Apr 02, 2019 City Council on 2019-04-02 2:00 PM
April 02, 2019 City Council
Full Transcript
All right welcome everybody to this meeting of the Denton City Council on
Tuesday April the 2nd 2019. We do have a quorum so I'll open the meeting. We'll go
through our work session reports. The first item on our agenda is our work
session agenda item 1. Citizen comments on consent agenda items. I see no blue
cards for comments on consent agenda items. So now we'll go for requests for
clarification on agenda items listed on today's agenda. Anybody have any
clarifications for Councilmember Hussbett? Thank you mayor. I would like to have a
short presentation here I mean you know not for later if possible on just the
item 8. Just kind of understanding what that is there for it. So you want the
you want the presentation here so you're not asking to pull it you're wanting to
see if you can get your questions answered it to avoid pull. Yeah just as
they could give a general. I read the overview but want to just kind of
understand it if possible if not then okay yeah great. Good afternoon Scott
Gray airport manager. That item is a airport lease agreement with a long
standing tenant that is sold off one of his building is building a new facility
on the airport next to the MedTrans facility on Westcourt and John Carroll. It
is under a new standard lease agreement it's a 30 year lease based on the
development costs it's about a 1.3 million dollar project. It'll be a 30
year lease with two five-year city options. It's for approximately 1.3 acres
of land on that corner and it would be at 30 cents per square foot which was
based on the appraisal value that was done last year. I can answer any specific
questions that you may have but it's it's it's one of the one of the remaining
parcels I think we have about seven acres remaining this is a portion of
that that parcel is called 5a. The rest of that parcel that same individual will
be coming back with another lease request to construct some additional
hangers for renting out space. Sure of course. Thanks. So and so what are those
buildings is it just kind of what's existing there kind of steel frame some
sort of metal outside now it's all the parking so just kind of want to
understand I mean I think first I'm excited about it and and I want to thank
you for you the work you do out there but to just understand kind of what it
is going out there the the the what type of business is it that sort of thing
sure generally most of the hangers are a metal construction may have some sort of
a block or or rock structure for for aesthetics in this particular case it's
a 120 foot by 120 foot hanger that would be of metal construction to house a
number of corporate airplanes but there will also be a 2,000 square foot office
building which will be block construction the the developer actually
owns a business in in Ponder I believe and this is for their corporate airplane
so their corporate offices will still remain where they're at but this will
just be for their pilot services and and things of that nature in that building
the parking is is part of the city development code the number of parking
based on the square footage sure and then lastly is that did we so they were
here existing so just kind of inquired or did we prime to pump what how did that
how do we get to this face I believe it was in 2015 they constructed a hanger it
did not have any office space they realized that that wasn't sufficient
enough as they were moving through their business plan so they assigned that
lease agreement to another entity that put their corporate airplanes in there
and and then they came to the city looking for a lot to construct something
that was more conducive to their new business model excellent good thank you
again appreciate it that's man Briggs you said that area was appraised and
that's what the rent is based off of that original appraisal yes so if they
the same people wanted to build I think you said they're looking at another
parcel would a different would it use the same appraisal or would we get a
different appraisal back last year we had all the vacant property appraised so
each parcel has a different rate depending upon its location relevant to
the runway taxiway system so the further away you are which this happens to be
the furthest away from the runway system was the cheaper rent at 30 cents per
square foot and as you got closer to the runway it increased to 45 cents a square
okay any other questions on this agenda item thank you appreciate any other
clarifications on the agenda seeing that okay we'll move on to our work session
reports 3a receive report and hold discussion give staff direction
regarding the 2019 water conservation and drought contingency plan
afternoon council mayor my name is Tyler Dawson I'm the field services tech
manager for the water and wastewater department and I'm here to present the
updates to the water conservation and drought contingency plan today we're
going to be asking for comments and feedback and we will be returning with
this item next Tuesday the 9th asking for approval of an ordinance adopting
the same plan the water conservation plan has been in existence in its
current form since year 2000 it's created under a regulatory framework
from the TCEQ and the Texas Water Development Board this will be the sixth
iteration of that plan so what you're seeing is a reminder of what's there
what we already do and bring forward a few updates we've gone to a public
information meeting we held a public information meeting on March 14th asking
for input from the public so the main components of this plan are just two
pieces the water conservation plan is the day-to-day activities that we do to
try to encourage long-term conservation this is addressing our long-term water
scarcity needs and the drought contingency plan is only in effect
during stages of drought or in emergencies and these are the short-term
efforts we use to mitigate temporary loss of water supply or ability to meet
demand so we're going to jump into the water conservation plan first this is a
history of how we've done with water conservation in the city of Denton on
the water development board's recommendation we track our success on a
five-year rolling average of gallons per capita per day in 2000 when we started
this that number was 189 gallons per capita per day and our latest number is
140 so you can see that steady decline with that orange line over time we have
conserved water better on a per capita basis basis we are using less water
over time the dotted blue line that you see is our conservation goal of 152 and
you'll probably notice that that orange line does dip below the goal in the past
five years weather has played a significant part in reducing water
usage if you'll remember the drought that started around 2010 broke in 2014
in 2015 we had record rainfall and DFW flooded some lakes and the Trinity River
and since then we've had pretty mild summers mild and rainy summers so we
feel like that is a depressed number that that's been brought down by weather
and that will rebound and we want to try to hold that at 152 we think that's a
reasonable goal for Denton so real quick question what it seems like what you're
saying is irrigation because if you have more rain or drought that is the biggest
impact as far as sometimes on our water usage so with more irrigation you're
gonna see that per capita go up that's absolutely true okay in fact for 2018
about 31% of our total water usage was from irrigation so a big change in
irrigation needs makes big sways in our total water demand for the city so the
conservation plan is made up of best management practices or BMPs that are
published by the Texas Water Development Board this is a comprehensive list of
ways to conserve water known ways that can help municipalities in our case put
out the message put in either codes or recommendations guidelines outreach to
encourage conservation so we'll see a long list of BMPs that our plan consists
of the vast majority of these have been in the plan for a decade or more these
are the things that have contributed to our success and this is anything from
simply metering customer water usage so we can help customers be accountable for
what water they use to finding and repairing leaks to building our rate
structure to encourage conservation we have five updates to the conservation
plan most of these are changes slight changes to the plan we have two
additions and I'll walk through these the first one section 3.3 the plan deals
with metering of raw supplies and treated water deliveries this is
discussing metering at the water treatment plants we have two water
treatment plants one down on Spencer Road that pulls from Lake Louisville one
up north that pulls from Lake Ray Roberts both of those meter their raw
water which is untreated like water that then passes through the treatment
process and then we measure the treated water that's then sent out as drinking
water to the city the reason this is important is when we're looking at how
much water we're using this is the biggest piece of that puzzle to try to
understand how much water we're using it's important that these be accurate
and because of some concerns with the accuracy of those meters in the last few
years we actually did replace both meters at the Ray Roberts plant last
year one in May one in December and we're looking to replace both Lake
Louisville plant meters in 2020 the plan was updated to indicate those those
replacements item 3.5 deals with the water loss audit you'll actually hear
from me again in about two weeks coming back to report on our 2018 water loss
audit this is a very comprehensive process I don't want to bore you with
the details now but this was updated to be consistent with language of modern
water audits some of the way water audits are conducted and required by the
state have evolved and so we've updated the plan to be consistent with that item
3.6 public education and information this is the outreach portion of our
water conservation plan we've added an item here shown an orange partnerships
with nonprofits this is not a new item that we want to propose this is actually
something that's evolved over the last several years the sustainability division
in particular has picked up a lot of partnerships with these nonprofit
organizations some are teaming up on awareness efforts like we recently had
fix a leak week that was a nonprofit effort to push that team with the EPA we
also have outreach materials that come through nonprofits and classes that are
held that are driven by nonprofits so we wanted to codify that into the plan it's
something that's done well and we want to continue that item 3.7 non-promotional
rate structure you may have also heard this referred to as a declining block
rate structure what this refers to is on residential water accounts during the
summer when you use in excess of 15,000 gallons a month the cost of water
starts to go up for for additional water usage so the more water you use that
last gallon starts to cost a little bit more and it starts to encourage
residents remind them that using water at those levels is a cost to everybody so
it's an accountability issue to Councilmember Amato has a question yes sir
so I I applaud that I think that's excellent does that apply to businesses
as well the rate structure is different the reason we're able to do this on a
residential is we can say we can assign those block rates from 0 to 15,000
gallons 15 to 30 30 to 50 and 50 and over since businesses aren't all the
same size it's hard to do that you would end up having a much different rate for
larger businesses and almost a penalty so there's actually a irrigation rate
they have separate irrigation meters one water meter for indoor one water meter
for irrigation and that irrigation is at an increased rate okay yes so you do in
general charge more for more usage yes yes we do and I like that to that to
that point as well I I'm glad to see that but I would like for that to be
advertised more because there's a lot of people who just use a lot of water and
then they say well my bill is outrageous they don't really understand and remember
making a comment about it during one of the the budget seasons when we were
going through and people really had no idea so sure they're held accountable
but if they knew they were going to get charged more they may use less water so
I mean you know I just wonder how we can get that information out to the the
public and I'm also curious about HOA's or do they use the same are they
considered residential or business how if they're because on their irrigation
mm-hmm I don't know the answer on HOA's regarding the outreach on the the
declining block rate structure we're in the time of year right now where we're
preparing some outreach to get ready for summer and there is some discussion on
how to how to best let that message go out into the public and inform people of
kind of what's expected what's hoped for in the summer months and that would
include some information on how rates change in the summer right well I would
also include in that ways that you can the different types of systems for
irrigation that you can use if you know to reduce that water usage as well as
as far as like sprinkler systems versus drip systems okay okay all right the
last item that we've updated in the conservation plan item 5.6 park
athletic field and golf course conservation we've had an item in here
for parks and athletic fields for quite some time we're rolling golf courses
into that and the reason that those those types of land are kind of focused
on for this is because there are large landscaped areas so it's a it's a way we
can get out there and help people learn to use water responsibly when they need
a lot of water to irrigate so golf courses are in addition to this and staff
is interested in in assisting any golf course management golf course owners in
helping them find ways to conserve their water while still maintaining their
their property for what for what it was intended to be used for and we'll
transition off of the conservation plan into the drought plan again the drought
plan is something that's not an effect day-to-day in fact in in the current
form this drought plan has never been enacted this is a plan we make as a
contingency in case it's needed for drought or emergency and that that plan
is built around three stages and it can be triggered one of three ways so you
can see the three stages here and we have a type a B and C trigger on each
most commonly we look at a type a trigger because that deals with how much
water is in the lake that's the true drought indication for this plan we look
at how much water can be stored in the lake to be used and how much that water
has been depleted we partner with Dallas on this we share water rights and both
Lake Louisville and Lake Ray Roberts so we've worked with them and found some
consistency between our plans on these levels on these indicators so on the
type-a conditions a stage 1 drought plan would be triggered if combined lake
levels drop below 65 percent of total conservation storage stage 2 would be
triggered if it drops to 50 percent and stage 3 if it drops to 35 percent that
35 percent has actually been updated this used to be 30 percent that was a
little too much risk to wait to put those last last measures into effect so
we've up that number along with Dallas to 35 percent if lakes reach 35 percent
full we'll go into the final and most most significant stage of our drought
plan type B trigger deals with how much water we're using as a city we know that
we can treat and deliver about 49 million gallons per day at the moment we
don't have any concerns about meeting that number but we are a growing city so
this is something for the future as population increases as we have more
development and more water use in the city if water demand reaches a certain
percent of that capacity for a certain number of days you see 80 85 percent for
four days we can enact this drought plan to help save water until we're able to
build more capacity type C condition is basically there in case of emergency or
a failure we have a lot of equipment that comes into play to keep the plants
running to pump the water out of the system we have six storage tanks ranging
from one to three million gallons in capacity and we have over 600 miles of
pipe so there are some cases as much as we do to try to maintain that system in
case of emergency in case the wrong piece of equipment fails we could enact
the drought contingency plan to help mitigate and when the plan is triggered
this is what the three stages entail kind of a overhead view of it the
headline here is stage one we would require two day a week landscape
watering stage two we would drop that to one day per week and stage three we would
prohibit irrigation you can see there's some more focused restrictions on this
that would come into play and as as intense as this seems I want to remind
you this is something that only comes into play in extreme situations and
extreme drought or emergency
so I just I just want to point out for for the public that in the ordinance
that's part of the attachment it says that the two day a week watering
schedule is the recommended best standard operating procedure year-round
correct yes that is a recommended yes and I think that's wonderful so I just
want people to notice that that is even when we're not in it in drought
conditions that is the best practice yes thank you well those are the updates to
the plan that we're proposing you have a full draft plan in your backups we've
provided some some places on the city didn't websites that you can find more
information about water conservation and about how we run our water
department in general I will remind you that we will be back next Tuesday asking
for approval of an ordinance adopting this plan and I will ask for any comments
at this time any comments questions yes yeah so I wanted to ask along the lines
of the the twice a week watering recommend right watering recommendation
year-round because I think that I think that's excellent have you thought about
where I should ask what ways do we have to currently to enforce that because as
I understand it it's more of a recommendation outside of drought
conditions than a than a hard and fast rule with teeth is that correct right
there is a water waste ordinance already in place that in cases of more or less
extreme irresponsibility with your water usage that that can come into play we
can still address that the drought plan actually includes citation and fine
amounts I'm not familiar with how that would be done as that's never actually
been enacted but I'm happy to look into that great thanks and I will say you
know that I have had at least one one situation where somebody had reported to
me a case where there was an extreme water waste that was looked into by the
city it it it turned out not to be an issue but you know just so people know
you can report that you can even report that through the engaged at nap and
staff will look into it and I would like to request a staff report on ways that
other cities give put more give more teeth to weekly watering maximums
that's something that I would like to see because I feel that if if there was
some accountability for that that people would be less likely to overwater their
lawns and going back to what councilmember Briggs said you know that
that I think would do it might not entirely solve the problem of education
but at least if people saw oh there's there's consequences then they might be
more likely I'd also like to you know to see if other cities might have ways of
notifying residents or businesses or anybody if there's a they see a
potential water leak just from looking at the the water use in their bill or
looking at their meter you know a lot of times customers don't realize that until
they get an exorbitant bill and they think there's something wrong with the
billing and then it turns out they have a water leak so I'd like to see to see
if there's anything we can do to kind of notify customers before they get that
scary bill hi Frank Pugsley water utilities director I'd just like to add
on to the the weekly watering schedule enforcement and recommendations one of
the things that we consider especially with weekly watering recommendations
that two days a week it may be challenging for people who don't have an
automatic sprinkler system to move their manual sprinklers and only be able to
water two days a week it may take some of the people who are less mobile a lot
more time to move their sprinklers and water so they may need more than two
days so having too many teeth and that could be a detriment to some of those
folks and as Tyler mentioned we've never actually had to enact the drought plan
so we haven't had to enforce any to do two day a week watering yet but that's
definitely something we'd be happy to come back like you requested in the
staff report yeah well let's make clear that we don't have these are
recommendations I mean what you're saying is you want that to be an
enforcement or a requirement and this council has not decided on that policy
so while staff can certainly look into other cities and all that but I just
don't want to get the cart before the horse so if this council wants to
consider making two-day watering requirements permanent or or actual
requirements set of recommendations outside of a drought contingency plan
correct because that's something we need to talk about because that's pretty
that's pretty severe and substantial and we've not gone there so I would really
hesitate to have a lot of time spent on something that council hasn't given any
direction to staff on yet councilmember Duff you know we'll talk about something
is not now if you kind of looked at what is going to happen in the future as far
as water because North Texas is going to end up being very short on water at some
point in time it may be five ten ten years from now and I guess kind of the
way I look at it is do I want to have green grass or do I want to be able to
take a shower I think you know because I know places like Arizona and I think
even California now are going through some probably trying to replace a lot of
grass so that you don't have to water it and also the drip but I think this is
something in the future that's coming but it's not here now sure would you like
us to address that a little bit now or do you like an informal staff report or
yeah in formal staff report yeah yeah I just want to bring this up because I
know it's something that we should be looking at in the future and we spend a
lot of time discussing and looking at that for sure
councilmember Briggs and councilmember Meltzer so my my big concern is the the
water loss and I think I heard you say that discussion was coming and I just
want to clarify that that's coming in a separate item yes we have that going to
Public Utility Board on Monday I believe and then and then a council okay thank
you councilmember Meltzer we postpone now and maybe a little bit later soon
yeah I think just maybe to put a little fine point on the staff report I'd be
interested in who out there in a similar kind of climate is great at having low
water use for irrigation and what do they do okay anybody else yes
I just want to point out for the public that that one of the proposals in this
new plan is a once-a-year zero scaping class offered by the city and that is
you know drought tolerant low watering gardening and I wanted to propose again
I don't know if this would be a staff reporter just something that staff could
look into come back to us with next time that staff collaborate with a master our
local master gardeners in doing that maybe offering it more than once a year
all right and I know mr. Armentry asked about ways to notify customers of leaks
or to report leaks you're absolutely right on engaged in those actually get
routed through me more often than not so every time somebody in the city reports
a leak I usually get to put eyes on that and help get the right person to figure
out if it's a leak and whose responsibility it might be to fix it and
we've seen all types we've seen leaks on our assets because again we do have over
600 miles of water main in the city so it is fairly common to have leaking
assets I've also seen people see a leak in their neighborhood that happened to
be coming from a neighbors water service so wherever that's coming from we're
happy to investigate that we do offer also offer customer water audits for
anybody who needs them if you're concerned about how much water is
showing up on your bill or how high your water bill is customer service can help
route you to receive a customer water audit and we can have a professional
come to your residence and help walk you through some steps like try to
determine if your toilets are leaking without you noticing or if you might have
irrigation systems that aren't working as you as you intended for them to work
so that's a service we offer year-round okay thank you so much thank you
appreciate that agenda item 2b is receive report hold discussion provides
staff direction on airports governance related to Airport Advisory Board
Economic Development Partnership Board and Council Airport Committee good
afternoon mayor and council Scott Gray airport manager here today to talk about
airport governance a little bit of overview of what I'm going to cover for
you this afternoon a little bit of the background of why we're here today
airport guiding documents the airport related boards and committee history the
existing structures in purview and then a comparison regionally and actually
statewide of what other airports are doing and then lastly seek councils
direction so a little on the background airport staff is currently rewriting the
the code and airport related documents within those documents is the rules
regulations and minimum standards for our businesses but there are references
to our oversight bodies so in an attempt to make sure that the the direction that
we're headed with those documents are going to meet the desire of the council
we presented some of that information back in April and a number of other
meetings to the Airport Advisory Board and to the Council Airport Committee when
we were discussing the framework of those documents at that last meeting in
in 2018 we were requested to take a look at the structure of the the bodies that
we have now what their purviews are and then compare those regionally to the
other airports so let me briefly just touch upon the airport guiding documents
again what's kind of pushing forward this this particular topic chapter 3 of
the city code is covering the airport specifically airport rules and
regulations general walk the dog with a leash don't spill fuel things of that
nature airport minimum operating standards are relevant to our businesses
so what's the minimum insurance types of operating hours things of that nature
rates and fees schedule and if you recall back in May of last year we
actually brought the airport rates and fees schedule to the council which was
approved that is a document just identifies fairly easily what our rates
and fees are to our users tenants general public and then lastly the
leasing and development policy which would which set our our leasing and
development standards out at the airport these revised documents that we did
bring forward have a structure and a hierarchy to them with the chapter 3
being kind of the the framework and then everything kind of falls from there
within those documents there's some additional governance that is identified
including rulemaking authority the general airport business permit
approvals or ratifications and then appeal processes for decisions that may
be made that that tenants and or users would have concerns with so let me touch
upon the history and before I get into the slide specifically let me let me
talk about how we got to this particular point in time with these three bodies
back in 2010 the city conducted an airport business plan and in that
business plan they identified a number of recommended changes to the city
system including an airport enterprise fund versus general fund and then a
number of the things that will we'll see here today one of those and I'll
paraphrase what it what it said the city should consider modifying the airport
governance structure to assist with vetting financial proposals as well as
provide policy input related to marketing and development that was kind
of one of the guiding factors that created these three bodies some of which
already existed and were just added on to over a number of meetings over about
six months with the airport advisory board and the City Council these three
bodies were identified it's included in exhibit two in your packet as the three
bodies that would governs the airport the airport advisory board is a seven
member board there's no specific qualifications or criteria to be
appointed to that board it actually has been in existence since the since the
1966 and then it has been updated periodically as you can see there the
economic development partnership board was expanded upon to include some
airport items and I'll get into what those are in just a moment that is a 12
member council appointed board there are some specific qualifications and
criteria to be appointed to that particular board and then lastly the
council airport committee which was created by resolution in 2011 following
that airport business plan so this is actually included as exhibit 3 breaks
down the matrix of what these are and I won't go over each one of these but
generally the airport advisory board remained in place and was a opportunity
for stakeholder reach reaching out to the public about airport matters it was an
opportunity for the public to be engaged in a board level relevant to airport
items and then some of the day-to-day stuff was under the purview of the
airport advisory board including including grant funding and long-term
financial plans and then just interaction with our tenants can you go
over I know that at some point the the board changed on what they could do and
what they had been doing can you go over that I know that at one time they had
oversight on budget or some kind of decisions that were made and then that
was taken away from them like past council I don't if you could go over the
history of that for me a little bit because I've heard a lot about it but
I've never really heard about it okay absolutely and it's actually covered on
this particular slide in 2010 and I believe if I'm not mistaken the mayor
may have been the only member of council that was here during that period of time
so again why we're here today is kind of fill in the blanks of what we're doing a
lot of these things that are identified for the airport advisory board were
things that they were already doing from my understanding and looking back at the
history and reading some of the minutes the one item that was removed is the
item that you actually see at the bottom of this slide regarding leases and
contracts would you back up this side so this is the what I believe they were
already doing and that remained in place so it was mainly an outreach item
advisory in nature to the council on general activities at the airport so when
the 2010 report was done it identified some suggestions to change those one of
the one of the things I don't believe it was in that particular document one of
the concerns at that time that I believe the council did have was concerns about
the makeup of that body included tenants and they were making recommendations and
changes to leases for their competitors so that was there was an issue with that
hence the reason it that particular piece was moved to the council airport
