Good afternoon and welcome to the City of Denton's Planning and Zoning Commission
meeting for Wednesday March 9th 2022. This is our work session and with the
quorum present I will call us to order at 5 o 3 p.m. We don't have any work
session reports. Our first item on the agenda is citizen comments on consent. I
don't see anyone here. Do we have anyone on the phone waiting? No we don't have
anyone on the phone. Very good thank you. All right then we'll go right into the
clarification of agenda items. Let's see any discussion on the minutes? There were
yeah two days of minutes. No okay. How about consent? Nothing on consent? Okay.
Items for individual consideration. For A okay and that one is recommended for
approval. Okay then for B I believe that is an extension request. Jordan did you
have your hand up? No? Okay okay. For C and I believe that is also an extension
request. Okay for D same extension request to date certain 323. Okay then
for E recommended for approval. Any questions? For F that is a requested
extension. Is that correct? Okay to 323. We have 4G it was a very late email on 4G
but they have worked through staff comments on that and it is recommended
for approval now. Has everyone had a chance to see that in email and if not I
can have Julie bring it up now. Okay we're good. Okay that's going to be the
same thing with 4H. There's a late approval on that as well. Any questions on
that? Okay and that one's now recommended for approval. Well all right then we'll
go right on to our public hearings for the night. The first one 5A there was a
notice error so staff is requesting that to be postponed to 323 so I will be
asking for a motion just for an extension on that item so we can clear
that. Okay any questions on that? Okay and then a 5B is hold a public hearing
consider making a recommendation to council on the comprehensive plan update.
Do we want to have a short presentation on that now or do we just want to wait
for questions? If there are any top of mind. Hi Tina. Hi Tina Fergens deputy
director of development services. I'm happy to answer any questions right now.
We were planning on reserving the presentation for the public hearing just
to not duplicate but if there's anything that the Commission needs clarification
on I'm happy to address that. Okay thank you. Okay sorry about the technical
difficulty in the pause. I'll call us back to order at 5 0 8 p.m. Tina I will
let you finish. Tina Fergens deputy director of development services. Chairman
Ellison response to your question. Staff was not anticipating doing a
presentation for the work session. We were planning on preserving our
presentation for the public hearing. Happy to address any questions that the
Commission may have at this time as it relates to the comprehensive plan and
also we were going to take a similar approach with mobility plan if that's
acceptable. Okay thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions for the comp plan
update or the mobility plan before the public hearing? Okay thank you much. I
appreciate that. So then that will take us to 5 D which is hold a public hearing
consider making recommendation to counsel of an ordinance amending the
development code in section 7 4 7 a. Christy I'll have you come down I don't
know if we are we approaching this the same with a presentation at the public
hearing. Answering any questions now? Okay all right. Okay sounds good. Commission
any questions for Christy before the public hearing that you want her to
address here at the work session? Sure Commissioner Pruitt. Thank you. I guess
I'll just mention a couple things that that I'll be interested in hearing about
and if it takes some some time to reference that we can cover it in the
public hearing but I'll be interested to understand what requirements are in
place from a managing how trails would be handled in these riparian areas as
far as is it ice swim regulations you know how does that how are we covered
from a make sure that that we don't do something harmful essentially just
because from the text I don't I don't see where that's referenced and then the
second thing is I'll I'll be interested to understand how this applies to alt
ESA applications both in the case where the applicant applies for an alt ESA on
their land and then it stays their land is there an ability in the future if it
makes sense for a trail to go through that area as well as in the case where
they apply for an alt ESA but they also do a dedication of land to the parks
department for instance but the the piece of the parcel that gets dedicated
is still within the alt ESA area how does that work does that make sense so
from what I understand you're asking is if if someone is required to apply for
and seek an alternative ESA plan then and and the trail happens to be a part
of that how does that all come into play yes also if say for instance they apply
for an alt ESA but then five years later the parks department decides to try to
bring a trail through that corridor what's what's the process for how we
handle that if that makes sense okay yeah those are great questions okay yeah
okay I'll be prepared to answer those questions at the public hearing thanks
one of late clarification was brought to my attention just a moment ago that item
for C is going to be is being withdrawn by the applicant so we will be I'll
announce at the public hearing but we won't need an extension request granted
on that okay with nothing else to clarify on our agenda I will call our
work session closed at 512 we'll meet back here at 630 for the public meeting
thank you good evening and welcome to the city of Denton's planning and zoning
Commission meeting for Wednesday March 9th 2022 with a quorum present I will
call us to order at 630 p.m. before we get into our agenda I'm gonna turn the
mic over to Haley real quick good evening we just wanted to officially
welcome our newest planner Mia Hinds to the team she's in the back row joining
us from the city of Glen Heights and she is our newest associate planner so
welcome her to the evening welcome Mia okay our first item on the agenda is the
Pledge of Allegiance to the US and Texas Flags
and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all
thank you our next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes for January
26th and February 9th meetings chair can entertain a motion or any questions on
that Commissioner Smith make a motion approve Commissioner Villarreal second
okay we've got a first and a second for approval is there any discussion okay we
will have to do a vote via roll call Commissioner Pruitt all right
Commissioner Smith all right Commissioner McDade all right Commissioner
Cole Commissioner Villarreal all right Commissioner Anderson all right and the
chairs and I that motion carries seven zero that will move us to our consent
agenda Commissioner Smith make a motion to approve we have a motion to approve
the consent agenda Commissioner Cole second we've got a first and a second to
approve the consent agenda is there any question or discussion okay let's take a
vote via roll call Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith I Commissioner
McDade I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal I Commissioner
Anderson I shares also an I that motion carries seven zero that takes us to our
items for individual consideration and just for clarification 4c has been
withdrawn by the applicant so we will not be taking action on 4c so I will
call up for a FP 2100 for 1a and invite Shawn Jacobson up hello Shawn hello I am
opening this for Haley very good thank you Shawn I believe it's slide three
Shawn okay yes so good evening this is the Primoros edition final plat y'all
may recognize this property as it's recently been rezoned to allow for a
corporate headquarters to be relocated here subject properties just north of
Barthold on I 35 and as of yesterday staff is able to recommend approval of
this plat as the associated engineering plans have now been approved I'm happy
to answer any questions excellent thank you Haley and Shawn any questions for
staff okay seeing none Commissioner Smith make a motion to approve we've got
a first Commissioner Anderson second we've got a first and a second for
approval of this item any discussion okay let's take a vote via roll call
Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith I Commissioner McDade I Commissioner
Cole I Commissioner Villarreal I Commissioner Anderson I and chair is an
I that motion carries seven zero taking us to 4b FP 220007 and Shawn I believe
you will be presenting this item yes ma'am thank you good evening chair and
members of the Commission let me just pull up the plots again
all right so tonight I'm presenting FP 220007 this is the perch
Denton edition and staff is recommending denial this request is it does not meet
