good afternoon at 5 o' 4 p.m. this Wednesday February 11th I will call the
work session of the Denton planning and zoning Commission to order with a quorum
present our first item is citizen comments on consent consent agenda items
I don't see anyone it moves us to clarification of agenda items for this
evening are there any questions on the consent agenda from anyone
yes Commissioner McDuff and this may go when we actually vote but I am asking
about the traffic study related to the agenda item regarding the plan for the
HEB okay so sorry this is the item C and I'm to see this Cameron here consent
agenda see yeah that far 25 19 yes so can you explain kind of when the traffic
study comes in versus the plot and what that process is so this is a final
reply that was already done as a final plot back in prior to 2020 so I'm gonna
have to dig a little bit more into that traffic study to answer your question I
guess what is your specific question regarding the traffic study so that I
can make sure that I have an answer for you we talked about it before we talked
about traffic patterns one of my concerns was traffic patterns around
that North Lake area in the park they're horrific now when I try to go get my
Starbucks or my Panera I could hardly turn in that parking lot so I just ask
if wanted we had if there were any has the study been done and I'd like to know
the results okay I can do some additional research and I can give you
that answer just concerns about traffic okay happy you would you like to pull
that item just for a presentation maybe at the meeting I wouldn't have a
presentation ready I could answer the question but I wouldn't have a full
presentation understood I'm just trying to think when when would be a good time
to get that answer so that it's on the record for the public and everything I
suppose I yeah we can just ask for questions on the consent agenda in the
meeting sure or I I think if you are wanting to just have the answer on the
record then pulling it perhaps from consent and then Cameron can pull up the
slide with the plot on it and provide that answer I think that would probably
be the most appropriate time if you're wanting to get it on record during the
regular meeting that would satisfy the requests I'm open to advisement Eric
okay yeah let's do that I think that way I won't forget about it okay thank you
any other questions on the consent agenda okay not seeing any brings us to
our items for individual consideration we have first there is the elected chair
and vice-chair we're certainly we'll take a motion and a vote this is
something I think that happens yearly now that the secretary made that
determination so as I try to bang you with a water bottle you're correct it's
just the annual election of the chair and vice-chair okay then ZCP 25 - 38
Mia
evening chair members of the Commission this is a zoning compliance plan for an
indoor outdoor recreation facility in a public restroom essentially the
recreation facility is a fitness center the property is approximately 3.9 acres
and it's located between Heritage Park and East Park Boulevard about 400 feet
south of us 380 within the razor ranch area given this bill a couple of times
for this body by now but the zoning compliance plans for the razor ranch
area require approval by the plenty and zoning Commission that's why this is
before you this evening with that they are meeting all of our criteria for
approval as established by the razor ranch ordinances in the DDC and we are
recommending approval of this plat at this time I have a fuller presentation
for the regular session but I'm happy to help answer any questions that you all
may have right now any Commissioner McDuff
my point on this miss Heinz is in a question who is responsible for the
upkeep of the outdoor park that's one and then will you add that who is
responsible for the upkeep of the public restrooms attached to that yes so that
is a public park that is the maintenance and ownership of the city of didn't
parks team and that restroom will be constructed by the developer the
maintenance and the dedication ownership of it will be transferred to the Parks
Department for the city of Den as well okay thank you not seeing any more
questions thank you that brings us to PP 25 - 5d good evening chair and
commission PP 25 - 5d is a preliminary plat for a residential development down
on Bonnie Bray they are not yet fully in compliance they had to solve a issue
with a gas well plot so we need to give them a little more time to do that so
staff is recommending denial but has no opposition to the requested extension as
we believe it gives some time to finish up those last few things this is the
fourth extension yes it turns out tracking down who's operating a gas well
plat years later is not the fastest process in the world yeah it doesn't
surprise me any questions on this okay thanks John brings us to 4d FP 26 - 1
good evening plan zoning Commission here present a final plat for a approximately
120 acre track located in the city of Denton's ETJ on the north side of
cancer Road this plat at the time doesn't meet our criteria for approval
however we have no objection to an extension granted to a date certain of
February 25th 2026 and here to answer any questions questions I just want to
confirm in case public or reading the agenda and confused the the DNT
interchange that's a business name or a project name it has nothing to do with
Dallas North Tollway is that correct correct okay I don't see any questions
thanks Matt brings us to our public hearings 5a is z 25 - 25 that is
requested to be postponed to our next meeting later in February so we will
skip over that so we just have one public hearing today 5b s 25 - 14 good
evening chair members of the Commission Bryce Van Arsdale assistant planner
this is a request for a specific use permit related to outdoor storage
located about 1150 feet west of interstate 35 west and it's about 287
feet north of Metro Street the purpose is to separate an existing outdoor
storage accessory use from the primary use which is a concrete batch plant this
request is consistent with the industrial commerce future land use
designation and as well as the goals and policies set forth the comprehensive
plan I'll stand for any questions but I do have a larger presentation during the
public hearing questions Commissioner Macduff yes just a comment this is the
kind of request I like to see it does not involve the degradation of a green
space and there's no data center on here so just I think it's a good use of a
parking lot any other questions I'm not seeing any thanks price okay that
brings us to our we have two work session reports today item 3a is pz 26
- 22 receive report hold a discussion regarding implementation of the 2040
comprehensive plan good evening Julie Wyatt
all right Julie Wyatt principal planner and I am giving you your annual ish
update to the comprehensive plan this is something that we like to do mostly on
an annual basis to talk about how the comprehensive plan has been implemented
so we'll get started as a reminder I know we've talked about this before but