committee amongst amongst some other things that went to the council airport
committee certainly the council airport committee has oversight over all of the
stuff that the airport advisory board does but it's primary primarily was
established to take care of the financial and leasing and contracts
specifically the economic development partnership board the first two items
were relatively the same as the airport advisory board and more of a public
outreach opportunity but their primary focus and again that was spelled out in
and what I read to you earlier was to advise council and make recommendations
regarding airport branding and marketing efforts development incentive policies
and then create and leverage a common goal and create synergy between the
airport and development around the airport they had particular expertise in
that area hence the reason that that was recommended that it went to that
particular member and so do all of these committees or boards I'm part of the
economic board and I haven't I haven't really seen anything but do they review
the the budget or the numbers for the for the airport or is that just a staff
thing dude does that do those go to any any of the boards for the airport
advisory board we present periodic updates on our current fiscal year
budget so where we're at relevant to budget timeframe but that's the only
group out of these three that review our regular financials if we have other
items that are of significance they would go to the council before coming to
the council thank you so with that then the next task and then what we were
requested to do was look at comparison of other airports we originally looked
at DFW area and then we kind of expanded to include others there are 11
comparable airports on this particular chart as you can see dent enlisted at
the top with our particular three bodies there and to make it simple none of the
other communities that we looked at have any kind of a council related committee
looking at airport related items they just went directly to the council there
are three of the eleven that we have here they do have an airport related
board two of which the the Cleburne community and the San Marcos community
have a small group they meet fairly infrequently from talking to their
airport managers but the Meacham one is part of the Fort Worth system so they
actually run three airports so it's Meacham Sphinx and Alliance so that
particular group covers all three of their airports primarily from what we
can understand because they have such a broad range over a larger community that
they have that committee so I just I had a note here on this chart and I just
wanted to say that our airport is also a very successful one when you put it up
here and you've listed next to these where we're I think at the top or
there's some list that we've made that I don't believe any of these other ones
have and I wanted to credit that because I think our boards have a lot to do with
that our oversight for our community boards ma'am I think you're referring to
that we're number nine overall in operations yes thank you for that we
actually we're actually number eight now we're sliding around between McKinney
Meacham and us depending upon the time of year but we are we are very successful
in the state is as far as a general aviation airport don't we have the a
number very high number of flights that come in and out of our airport
approximately 150,000 primarily generated from the flight school
correct about 60,000 of those are flight school so we're here today seeking some
council direction again to set the stage for the airport guiding documents
depending upon the direction we see today we'll revise our documents to
bring those through a public process so option one keep everything as it is and
and and keep the two boards and the committee retain modify or disband the
related boards and committees as the council sees fit eliminate all of the
boards and committees and that would result in all all airport matters going
directly to the full council so let me provide our staff recommendation and then
and then where we go from here and I'd be happy to answer any questions staff
would recommend that we we go with option one keep the existing boards and
committee structure and purview again the airport advisory board would keep the
same purview as identified in exhibit three of the matrix continue to work
with the economic development partnership board for airport marketing
and related economic incentives and continue using the CAC to review the
airport finance lease and other high high level items so what's the next step
after today certainly if there's a change in any one of the of the bodies
and what they're going to do staff will prepare the necessary resolutions or
ordinances for the council for formal action to make those changes and then
secondly staff will prepare the airport guiding documents in accordance with the
direction provided today and fit in whatever additional guidance is needed
within those within those bodies so with that I'd be happy to answer any
questions the council may have any concern or opposition to staff's
recommendation of option one if I don't hear anything I'm going to assume that
we're okay with option one okay looks like direction is option one
staff recommendation thank you very much thank you thank you Scott agenda item C
is receive a report from staff hold a discussion you have staff direction
regarding the future park that is to be located at the corner of heritage trail
and Linden Drive and razor ranch town center good afternoon Gary pack and
director parks and recreation here today to talk to you about a proposed razor
ranch park I have two gentlemen here that we have been working with since last
summer Charles Hodges from Hodges Hodges architecture and Kevin Bankhead from
alliance alliance Hillview Charles will step up in a few minutes and go through
some slides and give you some additional background and answer questions in
regards to razor ranch as a whole and how this park is designed and how those
work together but I'm going to go ahead and get you get you started initial
the initial steps we're going to do today is give you an update on the the
park itself provide you a design concept that we have together for your
consideration and feedback and then provide you some next steps in regards
to what we can do to get the park completed so this is a general location
of where the proposed razor ranch is located to give you an idea here's Winco
here this is University here's Bonnie Bray and its relationship the McKenna
park in regards to the overall development here's interstate 35
University going this way this is north and here's the park in green it's it's a
little less than 10 acres it says on their master site plan is this what was
approved in our ordinance this was I believe so okay yeah and I let Charles
comment on that okay second on April 18th we had a double header of two
public meetings one for razor ranch and one for McKenna the same evening since
their parks are primarily located right next to each other in the same
neighborhood the overall feedback some of the highlights of the points that
were taken walking trails and connectivity are extremely important to
everybody that seems to be something that we hear at most of our meetings
throughout the community so far during our master plan process Gary right quick
man protein had a comment clarification because you have feedback from our late
March 18th sorry March 18th yeah yeah March 18th water fountains and shade
structures are extremely important public transportation was feedback that
we had educational signage about history of that in itself lighting and call boxes
for safety turf quality was was a concern especially with discussing
McKenna McKenna does have a lot of wheat challenges it does not have
irrigation this poke this park is proposed to have irrigation so we can
improve the turf quality there green space more trees whenever possible
parking where parking was going to be located as a neighborhood park there's no
designated parking for this space there is on-street parking and there are
spaces that are designated for ADA accessibility and we have a map for you
for that restrooms there are no restrooms identified in this although
that was a question that we'll probably end up looking into it sometime down the
road we could look at porta potties if if that was an opportunity maybe
something that's screened just to provide a little bit more of an aesthetic look
and feel street crossings on how people are going to get access to the park will
a traffic light be eventually placed at University and heritage trail and then
considerations for a spray ground we're getting a lot of interest in spray
grounds as well in the community Carl Young has been pretty successful so far
so we are looking at from a master plan standpoint where we could put future
spray grounds throughout our park system so they're strategically located Charles
come up and walk us through from this point so real quick question Charles is
this this says site plan is this something that you created for this
meeting or is this part of an ordinance no this is something we created really
for the overall design and this meeting okay but this isn't incorporated in any
ordinance as far as a requirement or anything like that not specifically
although the outline of the park area okay in our GDP okay as we've looked at
before thank you so thank you for having me this afternoon we've been working on
this about a year with Gary and drew Jason and have progressed to this point
had great feedback the other night I was really thrilled because I got stopped by
a five-year-old girl in the meeting the other night her name was Zoe and she
said well are those trees where I can climb them and I didn't have an answer
for that because I normally specify trees so that you can walk under them
clear to eight feet and then the head of the tree begins at that point so we'll
be adding one more tree to these plans called Zoe's tree and it'll be a
magnolia because we talked about that after the meeting and she likes doing
that so approximately 160 to 190 tree positions in the overall plan more
importantly it's a park that we feel like complements both McKenna and North
Lakes and the challenge design-wise was to create something that was
complementary but was different there's no point replicating the same part
within a three iron of each other between this park and McKenna Park so we
really felt like it was important to advance a plan that enabled us to
incorporate a lot of walkways both perimeter and the internal walkways a
more formal promenade as you see Charles I'm sorry could you get a little closer
to the mic because we're trending so we don't want you to not be able to be
heard okay so we have a central promenade that extends north-south that
begins at Linden as Linden passes the south extremity of the park it is right
up the middle of the park it's a very formal promenade as you can see it has
a more formal planning okay thank you so promenade being north to south in this
orientation all the way through the park terminating at what we have reserved as
a performance pad on the north end of the park a lot of discussion took place
between parks and ourselves as to the position for a potential performance pad
that pad would be a concrete structure that is not elevated because we felt
like anybody who came in and set up any kind of a music presentation is going to
want an elevated stage in the ability to cross wire underneath that so with the
park we felt like having a formal promenade down the center really
delivered us to this point in a very formal perception processional way the
terminus of Crescent Avenue into this element gave us the location for the
crosswalk through the park and the park is based on diverse topography it's
based on trying to create an area that blunts some of the ambient noise off I-35
you've got prevailing winds at about 240 southwest we've got a cut coming up
through and off of I-35 and we really wanted to segregate the park a little
bit we wanted to segregate it visually and we wanted to segregate it more
importantly from the noise factor of 35 during the prevailing wind that ambient
noise really affects what you do and how you enjoy the park so we felt like that
was very important in doing so we wanted to create the topography diverse enough
that you had different fields in different areas of the park itself as you
know the perimeter of the park is frequented our residential on three
sides this would be the residential development that's underway right now
this area we're negotiating with one of the most skilled multifamily developers
in the Texas area Texas market in order to achieve this area this area is
currently under contract for a senior 55 and over multifamily development by a
group that's nationwide experienced so we feel like we've got a great group and
assemblage of residential communities as a part of this councilman step back
just a second go to the master no councilmember Briggs if you if you go
back as you're talking about residential around around the park which I then I go
back to the stage and performances and so what I think I heard you say was that
it would be more acoustic that there wouldn't be outlets or a way for bands
to plug in or would there be oh no it would definitely have amplification okay
we've really tried to conceive the north end of the park is somewhat of an
amphitheater effect with the berms on either side smaller berms at the south
end of that segment and that would be this area right here it's an approximate
two acre area and then it has berms that basically define it on the south and
then berms to share for berm side or slope side seating on the side so that
everybody in there has kind of an amp an amphitheater effect towards the
performance venue but does that I'll just have a message for you later about
park rules and performing in parks at certain times later sure yeah thank you
we had always hoped I mean I think we were debating I think I've had 12
birthdays since I started working on razor in the design side we'd always
hope this would be a stop on north by 35 we thought this part maybe could be a
venue an additional venue for what goes on within the city got the greatest
music heritage in Texas or basically United States in UNT and we just felt
like this was an opportunity to share that gift with the public in this area
so in creating that it was important to divide what that element would be with a
more open passive area to enjoy the park here so that there is somewhat of a
separation we don't envision this to be any kind of a programming such that
you'll have something happening here every week every two weeks or every
month we think it'll be three or four times a year potentially as an
opportunity for having a public function in the in the northern sector of the
amphitheater sector but we're surrounded as I said on three sides and so we have
an open area through here we wanted to put in that position we had extra dirt
as you may or may not remember there was about 40 feet of fall across this site
from west to east so from Heritage Trail down to Bonnie Bray we felt like
sculpting the park was an effective way rather than just loading up and hauling
off dirt we felt like sculpting it was also in keeping with the park design
criteria I think in the manual it really talks about trying to create diverse
topography and I think that's very important everything can't look like a
plowed field that's just been grasped and become a play area so we felt like
having the berms did several things gave us an opportunity to introduce different
types of landscaping on the exterior of the berms then on the interior of the
berms so what we have is we've created a series of these four berms and then flat
areas with the approaching streets on either side through this area and then
also in this area so that the berms exist here here here and there and then
it's open to the streets here and here so approximately a third of each of those
street frontages is open to grade level versus having the berms the berms give us
also an opportunity to introduce some history and history is really important
y'all know me that no me know we did the deal in Frisco where we have one of the
largest continuous themed bronzes in North America it celebrated the
Preston Trail there's a really rich history here to be celebrated both from
the natural resources the prairies the prairie grasses all of those elements to
the actual history of the area and its settlement and development so I really
felt like this is an opportunity for a teaching piece as well as a part so the
teaching piece portion of this really incorporates a lot of historical
entablatures and things that we'll talk about in a second but the berms were
very important to that I passed this site every weekend from my 19th through
my 24th year going to school and I saw the ranch I remember the Longhorns and
I always remembered that and to be able to come back and work on this
development for the last 12 years been a real privilege I thought we ought to
capture a little of that and I thought we ought to tell that story and I
thought that it's real opportunity for an educational element to this park so
the celebration of the history of both the native resources and also of the
settlement is something that we really want to concentrate on so this would be
the area that we were just discussing again would be this approximate two and
a half acres to the north end we have smaller six foot berms here to use not
only as slope seating but also as a dividing point so that the personality
of this area may be a little different than the personality of this area yet
they all work together and they're all interconnected by the walkway system
both perimeter and exterior one thing I want to mention is we've had this
discussion about the perimeter walks whether they're directly against adjacent
to the curb line which they are in the other areas we spent a lot of time with
engineering talking about the opportunities having the walks against
the curb versus away from the curb in the other areas the active street areas
we push the walks up against the curb in this area we have pushed portions of the
walk up against the curb we were actually talking about removing the walk
from these two positions and actually bringing you into the park so you really
don't have a chance not to be introduced to the park and be able to walk into the
park rather than bypass it on the street frontage we felt like that was a good
opportunity again in the areas where we have the openings from end of this berm
all the way down to this firm so same on this side so I think that's a point we
may want to discuss today is whether we want to again push up I'm adamantly
against having parallel parking against a park if it's an open play opportunity
people chase balls and they run between those cars and I think it's a risk we
should not take so I've eliminated in the preliminary plan we talked about
having parallel parking on the East Park Boulevard which is this area up against
this side and we basically have decided to eliminate that parallel parking
because we just feel like it's not a risk worth taking I mean you might gain
50 spaces on that frontage it's not worth it it's not worth one time of
even taking a chance on that to that end though what I envision is a or ask your
input on is a Clyde Van Warren approach where you have the parallel parking but
it's for food trucks or service vehicles that sort of thing so what is it what
are your understanding your concern are you is that palatable to have reserved
spaces that would then be utilized for food trucks or service vehicles honestly
Councilman I think a food truck position in that area is just as much risk if not
more because a mom that's got three sub 10 year olds and they're trying to wait
on food at a food truck that one of those can get away and get around that
truck just as easily if it were my absolute discretion I would say let's
don't take that chance let's find other areas potentially in our transitional
area to the north where we can do food trucks and get them off the streets and
off that perimeter of that area okay you know I'd look forward to because I think
that same mom you know if you go to hula hands it's gonna be pretty expensive
Winco is tough all the other fast foods cross-street except for the taco place
on on you know I mean so I think options close by are limited but our house has a
great sandwiches and brownies are killers thank you yes sir so back to
where we're going let's move a little bit the retail parking within adjacency
when we did Frisco bridges which is a million and eighty thousand square feet
has over 700 multifamily units in it I probably have two thousand spaces out
there that don't have an oil stain at the time the city didn't look at
integrated parking and cross utilization we built 7700 parking spaces when really
only about 4,000 were required in actuality here we're gonna have the same
access to the adjacent retail parking as Frisco has for the ballpark whereby the
overflow crowds and those not accommodated in the interim lots can
park at the mall parking some of the other peripheral furniture stores and
other uses and I think we have the same opportunity in addition we do have the
parking on both sides of Crescent and I really like the feel streets streetscape
wise of having that on Crescent it's a slower street it's quieter traffic and I
think it feels the way that urban design has intended that street to feel I know
staff has always encouraged us to push everything up to that street and we've
done so we have I'm sorry yeah so when I see the the numbers of the parking
spaces for me I thought well that's that's a lot so what you're saying is
what I'm seeing are shared spaces with the with the other retail around but the
ADA compliant are they close enough to the park to where they can access
safely from you know one area of the retail to the park well those spaces are
on East Park Boulevard so they're strong along East Park and various ends of the
park gotta remember the parks really long what we've talked with staff about
was incorporating at the service we at everybody's request we put a cross
service opportunity here that may be decomposed granted or maybe a paver a
pervious paver type use we've talked about incorporating a couple of ADA
spaces off of that entry to that point which would be right here behind the
berm and also over here and so we think there may be an opportunity to do even
more spaces directly adjacent to the part my planning answer to that is we
had really intended that this parking lot incorporate many ADA spaces across
here but that is future development so in the interim we felt like it might be
better to cut in some additional ADA spaces there are 54 spaces through which
are ADA compliant along East Park Boulevard and 47 spaces on crescent that
have two compliant spaces on them so there are five compliant spaces just on
the east side councilmember Amater yeah so I like that idea about having the
additional ADA compliant spaces closer or on this side of the park and have
you considered since we're talking about you know the hypothetical mom with the
with the stroller having a stroller parking we don't really see much of
those around town but you know special well you know we think that there's an
opportunity to do it both on this side and this side so we might be able to
have a couple of mom spaces on the left and and compliant centerline spaces on
the right that that would be wonderful and kind of along those lines you know
it for those as far as on you know safety for for kids and families well for
everyone for people who are parking at the retail on either side of the park
mm-hmm have you and maybe this is a question for traffic engineering here but
maybe and I thought about this but I mean right now it's not you don't see
much traffic going through here but what about crossing you know crosswalk
protected street crossing and when you do visit with traffic you'll find we've
had some really spirited discussions about us wanting flashing signals at
crosswalks four-way stops three-way stops in every opportunity I think you'll
find they think we're being overly conservative on that I don't think so if
it's my kids or my residents or my grandkids out there well could we have a
staff report from traffic engineering on what they suggest for pedestrian cross
street crossing at this area or is that premature should we wait till this this
progresses yeah I think it's premature at this point but we can certainly ask
Gary to work with freedom and make sure that these questions can be answered as
the park comes forward okay thanks Preetam and Todd and I have had some
really good discussions because I think we're ending up being a pilot program
for LED perimeter stops along Heritage Trail and Panhandle because we want to
slow it down and stop there so they've agreed to let us go ahead and do the
experimental LED display which gives you a much longer distance of
acknowledgement for a stop sign and particularly down where we have a high
concentration of senior living at that point on the 47 spaces 288 compliant are
you saying those will be on Crescent Street they are on Crescent yes sir both
sides of the street both sides and so if we have cars parked on both sides is
that four lane or two lane road well it's it's designated if you can can
discern how the islands dive in at this point it's two lane at the throat we're
it tees into East Park but then it becomes four lane with designated
parallel parking on both sides so the parking is offset they still have four
full lanes yes okay now let me clarify that for no it's a two lane road but
with two additional lanes where parking occurs yes so moving along this is a
photograph taken a couple weeks ago I believe where the berms are in place now
the actually the topsoil has been placed we need to get planted at least on the
base turf we've been back and forth with parks many times on whether this is
celebration turnt type Bermuda or and we sought the advice from UNT who has tried
that we've now moved away from celebration I think they're not having
really good luck with it we've gone to a text tough or a tiff tough which is now
the designation that I think we're all in concert on on the best wearing surface
for the for the park area itself the you can begin to see the berms starting to
cast and take shape in this area we actually have a the promenade between
the break in the berms here and the crossing point which is the extension of
crescent here we actually took another grade break here and so we held this area
up a little higher and there's about a four to five foot break on a soft slope
there so you even have to topography there to take advantage of I mean be
honest you give a kid a slope and grass and let him run up and roll down that's
most effective play you can do so I think we're really trying to capitalize
on the things I remember as being passive play opportunities and those that
still can be the quiet respite kind of opportunity that we have here you can
begin to see the line take shape now on this side and that will be complimented
on the same vein on this side so we're starting to really feel the scale of the
park which is really important it's a it's a big area on the on the previous
slide it looked like is that water gathering the end of the berms yes we
haven't put in the internal drainage system yet okay see where it ponds okay
and then we put our internal drains that will actually feed into the will be
trained okay yes thank you you bet so here's begins to be the finished product
as we start to envision it this would be at the entry off of Linden as Linden
comes past the park the south end of the park and then you begin to see the
promenade beginning here we actually have terminated the berms with stone
walls on either end each end of the berm in that area where they're compressed up
to the walk begin to form stone walls and so we have those stone walls that's
a real opportunity for our entablatures and we'll talk about those in a second
but so there's a very formal entry into the park off of Linda here there's a
formal break and kind of a place to pause along the crosswalk we'll call it
the crescent walk going across and and where it intersects with a promenade
we've created a lens which I think is an opportunity for some public art in the
center the Longhorns or something that I've suggested to parks that there ought
to be a program much like there was at the National Ranching Heritage Museum in
Lubbock that we did at Tech and the founding families there actually donated
a steer to the herd they were branded with their ranch name on it and it
became a very nationally renowned place of sculpture for for the Western Heritage
so there's an opportunity with the Chisholm and all of its rich history to
do something I think is very meaningful and an educational piece here so Charles
in that picture I'm seeing parallel parking on the right side of the screen
is that for the facility the whatever that building is on the right but I but
I see parking spots but does that is that for the parkers that for the that's
public yeah right yes yes yeah you'll need to get yeah sorry because I can't
okay well I thought I heard you say you didn't want parking on the street near
the park you're saying where that big sidewalk is you didn't want Jason okay
all right okay because the park side is where the liability lies and I wanted
them on the other side of the street there so moving in this would be the
north end we have suggested in the area that we call the transition piece we
think there's an opportunity in many cases just like Clyde Warren now there
is an opportunity for commercial and service development in or on the
perimeter of the park and that north end originally was reserved for Civic hoping
that the museum would be able to come out there in place and we've been
through three directors and 12 years and and we don't know if they ever will want
to do anything we're suggesting that we still reserve a component on the very
tip of the north end for that but we also think there's an opportunity to do
some services we know we'll have to come back for a zoning case for that but we
think there's an opportunity to do adjacent services there that remove the
restroom issue from the park and the maintenance of those and the construction
of those from the park we think that because you will be offering food and
beverage hopefully at that location we're also suggesting that there's a much
there if you're not familiar with much from the the uptown area and or in Fort
Worth along the trail system now they pushed a much right up on the main
Trinity trail system in Fort Worth and it's fabulously successful it's a dog
park with food beverage you you mentioned museum I don't know if you've
are aware or not but we have a up-and-coming children's museum now in
Denton Explorium and I'm sure the director of that museum would love to
talk to you we'd be happy to we've been a final a final home we've been looking
for somebody that wants to really talk about this for a long time we think that
there's an opportunity to do both there we've left three positions on that
northern area that was designated civic away from our nine point eight seven
acre park we've left that area reserved for that and we think it's great
opportunity we also think it's an opportunity if there wants to be an
extension of an outdoor sculpture garden that's a great place for it so there's
some there's some real opportunities there but not to divert away from the
park itself we've kept the interior very passive one of the comments was more