the criteria for approval as outlined however staff has no objection to the
request extension which could be granted to March 23rd 2022 I do not see any
thank you Commissioner Smith make a motion to
prove the extension of date certain of March 23rd 2022 okay we've got a first
to approve the extension request Commissioner Villarreal second we've got
a first and a second to approve that extension request any discussion seeing
one let's vote Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith I Commissioner McDade
I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal I Commissioner Anderson I
chair is an I so that motion carries the seven zero as I stated earlier 4c has
been withdrawn we will move to 4d FP 2020 I'm sorry FP 220006 hi Karina
sure this has been a while
good to see you in person it's nice to see you all right all right this is a
final plaque for the pebble brook Parkside edition this is located on the
east side of loop 288 just south of East McKinney Street staff is recommending
denial as there's still a couple of items they still need to address so it
does not meet the criteria for approval however the applicant has requested an
extension to March 23rd and staff has no objection to this request thank you
any questions I don't see any thank you Karina Commissioner Pruitt move to
approve the extension to a date certain emerged 23rd Commissioner Smith second
we've got a first and a second for approval of the extension request any
discussion seeing none let's evoke Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith
Commissioner McDade Commissioner Cole Commissioner Villarreal Commissioner
Anderson chair is also an I that motion carries seven zero for EPP 220001 and
that would be Julie Wyatt's presentation hi Julie good evening
all right this is PP 21 - 0001 a it is for a preliminary plat for a horizontal
multifamily use that you might remember that went forward it's been in the last
year and was approved they did they were able to work through all of the issues
related to it so staff does recommend approval and I'll be happy to answer any
questions thanks Julie any questions for Julie I don't see any Julie thank you
Commissioner Villarreal I move to approve the plan Commissioner Anderson a
second the motion we've got a first and a second for approval any discussion
seeing none let's vote Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith I
Commissioner McDade I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal I
Commissioner Anderson I chair is also an I that motion carries seven is zero for
FPP 220004 is also Julie's okay this is a preliminary plat for the vintage ranch
it's a multifamily development that went through the the PD amendment approval
process recently they do have some comments they need to address so staff
does recommend denial however we have no objection to their requested extension
to the March 23rd meeting and I'll be happy to answer any questions thanks
Julie any questions for Julie okay Commissioner Smith make a motion to
approve the extension of date certain March 23rd 2022 okay we've got a first
for the extension request approval Commissioner Pruitt a second got a first
and a second to approve the extension request to a date certain March 23rd any
discussion okay Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith I Commissioner
McDade I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal I Commissioner
Anderson I share is also an I that motion carries seven is zero taking us
to 4g PP 21 0020 be Julie okay this one is for a preliminary plot within the
ropes and ranch development on this is unit 27 it's a single-family development
they did get through work through all of the outstanding comments and so while
the the agenda when the agenda posted staff did recommend denial they they
have we are able to recommend approval excellent thank you Julie any questions
for Julie on this item
chair can entertain a motion or discussion
Commissioner Pruitt I'll move to approve the plot you've got a first for
approval Commissioner McDade second got a first and a second for approval any
discussion seeing none let's vote Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner
Smith I Commissioner McDade I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal
I Commissioner Anderson I share is also an I that carries seven zero taking us
to 4h PP 21 0029 see Julie you are very busy this evening
hello again I think this is my last one this is PP 21 - 0029 see the Holland
edition the subject property is is located at just east of loop 288 it's a
mixed density development and this is a preliminary plot they have worked through
all the remaining comments and so staff recommends approval of this preliminary
plot great thank you Julie any questions for Julie do not see any Commissioner
Smith make a motion to approve we've got a first for approval Commissioner
McDade second got a first and a second for approval of this plat any discussion
seeing none let's vote Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith I
Commissioner McDade I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal I
Commissioner Anderson I share is also an I that motion carries seven zero that
will take us to our public hearing items for the evening first a 5a there was a
notice error so a staff is requesting that this item be postponed Commissioner
Smith make a motion to approve postponement to date certain in March
23rd 2022 thank you we've got a first to approve staff's request for the
extension Commissioner Villarreal second we've got a first and a second to
postpone this item to a date certain of March 23rd 2022 any questions discussion
okay let's vote Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner Smith I Commissioner
McDade I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal I Commissioner
Anderson I share is also an I that motion carries seven zero taking us to
5b p7 I'm sorry PZ 21 249 hold a public hearing consider making recommendation
to City Council regarding the 2040 comp plan update and I'm not sure who is
presenting this item it's Tina I will bring up Tina and I will open the public
hearing hi Tina hi there just one moment
okay excellent good evening Tina Fergens deputy director development services and
the planning director so it's my pleasure to introduce this agenda item to
you and it's probably my entire team's pleasure to be able to introduce this
item to you before you this evening is consideration of the comprehensive plan
update the Denton 2040 comprehensive plan as you know we've been working very
diligently on getting this document to you and in this format in order for you
to take consideration and action of it I'm happy to have here with me Ed and of
course I'm drawn a blank on Ed's last name as I think of this right now but
nonetheless Ed is with us from matrix design group our consultant teams all
let him introduce himself as well but but nonetheless this has been a
collective effort with not only matrix design group as our as our partner but
with all of your feedback and effort we've had quite a bit of discussion as
it relates to this document so it's our pleasure to present it to you I'm gonna
invite Ed up here to walk you through the the presentation here as we move
forward I'll come back up here and wrap it up with next steps but we look forward
to receiving the planning and zoning Commission's recommendation this evening
staff respectfully requests that the Commission recommend approval of the
proposed Denton 2040 comprehensive plan thank you hi Ed hello hi chair members
of the Commission my name is Ed Boyk I'm with matrix design group and so it's
Boyk you won't forget that next time we'll eat and I'm and as Tina said I'm
happy to be here I'm as well since this is a huge accomplishment to get these
updates done for a very important plan for the community and so we're gonna run
through a couple different slides describing the characteristics of the
plan some of the process we took to get there and then also to reaffirms the
feedback that we heard from the planning and zoning Commission and City
Council and affirm that that is incorporated and has been addressed as
part of this comprehensive plan update so the 2040 plan is an is an update to
the 2030 plan and it reflects those current conditions in this in the
community as well as the anticipated conditions into the future so that would
be things like the changes in growth rate the new housing the new employment
that might be coming along and with that there's new challenges and they need to
be addressed and so this plan addresses those new challenges and also identifies
those opportunities that could be pursued by the community moving forward
importantly it confirms the community vision it verified that the vision that
was present when the 2030 plan was adopted is still present it's still
