Good evening and welcome to the City of Denton's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting for
Wednesday May 24th, 2023.
With the quorum, President, I'll call us to order at 6.30 p.m.
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.
Under the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one
and indivisible.
Thank you.
Next item is Citizen Comments on Consent Agenda.
Is there anyone here wishing to speak on the Consent Agenda items?
Seeing none, we'll move to clarification on tonight's agenda.
Commissioners, are there any questions that you need answered before we head into the
agenda?
I have a quick one.
It's probably going to be for Haley because it's a gas well question.
And it just has to do with the prelim plat for Riney Elementary.
I know there's a gas well nearby, right?
I'm assuming that...
And it's a protected...
Yes, the school would be a protected use, let's see.
I just couldn't make that out when I was looking at that plat where things were there.
It is most likely not shown because the well appears to be further away than 500 feet from
the school property.
Okay.
And that was my question.
Yeah.
If you can see on the screen, the gas well, I believe this would be it over here.
Okay.
That's why I couldn't make it out on the plat.
That answers my question.
I appreciate you.
Thank you.
Okay.
With no other need for clarifications, we'll move right into approval of our minutes for
May 10th.
Commissioner Smith.
Motion to approve.
Commissioner Villarreal.
Second.
Okay.
We've got a first and a second for approval.
Any questions?
Okay.
Let's vote on the board, please.
That motion carries 7-0.
That will take us to our consent agenda this evening with our three items there.
Commissioner Villarreal.
I move approval of the consent agenda.
Commissioner Pruitt.
Second.
We've got a first and a second for approval of the consent agenda.
Any questions?
Okay.
Let's vote on the board, please.
That motion will carry 7-0, taking us to our items for individual consideration.
First one is 6A FP23-0008.
Ashley's here to tell us all about that one.
Hi, Ashley.
Good evening.
Ashley Eckstead, Assistant Planner, City of Denton.
This is a final plat for a warehouse use on approximately 20 acres on the west side of
the I-35 service road.
At this time, staff is recommending denial, but we have no objection to the requested
extension to June 14th, 2023.
Happy to answer any questions.
Great.
Any questions for Ashley?
Thank you very much.
Commissioner Smith.
Make a motion to approve the extension to date certain of June 14th, 2023.
Commissioner Cole.
Second.
Okay.
We've got a first and a second to grant that extension request to a date certain of June
14th, 2023.
Any discussion?
Okay.
Let's vote on the board, please.
That motion carries 7-0.
That'll take us to 6B, PP23-0008A.
Good evening, Angie Manglars, Senior Planner.
This is preliminary plat 23-00-0.
This is not the right plat.
I apologize.
It is this plat.
This is for prominent square addition, phase 2B.
It is for future single family and townhome development.
The plat has received its one-time 30-day extension.
At this time, it still does not meet our criteria for approval and staff is recommending denial.
Happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Angie.
Any questions?
Okay.
I don't see any.
Thank you.
Commissioner Villarreal.
I move denial.
Commissioner Smith.
Second.
Okay.
We've got a first and a second for denial.
Any discussion?
Okay.
Let's go ahead and vote on the board, please.
That motion carries 7-0.
That will take us to 6C, FR23-0006.
Angie, you're coming right back for us.
Hello.
Yes.
Hi.
Angie Manglars, Senior Planner.
This is a final replat for a previously plotted tract of land north on University Drive.
It is currently the site of Dutch Bros Coffee.
At this time, they do not meet the criteria for approval.
However, staff has no objection to the recommended or requested extension to a date certain of
June 14th.
Happy to answer any questions.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any questions for Angie?
Thank you.
Commissioner Smith.
Make a motion to approve the extension to date certain of June 14th, 2023.
Commissioner Villarreal.
Second.
Okay.
We've got a first and a second to grant the extension request to a date certain of June
14th, 2023.
Any discussion?
Okay.
Let's vote on the board, please.
That motion carries 7-0.
That will take us to our matrix agenda item.
I'll turn it over to Tina.
I think I have the longest presentation this evening.
Very well.
So with respect to the matrix, I'm going to start on the last page.
So regarding the annual updates related to the Denton 2040 comprehensive plan and progress.
So we are targeting bringing that back in June.
So we'll have that conversation.
My apologies.
I know we were trying to get it to you a little sooner, but we were needing to allow for our
colleagues to have a little additional time on assembling that information.