trees this happens to be in at the one angle in the middle of the amphitheater
section on the north end where we did not want to put trees along the promenade
because it would have blocked obviously view the stage from a good percentage of
the seating area so so you mentioned Clyde Warren Park which is you know I've
been thinking of that as I was preparing for this meeting and looking at these
sketches I really like that park and and this is this feels much bigger this is
much yeah that's why we subdivided it into yes these quiet smaller bites and
you know have you looked into because they seem they seem to have done just
kind of from it as a visitor they seem to have done a good job in kind of
creating this urban park and added out of nowhere in making it feel like a park
but also it seems anyway to be pretty water friendly you know not to you know
there's it's green but there's also lots of you know mulched areas and and have
you looked into the kind of plantings they've used and I know I know you need
irrigation and I know that they do too they've got a specific challenge there
because that park is on concrete double T's spanning over Woodall Rogers so the
amount of water that infiltrates that system infrastructure wise will be
totally destructive so that's why we propose that the entire perimeter of our
berms be native grasses that are low water consumption and at some point we
hope no water consumption because as they establish and get a root system
those native grasses lived here for the last five thousand years they don't need
us to water them to survive yeah and I love that if you looked into in these
big green spaces incorporating more need you know native plants look more you
know drought tolerant well we have but we need we need the turf I think we
worked hard with parks to develop areas of turf and areas of the native
plantings and trying to give different characters and different personalities to
different areas of the park itself this one just happens to look wide open it's
only two acres it just is the angle of the rendering but the point being is
though when you have a performance on a stage in this position we want everybody
to be able to sit on blankets average blanket seating is about 20 square feet
per person I don't know if y'all remember the EDS campus when starplex used to be
there and all the great concerts from national acts went over there and we all
went over and took a picnic basket and bottle of wine or two and sat and enjoyed
the concert we'd like the opportunity for that kind of seating and that kind of
field to be in this northern two acres so yeah I would love to see if I'm not
sure if you've met with our master gardener local you know master gardeners
group but at some point you know to arrange a meeting with them I think
they're gonna love our grasses we've currently got a debate going with parks
on whether seat mule and burger and golf mule and burger are actually the same
grass but they can weigh in on that it probably will be the deciding so here are
some of the this is actually the crossroads where we talked about the
crescent crossing being in this position the amphitheater being behind these
smaller six-foot berms these walls will be frequented with our historical
entablatures and I think this becomes a real gathering spot we've looked at two
different types of benches this happened to be the old type of benches we were
looking at but the grinders are a real problem in parks nowadays and so we've
decided to go with the looters limestone butter what we call butter stick benches
they're not good for skateboarders they're great because they don't retain
the heat in the summertime that strap iron or any kind of metal benches do we
find that they're incredibly durable but more importantly they're going to match
our our rock that we use on the wall the stone walls so we think it's a better
more natural application and they're starting to be adopted all over Texas
this is the area that where the crossroads occurs this is actually the
area from heritage trail is right here sorry for those that I'm in the way of
heritage trail is in this position you're able to cross at that area right
there and then this is where the wall the walks actually go into the park on
both sides that bring people into the park instead of allowing them just to
traverse the edge of the street our entablatures are meant to tell the
history not only of the natural history but also of the history of the
settlements there's some a wealth of information on Denton historical from
the standpoint of actual stories I've got books that I study for other Western
history issues that have some stories about when the herds came up through
here when the Chisholm was really about eight miles to the west but some of the
areas drifted over to this area and followed I-35 all the way there are
some incredible tales about how quite frankly hard the life was back then and
what struggles people had to settle in this area and I think there's a wealth
of information that we can tell those stories on these entablatures
distributed around the park and on the walls so as I said the perimeter of the
exterior of all the berms would be populated with native grasses those low
water consumption drip irrigation at some point will be able to turn that
drip back and almost no water we think that's really important because then it
also gives a different personality to the streets gate from what happens
inside the park this happens to be at Linden as Linden crosses the south end
of the park here's your formal entry into the park and into the promenade
that goes northward this would be the end of the berm walls where again we'll
put our information boards our storyboards we've even got a flat spot
on top of the berm up here with a grove of trees because it's gonna be a nice
place to gather the breeze when it's hot they're gonna be a nice place to just
sit under the trees and just be quiet and enjoy the park for what it was
intended to be here are just examples of this happens to be on a salt marsh but
this is the type of photography and history written history that we can
incorporate the walls will actually have those elements mounted these types of
storyboards mounted this actually is probably one that we will replicate
because it talks about how the native landscape the native grasses how they
take root how important that root system was to retaining soil if you remember
two weeks ago when the wind was 70 miles an hour those areas that are well
vegetated stayed intact and half of West Texas blew through because it was plowed
ground and the soil erosion it teaches the lesson of the root systems and how
important it is to avoiding erosion Councilmember Briggs has a question
right so I'm glad that you said that because I had a note here asking about
erosion on the berms because they are where the sidewalk is and so that would
be you know a constant battle if it wasn't taken care of properly we work
with Gary and his team and we decided to do a 10-foot grass section at the base
of every berm separating the base of the berm from the sidewalk area one it's a
convenient most trip for them to it gives us an exfiltration pad if you will
to be able to exfiltrate anything before it goes off into the street or the storm
system so it's just good technique I think from a design standpoint well to
that point what I was curious about was that this root systems if you're going
to be displaying it at the bottom and it has all these lovely wildflowers and
natural flowers and the one thing that I see missing from the park it's it's very
structured and manicured but I don't see any wildness or colors well actually I
mean from my standpoint the sides of the berms that are exposed to the streets are
all very soft and very mixed we did get a request from I guess the landscape
consultant for the parks to segregate our species which I think that's fine
when you've got Gulf mule and pink mule and a little blue and big blue and some
windmill grasses so those great native grasses they live better than colonies
that are monoculture colonies by themselves if you mix it all you tend to
lose the definition and the real impact of that wildflowers and I think we've
had our discussions about areas along the promenade where we can create not
nine acres of wildflowers but more blue bonnet areas right almost like southeast
stations coming sure the one thing that we talked about doing to incorporate
some wildflowers is to integrate some blue bonnets into the mounding on the
inside so in potentially place some boulders there so the families could
actually get up on the boulders and sit with the blue bonnets behind so it's
almost like a framed photo opportunity I think councilmember Hudson talked about
selfie stations in the parks and that was one of the ideas that we could we
could use and integrate that into our park system well I think wildflowers
would be lovely I remember looking out at the field as I drove by and seeing
wildflowers out there and so if we're you know trying to bring some of that
aspect back yeah I mean if I had to say so I'd really like us to do more than
just blue bonnets quite honestly the Galartias are spectacular the paint
brush is gray in this part of Texas so I think any of those the red blankets are
wonderful flowers so I think any of those even a mix of those around the
boulders got to be careful because kids and adults alike will be climbing all
over the boulder so they'll be stomping all our flowers but as a backdrop Gary's
right we picked two areas to do the boulders when I get back to the overall
I'll show you where those are the example I used was in Jackson Hole they
actually put climbing boulders they imported big boulders into their parks
for that very reason just let the kids climb on great exercise probably have
some of our seniors climbing on them so as you can see would be using a
two-legged pedestal for most of the freestanders and they will be mounting
the entablatures much like what you see here on the root system we'll be
mounting those on the walls so that at the formal entries both in Linden going
north and at the crossroads where our walls come together we've got
opportunities to do teaching places maybe with two different things we haven't
really worked through our criteria for our theming yet but we're real close so
here's a good example of the mixture we have a wealth of information and
photography here if you remember on the north side of razor I did those buildings
design those and I use the historical murals from downtown and in the
gatherings in historical dent and I felt like we had a really rich heritage to
work from and archives I think we'll have the same thing to be able to mix
this councilmember husband thank you thank you quick question I guess mr.
city manager or whoever in staff would know what is the dividing line between
the new where red development stopped and start is that heritage heritage is a
cut cut off okay got it so we're really the the east side of heritage is still
red development no no it's a it's no that's really us okay what we're
developing all okay and then so the other and so have we well then it doesn't
matter because most of that is developed anyway got it tracking way thank you you
bet so this would be an example of what you would see mounted on the walls at
both the entrances in color both photography and written historical so
now moving around you begin to start to see the role and the softness of some
areas the more formality to some areas the mix of landscaping and native grasses
on the exterior so that you can really see cultures of that pink muley and
golf muley that's a good example you want that sea of pink because it blows
it's beautiful grass and it quite frankly it's one of my favorites of the
natives and one of the least water consumptive grasses that are this would
be as you progress to the south now you begin to come out of the flat area and
begin to pick up the toe of the southern berm the area that I talked
about before which is the tabletop we call it is this grove of trees on the
south berm this would be the southwest berm and that's a place where we really
will encourage people to come up this is the entrance from Lyndon going north as
you can see the promenade has two species of trees we actually mix crepes
and cedar elms there I love crepe myrtles because when everything else is
burning up crepes are blooming forth and so I think that mix is really a good
mix for the promenade and people can really enjoy that color even in July and
August this is the lens we talked about where we think there's a good
opportunity for for art public art you begin to see the butter sticks the
limestone benches from looters and then you approach as you approach the
crossroads area that we talked about which is the extension of crescent and
you've got another set of walls and another opportunity for more
entablatures and more educational elements then you go from there and you
move into the area that is the amphitheater and it's like stadium golf
quite frankly it's it's smooth around the edges with the slope so everyone can
enjoy whatever is going on at the performance pad and in that area that
you see at the terminus of the walk is the performance pad itself the
buildings you see there beyond that will be back to you talking about at a later
time when hopefully we have some input from children be great great so that's
really our basic presentation happy to answer any questions or well we've been
going for about an hour and a half let's just take about a real quick five-minute
break I know we're at the end of the but yeah if we get off the question till we
get back after a while okay so there's a couple slides left okay we'll try to
plow through this and then we'll get feedback and thank you Charles
appreciate it and you're right it has been a long time it's been 12 years so
just to kind of give you an overall budget the budget proposed for what
you've been presented for today by the development group is around 965 thousand
dollars for all those items listed there some additional designs that aren't
included in that a playground shade structure additional trees if we wanted
to put more trees in there and restrooms you know we've struggled with restroom
costs that's not right yeah so we're we're gonna be we're gonna be here next
week Drew's gonna be talking about a couple opportunities to build the
restrooms within in-house staff to do that much much more affordable so these
all could be added a later date once we see how the park functions so this gives
you an idea what's they're committed to based on the development of the 915 16
is two hundred fifty five thousand dollars in park development so they're
well beyond that as well as the acreage there are a few acres beyond what they're
required to provide and then system next steps we have a draft to develop
agreements that we're working on so we when to get that finished in this month
if we can come back to you in May with approval for that a development
agreement and then application consideration of park naming would
follow shortly thereafter we're gonna be coming to you in the next month for a
update to the park naming policy so we're waiting for that to happen and then
they would proceed with construction drawings and then fall into park
construction and then potentially the park would be open next summer if not
sooner okay that's member breaks question yes so I think you heard it you
heard I'm sorry okay development park fees and so on on that itemized list is
that there on their side that they're paying in instead of normally like the
developer would pay us and then we would spend that is that how that's working
there's an option where they can pay in lieu of providing land as well as
development so they could actually provide land and pay the development
fees and then we would develop it they could provide land and provide
development which this is that example or they could just pay it pay out both
for both both opportunities so this is we haven't really this is similar to
Patrick Park so they're kind of happening at the same time so we haven't
done a lot of this where the development community is developing that in
cooperation with the city and eventually turning it over to the city for
ownership so yeah thank you for clarifying that I just have a few quick
comments I really like the design and so I'm just gonna tell you my wish list so
I I wish that there were you know some wildness and some color in the park and
I'm glad to hear that that's being discussed I also would like to have that
the in the in the drainage the drainage go into some sort of reuse system for
for watering if that puddles down if that could go into some rain system and
then reuse back up I think that would be great and save on on water yeah
irrigation since we started with the the topic this morning I thought I would
just kind of continue to bring it through to this item I would rather not
see a playground I would like to see a not a spray ground but a water feature
that kids can play in I've seen them in several other like retail areas where
there's just like a mound of water coming up in three and three or four
different areas and the kids can run through it and it you know kind of pops
up and down more of an interactive fountain right there's not you know a
lot of you know plastic and you know like where it's a water park but it
still fits into the design it looks really nice but you know it's fun fun
for the kids that that's what I would rather see the money spent on because
like I think you said in the beginning we have McKenna Park which is right
across and we're gonna upgrade those we're gonna get extra like another
structure I think so there'll be two structures there so instead of just
having the same thing I'd like to see a little bit different for me I consider
this park part of an economic development aspect because what we want
to do is we want to bring people to the park so that they they spend their money
and their time and their dollars in the in the rest of the area so anything that
we could do that's different to bring them there I think would be great
Councilmember Meltzer yeah I was actually at the public meeting and you know the
only change that I've heard since that input was the addition of Zoe's tree I
remember Zoey very clearly but so I would you know echo some of the things
that were said there and like to you know see them first of all I'd confirm
the desire to something there for kids I mean it's multi-family around there I
think it's gonna be families with kids and you know I'm very happy with
Councilmember Briggs's comments on that but you know the answer that there's a
very high number of trees already there didn't didn't satisfy the people there
said we don't see enough trees there's there's a feeling that it's hot here and
that those big expanses could be kind of like a big green baking sheet so you
know I definitely heard people have a desire for more areas where there are
shady groves with places to sit in the shade a thought that I'll just pass
along for consideration I don't know maybe it's not doable is I heard and I
heard and share that view that amphitheaters oh by the way berms great
the fact that there is a performance space great but I heard people say why
is it more like an actual amphitheater so you know could it would it be possible
to have that land there more more terraced so that you could you know set
blankets on level ground put chairs on level ground and then yeah that the
comment about the outer walk up against the traffic is is was mine I think as I
you know had time to look at it and contemplate just the idea of street
trees providing shade I think would increase the likelihood that that outer
walk would get used those are my comments the only comment I have is on
that sort of entertainment pad if that's really going to be something that is
going to be a focal point or focus to have I think that pad site either not
necessarily elevated in the sense but a gradual slope so if people sitting on
the ground I mean your stage would have to be popped up pretty high to be able
to see it if you're sitting on the ground so just I mean I don't know all
the particulars about that but if that if there's a way to maybe get that a
little higher not build a bigger thicker pad but you know your your ground could
be elevated a little bit then you just put the pad on top I think I think it's
a 1% slope yeah in the amphitheater yeah so it's gradual you can't really see it
but there's a slight slope there's about six feet difference between the front of
the stage in the back of the amphitheater okay okay all right so got you all right
that's all I have Councilmember Armitage just to mention to add my voice to what's
been said I support the comments just made so far about the some sort of a
water feature play space because of how hot it is more trees because of how hot
it is it'll bring more people there too and yeah and of course you know making
sure that there's sufficient slope it sounds like I mean a slope that gradual
you're not going to notice it but really really would have an effect and then you
know that combined with my other comments made through about the master
gardeners irrigation concern you know street crossings in the additional ADA
parking spaces and possible stroller apparent parking spaces but I think this
is it'll it'll be really great when it happens and I'm looking forward to it oh
and you know and one more thing as far as water goes some sort of drinking water
you know drinking fountain doesn't have to be pretty even just a spigot okay
excellent excellent great last comment and they may be in the red and see them
with bike racks garbage cans water fountains park amenities are clear thank
you so I was trying to put it off but um so mr. city manager if we could get the
flyover video maybe posted to our Facebook page with the music no no it's
fantastic no so and then I think I agree that I don't know that the playground
fits for my input I agree that this shade structures particularly in maybe
the amphitheater side of things is maybe the way to go you have some more
slender post or kind of work that in maybe it you know it serves a dual
purpose lighting etc etc so kind of think there's some dual purposes there
maybe even I'd love to see us to go with the the shade structures that have the
solar panels on top of you know but I were you as a parent with an eight and
a two-year-old the water feature should not be on the end with amphitheater is
just because that creates a dueling interest right so if I'm trying to watch
an artist inherently those two want to go towards the water you know so it you
make it rough on parents that way I mean they have to be segregated it has to be
far far on the other end where you're we're either in the water or we're
we're doing something else I just for my my personal real-life experience that's
that's what I see it just to take it easy and make it easier for parents to
kind of coexist and watch a show that sort of thing but the restrooms I look
forward to that coming back obviously I look forward to the naming side of
things great presentation so that's that's kind of my my look on it but and
then I would be if I could borrow you one more time Charles that's okay just
so we have it on the record and just to get your thoughts so you have the luxury
apartments going in which will kind of be right on the back side of the
amphitheater there across heritage yes they're already yeah right vertical
right so how do you how do you envision those two worlds colliding so you have
well I really don't I mean I think that quite frankly the when I'm designing
parks or public spaces those multifamily units are my best friend
because the more eyes on the street the better I love it I want people sitting
out on their balconies and looking at the amphitheater and enjoying what goes
on out there I think that's a wonderful interaction and I think that because
we've selected different sectors of residential around the park market rate
senior all the different mixes I think we're gonna have a wonderful population
of that area around that that park I think it's just all gonna mesh
beautifully it's probably the first plan in 40 years that I've ever done ten
years ago that it's actually getting built the way the old plan so and then
if I may yes and so then one last thing on the sound though have you worked that
in your other yeah I think that I think the trade-off for residents there'll be
very few that oppose three or four times a year and in fact they'll be right down
in the middle of it and enjoying it I know our 55 senior multifamily there
they're gonna be up there in the mosh pit probably love it I mean standing
room in the front so yeah I mean they're very active so I think they'll be all
over got it thank you you bet I do have a solution to what you're talking about
because I did it in Wolf Ranch in Georgetown and it's called a tactile
bubbler the kids little kids can even go up and play in their different heights
so I'll try to get some photographs and bring them next time so you presented a
budget and so you just need direction on hey is this we're going to this what
you're asking are we heading the right direction I have all your feedback we'll
look at how we can integrate some of that stuff and move on from there yeah
any other comments questions yes for clarification that total cost of the
city is not what we're looking at now right because we're not so so this is
what they're proposing to spend as presented and these are just items if we
wanted to add stuff and we can continue to add to that as other discussions come
up today yeah we're not or take away yeah we're not giving any direction on
the by the city it's just the direction on by developer okay sounds like we're
okay with that yes yes sir any objections to that okay thank you appreciate Gary
thank you Charles we'll go ahead take a five or ten minute break
welcome everybody back to this meeting of the Denton City Council on April the
2nd 2019 we're going down through our work session items work session item
3d I receive report hold discussion give staff direction regarding the potential
leasing of the 3.5 acre property at 308 Bradley Street the former side of that
Veterans Village and Bradley Street apartments please note that council
member Meltzer and council member Armitage have recused themselves
parks and recreation want to spend a few minutes afternoon talking to you about a
proposed park for consideration that would actually be a lease land in
cooperation with UNT we're calling it Veterans Village Park as right now it's
a current naming for discussion purposes so to give you an idea where that's at
it's sandwiched between Scripture and West Oak Street just north of campus on
Bradley Street here's your three and a half acres with a parking lot and then
open space on both sides of the property in relation to other parks
proposed Veterans Park Village Park is down here on the bottom right hand
corner McKenna Park is about 2,000 feet away razor ranch is about 2,500 feet
away again the location is about three and a half acres former site of Veterans
Village it was a temporary housing location for veterans that came back
after World War two that went to UNT and there were 50 hutments or small houses
that were placed on this property UNT is interested in leasing it for ten years
we'd be proposing a dollar a year lease plus plus maintenance which we anticipate
is about ten thousand dollars which will show you in a future slide this is an
photo from circa 1947 Oak Street is running along here here's Bradley here's
the hutments that you could see that were placed here they look like about
average size pavilions that we have in our park system just with with sides on
it obviously to give you an idea that's where that space is today this is what
it looks like today open space with some chain link fencing around the perimeter
we would propose to possibly replace that just from a visual standpoint it's
not very attractive from a park usability standpoint so that's looking
southeast here's the parking lot there's another space of green grass over here
that is completely fenced in as well with a small entry point here off
Bradley staff put together some draft concepts just for discussion purposes at
this point time this all can be modified so we very basic would be that we go in
there clean it up maybe put down some additional sand or soil just to kind of
level out some of the low spots and call it a day something simple as that but
from a permitting standpoint any development that we do we would put in
the amount of trees that are appropriate and then possibly replace the fencing
along the street side on Bradley this is a decomposed granite trail that we
possibly could work with volunteers to put in we've had some volunteer veterans
volunteer group reach out that could be possibly interested in helping us these
areas here are wildflowers so we could continue our monarch way stations and our
our bee plantings to enhance that effort and then obviously continued trees each
one of these could be a little reading nooks for kind of carry the campus into
the neighborhood as well and then the pavilion what we thought would we do
kind of creatively there is look at the same size of one of those Hutmans and
try to find a location where it was actually placed so we could put one kind
of there and it would kind of resemble the Hutman and kind of help tell that
story so a little zoom in a little bit so draft concept provides open space for
play so you come out here kick soccer ball in this open area six reading nooks
a pavilion area existing parking lot would stay the same make sure that
everything is ADA compliant we do have to put in some access from the sidewalks
and into the trail that would need to be required for any improvements we do the
monarch way station the pollinator garden had mentioned obviously it's a
neighborhood beautification effort in that area the historical tie with the
veterans villages is kind of neat theme obviously health and wellness to the
neighborhood and students it would help our 10-minute walk program primarily to
the east of the park and then the trail is about 1200 feet in length some of the
base services if we took took it over from a least standpoint general
maintenance we figured it's probably some somewhere between seven and ten
thousand dollars that's basic turf care mowing litter removal and then
miscellaneous vandalism sidewalk and ramps we have replaced the sidewalk in
there and the ramps are roughly twenty five hundred dollars a piece so that's
a little over twenty thousand dollars the required number of trees that we
buy off contract and install and then any permitting expenses we have
associated with that is that per year no the general maintenance would be per
year yes everything else there would be one time that the sidewalks trees and
the permitting so one time I understand this we'd be leasing the land from North
Texas but where they're doing the maintenance now we would be doing the
maintenance that's correct all right added services if we wanted to add the
park amenities garbage cans picnic tables that type of thing a park signage
just saying what it is the name of the park maybe some interpretive signage
talking about the actual village itself and the hut mints and provide that
photography a pavilion could be placed there with a pad obviously we could
replace we could pull the pavilion in ten years if we decided we weren't going
to continue that that space or if UNT wanted to move forward with development
we could relocate that to a different location panel fencing would just be
basic wooden a wooden fence that we could technically pull out if we wanted
to and then the granite trail is something probably we would invest in