accurate it's still representative of Denton's future moving forward and to
that it confirmed the key goals and policies and actions other policies and
actions were examined as well and I'll talk about that another slide to be
refined and updated and new ones were established as well to move to implement
on those new opportunities and address those challenges and lastly the plan is
updated to incorporate references to the plans that are currently under
consideration or have been recently adopted such as the economic development
strategic plan the mobility plan update parks and rec transportation plan sorry
parks and recreation master plan and several other plans that are in the works
in the near term so the approach this plans approach was to do an update not a
rewrite so a large percentage of this plan was intended to be still valid it
remained valid was verified to be valid and then it was updated accordingly to
reflect the current day and the new future envisioned by Denton it's
building upon accomplishments the 2030 plan was a good plan it was able to be
implemented there have been some successes such as the downtown develop
the Denton Development Code and this is going to build upon that it's created
new strategies and new implementation tasks to build upon that that
implementation the action items has been refined it's been reviewed thoroughly
by city staff by the consultants by community and then made sure to be
representative of the projects that could be accomplished into through the
year 2040 along with that was a policy and goal analysis that was move forward
on updated the key points as I mentioned before such as the key policies and
actions new actions were established new policies and this is again carrying
that vision forward and some things that were put into place to help create some
more connective tissue between the different you know opportunities that
are identified in a plan the the land use plan is connected and represented in
the in the comp plan with the preferred land preservation plan which illustrates
those areas that could be or are environmentally sensitive or areas that
could be preserved for community benefit wildlife benefit native spaces
recreation as well as the preferred growth concept map which was reviewed by
the community and determined to still be applicable it's been updated a little
bit there's some enhancements to it to identify those areas of more intense
development but all these plans are in concert with each other they all support
each other so the public engagement was extensive and I'm not I don't know if I
go through every bullet point on this slide but the important thing is is
that we did have stakeholder interviews early on last year there was a website
that was available materials all the time for the community they could fill
out comments questionnaires on the website as well as participate in some
other tools that were available on it there was three virtual public open
houses we had an in-person one that was also had a companion 3d virtual
environment open house that was open for two weeks and last at late last year I
think in the fall of last year where the community could continue to provide
comment if they felt uncomfortable being in an in-person event or didn't have the
opportunity to make it to the in-person event there's been numerous presentations
to boards committees and commissions by myself and Ron and the other people on
staff at the city and we had a series of workshops which and work sessions that
Tina had just referred to that was really brought it all together and
ensured that this plan was something that reflected not only the community's
wants and needs but the decision-makers wants and needs and also to support
staff in their decision-making so we are really great comments for being an
update through this plan this community is incredibly engaged very really cares
about the community and it was reflected in the comments we received several I
mean well over a thousand fifteen hundred comments received through all
the different mechanisms and media that we had almost two thousand actually
between the questionnaires and vision statements and everything else and some
of those in an interactive or online tools are represented on the bottom of
the slide as well we had that ID places which was an interactive mapping
exercise that gave us a lot of spatial comments which were very valuable to
formulating and proving up those actions policies goals and implementation tasks
as well as the virtual open house I had just spoke to in the slide previous so so
these two slides there's three two slides that really are identifying those key
discussion changes and these are items that were identified by both the
planning planning and zoning Commission and City Council is being something we
should consider make sure it's addressed properly or addressed clearly in the
plan as we move forward so this is just representing that all of those different
statements whether it was for the vision statement how we handle the ETJ with
land use policy how do we handle the future land use plan area plans infill
etc all of those have been represented in this plan and it's been addressed not
only in policies and actions and goals but also in through the implementation
tasks items like the wildlife quarters specifically where become became an
action item in the implementation table protecting green spaces was important
for that as well connectivity things that could be implemented in the near
term because those plans and the more refined planning such as through the
parks plan has taken place so this plan is really an umbrella that supports all
that activity and guides all the functions of implementation forward
finally there was a comment about making sure that this plan continued to be
implementable and relevant moving forward into the future and there is a
portion of the plan through the implementation and actions that indicates
the city will actively monitor and evaluate this plan first performance and
then establish metrics for that so that you can make sure that the plans doing
what it needs to do and is if it's not then you have some more direction and
information to help you move forward into the future but with all the
outreach and all the review and all the technical expertise has gone into this
plan I'm sure this is going to be a great plan for dent moving far into the
future there's 271 action items so you got a little bit of work to do in front
of you but I believe in you guys this is a great plan in a great community so
what that might turn it back over to Tina and she's going to go through the
next steps so this slide should look very familiar to the Commission as it
illustrates all the progress that we've made on it since the beginning of January
of this year and so this evening we do need to conduct a public hearing as it
relates to the proposed plan and receive your recommendation then we will move
forward with the proposed plan to the March 22nd City Council meeting
obviously as you are well aware we were hoping to get a recommendation from you
back on February 23rd and get this to council on March 1st but Mother Nature
had some other ideas for us despite our best efforts so but following following
the council's consideration of presuming that we get approval on March 22nd we do
have slated for the Commission for March 23rd a discussion on area plans and I
know we've had lots of discussion about this is where we want to be in starting
taking that next step and working on the implementation and have a discussion
about prioritizing different areas within the community as it relates to
that but hopefully we'll have that discussion on March 23rd and good it
shows up on your slides will cover it over here but and then we will have that
similar discussion with City Council on April 5th and be able to share with
council the Commission's proposed recommendations of where we spend our
areas on area plans so with that I'd actually like to invite Ron Mingida up
here to present this slide so he this is his prize for him so I'd just like to
take a moment Ron has been tremendous throughout this whole effort and if it
wasn't for Ron's leadership and guidance we would not be here where we are today
this man has invested so much of his time as well as others on our team but I
think they would all say that Ron has been the true champion and the spirit
behind this plan and getting this updated so to me it's only befitting
that Ron present this last slide. Thank You Tina. Ron Mingida principal planner with
Development Services. I was not expecting that but I'm gonna go ahead and ask the
Commission for your recommendation and staffs recommending hopefully approval
of this item which is obviously hard done 20/40 comprehensive plan appreciate it.
