of areas, you see a lot of bar ditches as well. And the properties themselves, they're much, much wider lots, and the property or the homes themselves are set back. And they're usually preserving a lot of existing vegetation, meadows and wood lots. The next example is kind of a suburban development. And this example is from Plano. And this is where we're starting to see a lot in North Texas is kind of that more suburban development with that commercial core and then those neighborhoods on the outskirts or on that outer fringe. And in suburban development, you see a lot of single use, low density buildings with some leisurely walkability as well as it's primarily auto oriented. So as you can see from this aerial, you kind of have those wide arterial roadways that are kind of dissecting the neighborhood into four different pieces. In the neighborhood themselves, you have those narrower sidewalks, usually about five foot wide versus 10 or more in more urban areas. You also see a lot more cul de sacs and longer blocks. You also will see more of that commercial district. You'll see those drive through lanes, once again, auto oriented, and then you have private open space. So people's rear yards or their front yards, whether they're gated or not. And then you have that kind of buffer between that commercial and that residential. And then we kind of move into that transition phase, which is between suburban and urban. And this example is from the village in Dallas. And this allows for more than one use. So you kind of have different levels of multifamily. You can also have single family homes, but we're starting to see kind of more of this development appear. The density increases. There is a walkability on site. Usually when you get there, you have to use an auto or automobile to get there. But once you're on site, you're able to walk around, use different modes of transit, whether it's biking or maybe there's some bus stops along the way. And then usually these areas are also not really connected to a larger area because once again, you have those wider arterial roadways on the perimeters, kind of cutting them off from those neighboring communities. And then lastly, we have our urban development. And this aerial is from the Oaklawn neighborhood in Dallas. And this is where you see that mixed use, high density, kind of purposeful walkability. And then it's usually transit oriented. On the aerial, you see a little bit narrower roadways, and this usually requires vehicles to travel at a lower speed because there's usually pedestrians along the side. You have those wider sidewalks. Once again, not the five foot wide, but usually 10 foot or more. You have that on street parking. It's not really the main focus. Once again, you could have parallel or angled, but you usually have it in a parking garage or on the outskirts. You do see a street grid. As you can see in this upper left-hand corner towards the top, you kind of see that existing street grid with those smaller blocks that make it more walkable. You also have those integrated neighborhoods. So there is a lot of mixed uses. There's retail, restaurants, and you also have the open space. A lot of urban contexts do have some type of open space that people are able to walk to. And in this context, it's the Turtle Creek area. So now we're going to move on to our case studies. But before I do that, we're kind of going to look at the growth over time. So looking at this aerial of Denton in 1942, you can really see that urban street grid that exists. So you see square blocks, rectangular blocks, but they look pretty walkable. And they're all kind of straight north, south, east, west. But then as we're moving into 1964, we start to see the city move to the north and start to stretch out to the south, just south of I-35, and a little bit to the west. And we start to see that street grid kind of disappear. Not necessarily, we're seeing blocks get a little bit longer, things moving at different angles, and not necessarily that north, south, east, west block grid anymore. And then we're looking at 1984. The city has continued to extend north. It's continued to send south. We have I-35 west now in place, and we start to see more street infrastructure coming in. And once again, we've kind of lost sight of that urban context. We don't really see where the urban environment is anymore. And we see a lot more single-family residential taking place. And then we have 2021, then it has boomed. We have moved west, we've moved east. We have loop 288, we've moved to the south, south of I-35 east. We've started expanding west. So once again, we're not seeing that urban context anymore. We're seeing cul-de-sacs come in, we're seeing larger blocks, we're seeing a lot of auto-oriented development come in. So the first case study that we're looking at is... Everyone seems to know it as Idiot's Hill, but it does have multiple names. It's also known as Crestwood Heights and Woods neighborhood. But in this aerial from 1964, and kind of just this Google Street View snapshot that we have here, you can see that it's a lot of single-family residential. There are no alleyways in the neighborhood itself. And a lot of the buildings or the residences have front or side entry garages, meaning that it's very forgiving and auto-oriented. It's really based and built around that. But there is a neighborhood park and there is an elementary school kind of centered in that neighborhood. But when you're looking at this screenshot, you see that there's one sidewalk on one side and there's no sidewalk on the other. And when you kind of drive around the neighborhood, you see that there's maybe not as many sidewalks that are prevalent. So the walkability is a little