that we probably wouldn't get back so that's cost actually just by the granite
and then have volunteers to install it so that would be another forty thousand
dollars of one-time money that would need to be appropriated for this effort
so just in summary about ten thousand dollars for annual maintenance about
another thirty two thousand dollars just to get kind of get the doors open and
then if we wanted to do a little added more it's about another forty thousand
dollars services that aren't included irrigation on the trees would be putting
gator bags there as of right now there's no lighting provided other than street
lighting resurfacing a parking lot and curbing is not included in this any call
stations if we decided to put that in there most trips along the fencing and
the edges of the trail it's just it's it helps us for maintenance it reduces our
maintenance costs Wi-Fi is something we might want to consider since it's next
to the campus and then drinking fountain there's that's not included as well so
this is just some of the ideas of a pavilion crushed granite trail
interpretive science which we have in our park system it would it would
contribute to the 10-minute walk and it could be a volunteer project as well
with our our veterans next steps if council gave us feedback and decided us
for us to move forward we would continue discussions with UNT working out
memorandum or understanding or a lease agreement with them consideration for
any enhancements we could start discussing immediately and identifying
funding for that finalized the lease agreement hopefully in the fall pending
UNT schedule in that process and then bring it back to the City Council for
approval in the same time frame and then we would start recruiting volunteers for
any enhancement that we would do work on that this winter so we can open it up in
the spring once grass starts turning green
you ready for questions yes sir customer breaks and so has the funds been
identified from any any budget at this time it's not I mean we could put a
budget supplemental in for this year's budget for consideration okay so do we
know what the plan is in ten years are they I mean I'm in favor I guess I
should say of this park and I've had emails you know of individuals who have
had family members serve our country who are interested in and supportive as well
but do they know that it may just be temporary I mean I'm just kind of
curious because there's there's a lot of emotion involved with this and for some
people and then for one day it just to be gone that's really my concern I'm okay
with it and I think we should do it but I really would like for it to be
something more final where you know it could be historical designated area we
could have an actual hut replica you know and it could be I guess I'm just
kind of throwing out all the things that I dream of right now but so that that's
where I'm okay with it and I hope that we can find some funding but if you and
T agrees and we just signed the lease I mean that it is usable right now right
yes okay yeah so we haven't gone that far with UNT in regards to the
discussions for you know what happens past ten years so I'm not familiar with
their long-term plan is for that we were waiting for council feedback before we
kind of went that next step I did have someone reach out to to me this week
about it as well envisioning you know sculptures and plaques and all that and
I told us well this is this is least property so it may not be a permanent
site and he said I understand so if that's the desire of the community
another location for that type of thing maybe need to identify for a long-term
plan but you know as of right now I think the best chances look at this as a
temporary location for green space and trying to capitalize off of that that
kind of historical opportunity okay who who mentioned the ten years ten-year
lease I was in the official letter from UNT okay okay yeah it's up at some point
are we gonna need to go into closed session not not net right now but as we
get closer to a formal agreement is that something that we would hear in closed
session as far as if we wanted different terms or different ideas and things such
as that I mean I'd like a longer term lease and that quite frankly I got an
email from someone who actually grew up in one of those huts and so yeah if
that's possible fine but obviously this is the very preliminary stage and yes
councilmember Hudson yeah no I agree with the terms I'd be open but I think
even if we're at the 10-year term then my preference would be to do the kind of
ground enhancements because that veterans group could build a structure
or volunteer like that sort of thing so that way if ultimately UNT takes it back
it's only there for a short period of time that it's not city funds that sort
of thing and they've I mean and they do great work I mean they rework the
schoolhouse that sort of thing so that I mean I think it'll be fantastic it's you
know but so I think that would be kind of the the in-between ground as we
provide the grounds that sort of thing and then they can anything above ground
anything you know vertical they kind of develop that okay all right so sounds
like direction is sort of continue to move forward and continue to discuss
specific terms and the like okay thank you thank you if someone could grab
councilmember armature and councilmember Meltzer we're going to go on to agenda
item 3e we've got two final agenda items and depending on how it goes they could
be to take a long time or short time e e probably bit oh which one we doing oh
the city of a point that I thought we were doing the development first okay so
now eat put provide a report whole discussion give staff direction regard
appointment to removal from all boards and commissions of the city right good
afternoon mayor and council I'm Rachel wood chief of staff and the purpose of
today's presentation is to discuss leaves of absence as they pertain to the
boarding commission appointment and removal process so we've recently had
two board of ethics committee members report a leave of absence from their
respective position and the current code of ordinance is actually silent on leaves
of absence the only provisions regarding absences are for excused and unexcused
absences so if there are more than three unexcused absences from regularly called
meetings or if a member misses more than 50% of meetings within a calendar year
that's considered cause for removal from the board for excused absences I won't
read through the list but those are things like personal illness or
attending a conference on behalf of the board or commission that you serve on
that could be considered excused absences so the reason we're bringing
this before you today is there have recently been some concerns raised
pertaining to the board of ethics regarding their ability to meet a quorum
there have been several recent resignations there are some members who
aren't able to vote because they're conflicted out right now and so for the
two board of ethics members that have declared a leave of absence what we're
asking from you is how do we treat those leaves of absence since the code is
currently silent on that for the board of ethics the quorum is comprised of
four members any vacancies that are due to resignations or removal for cause can
can be filled using the typical appointment and nomination process and I
should note that while I've mentioned the board of ethics this issue could
present itself for any board or commission excuse me or commission and
so what we're seeking feedback from you on is how would you if you would like
for us to amend the code of ordinances to address this because it's silent on
the matter for all boards commissions and committees so staff's presenting
three options for you to consider today as I've already mentioned any one of
these three options would require a code of ordinances amendment option one would
be to consider a reported leave of absence and automatic resignation from
the board and considered cause for removal option two would be to consider
a reported leave of absence and unexcused absence and then that would
follow the provision that once there are three absences from the board then that
would be considered cause for removal or option three would be to consider a
reported leave of absence and excused absence that of course would perpetuate
the concern regarding the ability to meet a quorum but that is an option that
council could consider so those are the three options we've come up with staff
is seeking feedback today on how you'd like for us to proceed then we'll come
back with given the direction we'll come back with any suggested revisions to the
code of ordinances for you to consider at a subsequent meeting that I'll be
happy to answer any questions you have comments questions mayor protein one
thing that's not addressed in here for I wonder how to stress it's not been more
of a question for legal is the alternates that are on boards who are not
required to show up unless they're called for and yet it's if you missed
three meetings how would we know if they're if they're a if they would have
that many absences would you have to wait until they got you had a vacancy
that you had to call them in so it's not missing three regular scheduled
meetings it would be three that they were required to go that they're
participating in so who outside the leave of absences that have been
stated who has a appointments that are open or who's resigned or who hasn't
come or what what what's available as far as people who've vacated for reasons
other than a leave of absence declaration sure and we've actually got
some pretty new news on that so on April 1st Ben Clark who was an alternate
resigned from his position so that will be an open nomination that will be
putting on the agenda for April 9th we also had Sandy Christopherson resigned
from the board and so we're gonna be placing the nomination that's council
member Hudson nominee he's gonna be placing a nomination also on the April
9th agenda for consideration a couple of observations I think and this could
apply to all boards and commissions I think part of what we see here who
appointed the alternates so we've got names listed but any council member can
don't understand that because I think we need to think about that when it comes
to appointment of alternates that council members should have only a
certain number of appointee you know they got the regular appointee and then
because what's happened here is we've got people who are conflicted out for
certain reasons I do want to address the leave of absence in particular one that
I know that I got an email stating that there was they were taking a leave of
absence till May 4th after the election and that they were therefore I forgot
what the wording is not going to be involved in any of the functions that
would be available as a board as a member of the Board of Ethics however in
the meantime there was a request made for information to city staff based upon
their title as a member of the Board of Ethics and now I've gotten an email just
yesterday that this same individual sort of says well I want to come back and we
just can't have people saying we're going to take a leave of absence and
then wanting information from that leave of absence and then deciding well I want
to come back now for whatever reason so I think it's very important that we
resolve this issue because if we're going to have people who are willing to
serve on our boards and commissions they need to be willing to serve and if
they're not willing to serve then they should just resign I don't think it
should be I'm going to get out when somehow I don't want to participate but
then I want to come back when I do want to participate you can't expect to have
also the privileges of board membership if you haven't also assumed or continued
with the responsibilities and obligations of board membership so I'm
okay with option two because I think what you're saying is that if the leave
of absence is based upon any of those reasons listed as an excused absence
then those are not considered unexcused absences in other words if you're going
to take a leave of absence I don't think you should just be able to take it
because you don't want to serve for whatever reason I think it should be
fall into those excused absences and if you don't want to serve then you should
resign your board affiliation because it's necessary it's just important that
we have that stability and that continuity in that regard so that's
that's sort of where I am with that I know that whatever we decide on these
options does not apply retroactively that it would apply moving forward if
I'm correct in that because it's going to require an ordinance change so it
really wouldn't affect anybody that's you know taking the leave of absence at
this point but it would and I think it should apply to all boards and
commissions and I think we need to look at as far as appointing alternates if
we want to put some limitation on how many alternates you know individual
council or single council members can appoint not because there's anything
wrong with that but it's just how do we how do we not avoid how do we avoid this
situation in the future and I think that should apply to all boards and
commissions as well that's just me we got six other people here so council
member Amater yeah so that even though I'm the one who appointed multiple
alternates because actually and the reason why I did because I just I came
into that meeting figuring other people would have you know suggestions of
alternates and I was the only or maybe I sent them an email them in advance
anyway I figured there would be multiple alternates and then we decide so but so
even though I was the one who had like two alternate two alternates and I I
agree that you know it would be nice to have something in place where to prevent
that from happening yeah that wasn't a criticism on you appointing I just want
to make sure it was just more of a just an observation yeah oh I know yeah I just
wanted to say I agree with the part about the alternates that especially for
a committee like this just gets gets complicated would you council member
Arthur would you be okay with that we were just sort of applying across the
board to boards and commissions in general I think it makes sense so so it
would be you know no more so for alternates no more than one alternate per
council member I mean usually we'll have we have depending on the size of the
committee three or four alternates yeah I think I think that's that's reasonable
and of course you know then if there's a problem it sometimes happens when if
there's a council member who hasn't appointed but that's another issue I'm
gonna go mayor pro-10 I'm gonna go to council member Duff thank you in and I
agree too with the only one alternate per council member makes sense
especially on a board like ethics that anyone has to recuse themselves so you
automatically would take out two if you've appointed one you take three
people out of the mix it if you're appointing two I guess based on my
earlier question about the alternates and when we would trigger these the
for cause the unexcused absences I would have to go with option one from a stand
that moving forward not taking into account those that have had happened in
the past but if your alternate were to give a leave of absence and you're down
to where you need them to make quorum they haven't had those three so you
haven't been able to replace them so that that's the only reason I would say
that a leave of absence would be the same as a resignation moving forward
council member Duff yeah I'm kind of kind of my first thought was option one
and then you know in a way option two but I think I think what John Ryan's
saying it makes sense you know that option one I mean if you're gonna have
to take a leave of absence you need to be off
well I don't necessarily agree with with option one I understand what you're
saying about the alternate but maybe the alternates have that but the actual
board members I mean I know it's easier to do it all across the board but the
leave of absence if it's unexcused because these appointments sometimes are
four years sometimes two years and if somebody someone is pregnant and they
need to take a leave of absence for something or their mother is sick or
something tragic has happened but it's not going to take two years to get back
and they really are doing a great job in their position I don't think it's fair
to kick them out especially you know one of these things that we have already
listed as excused is happening that that's my preference I don't think that
would be very fair because some of these are you know they last a long time and
if they're gonna be back and you know then we shouldn't just say sorry too bad
that you're having this thing you know that's where I stand on that so I'm okay
with option two in that in that sense. Councilmember Meltzer and then
Councilmember Armitage. Thinking out loud a little bit here well actually let me
take the easy one first yeah clearly when somebody is out they they're out
you know I mean during the time that they're out they should be asking for
privileges that assume they're in I think that's straightforward I think I'm
kind of tossing over my mind if somebody has a you know whatever reason they want
to take a leave is and if we can't backfill with alternates it wouldn't
make sense to have there be such a thing as an interim appointment right like
I've got to take three months for a family reason or whatever okay that opens
up a three-month interim appointment. And I understand that I guess are you saying
that because I think it comes down to really our existing policy already that
is we have excused absence we have unexcused absence and what I'm hearing
you say Councilmember Riggs is that if you need to take a leave of absence
because of something that's been identified as an excused absence which
whether you're gone three meetings or ten it's still an excused absence what
doesn't count towards the policy if you have three unexcused what I hear you
saying Councilmember Meltzer is that if they have to do that and there's some
predetermined amount of time that it's going to be gone past that time then the
person who is that a person's appointee do we think of some paradigm where they
have an interim appointment and the person who would be appointed in that
knows that going into it and that they know that they're only going to serve
until that excuse that's occurring is is satisfied is that does that
yeah that's good summary of what I was saying and then and that if we if we had
something like that in place I'd be more comfortable giving a little more
latitude in terms of what people take leaves of absence for because the real
issue is are you stuck without people so I feel like there's a question of for me
anyway of how do we define a leave of absence especially on a commit thought
especially on the Ethics Committee because you know because anyone can say
I'm taking a leave of absence right but it might not theoretically affect your
attendance if on a committee like this that only meets when you know when
there's a case before them you don't always you can't plan the year right and
say and that's different from just about every committee other committee than I
can think of right where you can look at the calendar for the year and you can
say where these are all the dates we're gonna meet there might be some others
that'll pop up you know so what about if if we just simply don't recognize a
leave of absence as a thing and instead just have an attendance policy where if
you're called upon and in other words so you know someone someone on this
committee could say I'm taking a leave of absence and it could just be meaning be
meaningless unless they are called upon to serve on a on a panel and then if
they say no then that could count as a in an unexcused absence say and this is
not I'm thinking specifically about the Ethics Committee this is not including
because the kind of this kind of situation Councilmember Briggs mentioned
say someone on the Ethics Committee you know say there's a an illness or a
pregnancy or something you know you could you could theoretically have that
and then not end up missing anything any meetings so I'm just kind of throwing
that out there as just another another possible you know approach to the same
problem and and I understand what you're saying I guess from the standpoint of
trying to keep things fairly consistent if someone who's a member of the Ethics
Board and says I'm taking a leave of absence because I'm pregnant or I've got
an illness that I'm gonna have to have surgery whatever it meets that excused
portion calling it a leave of absence really doesn't it's still judged under
excused or unexcused so if the and really actually with the board of with
the Ethics Board they could be called in at any time there is no schedule so I
mean like we saw here that we've had you know several meetings back-to-back for
various different reasons and some of the people who've declared a leave of
absence on the Ethics Board might have already missed three meetings
potentially so I think if we said that if somebody wants to declare an official
league of leave of absence that it has to meet one of the rationales for
excused absence and if it applied to everybody it's really not gonna have any
different impact on the board on the Board of Ethics because if they don't
meet they don't meet so they're not either an excused absence or an
unexcused absence it's just there's there's no attendance record that's
required but because I think it would be easier to have one rule that
consistently fits all boards and commissions than one that separates one
out when the effect is the same the result is the same because we so I could
say the exact opposite of what I said and agree with you and that is we could
take out leave of absence all together on any board or commission you can't
declare that and it's just is your absence excused or unexcused based upon
so if you're not there for ten meetings but it's because you've been ill or
because you've had one of you've met one of these excused conditions it still is
following under this policy so it could be we just don't officially recognize
that in general and we just fall back on what our current policy is which I'm
okay with that yeah I'm okay either way it's just well and there if I may there
is already some latitude and excuse absences if you look at the very last
line here or other matters which the board commission or committee finds
qualify as an excused absence so there is some latitude there within each
border commission yes okay yes councilmember Briggs and councilmember
Meltzer so it says or missing more than 50% of meetings in a calendar year would
be considered cause so is it either or or or and or either or so you're saying
yeah help me understand the observation well I'm just I mean if you're if
you're taking out leaves of absence and you say excused absences but for me when
you say leave of absence it means a longer period of time so it's you know
you're you're prepared for that you're not just thinking three so I don't I
know I'm 50% of meetings I guess that is quite a bit especially if you're in a
four-year you missed two years of meetings then then that would make sense
so I'm just thinking okay to me there's a difference between sort of unexpected
absences you know for whatever reason and it's like you miss you know oops oops
oops I get that but the benefit of recognizing absences it lets us it lets
us plan right if somebody knows up to an event certain or date certain you know
that they need to step away I I'm liking my idea that I just had right here live
a couple minutes ago you know that it gives us the opportunity to to appoint
an interim and if you only have the reactive rule then you don't get to
potentially plan and have better coverage okay so it seems like it's all
just sort of frame it as an initial question for the council direction it
seems like that to recognize the leave of absence and to judge it in the form
of our is it something it meets the excused criteria or not and in
conjunction with that have staff develop some some options of what is a time
frame that would trigger this interim appointment it would give us something
to talk about in that regard is that is that what what what does council think
about that because really we're saying recognize that somebody can ask for a
leave of absence but that leave and those absences for the meetings where
they're taking that leave will be judged under the excuse or non-excuse category
and then applied accordingly and then if it is a leave of absence for an extended
period of time that we predetermine then an interim appointment would be assigned
and is that sounds good to me okay could I just get some clarification on that
really quickly so would the interim appointment only apply to those who have
declared a leave because we do also still have the alternates yes okay yeah
well it's where the alternates maybe it's where if there's a if there's a
void that the alternates are unable to fill in other words if if we've got three
leave of absences and we only have two alternates then we've got an issue so
it's is that well you know it is what I previously said but you know as we've
discussed I think you know maybe just it stands like in other words an alternate
could could request a leave of absence a regular person you know you you kind of
always want the full complement because they're just gonna be situations where
you need people oh no I think what she meant was if we have an alternate
available would an interim appointment be necessary oh well yeah is that what
you were asking yes yeah I guess if it's like a long enough period of time then
you still want to the full complement you know yeah you might could do the
interim appointment as as the alt because if the alternate then would
become the interim yeah it would be an interim alternate which means that if
it's if it's your appointee to a board as opposed to the alternate you can work
it out that person can contact the council person who appointed them and
say look I need to take this you as a council member find someone that person
resigns and when you find that person you say look I just need you take it for
three months then they can resign and you can reappoint the original well but
you're talking about a resignation instead of a leave of absence well yeah
and it yeah that's what I'm just saying is opposed to doing it as a leave of
absence because I think the leave of absence is gonna put us in a sticky
position on some you know on some other boards as well and that's that's my
concern is one thing that hasn't been brought up that I meant to ask earlier
we said we have four people available or it takes four people for a quorum if how
does the voting on that board go would it then have to be a four zero on
anything that's that's done when you get down to a four-person quorum does the
voting go on a majority or does the voting go on a and this is for any
border commission for any border commission is yeah okay well I want to
ask you I want to clarify because on council according to our rules and
procedure maybe the charter I can't remember which one that there has to be
four affirmative votes and we can come because we're just gonna be another
session on this so we can if we need to there has to be four affirmative votes
for something to pass so if you only have four council members in attendance
and it votes three to one that's a failure so we want to see it is that
same paradigm apply to our boards of commissions and that may be something
you just need to research and we'll look into that okay and also I want to make
sure that we have some tracking mechanism that when the alternates are
called upon sure that if they say I can't tonight we're not just calling the
next one we're counting that towards that absent okay all right okay council
member husband and councilmember Meltzer yeah I think for simplicity I would like
to see us extend the same kind of decision we made on P and Z my fear is
this you have something that gets caught up in a three-week vortex if all the
things kind of like lay out right and I just don't think that's right I think it
needs to move on because they're not the final decision-maker so give them a
couple of shot one shot really is my preference at pulling together someone
maybe a second but other than that it just needs to move on without a without
an advisory so for example traffic Commission traffic Commission can't make
quorum once I would say move it on but if there's no appetite for that then
let's give them a second shot but after that I mean it just needs to move on I
mean because in this instance if all if all the stars line up right alternate
can't be there someone resigns they get a second shot at it and next you know
it's caught up for three weeks I just don't think that is it's fair to the
requester you know and I think that's the key is to get whatever request
processed timely so that they I just think that that we owe that to whomever
is coming before us if if it's a street so we're we're holding up a street a
bike lane or whatever because we can't get four people together on a Wednesday
night I mean I think that to me is unfair to the business owner that has
the street in front of their their house I mean in front of their business torn
up or a homeowner that has you know sidewalk torn torn up in front of the
home and we got to get these projects moving they have real effects and so
that that to me is a problem and they're all advisory right I mean so
that's that's other thing it's not binding and so how long do we want to
have we know some of them are I mean the Board of Adjustments is that the
zoning Board of Adjustments that's a binding that's a legislative body is it
right this the the ethics so I hear what you're saying what you're saying is can
we apply sort of a same paradigm on the boards and commissions that work that
have another appeal process above them I have another body that's gonna look like
planning and zoning it comes to counsel traffic safety it comes to counsel but
let's take for instance the ethics board there's no the ethics board has to hear
the complaint there's no other body that hears that the zoning Board of
Adjustments has to hear that and I think they can appeal I don't know
district court they don't even appeal to counsel so where that works that
paradigm I do get that yes so basically what you're saying is apply the same
paradigm we did with planning and zoning on those boards that it would work
appropriately to where something doesn't get tied up sort of delayed because of
absences or recusals or anything like that give them that time frame that we
decided for PNC if that doesn't work it goes to the next level of board that
hears that after them is that is that what I'm hearing you that is that is
correct and even those that are final decision I get it there's no solution to
that but but here's where that problem comes in so now it runs up to you know
your names on the ballot or whatever I mean it you know and if you can't get it
heard timely and you can't get that processed and get whatever result out
there so that you can move on and everyone on both sides can you know
begin to tap that down then that just lingers right for three weeks that's a
problem I would think anybody no one wants to do that to anyone I mean this
is not right I mean you want it let's yeah let's make a decision and move on
well and I understand that in those instances there's no fix yeah there's
yeah there's yeah because but yeah so I think that's what we're trying to fix