Thank you Ron and I agree with Tina you are quite an asset to your team in this
city so thank you for all your efforts in this. Thank you. That concludes our
presentation. So with that we recommend that you open the public hearing but
we're also happy to take any questions or comments that you have so thank you.
Thank you everyone. Do we have questions? Commissioner Smith? We're asking
questions. Sorry Tina quick question so of the 271 action items that you guys
have out there one question we haven't asked her in all the different work
sessions and conversations we've had about this is is what is what city
staffs direction on prioritizing those action items obviously I know from some
pressure if some people on the Commission trying to get small area
plans in I won't name what jerk try to get that going forward as fast as
possible but the on those other 271 action items how are you guys
prioritizing how you guys delegating do you have something on the back end you
can share with us a little bit after we do this you don't want to just obviously
go through and prove something but we want to make sure that we do that that
there's some sort of workflow on the back end you guys give us an insight on
that. Yes so in I wish I had the the previous slide from a discussion we had
a couple of weeks ago but moving forward our focus and efforts truly on the area
plans we've also talked about infill development and what that looks like for
the community and and how we move forward with evaluating any of our codes
and and if there's any special refinements that need to be made to any
policies that relates to those areas as well but we really see our focus on also
with Council's direction you know concern regarding our land preservation
and moving forth with evaluating any codes that we might need to be modified
to be consistent with the plan update process as well but the other thing I
will add is included within I believe it's chapter 10 or element 10 of the
Conference of Plan obviously is the consolidated version of all 271 action
items and it also has a level of prioritization associated with that
whether that is a short term item midterm long term or continuous so we
would also consult that also on a regular basis on the short-term action
items to determine where we really need to invest our time and efforts and that
could be some additional conversations with the Planning and Zoning Commission
as well as council as we work on prioritizing those efforts but I go back
to really it's the area plans it's working on the infill development in and
what that looks like and then also whether or not we need to make any
modifications to code but then also concerns amongst council about
preservation of land and making sure that we have appropriate policies in
place that be able to balance that with also the development and growth that's
happening within the community well and yes and I think I mentioned that
previously but we'll have the area plans discussion on on April 5th and start
that getting that direction from council I'll probably just whenever we get to
matrix tonight I'll probably just include maybe possibly that we have a
standing item on the on our P&Z matrix to be able to just talk about where you
guys are towards those we don't need a super in-depth detail but just to make
sure there's been times in the past where we've seen actions created
leadership and people are involved or lost in communication within there and
things aren't followed up on so maybe just putting on our matrix to say hey
we're working through the items here and it might take a year or two before us to
get that off the off the matrix but I think it probably good just to have a
check and balance and conversation about it absolutely so thanks thanks for your
hard work any other question okay thank you madam chair if you could go back to
the public engagement it's not wanting to move oh wait there it goes this
particular slide hey I don't know the the the graphic next one yeah I'm
looking all together you only had 1972 comments and my question is how does the
city does the city actually go out to the people or you want the people to
actually come to the city to find out what's going on because I mean do you go
to this is does the city hold meetings with area areas of town to let them know
what's going on I mean how do you really get the information out about the 2040
plan so in this case when we worked on this project we said we used a variety
of different resources available to us we used a means of a communication means
that the city has a certain publishing information inviting people to be part
of the effort and providing the feedback we actually hosted some public meetings
and did the open house I know I was here at least for the open house that we did
in September where we invited the public to come and be part of the process with
us but but also still working through the pandemic hence why we we did but
really a social media push if you will and working with our public affairs team
on getting the word out as it related to us getting feedback on this you know
moving forward as we you know if we're successful and being able to kick off
and working on area plans as we work on those I would anticipate a much more
targeted approach with respect to getting public feedback in the past when
I've worked on projects of that nature we send invitations out to folks we you
know we use the good old u.s. postal service and sending information out
there we rely upon social media as well we use whatever other channels whether
it's advertising on our social media or excuse me on our website pages in
addition to social media but we take a much more targeted approach because
we're really interested in getting that public feedback and engagement and I see
you stand it off to my right so yeah and I'll just add the stress of the
pandemic really pushed and changed the direction that we had to take this
ultimately the original plan when we contracted with matrix was to to truly
go to each part of the community so we were going to use schools community
centers churches and and we were gonna go right to the areas as seen indicated
we'll do that with the area plans so it'll be a much more targeted focus
it'll be much more beneficial I think but overall for the process that we did
here we used every available means to get all the input we could I wasn't I'm
still not I wasn't a big fan of it and I hate to say it but I'm still not but I
will hold off until the exit you are finished with meeting meeting with the
neighborhoods I don't know if we if we if they approve it now I mean will that
change are you still going to get with the neighborhoods to get there I get
their input and well that's and that's an important part of what this will do
and some of the steps that that really those implementation practices that will
be implemented as we walk through this is those area plans as we see what's
going to occur with those area plans get that guidance we have a process built
into the development code so we can come back and amend the comprehensive plan
and or the ability plan as we as we see fit so that would come before this body
and City Council so absolutely you'll be engaged in the process already thank you
any other questions we'll wait for the screen to pop up to see if anybody on
the zoom well that's happening Tina I have a question with regarding to the
monitoring of that is there a timeline created for that is is it going to be
looked at on a six month basis on a yearly basis has that even been discussed
out so what we anticipate right now what we currently have in the plan in it was
sure screen here
so we have this principle five that's included in the plan and this really
spoke to the metrics and the monitoring associated with our efforts as we move
forward on implementation so right now the plan recommends actually I think it