bit more difficult, but you do have those central areas to go meet and have those activities kind of, as Julie has stated, in her different framing devices. And then lastly, we have those larger lots. We have those setbacks once again. We have those front yards and we have those private open spaces in the rear. And now Julie is gonna come in and talk about her case study. - All right, the next suburban neighborhood we wanna talk about is something we're kind of seeing now, a new trend in suburban development. It's not one in the city of Denton, it's just to the southwest, it's the Harvest neighborhood. It is still single-family residential, so it's still very much of that suburban form, but it does bring in that mix of lot sizes and densities. So if you can see the site plan, I've kind of covered it up with pictures, but if you see the site plan, all those different colors represent different lot sizes. So it adds to the variety within that neighborhood to provide those different product types. It does have a neighborhood school, much like the previous case study, and it does now bring in that legible neighborhood, that legible street grid. So fewer cul-de-sacs, that's kind of the new trend coming into those suburban spaces where you've got less, fewer curvilinear and cul-de-sac streets and more of that legible street grid to allow, to disperse traffic to allow more walkable environments within the development. It does allow for a variety of open spaces, pocket parks, linear parks, and community parks. And it includes a combination of alleys and front entry garages. So the picture on the top, that's alley-loaded, so the houses are pulled to the front. And when we think about one of the framing devices, the trick-or-treat test, this one definitely passes it, because it's got those houses within proximity to each other. There's definitely a connected sidewalk, and those front doors are easily seen by the street. We want to go into the next case study, and that is a transition, much like the village that Cameron discussed. This is a project that has been under construction within the city of Denton, and it was the epic development. You may be familiar with this corner. It's the corner of Avenue C and Eagle, and this might look familiar to you. This is what it looked like in 2018. It was an auto-oriented commercial development, even though it was adjacent to one of the universities in town. And how do I know it's auto-oriented? You want to give me some design elements in the picture that signals to you that it's more auto- and car-friendly? Front doors are like half a mile from the street. Setbacks. Big setbacks. Yes, sir. Yeah. Big setback. Mr. Anderson, your microphone. Oh, there you go. I said, "That's not a big setback. The Chicken Express is right there on Eagle Drive." The building's behind the parking area, so the parking is in front of the building's setback. You park right there in front of the other building to go in. Yes, I mean, it does have different setbacks for the different streets, but one thing, it's a drive-through. So it's that use. The Chicken Express is, but not the other building is behind it. I mean, I know this area. I grew up in Denton. I know this area. Those are parking spots for where you park and walk into the building. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Yeah, but the intent is that when you're kind of at more suburban or auto-oriented development, the parking's usually pulled toward the street with the building setback. An urban design environment, and let me show you the next slide, kind of flips the script on that. Well, first of all, let me go over some of those design elements related to kind of that auto-oriented development. That area doesn't have any sidewalks, so there's no place to really walk to and from. There is a wide street with multiple vehicular lanes. It was a drive-through restaurant, so that sort of speaks to you're going to visit that site in a car. It's not accessible for all users. There's not any barrier for free ramps. Everything in the front, that's one thing we talked about, and the multiple driveways, so it allows for easy cars, but not easy pedestrians. And then that single story with the setback off of Avenue C. And so that site has actually been redeveloped to a mixed-use development that includes both multifamily and commercial. So the design has changed, and it's changed by it's pulled that building up to the street. The parking is actually in a parking garage, so it's kind of behind it and in a structured parking. The apartments are above, and they have balconies, so it allows people to see the street. The bottom floor has commercial development with those sticky edges that Cameron talked about where there's windows into it. Yes, sir? We're not talking the same apples and apples here. You're talking a minute ago where you're talking businesses. This is residential stuff. Yes. So there's a difference. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. That one was single-use commercial. I mean, this is more suburban, small-town. Absolutely. What you're showing now is more urban, big-city stuff. Absolutely. Yes. And this site has really, and that's exactly it, that that site has really kind of changed and transitioned. So yes, now it has gone from that single-use commercial to that mix of uses with that commercial piece on the bottom floor with the residential on top. It has changed in terms of, you know, we talked about why design is important, and part of it is that economic. The property's been replatted, so I don't have DCAD data for prior to replatting, but the 2021 valuation values that land at $1.5 million, and the improvements at $32 million on the property. So there's been quite an investment, a private investment on this site. Now we'll go to Cameron again. So the first urban case study that we're going to look at is the square. Everyone knows the square. That's kind of when you first think of what's urban in Denton, you think of the square. So looking at the square itself, we kind of have those, we have nine pinpoints that we really focus on. The first one is, is it intended to be walkable? So in the square, we have those wide sidewalks. They're easily accessible, and we have that dense building development where people can walk from point A to point B pretty quickly. We also have the buildings oriented along the sidewalks. So they're facing the street fronts. The entrances are oriented towards the street so that people who are traveling by car or walking along the street can really have easy access and interact with those ground floors. And then we have the central open space around the courthouse where Julia's talked about that power of 10, people can listen to music, they can have a picnic, they can interact and meet with friends. The next is kind of having that mix of uses, and the square really has that. They have a mix of retail, restaurants, and there's residential as well. And then we have the on street parking. When I'm looking at these photos, the parking is not really the main focus. There is parking available both on street at a parallel or at an angle parking, but people still can use other modes of transit. They can bike there, they can park their bike there, they can take transit, whether it's the bus, they have other options. And then you're looking at that pedestrian scale. Lighting and also the building massing itself. So the lighting allows people to feel comfortable and safe at all times of day, whether it's early in the morning or late at night, they'll have the signage lighting as well as the lighting from the street. And the square itself is really well defined and branded. So you'll see that on our trash cans and also just the block sizes themselves, that 300 foot by 120 feet, the blocks make them very walkable. And when you enter the square, you know that this is kind of the center. And back to Julie. All right, we have our last urban case study. And this is one that's been pretty interesting within the city of Denton. This is one of those areas that has kind of transitioned in the last few years. So it was the Hickory Grand Street. If you recall, in 2010, the city adopted the downtown implementation plan, which was really a kind of a small area plan for the downtown area. As part of it, it included design interventions for the streets, depending on the context of the street. And one of the primary streets they talked about was Hickory Street. And the plan envisioned that because Hickory Street connects DCTA with the courthouse, that that was kind of the grand street, that was going to be the main thoroughfare to get into downtown from DCTA. And so there should be special consideration given to that street and that they wanted to provide additional streetscape and improvements to that street. So as a result of that, in August of 2012, council approved an engineering services contract to design the Hickory Grand Street project. It included pedestrian improvements and then streetscape improvements. And the project budget was about $3.2 million. So to give you kind of a view of about what Hickory Street looked like in 2007, so it was a little earlier than the DTIP, but it had the zoning of downtown commercial general districts. So the zoning was consistent with the rest of downtown. Hickory had within the right of way two-way traffic with three vehicular lanes and on street parking. It had limited tree canopy. It did have some trees in the area, but there wasn't quite a line of street trees down the street. There were sidewalks, but there was limited accessibility. You can see on the side here there weren't any very free ramps. There were some disconnects in that sidewalk. And then the lighting was really to illuminate the street. It was intended to make sure that cars could see, but that pedestrians wasn't factoring in that sidewalk. So this is what it looks like in 2019 and it's similar to today. It includes those interventions that they called for within the DTIP, skinning up the travel lanes to that two lanes, still maintaining each way or two-way streets, but providing the angled on-street parking, adding those street trees in the landscape islands, improving the sidewalk and also the lighting. And then here's what it looks like from a bird's eye view, kind of showing those different elements, that angled parking, the travel lanes on the street, that increased tree canopy with those landscape islands, those wider connected sidewalks in the pedestrian scale lighting. So what does that mean and what are the results associated with that? So we talked about why design is important, but what are the results? So we did a little study on the street to see what happened. So the city spent $2 million, so what happened on the street? So by our analysis, the assessed value of the property on Hickory Street from 2012 to 2021 increased by 123%. Now that does net out those lots that were replatted because I couldn't get the data to go apples to apples, so we just removed those. And it also takes out anything owned by a city facility or a public entity, the fire station is on the street. So there was a large increase in that property value. There has also been private investment within the street, commercial permits totaling about $3 million, so there's been that private investment. And then also, just today I had a pre-application conference with an applicant who was looking at developing one of the vacant