here if there's an issue where there's people who aren't able to meet for a lot
of various reasons if it's a leave of absence or if they're excused absences
we're trying to figure out how do you how do you backfill that void sure
councilmember Meltzer because we're getting a lot of issue so I'm gonna hear
your comments I'm gonna hear is I want to summarize sort of so we can start
making some decision on these because I know it's getting very confusing we're
throwing a lot of things on the wall and I want to make sure that we're
organized about it councilmember Meltzer so I remember the point I wanted to make
before I think with a leave of absence where it's a planned thing I don't think
you declare a leave of absence I think you apply for leave of absence you know
it's not one piece of paper right goes goes to your board commissioner committee
and they say yes or no you know and that's that okay that's the point okay
and then may approach him real quick then we're gonna start summarizing this
well mine falls on that same line of is it only up to the board commissioner
committee as to whether that person remains on if they've missed three if
they've had three unexcused that only up to the committee or is that because
that seems unusual that we would have to go to that board to find out if they
considered their member to have something that is an excused absence that
that last line on the screen all right so let's let's start go ahead but we got
it I mean we're way out on the boundary so I'm trying to get us a little bit
more focused go ahead well right but I'd also like some data to you to help us
with this on issues on the boards and commissions that we do have that
experience quorum issues or if they if this is a thing besides I know that some
ad hoc committees that we had some issues with but I'm talking about our
standing committee so if we could have some of that information of you know if
there's been quorum issues and how many meetings have been missed I I don't I
don't know that councils made aware of any of those things so just some data on
that to see if it is a big issue or if it's just this this one board the ethics
okay so let's sort of start walking down through some of these leave of absence
as something that is either declared or applied for but there we recognize that
term of art that sort of say it's not a legal term but that's it that's a
definition leave somebody can take a leave of absence whether they apply for
it or whether they declare it is that it sounds like we're okay with that leave
of absence I am okay okay all right I see a couple of unfurled brows but the
five raised brows or happy brows rule the day and so then we're going to apply
the reason for the leave of absence to the policy we already have which is
excused or unexcused so let's go ahead and take up mayor Pro Tem's question
here is that is excused and unexcused solely within the purview of that board
commission or committee to define what that looks like there's some latitude
that can be given in that regard comments or thoughts on that yes
the general idea of applying it you know just asserted I'm okay with the idea that
the body that decides could be could be counsel if you're uncomfortable with it
being the board itself either way okay yes I like the idea of it being the the
board itself because it shows you know because these are citizens committees
it should put some shows where you know I'm empowering this group to make these
decisions however you know if it comes to be a problem where boards are you know
excusing absences left and right and kind of compromising their own work then
counsel could step in I just hate I would hate to take away something that
you know empowers the board to make decisions about themselves
council member well currently I think it's within the council member right who
appointed that person to make that decision on if if you wanted to remove
them from the border not for unexcused apps I what is the current I'm looking
at Larry I'm I believe it's the border commission okay however I feel like
whatever it's consistent I would whatever that would be my yeah because
I've always thought that removal of a member of a board of commission if
because if they were nominated by council that it would be counsel that it
would have to to operate that removal that'll be part of what we bring back so
that's one of those things that we can bring back so then what I'm hearing on
how does excused or unexcused get who defines that we are we obviously have a
definition already a list of things but then there's some latitude with the
border commission members duties absence necessary so forth and so on qualify as
an excused absence I think it's a very good point we only get attendance data
on our appointees once a year and that's when we go to make those appoint those
reappointments or new nominations so that might be something we want to get a
little bit more frequently like maybe once a quarter just to get an idea of
what's going on because a year can go by and you know somebody could miss eight
meetings and you're not sure unless somebody brings it to your attention okay
alright well okay well I'm not sure I've been have we been getting it
quarterly okay we'll make sure we'll just double check on that so then the
things we have outstanding are how many people does it take you know what's
what's the affirmative votes needed for something to pass according to our
boards and commissions the toss around some ideas what's up what else is
outstanding on this issue councilmember hudspeth's observation that do we apply
that same paradigm of something getting sort of delayed or stuck in a committee
because of either prolonged absences by a couple members or a recusal that would
keep it there forever do we only apply that to planning and zoning or does that
apply across the board to our other boards and commissions where there's
some other governing body above that one that it's able to move to and I don't
know the answer to that question and what else are we are we out saying Rachel
can you think of something you've written a note down that we're missing
on that well there's just a lot of stuff being said and I was trying to write it
down I guess the interim appointment versus the okay and that would that
that would apply it sounds like that if an if an alternate moves into that place
that is an excused absence prolonged absence then then it could be an interim
appointment of that alternate and do y'all have an issue with whoever
appointed that alternate being the one who makes that interim appointment since
we're relegating or we're limiting the number of appointees for each council
member to the one that they appoint based upon the charter and then one
alternate and so they could make that interim appointee if I'm not sure if I'm
following correctly but if I am wouldn't it make more sense for the person who
appointed the position that that's become a vacant you know temporarily
vacant to okay that's a good point I was just assuming that the alternate was the
same point of it no that's good point yeah so does that just on generally the
alternate is discussed by and voted and agreed on as an alternate yes and it
would come through that process yeah it would be somebody we're just trying to
determine who would bring that name forward who would bring that alternate
interim alternate name forward and then the whole council would vote on that
yes and so what you're saying is it's it's whoever appointed the person that
is taking the leave of absence yeah okay all right the only other note I had
mayor was no more than one alternate named per council member yes earlier in
the presentation yes yes yes council member husband question on the alternate
process do we need a another option on the application that says I want to be
an alternate or would you just select from those that are interested in that
particular board and let that serve as the alternate so when you're going to
select should we add that so there may be citizens that just want to be an
alternate right I mean or do we say no that's not an option select what board
you or commission you like and then we will you know each individual council
member could consider that or source someone else the practice I think has
worked in the sense that you know each individual council member nominates the
person they want to serve as the primary member of that board of commission and
there's always several slots that say hey this alternate position anybody can
not any of the council members can nominate and typically they'll call
people who've applied that maybe weren't selected on that first round and say hey
we do have an alternate position available are you okay with that because
if somebody if you nominate somebody's the primary and they don't have time to
do it and they'd rather be an alternate then they're going to tell you I mean and
so then you could but that's a big assumption on my part councilman yeah
just anecdotal piece of information one nominee that that I put forward sir
first experience on a board she really wanted to be an alternate like less
pressure sure learn okay yeah yeah and so that supports yeah yeah which I mean
it's a box on the application so I mean I don't see any big issue and does it
cost any more to have probably not yeah yeah so yeah just add a place where it's
to be an alternate for that board they could work on that yep any other
questions comments do you have sufficient direction is there something
else you might need from us okay I believe we've got good direction and we
can get answers for you in this week's Friday report regarding absence
reporting and how frequently you get that just to make sure there's
clarification sooner alright fantastic thank you very much appreciate it okay
we are moving on to our next agenda item I think it's the last work session
agenda item for agenda item 3f receive report hold discussion provide staff
direction on the dent development code update and draft zoning map good
afternoon mayor members of council give me a second to pull up the PowerPoint
presentation how much you know how much how many slides do you have on your
formal presentation I mean I'm not trying I'm just saying I think we have it well
we talked a lot about a lot of issues in the last development review committee
meeting which I think are very important to discuss so we're not gonna get them
probably all discussed here today we may so I just I just say that for time
purposes because we spent an hour and 40 15 minutes just on issues that weren't
even part of the presentation so I'm not saying we should change it we're gonna
have more of these meetings correct so what we don't get decided here the
problem is we've got you know public hearings coming up and all that so
we've got to get some things decided we have we have just several things that we
can speak to you about either today or next Tuesday we have a DC RC meeting on
Friday that we can map out kind of the rest of this and come back and bring it
probably in and maybe a more structured format we wouldn't have to go through
much today so we can certainly limit that time I think they're just a couple
of items that may be useful to get council sure I think we just discussed
several issues yesterday that I think really need the yes the full attention
of the council and so that's really our intent so we don't have to go through an
elaborate presentation okay all right okay Ron will Ron will reduce the slides
no no it's not it's not a criticism it's just we I want to make sure that we get
discussed some of the important issues that that none of us have really thought
about until we got into this process at the end well if you take away the title
in the question slide I've got seven slides so it shouldn't take too long I'm
going to go through it really quickly okay so the in the agenda information
sheet I listed out those items that we will be discussing and then of course the
last one is any other topics that the council would like to discuss the first
one that we have to discuss is the manufactured home development the HUD
code and this is what we're talking about the project we're talking about
projects that have multiple manufactured homes the discussion we had at council
the last time we met during a work session the full council was where
should they be permitted and how should they be permitted so the discussion we
have with the DC RC was to allow them in the something there they're flagging me
with a light and Brian's coming in and it's the mic on is everything on is
everything good there we go my apologies my apologies I got a
blanket line here I don't know Morse code so my apologies so the based on the
discussion we had with the full council as well as with the DR DC RC follow-up
staffs recommending r6 and r7 with an SUP so if anybody wants to develop a
manufactured housing development in any other zoning districts they would have
to apply for a rezoning for an r6 or r7 and apply for a specific use permit that
is what staffs proposing the minimum stand size for a manufactured home will
be 5,000 consistent to what we have today so a lot of what is provided in
the proposed draft will be carried forward from the existing development
code related to manufactured housing we also talked about a minimum development
size of 10 acres so it has to be at least 10 acres to qualify as a
manufactured home development we're gonna be introducing you specific
standards related to site setbacks site design access and circulation parking
accessory uses screening open space requirements and then the perimeter wall
or screening of that said mobile I'm sorry manufactured home development
lastly I think we also discussed that if there was someone that wants to propose
the manufactured home dwelling within a single-family development and a single
lot and just one home they would be allowed through a specific use permit
that is what we are proposing does anybody have any questions regard
regarding manufactured home developments I think we discussed parking that it's
for still the four spaces that apply does that sound right or no let me
double-check the parking requirements for a single-family home or for a mobile
home in a mobile home development mobile home and mobile home development I was
believing that it was two parking spaces and then additional parking for any
accessory vehicles that they may have trailers etc well I'd prefer to have it
for I mean you know the same amount of people living there say I mean you start
the clog up the streets in that regard I mean I get it that they you know they
may be less than pumped about it but I think function wise they're not gonna
have less cars because that's where they decide to live I mean that's just not
gonna be the case and so that's my preference is that they have to meet
the same requirements current and it's got square currently it's two per
dwelling unit but that's just to provide information yeah yeah so that's I don't
know where everyone's falls but I would prefer them because our new our new
parking requirement is space for four car single-family home right or for
single-family duplexes and town homes I believe yeah four so if they and for me
the argument is because if I'm for it I'm gonna say it's just normal housing so
normal housing gets normal housing treatment so I'm a little confused so
can you explain to me about that when is there the two parking spaces under what
conditions is the two required under what conditions is the four the current
proposal in the code the draft code is two parking spaces per dwelling unit but
I believe councilman has been is proposing that it be increased to four
to match single-family duplexes okay so it's true that single-family duplex in
town currently for parking spaces and we count the parking in the garage as to
the driveways count as to so that's how we got to four okay got it
I think the arguments persuasive can can you tell us what the what the
rationale was for originally proposing to I believe it was just a carryover
from what is currently required for the current code so and in and to think
about the manufacturer home development they have carports not necessarily
garages so you know the garage in the single-family would be able to
accommodate the two and then the driveway would be the other two if this
was a manufactured home development would they still be able to fit four
within their stand size of minimum 5,000 square feet I think what councilmember
husband is saying is they that should be part of the requirement I mean whether
they got a carport you got two that could fit under the carport and you have
two off-street because the whole point for the single-family residential let me
give me some water for my crackers jumping because the whole reason for the
single-family duplex and whatever it was was to prevent unnecessarily on street
parking in other words let's get if you have a single-family dwell and we want
to get the vehicles off the street as much as we can in the garage counted as
two whether you got it full and you're not parking two in there it still
counts as two right whereas with manufactured housing it's still an
individual housing unit and so I sort of understand that and don't know if I
just necessarily disagree with it that much yes mayor council I think that the
mere fact that we're requiring to plus an additional space or 160 square feet
of area I really we're talking about adding one more space so I think that
it's it's quite practical to do that and to be consistent with single-family
dwellings that that we would just put forth that it would be for parking
spaces instead of the the two with an additional space so so three it's an easy
instead of three it's four okay with that okay okay okay so next topic for
discussion is tiny homes there was some clarification we wanted to get some
direction from the full council minimum size for the project staffs proposing
10,000 square feet for again a tiny home development a minimum number of units of
four so in order to qualify as a tiny home it will have to have at least four
and a development size of 10,000 square feet at a minimum it will be required to
be part as a plan development so that means a public hearing with the planning
zoning Commission and City Council and then one additional use specific
standards for additional parking so similar to what we discussed earlier for
guests parking they would be required to provide additional currently in the code
tiny home development is required to provide one parking space per dwelling
unit
yes council member brace for clarification that these with them a PD
can go in any zoning district correct just to put that out there there is not
as only that you would apply a PD would be their zoning district yeah so you've
got an established neighborhood with a 10,000 square foot lot go through PD
plans but it would have to get it would have to get approved correct yeah any
comment you had another comment could you speak to how we look at I watched a
tiny home house hunters last night and they all had composting toilets so the
ones that we're talking about tiny home dwellings would have regular plumbing
correct and I remember that specific discussion we had for the proposed tiny
home along a mingo and based on input from our utilities department they
would have to provide some sort of connection to sewer so they would have
to provide the sewer connection and that would not be an option and I we can we
can double-check that's it more of a development requirement but unless we
want to specifically call it out I don't think we want to get that detail well
no what I'm saying is if you have it if you have a tiny home development you
should have it connected to city water and sewer services it would it would be
it would it would be it would follow all of our other criteria what is the
parking requirement on these tiny home one space per dwelling unit and then
we are adding a use specific standard to provide additional parking for guest
parking so only two spots for tiny home correct
sorry you got your mouth full it has to be a tiny car a smart car a smart car
levity yes I like it are these okay so these tiny homes have to be permanently
affixed to the ground either through a slab or pier and beam kind of here
anchoring or something like that they can't just be on axles and wheels no
they would not be okay definition they're American okay okay all right Scott
did you have a I just want to take one step backwards on the manufactured
housing I'm gonna make the assumption that everyone was okay with what Ron
spoke to we were just bringing that back before council because we had those
questions we believe we've answered them sufficiently just want to make sure yeah
with what you have up here minimum stand size minimum developments 10 acres
correct r6 and r7 with SGP we just intend on proceeding forward with that
it was just the conversation got into the parking we talked about the parking
then we kind of jumped off it okay I just need to validate that so we're
given clearing clear direction all right I see no objections thank you okay next
topic is RV Park and really the input that we want to hear from the council is
just the length of use currently in the code it has a 30-day maximum we're
recommending that that move up to extend to six months so there's no objection to
that this is to accommodate those folks that are wanting to stay longer than 30
days and I think six months is an appropriate time or we feel that six
months is an appropriate maximum time councilmember Briggs is there a reason
why we're putting a limit on it I'm just saying because we just heard that you
know if you have a smaller home on an axle or a wheel then it would be
considered an RV right right but then we're saying so they would only be able
to park in an RV park for up to six months and then have to move their their
home to another location correct and my understanding is that RV parks are
intended to be just that it just just temporary recreational area not meant to
be more than permanent they're not designed to be permanent housing so we
typically have more code enforcement type issues when we have people trying
to convert an RV into some sort of permanent housing okay another topic we
wanted to discuss and get some direction from the full council is clustered
cluster home development and I know that council Ryan brought up a comment and I
don't know if he liked to discuss it or we want to talk about some of the
options that we have as it relates to the comment and if councilman rank and
bring that up well I think we've handled by putting it into a plan development
when it was in base zoning and we just said 30% had to be put aside as opposed
to the remainder of the lot size that was my concern but I think with the plan
development would be fine I think you can just go ahead and take just what
came out of the DC RC and speak to that being that's that's the direction that
we're going unless we hear differently from council okay so we will proceed
with the option one allowed as part of the plan development community garden
urban farm I know that we had a somewhat of a discussion on this at our last work
session the seat the what you see up here where we're added tax for community
garden is stating that any facility for the cultivation of fruit flowers
vegetables and ornamental plants by more than one person or family where members
of the community have access to individual garden plots again the word
community is stated there again it's meant to be for a community purpose
where the urban farm is defined as an a private facility for the farming of
fruits flowers vegetables and ornamental plants more of a business more of a more
intense type use
might be unnecessary but maybe a little clarifying just based as I recall our
conversation if we added the words primary purpose of because that's kind
of where I got hung up a private facility for the primary purpose of
farming of in other words not for not for residences okay
good comment thank you okay all right next topic at all did we discuss this in
DR DC no okay the the short-term rental we did discuss months before and we came
to some determination but wanted to bring it up I guess was requested by
counseling breaks to have a short discussion I'm not sure what questions
but really just kind of presented to the full council we are introducing the use
of short-term rentals these are your Airbnb's your your you know where
individual units are rented to folks the definition for short-term rental I'm
going to read it out loud for the record is the rental of an entire dwelling unit
for monetary consideration for a period of less than 30 consecutive days this is
not including a bed-and-breakfast boarding or rooming house hotel or motel
the definition does not include offering of use of one's property where no free
is charged or collected so again intended for rental for no more than 30
days of entire unit is what the short-term rentals defined as we
currently show it in our table allowed in the RR are 1 2 3 4 6 and 7 in the MN
and in the MD zoning districts with you specific standards the first one is that
prior to any rental a property owner shall register a short-term rental with
the city of Denton to all taxes applicable and fees shall be paid prior
to operating the short-term rental and again the third one is to make sure that
it is not occupied more than 30 days what is number two what are you what are
you thinking are that I mean I know there's property taxes what other
applicable taxes and fees are associated with a short-term rental I my
understanding and I don't know if Caleb can help me with this one is that other
cities have the ability to collect the sales tax or the rental tax based on
their fees that they pay to say an Airbnb there's there's tax associated
with that all of that does not necessarily go to a city unless the
city has some sort of ordinance is my understanding right right so I don't
think we have anything in the books for short-term rentals and that's absolutely
and we've been visiting with Brendan McDonald about it and then she's
recently passed a couple of ordinances for a couple different cities that
relate with short-term rentals and that's an inclusive part of it that have
those that they've got to collect those fees to get remitted to the city correct
is it a hotel motel tax that get goes to the state and then gets remitted back to
us as whole hotel occupancy tax meaning the hotel occupancy taxes defined in
chapter 74 of the so Tony point the chief financial officer those lodging
establishments they are considered lodging is to establishments are
required to remit the sales tax to this I mean I'm a hotel motel tax to the city
at 7% of the of the rate of the daily rate and so they're obligated to do that
now okay but when you say remit to the city do they go to the state and then we
get them but it goes to the city there is a there is a 6% that goes to the
state and the 7% comes directly the same and so this would have to be with this
have to be by definition hot funds tax with this with this or could it be some
other kind of tax because they are providing lodging it would just be the
hot tax okay I'm a little confused by the wording if we're talking about hot
tax how could you pay them prior to operating as a short-term rental you
don't collect them until you actually do the short-term rental I think the fees
may be associated with that and the applicable tax can be paid as part of you
know throughout the stay or after a stay so we can work on the wording but I
think the fees any fees is associated with maybe the other registration fees
that sort of thing and then the taxes can be something separate okay yeah that's
same issue then who are they registering with whose job is it to take the Airbnb
registrations is that out of the development department correct it would
be councilmember Briggs I just went blank yeah that happens a lot to me right well
I had a really great question and then he asked his and I thought well yeah
that's a good question yeah okay so no so the registration so would they is it
something that say I have an Airbnb I rent out my room and I use a an app or
something to do that I know that I've done these before and then there's
certain taxes that apply and certain other fees that go on so if I have my
home registered these are taxes that I'm already paying that now will just need
to come to its right place that in the past has not is that what I'm
understanding or is this a new a new tax I would say a new tax but I'm gonna let
Tony talk to that okay so councilmember it's it's not a new tax you know the
these these locations are very much different from a standard brick-and-mortar
hotel and many times they're a residence or in some cases they could be an RV
there's a number of different types of locations and so trying to identify
those especially if they're just happening sporadically is much
different to monitor but I think this certainly gives us the ability to be
able to point to to what the requirements are to be able to identify
them to be able to track them just like we do our other establishments then our
office through the monitoring of our hot program we will then reach out to these
individuals for activity that they may have had during that month and make sure
and and also they'll be potentially open to to auditing by the city under the
applicable statute just like a normal hotel or motel in the city yeah I think
I think we would pause such a not maybe if I if I understood it right that the
enforceability of it is hard for me to get my head around but I think if I'm
hearing it right and it gives us an opportunity to address complaints then I
think I can get on board with that so understanding we're not going to get on
Airbnb and source every didn't address and track them down and extrapolate the
20 bucks I don't think that's a good use of time but if there's a person out of
state that owns a home that's using it as a rental type thing and it becomes
problematic for those that live in a neighborhood and this gives us a way our
path forward to address that hey you're not registered hey you're not paying the
taxes hey you're not you know get them compliant and monitor that situation
then that is something that that is appealing to me because it begins a
process of correcting those that aren't being good neighbors and the intent of
that is is really that ultimately through development services so we can
make it easier for for our citizens to be able to do this but also it provides
for those that are visiting you know the safety to understand of if they had an
emergency who is it that they contact we're providing that information to them
that they have adequate safety features in that in that rental so carbon
oxides smoke alarm just some of the very basic components and information so the
guest is there I think that's a great I think that's a great service great
marketing tool for those that that are registered right to say hey we've gone
through some of these checks and balances we're not you know fly by night
we're you know we've gone through some of these prerequisites and I think that
then if we can give them you know some sort of you know like the alarm patch or
the alarm sticker on the door something I'd even see going that far to where at
least they they can say hey we're we're certified to be whatever registered with
the city and if that gives them an edge against their competitors here locally
so be it but I think I think that's spot-on I mean I think I think that's
really really good thank you oh I'm sorry I tell you honestly I'm sitting here
thinking about this and I'm not sure why we want to get involved in that to begin
with I really don't because it's gonna be hard I mean how are you gonna police