was annually that that we evaluate what progress we've made one of the
challenges that we have with the metrics aspect is we need to know what we're
measuring right so we can do annual updates to the planning and zoning
Commission and council to let you all know what progress we've made on the
implementation but if we're looking to measure let's say we're looking to
measure a specific area of town and so we need to make sure we put whatever
appropriate metrics are in place related to the action item and what we're trying
to measure for that so some of that might take a little bit longer but our
goal is to at least give you annual updates so you know where we stand yeah
I think that's great okay excellent here comes Scott just to add one more piece
to it so you don't feel that mr. mengita is left out ultimately for the last
whatever it is four years five years has been working on the development code and
the update to the comp plan with those successfully completed he won't be doing
the work on all of the area plans will be dispersing that work his task will be
really the implementation so managing monitoring and as we come forward and
again we can do it and you know at the end of the meetings great thank you maybe
thank you any other questions for staff okay I do not see any at this time this
is a public hearing I don't have any cards is there anyone here wishing to
speak at this public hearing staff do we have anyone on the phones to speak on
this item no we don't have anyone on phone okay thank you all right I am in
that case going to head go ahead and close the public hearing and open the
floor for discussion or motion Commissioner Pruitt thank you chair I'd
like to move recommendation of adoption of the 2040 plan commissioner Smith
second got a first and a second for approval of the comprehensive plan
update as presented any discussion
commissioner Pruitt thank you chair I'll just offer three three things one in my
view staff has been amazingly responsive to all of the questions all of the
public feedback all the discussions and work sessions that we've had and I've
really appreciated that secondly I guess I'm I'm really looking forward to some
of those near-term actions that I think have been well identified right one of
them being sort of the focus on connectivity and how that relates to the
mobility plan that we're about to discuss as well as sort of the metrics
of monitoring that we've we've talked about earlier tonight so thank you for
for all those things yeah and I will just add a big thank you again for all
the work in this and I do think the collaboration was great I know it was
challenging with the pandemic but I do think that we've got really really good
public feedback and comments and it helped to to shape this and and we've
had great meetings and discussion and collaboration between us and other focus
groups and obviously City Council so thank you for all of that any other
discussion let's go ahead and vote then Commissioner Pruitt aye Commissioner
Smith aye Commissioner McDade aye Commissioner Cole aye Commissioner Villarreal
aye Commissioner Anderson aye and the chair is an aye that motion carries seven
zero that will move us to our next public hearing item which is 5 C PZ 22
0 0 3 I will open the public hearing and call Becky up for presentation
hi hello how are y'all today Becky Divini city engineer director of capital
projects thank you so much for allowing me to be here today to talk to you about
the 2022 mobility plan adoption first off I want to remind everyone that I
feel like the team has taken an effort with obviously Nathan George our senior
planner bicycle ADA pedestrian coordinator to make sure that this plan
was a multimodal plan I think that this is the first time that I've seen and
I've been with the city for a number of years back and forth that I've seen that
we've actually taken that full effort to incorporate those much-needed modes of
transportation not only just the thoroughfare plan which we seem to
always concentrate on but that bicycle and pedestrian and I have a lot of
kudos to give to many of you and others in the council who are the ones who have
really asked for us to include these things and made sure that that actually
happened this year so just reminder and next thing I wanted to talk about a
little bit is the community input I will tell you from July of 2019 through
September of 2020 even into December of 2019 to March 2020 I was not with the
department but I know that these were the in-person public meetings and City
Council work sessions that were held after that time I was in the department
in September of 2020 when I moved over from the utility department of which we
held those five virtual public meetings similar to like Tina and Ron and Scott
went through the pandemic did change the way we made those presentations but
those five virtual public meetings were on the different areas northern western
downtown eastern and also the southern I will mention that during that 2019
timeframe I do understand there was a bicycle pedestrian focus group meeting
that was an in-person meeting in September of 2019 so I feel like we've
taken that time to really listen and go through that process to get as much
community input as we can through those virtual and in-person meetings we also
held surveys that were work through our process you've probably seen this data
before and we received 384 responses during that first phase and then during
that second phase we received additional 287 responses you've all seen the map
that is on the right that shows the little yellow flag that you can point to
where we got that actual comment obviously we looked at specific areas
where there were multiple comments and some of those are the focus areas that
you yourselves also had similar questions and concerns and so did the
council so that was giving us that ability to understand where everyone
really wanted to focus their efforts including additional community input
obviously we did have that open house I heard that I mentioned just a few
minutes ago and we did work with a comprehensive plan and that parks and
trails master plan to keep those comments open and obviously even though
those comment periods may have ended or started you know we still continuously
received comment you can see the number of planning and zoning presentations and
City Council presentations that have been made similar to Tina obviously we
all were sad that we weren't able to present to you the night of the the
crazy weather but it's Texas and so that's just what happens but we're happy
to be here today and talk about the mobility plan I just wanted to remind
you all of really kind of those common themes that we heard throughout the the
overall plan I'm in the comments that we received that multimodal approach of
course that's what I started with that complete streets bicycle pedestrian and
obviously the thoroughfare plan really working to accommodate those bicycle and
pedestrian safety and access points we addressed many things many of the
comments were received you'll be surprised where maintenance and
operation items that really could be handled through our streets department
and so we took the time to send that message out to them whether it be
signage that needed to be done or sometimes it was striping that needed to
be improved or replaced so that was a great opportunity to receive some of
those comments although it came through the mobility plan I was happy to share
that that future consideration for development you know one of the things
that was a comment we received just to make sure that we were focusing in on
the land use map and that's where we worked very strongly with obviously the
planning department coordinating with those future text dot roads you'll know
right up until the bitter end we were changing roadways that were text dot
roadways on the mobility plan based on what text dot was doing I do feel like