lots on the street with a bar and restaurant. So that development and that reinvestment in the street continues to today. So it really is paying off those design interventions on Hickory Street. So as we start to wrap up our presentation, we kind of want to leave you with this quote. And William White is an American sociologist. He did a lot of studies of the public and private realm, publicly owned private spaces. And his famous quote is, "It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished." So moving on to kind of everything that you've heard me and Julie present about today, it's supposed to be a fun pop quiz about good or bad urban design. So looking at these photos here, what numbers have bad urban design and why? And what numbers have good urban design and why? I can give you a first example. So we have number three. This is from Albany, New York. This is kind of their capital. This is their plaza area. This is a kind of a relationship between that private and public realm. But when you're looking at it, it's great that you have the two spaces, but you have waterways in the center with granite tiling. So is that really walkable all times of year? No. When you have wind blowing, you have snow, people are going to be slipping and sliding, potentially falling into water. So that's kind of a first example to get us kicked off. Julie, you can come up too. Does somebody want to chime in? Number one looks like a great urban design, right? It's incredibly inviting. The sidewalk is right there. The fronts of the buildings are right there. There's a bench to sit down. I mean, that's to me a nice urban plan. Of course. Yeah. Lots of texture in that one. Absolutely. Yeah. Looks great. Okay. Anybody else or shall I keep going? I think one and five are, you know, two and three look like old Soviet Union type, you know. It's what you'd see in Eastern Europe or, I mean, not very aesthetic, but one and five is wonderful. One quick question, the difference between the downtown district and because Denton in the last 30 years has become a multi-destination city. So back in the day you had University Drive. That was the hub. That was the strip. That's where everybody, because there's three guys here that drove that thing, plenty in high school. We all did, the three of us, and, I mean, everything, all the businesses, it was, but now we're a multi-destination city. Downtown district has no parking minimum, correct? Correct. So why are we holding these other areas to parking minimums? Why aren't we just, what, waiving parking minimums to, I mean, does that make sense? Yes. I completely understand. So you're right. Part of it is the context of the development. I think as Julie and Cameron have illustrated this evening is that we have, much of the city was very auto-oriented development, where you think about the invention of the automobile, then that shifted our growth patterns in many of our cities. And so in a very suburban city, you know, we tell people that, you know, if you want to build a retail building, then here's where you'll place it on the property. And by the way, you also need to have X number of parking spaces being provided on the site. We have minimum parking ratios established to ensure that there was ample places for people to be able to park their vehicles. Some of that is now also driven by financial industry as well. Banks want to make sure that the properties can be successful in the businesses that occupy them. So hence why they're also interested in the parking requirement associated with it. There is a strong interest in today's way of thinking with respect to, from a planning mindset that we have definitely over-parked our sites for many decades. And that there -- and you see that when you drive by retail shopping centers or restaurant developments that -- where the majority of the parking is vacant. On retail, we plan for the time of year leading up to Christmas, when you really think about it. Because that's when our parking lots are the most full. So the rest of the time is we've just been very auto-oriented, so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of spaces to park our vehicles. But like I said, there's now a way of thinking of allowing less parking minimums, reducing the amount of impervious surface, and allowing the market also to be able to dictate roughly how much parking is needed. In more urban areas that are more walkable, the thinking is a park once concept. In our very suburban developed cities, it's difficult to have the park once concept. If you think of a typical retail shopping center, maybe you have like a Target or Walmart is the anchor, but then you have the spans from the anchor of all the other individual spaces. When you go to that shopping center, do you -- and you know you need to go to multiple of those stores, do you park in the middle and walk to all the others, or do you find yourself moving your car along the way? And so that's just some of that evolution of the parking, but also -- but we're now shifting towards maybe we don't need as much parking anymore, and we can maximize development opportunities and maybe provide more building space and accommodate other means of transportation. You know, I just think -- I don't want to sacrifice economic output, economic activity for a parking space. I can count on two hands how many businesses in this town weren't started because of parking minimums. I mean, because you look at Wind River, well, they have a roundabout, they have a walkability, but they have parking minimums. You know, so I mean, you know, I'm just talking about other -- as you can tell, I don't like parking minimums. So -- Okay, I'm going to -- That's out of here in the narrative. We