this how are you gonna you know it's gonna be more trouble it's worth my
opinion I think I well I think there's been there's a number of challenges with
many of the things that we do and the intent of it is is really what we've
heard from you know just from the public that that ultimately that if people are
able to do this then that's fine but we need to make sure that it's at least
safe for people that are doing it so it's it's really the basic minimum
standards maybe a little bit of a difference in culture and in Denton
certainly not in other cities across you know that the Metroplex so we're not
looking to do anything that's overly invasive as much as it is just some
pretty basic pretty basic information so short-term rentals we've got one person
who expressed a very clear opinion anybody else yes council member yeah no
I think I'm for it because of so a couple of things but that last point is
very salient so if someone comes to Denton it almost to me is protections
for those individuals that would visit that are staying in those environments
that we give them at least some level of hey they have a fire extinguisher in
there you know they have you know doors aren't faulty wire not that we're gonna
go that in detail to expecting the house but we it's better than nothing you know
it's like hey we've looked at the house and you're not gonna fall through the
floor you know and you're not gonna lose your money and and they've least have
taken some vested interest to then be have some sort of okay where we are I'm
seeing heads nodding so yes I think you said this I'm just want to check is this
what other cities do are we pioneering here no there are a number of other
cities recently Capella just passed something incredibly similar Addison
passed something very similar and there are a number of cities that are already
doing it but those are the two most recent I think in the last couple of
months okay all right okay yes member I will just say or just ask for
clarification some of the issues and questions surrounding it or when cities
just try to outright ban them right like when there's they try to like say well
you can't put them here or you can't put them here it's not that the cities are
asking to have their property registered it's just that's not the contention
that's out there right now in the in the world correct or at least that's what
we're hearing yeah so we understand that it's more where it is that we're in
opposition of so we're not in opposition we just want to make sure it's safe for
the guests right thank you okay so we have direction on that yeah Mary if I
can appreciate that if I can just make a clarification to your comment earlier
Achille councilman Briggs that is we are looking at short-term rentals as renting
out the entire dwelling where a bed and breakfast if you're renting out an
individual in an individual room where you're still there that does not
qualify as a short-term rental it would be a more as a bed and breakfast
because you're renting out a bed versus short-term rental is for the entire
unit oh thank you for that clarification that makes that makes a difference thank
you okay action that that's all we have unless there's any other questions that
y'all have I've got a slide here that kind of summarizes what's gonna happen
next but we're open now well we need to grab us something to eat so when we come
back we'll pick up here and then we'll also go over the things that we talked
about in the in the committee meeting as far as some of those processes and
things such as that right yep all right so let's grab this welcome back to this
meeting of the Denton City Council on Tuesday April the 2nd 2019 we're on
agenda item 3f report on the Bellman code okay all right Mary um just just
final as we get to the final stage of the Denton code update and draft zoning
map wanted just to highlight a couple of dates here that we're scheduling
tomorrow we're gonna publish the final adoption draft so that it will be
available for the public to view and review for the upcoming public hearings
we have a scheduled work session with council next week Tuesday clarion our
consultant will be here again another opportunity to ask any questions just
just to hopefully wrap up again we're towards the end and hopefully we don't
have many to discuss many topics to discuss the next date April 10th we're
meeting with the planning zoning Commission this is the first of the two
public hearings that we will have we anticipate some folks attending that and
providing their input on the zoning letter that they received last week so I
don't know Scott you want to add to what will occur during that public hearing
okay a couple of things that we've been discussing and we're still working
through is that ultimately on the 23rd when it is that we have the public
hearing we're hopeful that we can get through the development code we do not
anticipate that we'll get through the zoning map so the thought process is is
that we may make the we may be able to adopt the code and then put for a date
certain the zoning map so that we can allow an opportunity to ultimately vet
what it is that that we have citizens come in and want to discuss whatever
their specific issues are maybe in the beginning of the meeting the mayor may be
able to call that anyone wishing to have any discussion on the draft zoning map
that they could meet with staff prior to the public hearing knowing that we should
have an hour two hours three hours prior to that that item being heard that we
could set up shop downstairs in the lower meeting room give those
individuals an opportunity to visit with staff staff could then come back to
council and ultimately support or reject what it is that they're saying those
individuals would still have an opportunity to spend their three minutes
if they'd like but I think that we could consolidate the time that individuals
would have to get before council to be heard a and then B is whatever feedback
that we receive or we find that we have any egregious errors or items that we
need to correct that we have an opportunity to do that instead of
attempting to correct the map on the dais okay so what we're going to
recommend I believe is that we'll we'll put the the adoption of the zoning map
off for four weeks so we'll open the public hearing up we'll hear testimony
we'll take that feedback try to distill that down and then come back in four
weeks and and figure out what that resolution might look like or things or
next steps that we need to do questions comments yes and then we got I think
yeah yes so are we posted to talk about that letter is that in this I think so
yes it's part of the draft zoning map notice correct yeah okay so a lot of
feedback on that people that own several properties because it doesn't have the
address on it and then I thought I understood it that we were paralleling
what's the zoning is currently just changing the terminology but I've heard
it I've heard people say no it's a definite change and you know from
residential commercial commercial residential can you help me understand
our ants better answer that question yes let me let me take it in pieces first of
all I'm we've we've sent the letters out we've sent the letters out to all those
that are affected however I think that you know we even got notification today
somebody just received their letter so any of those stragglers may still be
coming in we are sending out another round of letters and in particular we're
addressing those individuals that own multiple parcels so if they own
multiple parcels and or addresses they received letters and the letters were
addressed to them as it would be in DCAD but it didn't reference specifically
which property that was so yes there was confusion as soon as we identified that
that occurred we took proactive steps to address that those mailings I believe
will be going out tomorrow I don't think they made it out today we anticipated
getting those out today so those will be out today everyone should have those by
the end of the week so they'll get another another letter looks very
similar to what the letter that they received before with the exception of
adding a paragraph to the front of the letter to address the fact that this is
a clarification letter nothing else has changed we're just simply providing this
so you have the parcel ID and the address for the proposed zoning
classification change the second part to your question I believe is is that that
we weren't making changes what we were doing is just ultimately changing zoning
classifications which is mostly accurate not a hundred percent so if if it's an
r1 r2 r3 r4 those just transfer if they're an NR they're going to an R so
that to truly is just a transition in titling we did consolidate so in
consolidating the zoning districts some of those properties are changing from
what they may have been to the past to what they are today but certainly we've
minimized any transitions from residential to commercial or commercial
to residential and I and I think that's just the simplest way to put it it may
not be just a straight transition from title to title but we have spent I can't
tell you how many countless hours with the development review committee
walking through each of those zoning classifications let alone we're
addressing any of these issues with individual citizens or property owners
that that have a question or concern I will also say that will continue to do
that and and really that was the conversation that I was speaking to on
when we have the public hearing on the draft zoning map that we allow for any
of those individuals that have any concerns with with what's occurring to
be able to vet those with with staff and that we can present that the council for
them and they can present on their own so hopefully we have kind of this this
multiple ways for us to be able to make sure that we get all of our property
owners engaged in the process at the public hearing after the public hearing
and prior to the adoption in addition to that we know once we adopt this map we
will be bringing for city initiated rezoning so we know some areas that need
to change but we certainly don't want to make those changes without providing
notice to adjacent property owners so rather than making any radical changes
that are that are going to have an adverse effect on a property owner or
property owners adjacent to that property we'll bring those as separate so
we can provide notice so we're already budgeting for how it is that we can do
notices whether it's going to be a group of three parcels or if it's going to be
a matter of 600 acres so I hope that that answers your question yes it does
and so for those that would would represent to me that their commercial
property did transition to a category that now is either mixed-use or
residential or something like that it they say it's a drastic switch do I just
need to email that to you have you take a look at it and and let me know please
do okay please do thank you and we'll absolutely make contact and and and if
they have a grievance with it we'll certainly bring that forward yeah so
what what I'm understanding is that if there's someone who brings something to
you that they say hey this is what it was this is what it changed to and if
it's something that we just missed in the conversion that it should have been
some it's not a drastic change that they can bring that forward in this time
where you go down and you talk about it and that might be something that you
bring forward to say okay let's clean this up because it's just something we
would have done if we'd have caught it then it's not a drastic up zoning or
down zoning it's just it's just a tweak is that correct and and that's part of
what we'd like to do in the public hearing right is we want to make sure
that we're as transparent as possible we do not we do not intend to make any
changes or we will not be making any changes to the draft zoning map before
that public hearing right so that that is the map that we're gonna work from
however in a public setting we will have those conversations I know those errors
that may exist that we need to clean up again give another waiting period of four
weeks that we can sure vet that out and make sure people are aware of what it is
that we're proposing to do before the next public hearing okay thank you
mayor I had a question I was doing a little more comparing of the old code
and the new code and we used to require SUVs in certain zoning districts if you
were over 25,000 square feet and we've now dropped that to 15 we've got a
under 5 5 to 15 and above 15 it's like I want to bring this up with the full
council to kind of vet this out a little bit because my understanding it is per
business retail business so you could have a 200 square 200,000 square foot
building and as long as you break it up into the smaller sections you know I use
them all as an example other than the big boxes nobody would be required to
get an SGP if they were you could build that kind of situation and nobody would
be required to get an SGP as it sets and I see where you're referring to and
there's a you specific standard I don't know if you have that readily readily
available anything over 15,000 page 205 of the proposed code anything over any
retail business over 15,000 square feet in the MN and the MD would require a
you specific standard and a specific use permit I believe that's what you're
referring to correct I think there's two pieces to that I think what he's
alluding to is where it used to we used to have a higher number that we're being
more restrictive so our mid-sized businesses so where it might be a
Walgreens DSW shoe store would be required to get an SUP where it is we
shouldn't be requiring SUP for a mid-sized building it's kind of where
are we defining that mid-size we used to define it as up to 25,000 and now we've
dropped down to 15,000 but in those 15,000 maximum are in the mixed-use
neighborhood and mixed use downtown outside of that the mix use regional
like for example the mall area or the town center those would not fall under
that it would be they would be permitted anything over 15,000 be permitted by
right in and I agree with with that what I'm saying is should we be looking at
because somebody builds the building is the new spec building right strip mall
and you don't know up front when they build it how many tenants are gonna have
in there so they build 30,000 square feet well at what point do we it's I'm
really kind of getting into is it should it be the building that we're
restricting on size as opposed to the business that the overall proposed
development right or structure rather than each and this was it mostly a
carryover from the previous code so I think it's I think it's appropriate to
have the conversation as to whether we want to regulate the larger sized
buildings right that that's you know when you're looking at those mixed-use
neighborhood type situations you do want that smaller economy of scale but
exactly but based on the fact that we're only regulating for the business size
you can still have that huge building without the SUV without coming before
us so I would rather it be okay we do it as a building size with a higher square
footage than a business I've seen several strip malls that you that five
years ago they had they were full with four tenants and now they're full with
two tents because they the businesses succeeded expanded in and then they may
not all be retail they can be a number of different things right right and so
we should look at the building rather than the UC exactly
we had just a question so you're you're looking at the footprint and is it in
what district certain districts are would it be in yes it's if you're over
15,000 in MN or MD you're required to get an SUV and I know I talked to Scott
beforehand I don't know if you got any of the square footages back I sent them
to you via email okay I certainly can read those off if you'd like okay and I
haven't got I do believe that the cupboard is about 12,000 square feet so
that gives you an idea that it's just gonna be slightly bigger than the
cupboard that's in the downtown right so right so do we want to see anything
bigger than that or prevent any other areas that want to build a bigger and
then just leave them out individually happy to read these off so so pet
smarts 19,000 square feet DSW is 30,000 square feet CVS or Walgreens is 14,000
square feet Ross is 25,000 square feet H&M 23,000 staples 24 5 below is 8,000
famous footwear 6,000 Michael's 21,000 Altus 9,800
you know I was just gonna say if I were to make a suggestion on this it may be
that we want to go to a 30,000 square foot maximum building size or 25,000
something on that line as opposed to this the individual business requiring an
SUP right yeah raise the raise the square footage but pertain to the
building as opposed to the business would that be just for the MN in the MD
correct I've got a couple comments so I've received some calls and as I've
looked at this there are several of the zoning classifications where there was
not an SUP required for the current use on the ground that exists and that with
the new zoning classifications there would be an SUP required for the current
use on the ground whether it be retail apartment whatever so it's a couple of
questions but it's also some comments so I'm concerned about that I'm concerned
about that if we don't put some kind of a mitigating rule or code in so let's
give an example you've got a retail building or an industrial but whatever
that you are allowed to do by right beforehand sort of almost supply because
we're if we're changing the paradigm from a building square a business square
footage to a building square footage that's huge and so that's a whole
different paradigm than what we've used so if we're requiring an SUP based upon
a whole different standard we need to figure out a way and I'm just gonna put
it out there that I think if you've got a use that you have by right currently
and somehow you're stuck in a zoning classification that if you try to put
that use there on a piece of vacant land you would require an SUP which I'm okay
with that that change because if let's say the building burns a tornado comes
through destroys it to within over 50% because you're a non-conforming use now
once the zoning changes because you required an S you didn't require an SUP
now you're going to require an SUP now it's not quite so let me ask the
question is that a non-conforming use if that's the only difference in other
words you've got a use now the use requires an SUP are you non-conforming
simply by the SUP requirement because that question will hinge which path I go
down on this discussion so let me I would like to ask Brendan McDonald that
very question okay so let me tell you why I asked that question because let's
say if you're not a non-conforming use then that means if it gets destroyed you
can you can build it back well actually that's question I if it gets if it gets
destroyed and you've got to have an SUP to rebuild it well now you're you're
getting penalized and punished for what you had there by right just to put it
back to the way it was now you've got this different level of entitlement so
you've really lost an entitlement so whether it's a non-conforming use or not
that same issue applies if it's more than 50% but again that also applies if
you if it's destroyed and it's less than 50% you can rebuild it and repair it but
does that require an SUP and so I'm saying I don't I think that we need to
figure out some code that says if you have an existing use not that you're
expanding it not that you're adding to it but if you have an existing use that
it is that now is requiring the SUP that if you suffer a casualty loss all right
that you can restore it back to what it was before nothing bigger not a
different use without an SUP because otherwise you've really taken something
that the city has come in and said all right we're gonna put this special
condition on you that you didn't have which is okay if it's not if it's not
destroyed it doesn't matter right but it's it's in that casualty loss
situation which is no fault of your own you can't expand it if it's a piece of
vacant land and you had an entitlement but now you're quite a SUP I don't care
about that SUP is required it's if you have a structure that you you know
developed by right and is legal then all of a sudden there's a possibility that
with the requirement of the SUP you could be asked to change something
altogether or even possibly be denied right to rebuild what you had there so
to me that is a very big concern that I have and I think we can craft some
language that really mitigates that and draws a line around it because I just
don't think that's fair quite honestly if somebody is able to do that if they're
if they're not able to do it when they had it there before and it's it's you
specific you can't have a retail and something happen and put back I don't
know an apartment building or vice versa you have an apartment destroyed you put
back a retail building it's that SUP requirement that could really damage
people who've nothing has changed besides the the code you know the zoning
classification and also we need to think about the implication of that and I
think you mentioned it at one point where somebody was requiring an SUP but
if they had something on the ground that didn't require it if they wanted to sell
it if somehow they wanted to sell their property they may not be able to if
they're not entitled to that outside of some other governmental authorization
I think you had somebody send you a letter that they needed from development
services to the bank because they're saying hey can this person do this so I
don't know all the answers but I think it's really because the calls that I've
been getting that's been the question is okay I don't have an issue with this
per se but now I've got to have an SUP just to put back what I already have if
something happens to it and I think we need to find some way that's not harmful
to the city's interest of why we're doing this to really leave people whole
not give them something more than what they had but to leave them neutral it's
you know sort of a zero-sum game you know we're not gonna take something away
we're not gonna add anything to you and I think we can find a way to do that I
mean I'm not gonna sit here and draft it right now but that may be something that
because I know it's single-family duplex or triplexes or is it just
single-family duplex said we are not creating any non-conforming uses which
avoids that non-conforming trigger but that's different than what I'm talking
about I'm talking about this SUP requirement does that make sense
absolutely and I can visit with our with our with our council okay you know that
very topic and get into that a little greater detail hopefully we can have an
answer by Friday okay what's happening Friday if I just may add one one more to
that sure because I sort of goes along with that sort of in the inverse on
those projects where that have gone through through an SUP and may have
certain conditions put in place we're now they're permitted by right but
haven't been built making sure that those conditions still stand and I agree
and I agree so it does it does apply both it does apply both ways and so
you're not you know you're not giving some nice something more than what they
had and you're not taking something away to give them less than what they had
started out it's just you're sort of keeping it at a neutral as much as we
can yes because member and could we extend that and maybe this was implied
by your question but along those same lines you know can we extend that to a
situation where a residents you know experiences some damage you know act of
God whatever something beyond their control and say that a fence is
destroyed or something and then they had to you know now they have to rebuild
per the these new it's not going forward for an SUP but kind of there these new
standards that apply can we have right something built in there I think was
what the mayor was referring to you earlier when we say residents we're
talking about single-family duplex in town homes those we will be automatically
non-conforming there would there would not be concerned non-conforming so they
would be able to rebuild site you know features or whatever it is in structures
as such under under under the clause that they're not considered
nonconforming okay great I think correct me if I'm wrong I think the gist of her
question is if something happens to this to a single-family residential structure
fence or whatever are they required to build it back according to the new code
specs instead of what they were under before it got destroyed is that what you
were is that what you're asking yeah in other words if there's something that's
changed you know because you got new residential codes you got new energy
codes you've got new fence permit codes you but it would be you can rebuild it
but it has to be to the current code what about setbacks and things such as
that I think I think that it's going to be a case-by-case basis but for the most
part it should be afforded the same luxury that it has today it really is
not going to become non-conforming to your point on the on the other adopted
codes they would have to comply with that but the subdivision is already
going to have those setbacks so to automatically put a new setback on that
wouldn't wouldn't make sense so I I think for the most part we will not have
any problems with single-family and and and that's not and that was our
intention our tension was to avoid wood or is this for Michael okay okay that is
that was that helpful okay councilmember Briggs just to that comment the only
thing would be that the homeowner would likely have more options of fencing with
this new code than they currently do this would be accurate thank you good
point it's a new new more flexible code and I think we talked about as well I
know that y'all had talked about for people who are in the the zoning
application process that certainly for what council has approved back I don't
know how far back you're going two years years that you're going to match what
council approved with that zoning the same we talked about the same applies in
reverse in other words if council has denied something and I think it was
brought up there was an issue that council denied a zoning recently and
under the new code they they would have the ability to build what they were
proposing the council denied by right so we want to make sure that we don't do
that in reverse if we denied something that we don't go and put that same zoning
classification on the property that we denied that now they're able to build by
right W thank you anything else yes well that was short good yes we didn't get
into all the zoning map stuff yes well so I was driving in Arlington and to a
school and looked over and saw a neighborhood with all the different
fences and I know that in our meeting we discussed that about having one wall if
we could just at this point or next time bring that up again as far as
development goes because I know there were some issues about requiring a
homeowner to put back up a fence that they couldn't afford or something if we
could just refresh my memory on what we decided because we were talking about
and it may just be that the it was on the main street or it was facing so if
you could refresh my memory on that because I you know it was all these
different fences some were falling down some were standing up and I know that
when we were talking about it we were trying to make it a little bit more
uniform for these housing developments was there something we decided on that
could you remind me absolutely it's it's been a while we'll bring back that on
our April 9th work session okay and in short answer it's on the perimeter
fencing that the preventer perimeter perimeter fencing will not be on the
individual lot that perimeter fencing will be one single fence whether it's a
fence or a wall based on where it's at and the zoning but that way we get it we
avoid the situation where it is each individual property owner has a
different type or color of fence or responsibility to replace something they
can't afford correct yeah so that that's it in a nutshell okay thank you thank
you for that reminder it was a long discussion many days of it so just as
clarification on the upcoming public hearings for both the didn't for the
code and then for the zoning map that if people have specific questions about
their zoning letter that they received if they come to the public hearing we
make an announcement we've got a triage of staff downstairs that you can go
discuss with them your concerns if staff analyzes it and recognizes that okay
this is something that was just missed it's not that it's not conforming to the
future land use map it's not it's just something that maybe was overlooked or
just makes sense that you have the opportunity to bring that forward staff
does and that we're not going to approve the zoning map at the first public
hearing but we're gonna have that okay that that opportunity and then come back
I think you said four weeks later or something like that to bring all this
together to then consider that and then approve it based upon changes if any
to the map recommended by staff or absolutely correct and one thing I'd
like to add to that is that we'll certainly do that triage what we'll do
what we can so that our property owners don't necessarily have to come speak on
behalf if we're supporting it however they still may if they'd like sure we're
not going to prevent anyone from speaking just we think that we should
consolidate some of that and help help them through the process prior to the
public hearing are are you open to receiving people who have those same
concerns and if you say you know what you're right we're gonna make a I mean
or is this just the day of the public hearing are you open to people setting
an appointment come in and talking to whoever absolutely we encourage we
encourage anyone that has any questions Ron's door is always open so I require
him to stay there and okay and so but we have staff we have we have a cadre of
staff that are available to talk to anybody anytime right because that might
help you know I think there's been a lot of calls and comments and we can get
some of those resolved that you know they may feel a need to still come talk
but they might feel a little bit more assured that they've you know done what
they needed to do by we'll take their comments we'll take their input and
feedback and of course nothing will happen and until the council considers
it yeah and we will present it to the council as such so it's it's not like
stop oh yeah this is great no we're gonna be back you know that's what I
meant but you but they have that opportunity to get on this list of
things that y'all are doing as a cleanup to get before the council or when the
zoning map itself in general is approved those things are incorporated
because they're really de minimis they're de minimis changes and some of
them may be part of like I say what we do with a city initiated rezoning which
will be that next step after we can you can sort of identify that and let them
know that process correct okay and then we're gonna help we're gonna help
everyone that we can through sure okay great wonderful all right any other
comments or questions okay fantastic then we will stand adjourned at six oh
three and we'll move into council chambers at 630
I'm invited to this meeting of the Denton City Council on April the second
2019 it is 630 p.m. we'll start off with our first agenda item please stand with
me if you're able to pledge allegiance to the US flag and Texas flag
, thank you.