we have an excellent relationship with text dot and have a great opportunity to
work together so we've taken that opportunity to share those the goal of
the city is to have the same thoroughfare plan shown that the county
shows and also text dot shows so upon adoption of the document we will be
sharing that with the county and with text dot we did confirm and look at the
appropriate roadway classifications between arterial collector vice versa
and then of course that consistency we we call it and you'll hear me say it
again that holistic approach to make sure that we have that you know parks
component with Gary in the back the parks Charles master plan and then of
course that didn't plan 2040 looking at sustainability plan any plan that we
needed to evaluate but really working consistently with the two plans you see
on the screen today to summarize I really wanted to make sure that everyone
understand the real key focus of the mobility plan was one that multimodal
approach to that context sensitive design really looking at although we may
ask for it to be an arterial with 110 feet of right away there are ways and we
showed you this in the previous presentation where certain designs can
be made for the existing conditions today giving us that opportunity to to
widen or expand that road or actually come to the inside which is another way
that you can do redway improvements but looking at what's happening in that area
and making sure that you're obviously being responsive to the to the
surrounding areas and then of course you know the number one thing we heard was
safety safety first really that vision zero plan and so that was goal number
seven that we moved to goal number one although they weren't in a hierarchy
order and we did go ahead and put that first and changed out a little bit to
have that language I think you probably remember me mentioning that we made that
very much more proactive than reactive language so we have made those updates
and what I would like to do tonight with a smile on my face because there's been
a lot of hard work behind the scenes between Nathan George that you see in
the back pre Tim Dishman is also in the the audience today and that of course
our planning team we really worked strongly on this together I think that's
one of the things I'm most proud of is the collaboration between the different
departments we sit right across from each other we do totally different
things sometimes on a day-to-day basis but we took the time and the effort to
work together in a collaborative nature to make sure that we were being
sensitive to each other's needs and listening to those lane use assumptions
that were so important to the city of Denton so I would like to ask and
recommend approval of the Denton 2022 mobility plan as presented and for
recommendation to send to City Council on March 22nd and of course we will stand
for comments thank you any questions Commissioner Perrett thank you chair
just one do we know yet what our proposed scheduling of the next update
of the transportation criteria manual will be absolutely so the transportation
criteria manual is something we're going to be updating annually and last year
during that date I know yourself and several others had several comments
that were very specific to safety concerns and speeding concerns and what
staff had chosen to do at the time is wait for that city-wide speed study
that's a mouthful and also wait till we get the vision zero action plan really
kicked off and then of course you know we have that signal re-timing project
there are several different things that we have that we're working through but
that is something that we do annually we typically start mid to late summer and
coordinate because at this point we've made sure the criteria manual the
specifications and the standard details are all in concert we've also now made
sure that the mobility plan is in concert also but take it to the next step
with incorporating many of the comments we received from that safety perspective
so our anticipation is to bring that back this year at more than likely the
last council meeting of the year okay thank you I think that to me that
transportation criteria manual is really sort of the manifestation and the main
implementation of this plan when the rubber hits the road so to speak so I'm
looking forward to that thank you absolutely and I will tell you
Commissioner Prout we would like to spend some time with you to go through
your comments and review the criteria manual I know you have quite a few that
we want to take into consideration and make sure we understand so beef be ready
for us to reach out to you and spend some quality time with you sir thanks
Becky Commissioner Anderson thank you chair I do have a couple questions is the
city going to take away the road lane space for bike paths I'm still kind of
confused on some of that stuff or are they going to build bike paths along the
side of the roads it depends specifically upon the actual roadway
classification that we're going to be looking at and then what that standard
detail is we're going to use the right away that we anticipate to acquire in
those different roadway classifications and evaluate that I can have Nathan come
and specifically answer your question in a little bit more detail but I will tell
you that he's going to give you a very generic answer because it's going to be
dependent upon really the entire design of that specific area and what the
right-of-way width is okay who's the person I mean is the citizens coming
forward saying they want bike paths because you've made you know one of your
slides said 384 people commented between July 18th or 2019 to October 11th 2019
and 287 people commented between March 1st of 2020 and October 30th of 2020
well if that's the people that are wanting this I'm not sure what those
comments were about but that's only a point zero zero two nine and a point zero
zero two two percent that want bike paths that's going to take up traffic
lanes and I'm not really I'm not saying bike paths should be there I'm just
saying I know some business owners that have that are a long bike paths that are
already existing and they say they see more confusion on drivers and less bikes
they've seen maybe two or three bike or bike riders a year but they see more
confusions from traffic I mean from traffic issues so that's I'm not a big
big fan of all these bike lanes trying to take up bike lanes for people that
we don't see a lot of bike riders I'm just being honest I don't see I mean I
drive through town all the time I mean I lived here close to downtown and I'm
driving around all the time I hardly ever see bike riders but we're pushing
for all these bike lanes sure and I'll let Nathan describe that I do understand
what you're saying sir and I would tell you that a lot of that depends on the
actual design the actual location and I would tell you that some of the bike
lanes that we have existing on the ground today will not follow the same
pattern of which we're looking to move forward with so I'm gonna step aside and
let Nathan describe that in greater detail for you Nathan George with capital
projects engineering division missionary Anderson I'll I guess provide more of a
high-level response to your question because I want to make sure it's clear
the mobility plan and the bike element of the mobility plan and specific our
focus is to provide safe and comfortable places for people to ride their bike the
so you know you're asking questions about some specific facility types and
that's not really the intent of the plan the idea is that we're showing how these
facilities will be connected what you know in general what facility types would
be providing so that might be it might be a bike lane it might be a bike path
that really depends on the nature of a project when we get to that stage when
we're ready to start design but the goal of this plan is really to show how that