shall move on. Yeah. I don't want to get this into the parking discussion, but I want to get back to Julian and Cameron's presentation. Well, and I was going to say, I mean, but the last thing, if you don't mind, Commissioner Ellis, that I'll add is several cities have rethought their parking requirements, where we have reduced the minimum parking requirements. The city that I came from, we overhauled our parking regulations. One of the reasons why we did is because we established new land use policies for certain areas. We were interested in seeing reinvestment happen, particularly within an area that was originally developed as more of an industrial park, but we were wanting to allow for uses such as restaurants, which if people are driving there, they're going to have a greater number of parking spaces, right, retail and bars, and accommodating some of these more social uses in an area that originally developed as an industrial district. Well, as an industrial district, there was very little parking provided, but we went and we modified our parking requirements because we knew if we want these buildings to be reused for many of these other types of uses that we're interested in having, normally, a restaurant use would have had to provide parking at one space per 100 square feet of building area, whereas a warehouse building is one space per 1,000 square feet. So in order to accommodate adaptive reuse of those sites, we lessened the parking requirement and took the parking minimums, I think, to one space per 400 square feet. And then we also standardized office parking, retail service uses, so that way, if someone makes investment in the property, maybe they had to add a little more parking, but if that tenant ever leaves, then another tenant can go in there and be able to occupy that building. So there is a strong move towards reducing parking minimums, allowing the market to be able to dictate, but also allowing the businesses to be able to really assess on how many parking spaces they think that they would need in order to be able to support their development. So I'll get off my parking soapbox now. Because we don't want to take away from the focus of planning. Well, I know they're on their last slide. So just to wrap this presentation up, we wanted to leave you all with some further information and reading. We have a bunch of different websites listed here, kind of talking about those different framing devices that Julie mentioned. We have Kevin Lynch, the image of the city. We have our historic aerials, which you can find on our city website, also WalkScore. And then in general, just travel. Get out, explore North Texas, explore other states, you know, as this world is starting to slowly open, you know, get out and just kind of explore those urban environments that are kind of at your fingertips. And that is it. Thank you. Commissioner Anderson. Thanks, Chair. I have a quick question. I have traveled to a few other cities. And one city in particular is St. Peterburg, Florida. And they have the scenes called First Fridays, and where they shut down the blocks around the city and they set up stages at the end and they have, I mean, it's a fun place for everybody enjoys First Fridays. And I was thinking, since we have Thursdays up on the square, maybe the city could think about doing something like that, where we could call it, you know, Third Thursdays or something like this, where the Third Thursday of the month, where they block off from industrial, where we can get those people involved to the west side, to like 9-4-0 and get those bars and those restaurants involved, not just bars, sorry, you know, and spread it out and have where, you know, those roads are shut down, and everybody knows on Third Thursday, and maybe have some live music and stuff like this and get people coming to the city and stuff like this. So I don't know who you would talk to, or I'd talk to, or whatever, but I just want to throw that out there and let that be on the record, maybe something that, because it's a fun, fun thing. It really is. If you haven't been to St. Petersburg on First Fridays, it's a blast. And just letting you know. And I think it would be a great economic boom for the city on, I'm doing like a Third Thursday or something like that. So anyway, just my opinion. That's a great idea. Any other questions? Commissioner Perot? Yeah, just one. Thank you. First of all, great, great overview. Very helpful, especially in the context of the history of Denton. It's hard for me to find those historical aerial imagery, and that really tells a great picture. I guess the question I have, I really appreciated the harvest example. I know that wasn't from Denton. And I'm wondering sort of if you can tell us what the planning or economic trends are that are encouraging more newer development like that, and sort of what impediments exist to being able to allow development like that that might sort of mix between a suburban and an urban form, if that makes sense. Whether it's parking or something else. No, we don't have to have the litany of the answer right now, but I'm just very interested in seeing, you know, I think in your original definition slide, there was a reference to how areas develop over time, right? And I think I've been fairly clear that I care about things at a longer lifespan than how long I've been alive, right? And so I try to evaluate things based on how an area could eventually evolve, right? So I just offer that. Well, that might be something we need to think about as we're moving forward in our comprehensive planning. This is kind of a good time to talk about this, because Ron's sitting behind us, and he's working on that project, but our base zoning districts