Okay we got a pair of glasses up here if somebody forgot glasses are sitting
right up here all right this is a proclamation for Denton Arbor Day who's
here for Denton Arbor Day come on down
this is the only one
all right so this is a proclamation by the mayor for Denton Arbor Day but I
would just want to give you a chance to introduce yourselves and I guess you'll
be a spokesperson Julie and tell us a little bit about Arbor Day sure yeah I'm
Julie the KDB program manager and we're here to celebrate Arbor Day in Denton
and this is our we do it for many many years we're a true city USA for our 28th
year hello my name is Emily Bilsik and I'm one of the board members on KDB the
KDB for numbers good afternoon Manix O'Connor I'm a board member of KDB and
proud to help Denton stay beautiful I'm Carly Weld I am the program and
volunteer coordinator at KDB Heywood Morgan board member for a keep
them beautiful and urban forests are for the seat of Denton 100 Moreno board
member because I felt peer pressure from the chair of the committee on the
environment Keely Briggs very very very big fan of trees so I'm down here in
support all right read the proclamation proclamation by the mayor of the city
didn't whereas an you know what we're gonna tell you about Arbor Day sorry okay
great I don't know a whole lot about specifics of Arbor Day but tree person
has better info than me we do celebrate Arbor Day every year at our Denton Red
Bud Festival come this year April 13th it's our 26th annual Denton Red Bud
Festival who is better info about Arbor Day Courtney Courtney works with the
Texas Forest Service Arbor Day it's about trees and tree planting and my
main purpose here is present y'all your tree City USA award this is the 28th
year for Denton's which makes them one of the older in the state for worse the
oldest at 40 but it means you've met the four criteria for being tree City USA
but y'all have really gone above and beyond the basic four criteria and it's
because of keep getting beautiful and city forester and folks like that y'all
really done a lot so fantastic all right well I'm gonna read the proclamation as
we're displaying the flag yes yes this is a proclamation by the mayor of the
city didn't whereas in 1872 J. Sterling Morton proposed that a special day be
set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day
that's why we have Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than
a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the
nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce erosion cut heating and
cooling costs clean the air provide habitat for wildlife and serve as a
renewable source of wood and fuel and whereas tree serves as green
infrastructure by increasing property values enhancing the economic vitality
of business areas and beautifying our community and whereas the city of Denton
is celebrating its 28th consecutive year as a tree City USA through the National
Arbor Day Foundation and whereas in celebration of Arbor Day keep didn't
beautiful annually holds the Denton Redbud Festival and children's Arbor Day
programs as well as numerous and other community forestry programs to encourage
the planting and care of trees now therefore I Chris Watts mayor of the
city of Denton Texas do hereby declare and proclaim April the 13th 2019 as
Denton Arbor Day here in Denton and urge all citizens to support efforts to care
for and plant for the and plant trees for the betterment of our community for
this and for future generations thank y'all so much for what you do for our
community thank you thank you thank you so much again per glass is down here
anybody's missing a pair
before we go on to our next agenda item which is the public comment or
presentation from members of public I want to just get sort of a housekeeping
update agenda item 6a which is believed for special specific use permit over on
Windsor Drive that's going to be postponed till the 16th however we are
going to open the public hearing so anybody here that's wanting to speak on
the public hearing can do that and then also on the 16th if you also have
comments you're welcome to do that as well so just wanted to get everybody an
update let you know sort of where we are okay we'll move to our now
presentations from the members of the public if we could have review of
procedures for addressing the City Council
the Denton City Council has adopted rules of procedure including a code of
conduct that applies to citizens as well as council members these rules were
enacted to promote an orderly process and to preserve decorum here is a brief
review of the rules that apply to citizen reports citizens will have four
minutes to give a scheduled citizen report and four minutes to give an open
mic report there will be an electronic bell when time has expired if the
remarks are not concluded by that time the citizen will be asked to stop
speaking if the citizen does not cease and a second request is made the mayor
will request to have the citizen removed from the council chamber citizens are
asked not to approach the dais if a citizen has papers or other materials to
hand out to the council please let the city secretary know in advance for
scheduled citizen reports the council may initiate discussion or questions
following each citizen report for non scheduled open mic citizen reports the
council may listen to citizens speak however because no notice of the
subject of the open mic report has been provided to the public in advance the
Texas Open Meetings Act limits any deliberation or decision by the council
to a proposal to place the item on a future agenda a statement of factual
policy or a recitation of existing policy citizens are asked to direct all
remarks and questions to the council as a whole and not to any individual
member please refrain from making abusive personal impertinent profane or
slanderous remarks anyone who violates this council rule of procedure may be
immediately removed from the council chamber thank you in advance copies of
the rules of procedure are available from the city secretary
well I noticed as I asked for that to be played we didn't have any public
presentations from the public or open mic so just nice to have a refresher
okay so we'll move on to our agenda item which is the consent agenda council
member Briggs I'll move to approve councilmember Armitter I second we have
a motion the second for agenda item consent agenda items agenda item four
let's vote on the board please
motion carries seven zero moving on now to our agenda item five which is items
for individual consideration 5a is considered option of an ordinance of the
city of Denton at Texas home home rule municipal corporation authorizing the
approval of a fourth amended amendment to a professional services agreement
between the city of Denton and Park Hill Smith and Cooper good evening mayor
members of the council my name is Ethan Cox I'm the director of solid waste for
the city of Denton the item before you tonight is a topic we've talked about
before in January we provided the City Council an update on the where we are in
the process for a landfill expansion permit this is a process that began back
in 2011 so I do have a couple of slides here where we just basically provide
some of that background information I'll quickly get to the amendment before you
tonight so as members of the public may be aware we do operate a municipal
landfill type one at 1527 South Mayhill Road we've been at that location since
1980 in 1995 we had a similar expansion term 1590 a where we pulled in
additional acreage currently we dispose of about 270,000 tons per year at the
facility the expansion that we have now is titled 1590 B and that's for a
vertical and lateral expansion across about 107 acres in January we talked
about this but I want to refresh everyone so why would we consider
expanding the landfill our existing site has about 17 years of capacity left
expected closure years 2036 permitting landfill is a multi-year venture we
started this process in 2011 so it took us the better part of eight or nine years
to get to this point a length of life is affected by waste volumes compaction and
settlement we are in a high-growth region don't need to tell the council
members the public rapid population growth rapid commercial growth and
currently our per capita waste disposal is just under a ton a year per person
type one landfills currently in Denton County we have three by the time we
reach the closure of our facility we will be down to one the regional
capacity for all North Central Texas is about 38 years and so my understanding is
we were the only permit in the pipeline with Texas Commission on environmental
quality at this stage what we've completed so far again we began in 2011
today we've had property acquisitions and a number of professional and
engineering studies performed expense and investments today just tops just over
10 million dollars permit application was followed in January 2017 and where
we stand right now is we're in the last leg of the review process by TCEQ the
way I think I termed it to the council in January we are pretty much at the one
yard line in terms of the permitting process what we have left is the
completion of technical review by the agency at which time there will be a 30
day public comment period for members of the public and impacted parties to weigh
in there are a couple of steps here that I'll cover in the amendment these may
not be necessary but you do have public meetings and hearing requests that can
occur you also have contested case hearings that can occur as well one last
bit of information or one last test that we need to do also is we do need to
update the permit at some point in the next couple of years to reflect the
realignment of Mayhill Road is that still pending so the permanent or the
contract amendment you have in front of you for Park Hill Smith and Cooper is to
allow for additional expenditure authority you'll notice these tasks
track with what I had on the previous slide of this amount thirty thousand
dollars may not be expended if that steps not necessary as part of the
permitting process so that's item before you I'll be happy to stand for any
questions you might have customer Meltzer I know some people don't like when I
ask questions and I already know the answers to but I want the public to hear
so if this permit were granted would that mean you could go ahead and expand
the landfill we would only expand the landfill if we exhaust our capacity so
again we plan that for that to be about 2036 if we are allowed to or if we have
the means to expand in our existing cells we only develop a cell when we
absolutely need to it's probably the easiest way to answer that I mean yeah
that we didn't have to go before a council before you could expand or that
typically we'll bring the construction and design to the council for approval
whenever we start to break ground on the cell purchasing item for the design of
that the engineering of it would be brought before councils review as well
and you mentioned that we're you know kind of on the one-yard line so we've
seen there's something like 10 million really expended if we if we didn't do
this because we'd prefer that our landfill never need to expand but if we
decided to punt on this and then come back later would we be able to reuse all
the effort that's already put into it or to what extent would we be starting over
the regulatory environment is always evolving and we've actually had that
discussion with our legal counsel as well as folks at the agency for TCEQ and
the answer is we basically be starting from scratch the one thing that we
would not have to do is purchase property if we elected to permit in the
same site but all of your engineering all of your legal work the thousands of
pages of permit would basically be started over from ground zero and so the
expense to start all over again the very floor of that expense would be at least
three million dollars and I think depending on how the regulatory
environment changes it could go well above from there thank you the other
thing I'll add to that is the timeline for doing this again we started this in
2011 if we have 17 years remaining in our facility if we elected to do that
we'd need to restart the permit process again in the next four to five years
you mentioned yesterday to me about something in this permit that I wasn't
aware of but it would allow something about composting which we currently
don't allow on our permit can you kind of expand on that a little bit and I
only asked this because I'm not sure if you're aware or not but I don't know
about the full council but I myself have probably received close to 800 letters
asking me not to vote to expand the landfill and I know this is just for the
permitting but it's for more funding to continue the the expansion but it also
asked and that's in these letters to expand our composting residential and
commercial and recycling and we're working on recycling which is one aspect
of it but if in this it would allow us to do the composting it would because
then it's like well if we have to do that then we need this permit so I if
you could just expand on that for me a little bit to make me more comfortable
with the future of this permit right so currently we do have a composting
facility that's operated by our beneficial reuse department now that's
a separate permit than what's being contemplated here what this would allow
would be a source separated organics composting which gets into some of your
food waste I'd probably need to do a little bit of research to tell you
specifically what we could and couldn't accept on the facility but in addition to
the SSO composting there's also another number of other operations contemplated
at the facility some of those you're familiar with the construction and
demolition diversion rubble processing grease and grit trap processing and so
it's not just the landfill piece of this all of that is also folded under this
umbrella as well so I think that's an important point I appreciate you point
that out well yeah no I'm just I'm so I guess I understand that that is all under
it but just for clarification the expansion of those services that the
residents have requested that would in in turn help us keep the landfill
reduced is included in this permit application that we're applying for
that's correct okay thank you yes so and I to receive hundreds of letters asking
me to vote against this permit I've been pretty vocal my my opposition to that to
it but I still want to make sure that I myself and also the public knows you
know all the facts so could you just speak a little bit to where we stand
right now in terms of capacity under the current permit is I understand we're
about it forty percent capacity under the current permit is that I don't have
the percentage with me but essentially we're looking at about 17 years of
capacity as it stands right now so 17 more 17 more years and that's based on
current estimates for growth assumptions compaction of the waste and so those
variables can change we basically were for instance refresh those assumptions
once a year and that's is that assuming that we're that will be continuing to
accept the other cities trash because I know we had talked about in public
meetings limiting that and I'm moving towards you know moving away from that
gradually in the feet towards the future so is the question what would the length
of life look like without outside ways okay so there are some considerations
that we need to bring back if council wants us to explore that we can I mean
the estimate that we have right now is that could potentially let add three to
five years of landfill life onto that 2036 figure now a couple of things that
you got to kind of factor into that is compaction and airspace utilization is
also a function of how much waste versus soil we're using for daily cover and so
the less waste you accept the more soil can creep in there so it's not always a
one-to-one but again our estimate based on those factors is about three to five
years if we were to go that route okay thanks
councilmember Meltzer if others have questions that could go ahead - I just
want to make a comment yeah okay we have at least 17 years to go on what we
currently have I'm for solving commercial and and dust and multifamily
recycling which is potentially three times more than the recycling that we do
now if you can figure out how to figure out how to you know tackle the
contamination issue with it I'm for seeing if we can figure out composting
I'm for diverting as as much as we can I'm I intend to vote in favor of this
because we're looking something like 20 years out and it's about avoiding a
redoing a process that takes many years to do I hope that the landfill is
completely obsolete 20 years from now and we never need to use this permit but
it's just trying not to hamstring future councils okay any other questions
comments seeing none chair would entertain action on this agenda item 5a
mayor Pro Tem move approval we have a motion for approval do we have a second
councilmember Husbeth second a motion a second for 5a let's vote on the board
please motion carries 5 to agenda item 5b considered option of the ordinance of
the city of Dent Texas approving a specific use permit to allow for a
vehicle repair use on approximately 0.5 acre site generally located on the
south side of East McKinney Street
all right good evening Haley Zagorski with development services so this is case
is s 18 7 for dent 1 auto hail repair the request before you if you recall at
our last meeting the public hearing was postponed so this request is to consider
adoption of the ordinance for that specific use permit to allow for a
vehicle repair use on a property that's actually located just across McKinney
Street from our current location the site and total is just over a half acre
just a refresher on the site plan I won't go into the full details of the
request but there are three separate uses on this property currently in four
buildings the use we're looking at is located here in blue on the map just
over right at 600 square feet of vehicle repair use inside the building the back
portion of the property that you see here is the vehicle storage area one of
the proposed improvements is a wood fence located here where you see the
orange lines on the map and then the green areas represent proposed buffers
that could be installed to make this use more compatible with surrounding
multifamily and commercial uses staff is recommending several conditions I won't
enumerate all of these they're outlined in your ordinance and I'm happy to
answer any specific questions about them but staff and the Planning and Zoning
Commission recommended approval of this request and I believe the applicant is
here if you all had questions and follow up I see no blue cards this is a an item
for individual consideration so staff has completed their presentation are
there any questions for staff all right no questions for staff chair would
entertain action on this item
Councilmember Hussbett yes I have a question for the applicant okay applicants
here if you'll come on down sir state your name and address and then we'll
we'll get started good evening my name is CJ and I'm
representing dent one okay so thank you for being here and so my question CJ is
so there's a few different iterations stop starts of application going through
this process so I just want to understand how that came to be in and why
that was sure thank you for that first of all I just wanted to apologize that
last time we didn't have any representation here so to apologize for
that but to answer the question initially our understanding was that
because of this specific characteristics of this building that we're under the
impression that quick servicing under regular CEO would be possible and I
believe our landlord had that in mind as well but as we moved along I think it's
you know basically with the consideration with the new DDC and so
forth we saw that we had to go this route with the SUV application and if I
may yes and then how do you envision the other question I had was a fencing so
you have to put fencing between I think you and secondhand sports you and the
talk of the year how is how do you envision that kind of laying out and and kind of
working together sure you know that's been a quite a quite an issue that we
looked at for quite some time the main thing is that my understanding is that
property is actually all under 210 but the landlord was under the impression
that there's 204 208 and 210 so one of the one of the things we've considered
in the in the site maps is to allow for the secondhand store to have the free
flow of traffic with the parking space and what have you and to set us a
certain section for a vehicle storage you know in a gravel area so so that we
limit the number of units there currently we don't have any barriers
between the two between the three properties so that's going to be
something that we're going to try to stick very close to the plans that have
been produced okay and then one last thing of course so your overflow so when
a hailstorm hits I mean that's your that's their core business and I've seen
it and you'll fill up that entire lot and so seeing that that entire lot and
now you work in a fence which would limit you know you in and out it's a
tight turn as is so what do you have a does your client have an overflow area
or the every client that you have would have to fit on this particular piece of
property basically the shop level is what we're speaking to it sounds the
shop level I think on a building that size with 600 square feet should be
somewhere on ten units so we feel that ten units will easily fit within the
storage area we've described and so if you get over ten what is the contingency
plan reschedule okay for a later date got it okay thank you
Councilmember Riggs I think that kind of answers my question a little bit I was
wondering about how many cars at once you know would you have during the the
busy season and then like temporary like how long do they normally stay generally
is it in and out in that day or is it you know because I'm seeing here it says
in operable vehicles but I don't think that these are really inoperable they
just need to be fixed but but then again so how long would one vehicle stay
parked in in a space thank you typically it's about three to four days but you
have to figure also a lot of these units there might be a need for the insurance
appraisers to come in and sometimes scheduling allows for a little you know
there might be a delay of a couple more days so it's not unusual to have a
vehicle there for seven days but one thing for sure is all the vehicles that
come to that property are operable and are generally never gutted out when
they're out there yes sir to follow up and I trying to think that area seems
really crowded right now in my mind when I think about it but those spaces would
not be occupying any other spaces that belong to any of the other businesses
correct that's correct thank you thank you any other questions for the applicant
seeing none chair would entertain any action if any on this item Councilmember
Hudson sorry can I get it I have a question for staff sure thank you thank
you sir appreciate it CJ thank you thank you have you had an opportunity to speak
to the individuals that turned in the responses in opposition or did you just
take those at face value I have I haven't had verbal communication with any
of them I received those one of those via email and they didn't have much more
to say other than it was kind of a noisy neighbor sometimes sure and so looking
at the one that talks about the lack of oil pans etc etc understanding that's
not the business are in but a car may be leaking that sort of thing what what a
staffs look at that environmentally that sort of thing it's not something that we
expect that they have a lot of at this business it's certainly something within
the realm of vehicle repair use that could occur here under the umbrella of
the SUP it's my understanding that that's part of the motive behind our
code requiring pervious surfaces for areas that are for you vehicle storage
so if something does leak it can it doesn't just run off in the the surface
flow when it rains it would actually soak into the ground and could be
remediated easier so with with that in mind they do the surfaces and everything
they have there are appropriate for that according to our code but we haven't
examined anything more closely about their operations knowing that their
intent is for hail repair only and one last thing and so what what are the
neighbors recourse if too many cars whatever their concerns are but I guess
mainly I mean outside of the fence would be the primary concerns would it what
what is their recourse they have they have to call the city and and and what
what does that process look like I'm correct so they would call our
department or you know report it through the the app that's available now to file
a complaint and that would go to our zoning enforcement officers and they
would go out and look into the case and see if anything needs to be done to meet
the criteria of the SUP or other parts of the DDC okay and then save me from
looking it up I'm sorry how long have they been there I believe this
particular use has been there in the range of one and a half to two years okay
thank you mayor Pro Tem thank you mayor I think I brought this up the last time
I just want to refresh her on it and recommendation number three we were we
in the second part of that says unless vehicle storage area is paved and
striped that that they have to keep the the fence up if are we trying to block
the view of the gravel parking lot or are we trying to block the view of the
vehicles that are stored back there so the DDC is a little odd in that sense it
does allow if it's if it's vehicle storage for something like inoperable
vehicles or something of that nature it isn't it is supposed to be a pervious
area so gravel fits that bill the the op option is there though under the code if
you want to pave that and have it as a parking lot you could do that and it
wouldn't require screening from the right-of-way so we wanted to leave that
option available under the code the fence wouldn't be required if they did
pave the site and maintain it more as a regular parking lot so that's the intent
behind that but okay certainly it is is that something that staff strongly
recommends or if that was removed he'd be okay with it it'd be fine if you feel
the fence is appropriate either way so thank you
customer breaks I had a question about sound like noise level or any chemicals
that are used in the in the business we talked about environmental like drain
and runoff but I'm just curious if if any of the air I know it's been there
for a year and a half but if any of the people that are in opposition may had
issues if there was noise I'm not sure how the business operates so maybe if
you know that or the owner can certainly I'm not familiar with the specifics of
it I know the one neighbor did indicate that there was a high high noise level
on occasion I don't know what the source of that noise was though sure the
applicant could address the more specific concerns by chemical usage okay
you want yeah if that's okay with the yes the council can come down if you
can answer those questions that'd be great sure thank you very much the auto
hail repair process through paintless dent repair which is what's the
application about does not use any chemicals there's no bondo there's no
paint whatsoever the the motor of the vehicles is never tempered with so we
shouldn't see any leaks at all we haven't had any and then as far as noise
I have not been made aware of the complaint that came from that because
generally with the auto hail repairs it's it's done it's hand done so the
technician grabs some tools essentially some steel rods and massages the metal
and occasionally will will knock down gently on the panel and not scratch the
surface and the paint that way but there's no heavy equipment that's
running that's making a lot of noise it might have been just some folks outside
the building or something but the process itself is generally pretty
silent okay Councilmember Amater yeah I move to approve with the conditions
recommended by planning and zoning councilmember Briggs yeah yeah with the
I I'm just I would like to go ahead and second or ask for a friendly amendment
with the number 3 which would be just to have the fence permanent and I accept
that amendment okay could somebody more clearly state what the amendment is that
it's or councilmember Ryan or I mean mayor Pro Tem if you'll state what your
amendment is or what it the proposed language is and then councilmember Briggs
can ratify that yeah it is the conditions approved by P&Z recommended
by staff with the exception of number three not having any of the language
after the word unless correct I was going to show it on the screen but we
could just remove everything from the comma over in number three so okay
councilmember Briggs is that the friendly amendment that you're making
that is yes councilmember Amater is that the friendly amendment yes I accept that
amendment okay so will we have a motion and a second with a friendly amendment
for agenda item 5 be let's vote on the board please there's no more discussion
a motion carries six one we'll move on now to our public hearing portion of the
agenda for agenda item 6a which announcement was made earlier that the
applicant has requested that for the purposes of continuing to provide staff
with some information to to better analyze that this item be moved to April
the 16th however this is a public hearing so I'm going to no I'm going to
open the public hearing on this one yeah so I don't think we have a staff
presentation on this at least for now if it gets postponed so I'm going to go
ahead and open the public hearing fridge into item 6a we have three cards that
are wishing to speak but since it's a public hearing you do not have to have a
card to speak on this item and you also be able to speak at the April 16th
meeting when we come back am I going to close the public hearing on this are we
going to leave it so we'll need to so somebody will need to make a motion to
postpone but leaving the public hearing open if that's council's desire mr. Ed
self if you'll come down state your name and address your town begin
good evening Ed so 1620 Victoria Drive in Denton this is about the past the
present and the future in the past one of the gas wells near the proposed
departments was struck by lightning and blew up only through fortuitous
circumstances where property damage and personal injury avoided the wind
direction kept the flames and toxic fumes from nearby homes a knowledgeable
resident prevented further conflagration by turning off a well valve
the unintentional collapse and melting of the wellhead extinguished the fire in
the words of a fire department official quote we were very lucky unquote in the
past city staff designated this project as being in the Denton strategic plans