So, but we'll have that report to you in June for that item.
Council action.
We had the Camelot rezoning request.
If you recall, that was the city initiated zoning request that we did.
And so Julie was the planner on that project that went to council last week, and that was
approved 7-0.
One of the critical items associated with that is receiving the super majority vote
from council.
Like the commission, you know, they were interested in trying to understand folks' concern and
opposition, but we had no additional information to share with council beyond what we were able
to share with you all.
So, but council did see the benefit associated with approving that rezoning request.
So it was unanimously approved.
We continue to make progress on our area plan.
So we've got a Northeast Denton steering committee meeting coming up on Tuesday, May 30th.
I know at least one of you participates on that.
So we continue our efforts related to that project.
We also continue working on Southeast Denton, finding additional persons to serve on the
steering committee.
So if you know of anyone that is interested in participating, by all means, would love
to hear from them.
I'm really looking to target individuals that either reside within the area, own a business
within the area, so we can bring that component to the committee.
We do have five people that we were able to successfully get appointed, so we want to
start with that core group and make sure we don't lose their interest.
And also, in case there might be anybody listening out there, if the concern is that they're
participating in a weekly meeting, that is not the case on the area plans.
So I believe there are four steering committee meetings that are slated throughout the duration
of the project.
So it's not a weekly commitment, I can assure from that standpoint.
And then downtown, we continue to work on getting the contract prepared in order to
be able to send that to council so we can initiate that project.
The Development Code Review Committee, they continue to remain hard at work.
In fact, they just wrapped up discussion on reasonable accommodations process, as well
as group homes, community homes, elderly housing.
And so the committee did recommend to staff to go ahead and move forward with initiating
the public hearing process.
So we will be bringing that forth to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and we have that slated
for your June meeting, so we'll be bringing that back then.
And then we continue to work on developing a public engagement plan for short-term rentals.
So that one is on just a temporary pause while we continue to work through that.
In the meantime, we're going to go ahead and initiate the topic that I know you all have
been waiting for, and that's to revisit minimum parking requirements.
So that was prioritized, and that request came from Commissioner Villarreal on the Planning
and Zoning Commission.
So we will start having that conversation about minimum parking requirements, if any,
what that looks like, and just initiate that conversation.
And then last but not least, I would like to introduce Bryce VanArsdale.
So Bryce has just recently joined us, like the second week on the job.
So we hired Bryce from the city of, I want to make sure I pronounce this correctly, Burnet.
From the city of Burnet, which is not far from Austin, but he joins us, like I said,
second week on the job.
So you'll have an opportunity to get to know Bryce as he presents projects before the Planning
and Zoning Commission.
So we're happy to have him with us.
And that concludes my report.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Thanks, Tina.
And welcome, Bryce.
We look forward to hearing your presentations.
That moves us to concluding items or anything to add to the matrix.
Commissioner Cole.
Thank you, Chair.
Following the legislature, I know there were two key things that would impact us that were
on the docket in Austin.
One was de-annexation.
The other one was accessory dwellings on homes.
What did anything come out of it?
Did they make it out?
What do you know?
I know we're hoping to get a legislative update at some point, because it's on our matrix.
Yes.
So I don't recall the status of the bills right now off the top of my head as it relates
to those two topics.
But yes, we do have that on the matrix.
So I know the session closes, what, on the 29th, and so I figured at that point, then
we could come forth and bring a presentation to the group.
And then because we've been working through a variety of items, just not related to de-annexation.
I know there's concern regarding a short-term rental legislation that was proposed in addition
to addressing accessory dwelling units.
There was also a bill that was proposed that cities could not enact any regulations that
would require a lot size greater than 1,400 square feet.
So that pretty much then wipes out the majority of our residential zoning districts.
So we had that.
There was another bill related to manufactured housing, and it's my understanding that that
one was not successful coming out, but that would have allowed for manufactured homes
to be placed on any single-family residential lot within the community.
So a variety of different topics, but happy to bring a report forth and be able to address
those for you and give you the latest update.
Thank you.
Commissioner Villarreal.
Just quickly, the ADU bill did fail by one vote, and the STR bill was changed to a study.
So there's no restrictions on STRs coming out of this session, at least for the short-term.
We'll see.
Thank you.
Anything else for the matrix or concluding items?
Okay.
With that, I will adjourn us at 6 42 p.m.
Thank you, everyone.