don't really encourage that type of variety within the lot sizes in a development. But our 2019 DDC does require open space, like usable open space, for some developments. And I will say we're seeing a lot of planned developments within the city of Denton, and y'all are seeing a lot of planned developments that I think bring in some of these principles, and I anticipate you'll probably see more. I think we also have some pretty big projects coming in, in terms of the west side of town that bring in some of these principles. So I anticipate we're going to be seeing more of it within the city of Denton. But it's something we can continue to explore and talk about and use our brain trust in the city to encourage. Well, and what I would add to that is, to help address your question there, Commissioner Pruitt is, you know, we are predominantly a suburban city, right? And so we will have areas that may be more appropriate for more urban form of development. The entire city is not going to evolve into an urban design city. I mean, just the reality of that is the nature of that. But as we are looking at reinvestment in certain areas within our community, understanding what people desire today in terms of where they want to live and in their form of development, I think we have the ability to be very intentional. If we are wanting to allow for more urban infill design developments, then being more intentional as to where we have those areas occur within our city. Because again, I go back to the entire city is not going to become an urban development. But I think, like you mentioned earlier, is that people come to Denton for a variety of different reasons, but we can be intentional as to where we have certain areas of the city be more urban in form. We have to establish a plan in place and then be willing to follow that plan. And that's where this comes into play, more importantly for you as appointed members of the Planning and Zoning Commission, but even City Council also, is to have the wherewithal to stick with the plan and stick with the vision for the area. If you are wanting to see an area substantially evolve and be an urban village, if you will, then you need to be willing to stay the course, know that you will be tested. And one of the ways that you're going to be tested and you're tested on a regular basis is resident opposition, okay, that whole not in my backyard. There is there is an interest in Quimby, which is quality within my backyard, but it's being able to be able to communicate to folks that this is the adopted policy and the plan for the area, and we are interested in having this form of development happen within that area. So thank you, but I do see where opposition has been brought forward by Commissioner McDade with district one regarding certain properties and the City Council does totally opposite of what we voted for when they didn't they were opposed certain things and then they get upset. So the citizens in district one don't believe that what they say gets done because City Council does opposite of what we try to vote for. Well, and I think that's where having a plan in place as to how we want an area to develop and Commissioner McDade and Haley and I were having a conversation earlier about if we have an opportunity to do an area plan for Southeast Denton, then it's imperative that we engage the residents that own property and reside within that area the community to be part of establishing the plan in the vision for the area. And then that way the subsequent steps are implementing the vision and plan for the area. Right now I think some would say that the Southeast Denton area lacks a plan or vision in place for it. And so when we get zoning requests in being proposed for the area, is it truly implementing what the what the city wants is it what's the neighborhood wants and and so we're at a challenge if we don't have a vision and plan for that area. So it's that's where it becomes more challenging for you for you all as the commission, but also in council. I think there's been probably a lot of lessons learned as a result of that zoning case and a lot of opportunity, you know hindsight is always 20/20 right. So there's been a lot of opportunity to think about how maybe we could have addressed that zoning case differently from a from a decision standpoint, but I think a lot of it goes back to is we have to have a vision and a plan for the area. The comprehensive plan we're working on the update right now, but that's a very high level you have 30,000 level assessment of the city. It's not a lot by lot assessment like zoning is. And so if there are opportunities to do area plans when you know in Southeast end would be a great opportunity to do an area plan, but it has the community involved in it for the community to help define what they want for the future of their city and how they want to see it evolve, or in some cases maybe stay the same, but it's that we have to have that public input and then adopt a plan for the area and then stay the course with a plan. But I agree, I totally agree, but I do think the citizens of district one feel that their voice isn't heard due to the lack of their voice being understood from the council or PNC commissioners brought forward a couple of different things. And I believe the citizens of district one believe it's what the city wants done and what developers want done, and not what the citizens want done. Okay, I'm going to circle back because we're getting off topic and yeah, and, and, and, and we're missing the opportunity to thank you for an incredibly wonderful presentation. Truly was fantastic. Super interesting. I hope we can continue focus on more urban design here in the city. I think we