key focus area of quote economic development unquote in an earlier
presentation I argued that this is a multifamily apartment complex with
hundreds of residents and it should be considered under the key focus area of a
safe livable and family-friendly community but it was not instead in the
latest backup material there is now no mention of that Denton strategic plan
designation the development is now touted as being a quote business
innovation unquote as outlined in the future land use designation of the Denton
plan 2030 pardon me this bit of misrepresentation in no way removes the
public health and safety issues that caused the initial denial of this SUP
it's the same bad deal and presently a private agreement between the property
owner CL ventures a Wyoming limited liability company with a Dallas address
and sage resources of Tulsa ensures that the public the Denton citizens residing
in these apartments will have no voice no voice at all in any future drilling
activity that may occur under the terms of this agreement the property owner
alone calls the shots but let's look to the future how would the approval of this
SUP as it is now presented affect how and what the city could negotiate with
the developers of the planned communities of hunter coal ranch what
precedents will be set or not set by the Windsor apartments will gas well
operations close to protected uses be disclosed to buyers at hunter coal as
part of the purchase process at closing will the reverse setback distance itself
be increased to a truly protective non-negotiable distance before the go
before negotiations even begin let's go back in conclusion to the present the
reasons that this SUP was denied by City Council the first time demand its
denial this time as well or whenever it comes up again the potential threats to
the health and safety of the residents still exist the rights of disclosure and
notification are still denied the categorization as an economic
development is still wrong and compounded by an attempt to rebrand the
project and most troubling with the potential for more drilling in the area
the future will be even more dangerous than the past and present thank you
thank you next speaker will be Larry Beck good evening mayor city council
members Larry Beck I'm at 2301 Paxton way and I think most of y'all are
familiar with my opposition to this and the issue it raises with me about homes
residential homes in close proximity gas well so I'm just going to hit on three
major points that I've introduced you all in emails and so hopefully I'll be
brief first let me address how some of you may feel that the applicant's
request has lead has legal standing and therefore despite any genuine empathy on
your part about any prospective health threats from nearby gas wells you
nonetheless feel compel to disregard all other aspects that oppose this
development however as I've stated before I think there is legitimate
footing found in our DDC that supports denying this SUP the Dent development
code states that an SUP shall only be granted if all of the following
conditions have been met and the first one on those conditions at the top of
the list it says that the specific use will be compatible with and not
injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property nor significantly diminish
or impair property values within the immediate vicinity the most recent
research has been done not the three and four year old stuff that I think we
based our original codes on but the most recent research has shown that distance
is greater than what our codes currently allow are inadequate to ensure the health
and safety of nearby residents and because of this this SUP should therefore
be denied because it will not be compatible with and could be injurious to
the use and enjoyment of other property and could significantly diminish or
impair property values within the immediate vicinity secondly the majority
of setback distances in the Barnett Shell which we're part of are not
derived from peer-reviewed data data-driven analysis or historical
events they are little more than a compromise between governments the
regulated community environmental and citizen interest groups and landowners
essentially then they are arbitrary the chances and third and finally the
chances of any devastating explosion or massive emission of toxic elements might
be small the reports have shown that some explosion radii can be as much as
0.8 miles nearly a mile however there will always be those small leaks of
volatile organic compounds and particulate matter that will fall within
the allowable limits that the TCEQ and EPA advocate yet people who live in
close proximity to these wells and who have physiological sensitivities like
asthma and other respiratory illnesses could well suffer these lesser effects
impacting not only their health but their health care costs with more than
normal visits to the doctor ER than those less susceptible so I agree with my
friend Ed soft that gas wells this close to residential dwellings will be a
potential threat to the health and safety of the residents who choose to
live in these apartments without being fully aware of the conditions they face
with these wells and that consideration should have equal if not paramount
consideration over economic development thank you thank you we have a card here
is there Ed would said Edwin Jones is Edwin Jones here Edwin Jones filled out a
card in opposition comment of 2821 Roland Drive we are opposed to the only
entry exit to the side being located on Windsor until commercial business moves
in those are all the cards I have but this is a public hearing anybody else
wishing to speak please come down and state your name and address your time
begin anybody wishing to speak on this agenda item so help me understand
procedurally so I don't close the public hearing right now we just take if we
just take either a motion or a second on any action of the council so choose is
that correct correct and it'll it'll be continued then to date certain okay all
right okay councilmember Meltzer I'll move that we continue this public
hearing on April 16th to take April 16th okay
Councilmember Briggs second we have a motion in a second to continue the
public hearing which means it has not been closed to April the 16th 2019 so
vote on the board please
motion carries 7-0 thank y'all agenda item excuse me 6b hold a public hearing
consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of didn't designate in the
property at 900 Egan Street legally known as block 18 lot 16 of the high
school addition a historic landmark under section 35 point 7.6 and I will
now open the public hearing for this particular agenda item and we'll take
staff comments staff presentation thank you mayor historic HL 19 one is an owner
initiated request for historic landmark designation this is a standard 9800
square foot lot zoned in our three and is a single-family residence in 1917 the
city was deeded the land that would become Egan Ponder Panhandle and
Alice Street for $1 from C and Bertie Lipscomb on the left that led to the to
the met in the plat map you see on the left which is from 1923 on the right is
a 1940s tax image from Denton County the stripe of information across the bottom
indicate indicates that the house would be a C level house a contributing house
in any future historic district this is the mechanics lean indicating that in
the summer of 1924 LG McCormick contracted for $3,750 to build a one
frame dwelling house with six rooms one bath one hall two porches a solid brick
foundation actually was a pier foundation a con vass a term I'm not
familiar with and if anyone knows and will email me the answer I'll take it
paper paint plumbing wire and all fixtures the deed history indicates
that this home has had approximately ten owners since it the inner in the
intervening ninety four and a half years and yet it is in good condition with no
insensitive alterations this is the rear of the house on the right you see the
the some added square footage a sunroom and a porch sensitively added to the
rear of the structure here you see that the rope that the home in the upper
right originally had three stretch stretcher bond brick columns and one
shorter decorative column these were swapped out for wrought iron as you see
on the left in the 1996 historic resource survey image and later for the
door columns that you see today on the lower right gone also as the second
front door comment of homes in the early 20th century in this region the
original lap double novelty siding wooden double hung windows and stylized
exposed rafter tails still exist and while Egan is a well-preserved Street
and 900 Egan certainly contributes to this this home is associated with some
interesting people on the left is a Denton record Chronicle article about
mrs. mrs. Vesta Scott she and her husband TJ lived at 900 Egan from May of 1938 to
June in 1950 she was a songwriter and her songs could be heard on KDNT and
local stations in Dallas and Fort Worth she was also a poet the middle image
that you see there is an article which refers to her recognition by the San
Diego Poets Association for her poem quietude of mine she was Denton's
representative for the Texas Council for the promotion of poetry if this were not
enough on the right you see that she ran a birthing center out of her house known
as the Scott nursing home there are several references to people who were
born in this home in old issues of the Denton record Chronicle in March of
1946 as you see here on the right mr. and mrs. Joseph Kirschbaum gave birth to
Ralph their son at the Scott nursing home Joseph Kirschbaum was a Yale
graduate and he was a professor of music at the North Texas at North Texas State
College he was a celebrated conductor of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra for
25 years based in Tyler in addition to conducting the Symphony Orchestra at
North Texas State College he organized and directed the Oberlin Conservatory
string orchestra and taught at Cornell mrs. Gertrude Morris Kirschbaum taught
harp at TWU in this slide you see reference to their son Ralph the one
born in 1946 at the end of World War two on the right hand side you can make out
a reference from the Los Angeles Times which says Ralph Kirschbaum cello the
highest echelon echelon of today's cellist a little about him he was he
was he went on to success around the world starting with performances at the
age of just 15 with the Dallas Symphony Ralph was also a Yale graduate went on
to critical acclaim in Italy playing and performing in Italy Moscow London in New
York he has played with most of the world's orchestras including Berlin
Boston Chicago Cleveland Houston Los Angeles Pittsburgh and San Francisco and
he served a five-year term on the United States Presidents Committee on the Arts
and has an honorary doctorate from the Conservatory of Scotland in Glasgow I
could go on the bottom line is ultimately this house is symbolic of
Denton's musical heritage the house meets several of the it meets five of
the criteria for designation that we have including its character its
relationship to distinct to other buildings in the area its distinctive
architectural style identification with a person who's contributed to the culture
development of the city or the United States its location within a
significant district and also it meets the Denton plan 2030 element for
community character in urban design policies and actions and specifically the
one encouraging voluntary landmark designation as a vehicle to protect
sites with historical significance this this zoning change was ordinate it was
noticed to 200 and 500 feet we have received two favorable responses and the
owner also put the required sign up it's been up for several weeks now at the
house the historic Landmark Commission recommended designation 8-0 on
February 11th the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended designation 6-0
on March the 20th and staff recommends the City Council adopt an ordinance
next designating the property at 900 Egan a historic landmark
Councilmember Briggs do we know how many contributing homes we have in this in
this area or in this one not off the top of my head but it must be a really
intense amount because historic Denton Randy Randy Hunt with historic Denton has
been working on a national registered district and it would include this area
in order for that to happen you have to have pretty significant number of
properties it's a lot uneasy I really enjoy driving through this area and
looking at the homes and I mean what a great investment from three thousand
dollars to probably three hundred thousand dollars today yes and it's
really an interesting story to hear about how many you know lives were
probably born in that house being a birthing center is what I would call it
and they've invested in the property they could not be here tonight they're
out of town today I just wanted to offer my input on the word on converse I think
that's a typo I'm I just checked in and it's definitely not a word I think it's
it can't canvas was spelled with two s's so I think that's what that is all right
anyway what a great story I think that this is you know clearly historic
landmark and I support this thank you customer customer of hospice I move
approval councilmember Briggs I will second you have a motion a second for
agenda item excuse me 6b let's vote on the board please
motion carries 7-0 public I guess I should have closed the public hearing I
need to reopen them we need to do this agenda over again yeah I was a public
hearing so I'm going to recall that item 6b hold a public hearing consider
adoption we've heard staff presentation I've opened the public hearing this is a
public hearing anybody wishing to speak on this item come down state your name
and address and your time will begin anybody wishing to speak do we need to
revoke well let's go ahead and do it we'll just revote to anybody else
wishing to speak on this agenda item all right thank you so much I will now close
the public hearing apologize for that snafu councilmember Hudson move approval
councilmember Briggs I still second all right let's vote on the board please this
time officially that was just a dry run I was testing to make sure everybody's
paying attention motion carries 7-0 I apologize again for that agenda item 6c
hold a public hearing and consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of
Denton Texas regarding a change in the zoning classification and use
classification on a site made up of 15 adjacent tracts of land including a
change from downtown residential dr1 zoning district and use classification
to a downtown commercial DCG I will go ahead and open the public hearing and
we'll have staff presentation good evening excuse me mayor council Richard
can only development services the item in front of you tonight is a city
initiated rezoning of the service center as as the mayor indicated there's 15
different parcels that that make up this property and it covers approximately 45
acres really the impetus for this rezoning is to it's sort of the first
step in consolidating all of these lots into a single one and ultimately
platting it in order to in order to go through platting the use of the land
must must match the zoning so this is essentially the first step in the reason
why we're why we're here tonight you can see in the table to your right of the
does of the three designations that are currently on the property community
service which city facilities fall under it's only permitted actually in the NRM
you 12 so what this will do is bring it into the DCG where where it will be
permitted throughout the throughout the entire parcel and then this is just that
graph graphical representation of the map the reason we looked at DCG it's
it's currently across the street and around the surrounding area and it just
seemed like a natural fit for this for this rezoning of the city owned
property as you're aware there's two criteria for approval whether or not it
conforms with the land use element of the Denton plan 2030 and whether it
facilitates the adequate provision of transportation water sewer schools parks
and other public requirements and convenience on the first criteria on the
first criteria the future land use plan it is designated government and
institutional use obviously that's what it's being used for now so that that is
it is consistent with that with that designation the real criteria to adequate
public public improvements water sewer transportation the site is currently
developed adequately serviced and there's no no anticipated major increase
in in trip generation we did send out notifications both 200 and 500 within the
200 foot notification there were three in opposition to in favor we did post
the site with 13 different signs and held two neighborhood meetings the first
was held on February 18th prior to this item being heard by planning and zoning
Commission and then a second meeting was held March 18th obviously prior to prior
to being heard prior to being heard this evening at the planning and zoning
Commission meeting there were some individuals to I believe that that spoke
that had some concerns and what we've done is just sort of consolidated those
concerns in in in the table that's that's in front of you now with with
their concerns as well as the solutions that that the city's currently working on
addressing those and I think in this last Friday in the Friday report there
were some there were some images of some improvements that are being that are
being currently worked on with with that neighborhood again planning and zoning
Commission recommended approval 7-0 on February 20th and with that staff
recommends approval of the request Councilmember Briggs has a question so
on the on the ones that came to speak or that wrote the opposition letters I'm
reading and some of them were just afraid of the of the zoning making it
seem more intense and that some of uses may I think one of them says decimate
the neighborhood which is a pretty you know intense word and I'm wondering if
if those were those the same people that came to speak or is this do we have that
information and my understanding is two of the three to two of I believe two or
ones that came were the ones that came to P&Z and then ultimately attended that
that March 18th workshop or neighborhood meeting okay because I think maybe they
just didn't understand what what the youth was kind of gonna say the same for
the most part but I just wondered if anyone reached out to them to talk to
them absolutely I know that right after the planning and zoning Commission we
had reached out to them and I know Sean had reached out to all of those that you
know we had sent the notices identifying when the meetings would take place and I
know they've been in constant communication throughout an even
meeting I believe staff even from city manager's office has been meeting I
think is actually meeting with some of the residents tomorrow again to go over
some of these concerns okay and just another question you mentioned and we
did get an update on it because some of the individuals that spoke they talked
about you know unsightly you know things seeing and noise and so there would
councilmember could you speak a little closer to your mic I can barely hear you
or maybe if that if the control room could maybe turn her mic up a little if
they're able to do that sorry you mentioned that earlier we received a
notice about some work that's already going to be done for buffering for you
know vision sight and sound to kind of go ahead and address some of these
things and I drove by today and this may not be something you can answer but it
may be something staff could answer there's already around the fence line
very large trees and some brush some bushes and I didn't know if in in this
those were going to be bothered or taken down because only because of the
individuals who had the issues if they're gonna go through more during this
process I want to correct Mario can is ours as the city manager as far as the
trees were not any trees out in fact we would be planning actually additional
landscaping to add more to the buffering the thought would be that we would do an
installation of a wooden fence eight foot tall wooden fence that way it would
screen any of the light that comes away from the vehicles and adding the
additional landscaping hopefully to to buffer more of the noise that's coming
from the service center okay I probably need to go back through and read some
of them that is along Rose and wood and okay yes thank you
Councilmember Armitage yes so I wanted to thank you know the residents who came
out to thank staff for really listening to those concerns and incorporating them
you know I've been over in that neighborhood a number of times and you
know it is a more lower more are low to moderate income neighborhood and yet
where people really take pride in their homes and and we want to be good
neighbors I was at first ambivalent although I saw the need for the
additional space for our fleet there was clearly a need for that now you know I
can see with these I think with these improvements and the ones you mentioned
that that this could be this could be an opportunity it sounds like to really
take a not so pretty city facility and to make it look nicer for the
neighborhood so that's why I'm inclined to vote in favor this time again but I
just wanted to state that you know for the record both to thank staff and let
you know the public know that I was really concerned about that issue but I
do see this as hopefully an improvement if it turns out not to be that I will
eat my words and do what I can to to try to get that fix any other questions for
staff seeing none this is a public hearing anybody wishing to speak please
come down and state your name and address your time will begin anybody
wishing to speak on this agenda item one more time anybody wishing to speak
close the public hearing councilmember Meltzer I'll move approval of this item
do we have a second mayor pro tem a second we have a motion in a second for
approval of agenda item 6c let's vote on the board place
motion carries 7-0 moving on to our next public hearing item hold a public
hearing considered option of an ordinance granting approval in accordance
with chapter 26 of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code of the non park use of a
part of Southwest Park for the purpose of installing and maintaining waterline
for the all red water transmission main project good morning or I'm sorry good
afternoon mayor and council members my name is Laura Barons I am the assistant
director for parks and recreation and tonight I just want to briefly introduce
a request that we've had to utilize part of Park property for a 25 foot
easement for a water transmission line that park is actually Southwest Park and
that transition line will hug the border there along Bonnie Bray Street and all
red Southwest Park is currently an undeveloped park and the development of
that park is being considered during our master planning process but future
development would not be impacted as you can see it again runs along the border
of the property it's a little bit closer look of that easement along again all
red road and South Bonnie Bray the area of dedication is approximately 2.75 5
acres of land and that represents a value of just under $45,000 which will
be transferred to a general park a project account to be used on any park
project in the future councilmember breaks has a question do you know when
they're replacing that if they have to remove any trees from our park property
it there are it's pretty pretty flat out there I don't know the answer the
timeline on that but I don't believe that there are any removal of trees
affecting it I was just making sure that because if they were then we would need
to value those and those would need to be included Lee Perry assistant city
engineer okay so we are planning to advertise this project later in April
okay for for the neighbors okay yes and how how long do you anticipate it
lasting total project length is estimated at one year but this this
project this this project extends all the way down to the southwest pump
station okay so that's the fully full project you just mentioned not just a
section right it's about 14,000 feet of waterline we're gonna install okay okay
any more questions for staff
councilmember Briggs is that is that the typical price that for for the easement
like if it was someone else and and not a part of city property would that kind
of no it's been done a couple of different ways but no we general do
generally do work through our real estate and department to get comps we
also look at value in that area per acre and then establish what that an actual
true market cost for that is okay thank you thanks okay any other questions for
staff saying that thank you thank you I will now open the public hearing anybody
wishing to speak on this item please come down and state your name and address
and your time will begin anybody wishing to speak during this public hearing of
agenda item 6d any takers all right seeing none we will now close the public
hearing councilmember Briggs I will move approval councilmember Meltzer I will
second we have a motion and a second for agenda item 6d let's vote on the
board please
motion carries 7-0 we will now move to concluding items council members
councilmember Meltzer I had the pleasure recently of participating in a joint UNT
Texas A&M panel an energy symposium our students listened to panel that included
me and someone from the development community and industry on the subject of
gas well setbacks and there was a surprising amount of agreement and you
wouldn't necessarily expect that and following that I'd like to request an
informal staff report on the feasibility and desirability of site specific gas
well pad site setbacks based on differing numbers of well heads and
dispersion models of vapor clouds I'll be happy to follow up with staff to
clear all that up alright councilmember Hobsbeth pardon me thank you sir so few
things so mr. city manager I heard a recent report from I do believe it was
Arlington Police Department that their SWAT team has deploys drones to surveil
houses so that they don't put officers in harm's way and I thought that was
fantastic so if someone does run out of the back door they surveil them with the
drone and are able to follow them and it's much cheaper than calling out a
helicopter type thing so I'd like to see if that's something chief Dixon would
his thoughts and if that's something that we could utilize to keep our
officers safe and then a note mr. city manager for the technical staff DTV's
website the tab if you click on it one of the videos I would ask that they it
opens in a new new tab right now it opens in the current tab you backspace
and it kicks you out you have to go through all the steps again it'll make
sense once they click into it but but maybe if they could change that setting
so that it opens a new tab so you can close that tab and you still don't lose
your place on the original site would be easier to navigate and then I'm gonna I
have some paperwork for you but I just want to put it on the record so there's
some there was a ordinance passed in Austin regarding a bill that I think I
just want to get your insight on and so it's a it's a craft beer bill that
allows them to do deliveries and so I just want to get your your feedback on
it and see your take on it so I'll get I have that printed so I'll give you that
that's it thank you that's a memory I councilor has but I was actually gonna
ask for a work session on that item to see that if council would pass a
resolution of support for those bills so that we could learn more about them I
know that Louisville also did pass an ordinance and it would help some of our
craft beer brewers here in the city also I recently heard that we are about or we
are over 30 police officers I think short from where we need to be still and
I don't know if the 13 that we hired are part of that or what just and just a
little blurb about how we plan to handle that and what we're doing to to keep
that to keep that going because I know that once they're hired it takes over at
least a year to get them active so if we need to start doing something now to
prepare if we have a plan in place for that and lastly I want to thank our
students for coming here to the council meeting and you're welcome to come back
any Tuesday and speak any on any item that you wish if it's a public hearing
thank you anybody else I've got a couple just want to make sure anybody else all
right want to get a probably work session and resolution house bill 3806 is
a bill that restricts nonprofits from from from providing low-cost veterinary
services wellness programs to those only that they that are on some type of
government aid which I think could dramatically impact people who aren't on
government aid and their ability to take care of their pets so I'd like a either
staff report work session may not be necessary staff report but a resolution
that would be prepared for this council to vote on in opposition to that bill
also I understand that there was a resolution out of the committee on the
environment that was voted out and I'd like for that to come to council even if
it's in the form of a ratification because I understand that it was needed
either yesterday or today or something but I still think council needs to see
that and ratify that and I do want to have a work session on all the council
committees on sort of what what the subcommittee's jurisdictions are and what
what can they do on their own and then what needs to come to council just so
that we have some clear delineation of that and lastly if we could get a staff
report on the razor ranch town center yes it was announced that they had maybe
changing ownership or they have changed ownership just would like to get just a
briefing on what the overlay is on that land as far as what kind of specificity
if it's the site plan that we saw today regarding the park and that if that was
wanting to be changed what is the process that would be required in order
to change that based upon the site plan or the overlay that's in place just some
some briefing because that's that's an old project and we've got new council
members I think it's important that we just have an understanding of that with
the change of the ownership that's all I have councilmember Briggs we don't get
second I'm just kidding go ahead well you reminded me of a question I had
during that presentation because it is so different and I know that it's
incentivized and I'm very familiar with the commercial incentives but then he
started talking about all the housing and the single-family and I don't know
how that translates to our contract and so I'm just wondering if we can have a
information session on how that we mean on the economic development incentive
for the project and if if residential is included in that if not then right yeah
so what's the impact yes okay anybody else I got the over-under on the
meeting time we will adjourn at 745