network would be built out to show where those low stress connections the
priority connections would be occurring which is you know primarily along along
our major streets that are most connected within the community as our
thoroughfare streets primarily are going to form the backbone of this
network the in terms of our people going to be riding in a bike lane in the
street where it would directly impact vehicles the the big shift in this plan
is that tech stop has adopted policy and we're following suit that we're going to
accommodate folks outside the roadway when we can when that's the safest
option possible there may be in road facilities that may be something that we
do as an outcome of a specific project but in general that's not going to be
our approach so there there really will be this this approach with our projects
to separate users to provide you know more space for bicyclists outside the
roadway that's the goal of the mobility plan update that we're presenting to you
this evening it should not inhibit folks who are trying to travel by car or you
know they shouldn't be interacting with bicyclists a lot and the goal is really
to provide the safer and more connected and better quality of environment not
just for bicyclists and pedestrians but also for cars because as we deliver
these projects they're going to work better for everybody across the board no
matter how you travel around the city I hope that answers your question if you
have any follow-ups I'll be happy to stand for that well thank you for your
answer but yeah I'll just leave it at that thank you thanks thanks any other
questions for staff Commissioner Anderson I would like to add to that one of the
things that I think Nathan wants to make sure that everyone understands is we
still want to provide the same capacity and level of service within the roadway
regardless of whether there's a bike lane in the roadway or not so just want
to make sure you know that's also explained
Commissioner Anderson did you have any follow-up to that or no are you are you
finished okay okay yeah I think what we have to make clear which I think you've
made clear is I mean the plan is a multimodal plan and so it's to be
efficient on all levels of transportation on whether we're in a
vehicle or on a bike or walking the plan is is to encompass all of that and one
doesn't take away from the other it's all it's it's to make all of the modal
modals efficient so I yes Commissioner Anderson I agree with that but I'm just
my point is I don't want to waste taxpayers money and funds just for two
bicyclists a year and we're gonna spend millions of dollars to make all these
paths and lanes all this stuff for two bicyclists a year that you know these
business owners see it just I'm looking out for the taxpayers money that's all I
mean that's all okay thank you any other questions for self I don't see
anything right now Becky thank you this is a public hearing I don't have any
cards here but is there anyone who wishes to speak on this do we have anyone
on the phones no no it's on the phone okay thank you all right with that I
will go ahead and close the public hearing and open the floor for further
discussion questions or a motion Commissioner Cole I move for approval
okay we've got a first for recommendation of approval of the 2022
mobility plan Commissioner Smith saying we've got a first and a second for the
approval of the mobility plan as presented any discussion okay seeing
none let's go ahead and vote Commissioner Pruitt I Commissioner
Smith I Commissioner McDade I Commissioner Cole I Commissioner Villarreal
I Commissioner Anderson I chair is also an I that motion carries 7-0 thank you
and thank you Becky and Nathan and all of your team for your hard work on this
absolutely our pleasure thank you our final public hearing is let's see 5d DCA
22 0001 hold a public hearing consider recommendation to City Council regarding
the adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton to amend the Denton
development code to provide for pathways and trails in section 7.4.7 a and
Christy Upton will give us presentation I will open the public hearing
I forget where is it sorry where's the side chip okay sorry I always forget
that okay sorry Christy Upton and I am with environmental services and today
I'll be you might have to put that more in front of you okay today I'll be
presenting a ordinance revision to permit for trails and environmentally
sensitive areas a little bit of background the City of Denton has has
had a particular set of code to protect and preserve environmentally sensitive
areas on the books since 2002 and 2018 there were some revisions that were
proposed to update that code and both the older version of the code and in the
updates the the trail construction remained the same where there is
allowances for trail construction in undeveloped flood plains but is
currently not permitted in repairing buffers and water related habitats nor
in Crest Timbers upland habitats
the parks and recreation trails and system master plan was recently updated
and that update was adopted and with that new plan there's a promotion of the
use of spaces and corridors to that are created by those environmentally sensitive
areas so with that concept of using those green spaces for for the trails we
identify that the current development code is and semi conflicting with with
that that overarching goal of using those green spaces so the city has
initiated a code amendment to allow for the trail construction we are trying to
limit that that trail construction under certain certain circumstances to kind of
create some guidelines on the continue and by creating those guidelines
continuing to promote the protection and preservation and maximizing on that
protection and preservation of those environmentally sensitive areas and that
would be to restrict the construction of the trails that are within that will be
either owned and or operate owned and operated by the city or an agreement
that the city will be operating those trails within that property the second
circumstance would be that those trails be constructed under standards that
promote the protection of those environmentally sensitive areas as they're
being constructed and this information was in your backup material and this is
the specific language that we would be asking to amend through sections to add
the language to permit the trail construction and staff recommends the
proposal of those code amendments and with that I will conclude my
presentation and answer any questions you may have thanks Christy for the
screen to come up questions for Christy mr. Perot thank you chair I guess when
when we talk about developing the trails in a way that preserves the ESA's is
there any what what standards do we look to to ensure that that's that there are
some some rigor behind that as opposed to an intention that may or may not be
followed depending on the the particular desires at the time sure and staff has
been thinking about this a lot and we will be the parks department parks and
Recreation Department has put together the parks and Recreation design and
construction manual and we are proposing to add some elements to that
construction manual that would identify you know some of those points you know of
concern that could cause for you know greater damage of the environmentally
sensitive areas obviously this is what we're trying to avoid right so
maximizing that preservation and protection so the parks department and
the environmental services and engineering services will all be
working together to come up with those standards to put in that plan okay thank
you and one more if I may I understand these two amendments govern the
allowable activities in ESA's under the the normal requirements of the DDC can
you explain a little bit about what the what the process and limitations would