have great opportunity to continue what we have at the square and to and to continue to make that better here in my opinion. Also with taking it back to this discussion that just was getting started, as my predecessor used to say, we don't do enough planning. And we need to do more planning because that is how we will make better decisions and how things will come together, come together better. And as we get citizen involvement in that planning, we will have less opposition things can grow in a smoother way. At any rate, thank you so much for all your hard work and that it was fantastic. Mr. Ellis, if I could ask one question, going back to their last slide. So Cameron and Julie talked about traveling and getting out and so we were having these conversations internally in some previous communities I've worked in, I've taken the planning and zoning commission on the road, typically within the DFW area, but taking them out to see other types of development that's happening. Looking at examples that may be transferable to our community. But if that is something the commission is interested in doing and you're willing to maybe allocate a day, it could be a weekday, it could be a Saturday, we can take a full day, we can try and condense it down, but if that would be something that you are interested in doing, I think there would be some interest on my team also in being able to venture out and take you on the road. We could rent a bus and make sure we have a lunch stop and bathroom breaks along the way. So just seeing other developments that have occurred and what might be some lessons learned that can be transferred and applicable to Denton. Sign me up for that field trip. Okay. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Next item on the agenda is clarification of agenda items for tonight. First would be the minutes for December 1st. Any discussion, questions, concerns on that? Commissioner Prut. Sorry. I jumped the gun. None. No? Okay. Next would be consent agenda. Any Commissioner Prut? Yeah. I just request that we pull item A so that I can recuse some family members nearby to that plot. Okay. So we're going to pull 3A and move that to individual consideration. Anything else on consent agenda? Okay, how about 4A that is being recommended for denial? Any discussion on that? Okay. How about 4B? That has been revised from our original backup and everybody was emailed that. That is now recommended approval. Do we have any concerns, discussion on that? Okay, then 4C, that is recommended denial. Okay, and then our public hearing, if you did not see the email, the applicant has asked that we continue that public hearing into January, I believe January 12th. Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. So the plan will be to open the public hearing. We can see if there are public comments, since they don't know yet that we're being postponed. We will leave that item open to be heard again in January. Any discussion on that one? Concerns? Okay. Well with that, that will end our work session. I will close us at 6.09. We'll meet back here at 6.30. Good evening and welcome to the City of Denton's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting for Wednesday December 15th. With a quorum present, I will call us to order at 6.37 p.m. Let the record show that Commissioner Smith is absent this evening. First item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. and Texas Flags. 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. On the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible. All right, our next item of business is consider the minutes for the planning and zoning meeting December 1st. Commissioner Villarreal. Move to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Commissioner Anderson. Second. We've got a first and a second for approval of the December 1st meeting. Any discussion? All right. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. That will move us to our consent agenda. We are pulling item 3A from the consent agenda. And with that, the Chair can entertain a motion. Commissioner Anderson. I make a motion to pull the item from the consent agenda, or make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the item pulled. Commissioner Villarreal. And I second. Okay. We've got a first and a second to approve the consent agenda minus item 3A. Any discussion? Okay. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. That will move us to items for individual consideration. The first item we will hear is the item that was pulled from consent. Commissioner Pruitt is recusing himself from that item, and that is FP21-0035A. Haley did you want to come up for that, please? Thank you. Happy to answer any questions. The plat is recommended for approval, but I can pull it up if there are any questions or discussion. Okay. Thank you, Haley. Is there any discussion on this item? I do not see any. Thank you, Haley, for that. Commissioner Anderson. Make a motion to approve the plat. Commissioner Villarreal. Second. We've got a first and a second for approval of FP21-0035A. Let's vote on the board, please. That motion carries 5-0. Our next item for individual consideration is item 4A, MP21-0019. Hi, Ron. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the commission. Pull up the presentation real quick. Do you all see that? This is a minor plat request for a property on the northwest corner of scripture connector. I'm not sure we see that at all. Oh, let me, sorry. Let me try one more time. There we go. Again, this is a minor plat application for a property on the northwest corner of scripture and Ector. It is for a reconstruction or construction of a church on this property. As of this afternoon, the applicant has not met all of the Denton Development Code requirements. They have already received an extension, a 30-day extension, therefore today it is being recommended for denial as they have not, again, met all the established criteria for an administratively approved plat. I'll stand for any questions. Thank you, Ron. I do not see any questions at this time. Thank you so much. Commissioner Villarreal. I move to deny the plat. Commissioner Pohl? Second. Okay, we've got a first and a second for denial of item 4A. Any discussion? Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0, taking us to 4B, PPP 210031A. Hi, Julie. Good evening. I'm Julie Wyatt, senior planner with the City of Denton, and this is PPP 210031A. We originally, when the agenda posted, they had one more item to address, but they were able to get that corrected, and so where we were recommending denial when the agenda posted, we are now recommending approval, and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thanks, Julie. Any other questions for Julie? I don't see any, Julie. Thank you. Commissioner Anderson? Making motion to approve. Commissioner Villarreal? Second. Got a first and a second for approval of item 4B. Any discussion there? Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. That will bring us to 4C, PPP 210029A, and that's Julie's item again. All right. So this is PPP 210029A. It is a preliminary plat for a mixed-density development. They still have some comments they need to address. They did receive an extension prior to, so staff is recommending denial of the plat. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Julie. I do not see any questions. Commissioner Villarreal? Move to deny the plat. Commissioner Cole? Second. Got a first and a second to deny item 4C. Any discussion? All right. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. That will take us to our public hearing item for this evening, 5A, which is PD 210004. I will go ahead and open the public hearing and also state that the applicant has requested that that public comment hearing be continued until January 12th. I will state that we have received 12 virtual comment cards at this time in opposition of this item, and I will check with Vanessa to see if there is anyone on the phone. We do not have any callers right now. Okay. Thank you. Anyone in the audience? We're not going to discuss the item in detail, but if you are here to speak on this item, you can speak this evening if you would like to. Okay. I do not see any. The Chair will entertain a motion to continue this item as requested by the applicant. Commissioner Villarreal? I move to continue this item until January 15th, correct? January 12th, I believe, was it requested? Yes. It was requested. Commissioner Cold? Second. Okay. We have a first and a second to continue this public hearing item to a date certain of January 12th. Any discussion? Seeing none, let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. That will take us to agenda item 6, our planning and zoning commission matrix, and I will turn it over to Tina. Thank you, Chairman Ellis. Just a few items to update the planning and zoning commission on. So, yesterday afternoon, evening, the criteria manuals were all approved, and thank you all for your input related to those, all four of those, council was able to approve yesterday evening. Also, we gave a presentation regarding the purpose of the conference of plan and all the components associated with the conference of plan and discussed next steps as we move into the adoption phase for the Denton 2040 plan update. With that discussion was discussion about having some work session meetings both with the planning and zoning commission and city council, so Selena will likely be reaching out to you, letting you know when those dates are. What we're proposing is doing a work session discussion with the commission in February, and it would be like from 10 to 2, in which we would provide lunch for you to have that discussion. This is after a presentation that we intend to share with the commission on January 12. So just some items that are on your radar for the future. Also I had to think back to some of the zoning cases we've had recently because we haven't had anything on council's agenda in a while, but the Harris track, the rezoning request to light industrial was approved on that property, and that occurred I believe right before Thanksgiving. And then also we had a rezoning request of a lot from rural residential to our ones are one or two. One. Okay, our one zoning district, thank you. That's why I have a great team to help me out on this, but requested reason to our one. This property was on Miller road just east of mosh branch road, and so therefore that request was approved, but other than that, that's all I have for updates. Thank you, Tina will invite anything on to the matrix, Commissioner mcday. Thank you, chair. I'm curious to see if we in the near future we can have a work session on just parking, whether it be commercial and residential if that's possible. There's a lot of questions that I have that I didn't want to bring up in the work session because we'd be here all night, but there's a lot of questions that I'm concerned about parkings made more or less residential residential commercial. Okay, happy to add that to the matrix and then maybe if we can follow up with you one on one just to make sure we understand if there's anything particular you're wanting us to cover. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else for the matrix? Any concluding items? Well, I will just say happy holidays to everyone since I believe this is our last meeting for this year. And I will go ahead and adjourn us at 649 PM. Thank you.