Jun 29, 2022 Zoning Board of Adjustment on 2022-06-29 6:30 PM (Special Called Meeting (Continuation) - 2 of 2)

good evening it's we're back for round two again my name is Amber Briegel I'm chair to the Zoning Board of Adjustments it is June 29th 2022 and the time is 7 36 this is the second meeting where we were are gonna do our deliberations but in order we're first gonna do the pledge again because this is totally separate meeting so rise again okay thank you okay so we we are not the Planning and Zoning Commission we're the Zoning Board of Adjustments we have a much stricter kind of framework from which to work we can't tweak site plans like P&Z can this is we have kind of some strict guidelines to go by so I'm gonna ask legal to kind of walk us through what are our options as we deliberate in the second meeting so the first thing to consider is that the reason we're all here is because of an appeal of an administrative decision and that decision was to approve the zoning compliance plan we spent two hours talking about the various reasons why there's some debate about whether it was appropriate to do so but your base question is whether staff got it right whether staff got it wrong and for both if so why as you can see on this slide here you have three options you can agree in whole with the staff you can reverse staff's decision which has the effect of denying the zoning compliance plan and effectively causing the project to submit a new zoning compliance plan the final option is a hybrid you can amend or modify the administrative officials approval of the ZCP which would require modifications of the plan set in order to meet whatever code requirement you may or may not decide was not correctly applied so what that would look like would be approving staff's decision as to those segments of the code you agreed with and modifying to be a denial as to the segment of the code that you as a board did not agree with that would still have the effect of causing the applicant to resubmit a new zoning compliance plan other general advice is to pay attention to do the evidence that was presented to you as a quasi-judicial body it's your responsibility to decide who's credible and whether the information that was presented to you is real relevant to the question at hand which is was the approval appropriate and finally Ron and I are able to answer procedural or legal questions but questions of any of the parties as discussed we already exhausted that opportunity thank you thank you before we deliberate Robert's Rules of Orders says that we need to have a motion so we know what it is we're discussing so I would entertain a motion from the board so we know what direction to go in and you can see here these are the on the screen in front of you these would be our options I move to affirm the administrative officials approval of the ZCP thank you we have a motion to affirm is there a second second we've got a second great okay now we can have some discussion you want to tell us more about why you made that motion sure so for the record I think it's sad that all those trees are gonna go I am a tree hugger however it has come to my attention that recently my own home was once a cow pasture so it's a little bit hypocritical of me to fuss about whether whether I like the trees going or not but to have other people have a home to live in some land has to go when my own home my own situation would have been the same so for the record I don't like that the trees are going for the record I can I can see being a homeowner and seeing those beautiful trees and then all of a sudden there's an apartment complex right there it would be very concerning for me on multiple levels so the reason I made the motion was not because I don't empathize with where you might find yourself as a homeowner however given my role on the board and what it is that we're supposed to be deliberating I tried my best to understand the appellants concerns which is why I asked mr. Perry if we could at least confirm that we were on the same page and it sounded like we were so three main issues for me and one was about access one was about I'm sorry the fire code the fire lanes the access the easement issue and then the tree preservation but I think that the staff has presented on each of those points evidence from the Denton development code and I think one of the biggest things is that is the understanding that this is part of a multi-phase process and so approving the ZCP does not mean that the developer has a permit yet and I trust and found credibility in the staff's presentation that before they would issue a permit all of those things would be satisfied so for that reason I I moved to affirm their decision thank you sure so other discussion yeah go ahead your microphone please question for Ron and for legal rep mr. Vansant mentioned that they expected that sometime in about a week or so in about a week or so that but very very near that they would be have established the access rights to create the second access for the fire code and I was wondering why we were having this meeting ahead of that if that's the case so to answer your question really quickly on the meeting there is a certain time limit for us to consider this appeal after it's been submitted so that's part one as far as the actual easement there is obviously no timeline for that specifically but of course that would be something that would need to be submitted prior to the next step that part I understand it's confusing to me that if it's that close it would just sort of seal the deal completely and why we wouldn't have waited to hold this meeting until that was in hand and again being so close not sure when we would be getting that and we can with the timeline that was set we needed to add quickly that's an aspiration but it could be longer Texas local government code requires us to hold meeting within 60 days of the appeal being filed so we're kind of obligated to do that and for that that was our driving factor and yeah sorry so further comment about the motion which is to affirm the approval yeah go ahead please I would just like to second the comments that have been provided across the board in the sense that you know my two factors for affirming are related to to both the points of access and the concerns around the fire codes as well as the trees and landscaping concerns that were raised I think there are a lot of conditions related to the trees and landscaping I think you already kind of acknowledged that you feel like they're probably gonna be more lost and then we anticipate but but that there will be some sort of enumeration in that in that respect related to the fire code I think the the part for me is that we are the current plan exceeds the requirements of the code and as such was there to be any failure to meet the requirements of this plan after this approval has been met they would have to go back and have you know to another to another board to discuss this so that's really kind of the factors related to this second to that I will say you know the I know that the ESA kind of discussion is not relevant or pertinent to this discussion but but I completely understand the concerns of those that raise that issue as well and I would I would feel them as well so thank you thank you there are the comments no okay so the motion is to affirm and if this because I correct me if I'm wrong if if the motion was to deny we would have to have six votes but in in order to reverse the the current staff ruling in this case is just a simple majority to affirm correct that's correct okay all right so we have a motion to affirm we've got a second we've had some conversation one more time does anyone want to say anything before you vote we're good okay so all those in favor of affirming the administrative officials approval of the ZCP raise your hand and all those against and any abstain so the motion passes one two three four five to one all right thank you are there any concluding items before we call the meeting chair just because I'm being procedurally walkish could we also have a vote to adopt staffs findings of fact adopt staffs finds a fact yes yes with it someone like to make a motion to adopt staffs findings of fact I'll make that motion yes and a second we have a first and a second any discussion all those in favor raise your hand any opposed and any abstain got five in favor and one abstain thank you any other procedural wonky things okay you went to school for this and I'm just a volunteer so thank you all right thanks very much the yeah we we just affirmed the the staffs ZCP the second thing the the findings of fact do you want to explain that sure basically when we make a decision we need to explain why and so the vote to adopt staffs analysis as our findings of fact basically says that the board agrees with staffs analysis thank you and with that I'll close the meeting the time is 749 thank you everyone for coming out this evening