be about trails in similar ESA's if an applicant applied for an alternative ESA
so by putting this code amendment into the code let me give you a scenario
there's a development who is proposing to dedicate parkland on a portion of the
development and the part of that parkland dedication will include some
environmental sensitive areas and in order to maximize the use of that parkland
some trails will be constructed so in that that scenario the developer will
construct the trails then dedicate the parkland to the city so that that trail
will be constructed right in the case of an environmentally and alternative
environmentally sensitive area plan under the current code they would have had the
developer would have to come in and seek for an alternative plan in order to
construct that trail so what we're trying to do is we're trying to create
the path of to allow for these trail construction without having to seek that
specialized permission from the city and I think I think that addresses your
question are there other components to that question no I think that that helps
thank you I I think this is a very good move you know of trying to balance the
community's desires of preservation but to some extent the more that you can
make assets community assets available to the community and give them that
experience of enjoying it the more benefit we get from that and the more
you know cyclical building upon itself sort of appreciation of that
preservation that we're trying to do so I appreciate the the effort here and I
would just say you know as as this goes forward let's let's make sure that we
clearly communicate what you know how how this amendment is actually going to
put perhaps more focus on sort of the engineering design of these riparian
Issa's so that maybe they get even extra eyes on them then they just naturally
would if we weren't taking these steps to really be careful about those areas
and I think that's a good good move so thank you thanks Commissioner for it
well so any other questions discussion
thanks Christine thank you this is a public hearing I don't have any cards is
there anyone wishing to speak on this item do we have anyone on the phone for
this item no we don't have anyone on phone thank you okay with that I will go
ahead and close the public hearing and open the floor for discussion or a
motion Commissioner Anderson make a motion to approve Commissioner Villarreal
second we've got a first and a second for approval any discussion seeing none
let's go ahead and vote Commissioner Pruitt Commissioner Smith Commissioner
McDade Commissioner Cole Commissioner Villarreal I Commissioner Anderson hi
chair is also an I that motion carries a 7-0 that will take us to our Planning and
Zoning Commission matrix and I will turn the floor over to Tina thank you
chairman Ellis Tina Fergens planning director so the matrix just a couple of
quick items I had to think back to I updated this previously for our meeting
on the 23rd a couple areas where I made some additional refinements to the
matrix just to add some time associated with it with respect to the fiscal
analysis tool and I believe Commissioner Pruitt I know you've been interested in
this particular item so we are anticipating bringing that back to the
Commission for discussion either in late March or early April as we work with the
consultant on getting that prepared for for your consideration and then also
we've already talked earlier this evening about the area plans and so we'll be
bringing that back at your next meeting for discussion otherwise everything else
on the matrix pretty much remains the same in terms of projects that council
took action on in since your last meeting the only zoning case that we've
had in which council considered was the Kingsway proposed PD amendment council
in the end ended up not moving forward with that and so the developer will have
the option to build in accordance with their approved preliminary plat for that
particular property and then also I know Commissioner Ellis had sent me an email
and was interested in knowing what happened with the plats that were
slated for the Commission's agenda on February 23rd and and so we went back
and looked at the list we were able to get one of the plats to actually an
approval status and that was the DC or the Denton ICC edition so that plot has
been approved the other plots we were able to get them to successfully withdraw
and so that way we did not have any plots getting approved that we were not
interested in having approved in my apologies I know there were some
inquiries as to whether or not we were going to have that February 23rd meeting
and as the weather was approaching we were actually in the process of working
with our applicants and in trying to get them to withdraw plats particularly
those that were of concern and working with them on how we could get them back
before the planning and zoning Commission and get them in a much more
desirable status for approval so our apologies for getting the word out on
canceling the meeting late that afternoon but know that we were
frantically working on that of course we also wanted to have a recommendation on
the on the comprehensive plan and mobility plan but of most concern for us
was any plats and what their status was related to that but that's all I have as
it relates to the matrix I know Commissioner Smith you alluded to earlier
and might be interested in adding something related to that but happy
answer any other questions as well yeah the only thing I just wanted to have on
there with those those action items having something on the matrix that would
address where we are towards those action items as we go through and if it
goes to council and gets approved for the 2040 plan that give us an update
nothing nothing super in-depth more than just we've knocked out this item this
item this item something along those lines just so we know they're getting
done and then whenever just in the event that you know we don't want Tina or
anybody else to go anywhere anytime soon but people change jobs and if it takes a
long time to get those action items implemented in the works we want to make
sure that there's some homogeneity between those as we get this done okay
absolutely we can do that thanks anything else for the matrix Commissioner
Prudt thank you chair I think on tonight's agenda we had one sort of
postponement due to a problem with noticing and we've had several similar
cases within the last call it six to nine months I don't really have context
for whether the occurrence of those has been about normal or excessive I also
don't even know which ones of those are our city noticed versus developer
noticed so we don't have to have anything big but just kind of how we're
doing how we're tracking are there any things that we need to implement to make
sure that we don't confuse the community before these public hearings absolutely
we can bring that back and have a conversation on that anything else for
the matrix okay any concluding items
Commissioner Cole I just want to say thank you to all your hard work I know
y'all just been really burning the midnight oil and all this and just we're
we're just lucky to have you guys the city didn't is lucky to have y'all thank
y'all for everything you are doing and all the hard work put in thank you I'm
I'm just the one standing up here but really it's my team working diligently
behind the scenes so it's all in due credit to them because they're the ones
that are working the hardest so thank you but we appreciate the recognition I
agree Commissioner Cole I will second all of that that he said thank you for
all of your hard work anything else concluding items I'll just say
congratulations to our city manager being taken out of interim status so
congratulations to city manager Hensley it's nice that she's on board working
hard as she always has okay with that I will conclude our meeting at some 41 p.m.
thank you