the Denton 2040 comprehensive plan gives us a roadmap for how the city can
achieve the vision that the community has established that roadmap is embedded
in all of the elements of the plan and and includes the goals the policies
which define those goals and then ultimately the actions which are those
specific steps to help us achieve the policies the goals and then that vision
the highlighted items on your screen and yellow those are the the numbers that
that accompany each goal or I'm sorry each action and those are just in the
plan so when you see a three number designation that just means it's an
action oh and just the comprehensive plan has 546 actions in it which is a
lot 19 of those were actually accomplished before the adoption of the
comprehensive plan so really it's 527 12 and 527 but overall it's 546 okay so
there are 10 elements to the comprehensive plan element 10 chapter 10
is the action plan and this provides us a suggested framework to measure the
progress but the the text says it's not set in stone it really is just kind of
that suggested framework it synthesizes all of those actions into 253 key
actions so it combines a lot of the actions into two summaries of those
actions it also sets time frames for those so like like other area plans or
comprehensive plans you have your short your medium your long and then your
ongoing actions and these key actions have been instrumental in our previous
reporting it's it's how we have measured our progress on our comprehensive plan
but there have been some reporting changes that the city of Denton has
instituted and so we're kind of retooling all of it and and starting anew
with our reporting the city has adopted a a technological solution to to monitor
a variety of plans and strategic initiatives within the city so this
isn't just related to the comprehensive plan it's it's really related to all of
those actions and plans that the city has undertaken the purpose of this is
to really find kind of a turnkey solution for transparency and so we can
really check our progress and it links all of these items so that when you know
some of the plans are you know have similar goals or or actions or strategies
and it will allow if you're making progress on one plan it would
automatically kind of update the other plans so we can see how the progress
cumulate accumulates it also establishes reporting deadlines and
guidelines kind of creates a more rigorous framework for the different
departments to provide those updates for the comprehensive plan these updates are
assigned and then the members of the departments would would provide a blurb
and and and let us know how far along they've gotten on that action so as we
were putting the comprehensive plan into this this tool and it's called the
back-end software is called Invisio so if I say Invisio it's really the same
thing as we were looking to put all of these key actions in Invisio we found
that the summarizing and the synthesizing of those actions were just
too broad to really measure in the way that this framework measures so instead
we broke all of them apart back to their component parts and have put all of the
546 527 actions into Invisio so that we can monitor them independently and
separately so it's been a really big project we've had some we've had some
you know making sure that we are organizing it correctly we we did we
did a variety of ways and ultimately this this was the the most straightforward
way to present the information as part of this project we also had what we
called the road show last year and that was talking to the different departments
about the comprehensive plan reminding them of how the comprehensive plan works
how they can use those goals policies and actions in order to achieve their
department strategic initiatives or their policy provide support for their
policy direction so it just kind of went through and talked with the different
departments also just you know ask them you know how are the priorities well you
know I do you have any additional information from us do you have any
questions so trying to understand the concerns and how it all fits together so
we've got a summary and this is once again it's not it's kind of apples to
oranges to previous reporting I'm looking at Commissioner Pruitt because I
know he's heard a few of these so when we broke apart the key actions into
their individual actions we ended up with 228 short mid and long-term actions
318 ongoing and when you think of ongoing think of things just work you
know the things that the city does or that staff does on a day-to-day basis in
terms of the initiatives as well as maybe policy decisions that we come to
the Planning and Zoning Commission or City Council for that really help us
implement the comprehensive plan but they don't have a distinctive start
middle and stop day overall when we look at all of the reporting and all of the
information that the various departments have provided we've determined that
staff has made progress on or have worked on 389 individual actions and
that includes the ongoing so it is the combined ongoing with the short middle
and long-term actions and that's about 73% of the plan so it's a pretty good
percentage that we're we're looking at the comprehensive plan on a on a
day-to-day basis to make sure it's our guiding document I do want to give a
caveat in your in your backup material the reports that were provided to you
you may have noticed that they were organized by element which is the
chapter and then by policy and action so it kind of gives you that almost the
the outline of the comprehensive plan it also includes some boxes of overall
summary those were they're not as effective and communicating information
right now I believe that those summaries will be really impactful as we build
upon these reports through this system so I would not take those to the bank
instead I would pay more attention to that information that the various
departments have provided within that backup material so the overall summaries
while at some point will be built really beneficial just today don't really give
us a lot of information so instead of just talking about lists today we
thought it would be best to go ahead and just provide some highlights based upon
the different chapters or elements so here we go element two is our land use
it's it's a chapter that the planning department spends a lot of time in and I
want to talk about four actions that we have worked on in the last year first
streamline the approval process if you aren't aware about five or six years ago
the development services department created a project facilitation team and
that that is a team that helps developers get from idea all the way to
construction so they really do shepherd the project through the process helping
coordinate a developer or property owner with the various city departments they
have done an amazing job streamlining the process and helping people get
through helping understand and making sure we're we're getting all of the
the relevant information to the developers and in fact last year they
touched over 355 projects and that's three people so they are extremely busy
getting comments out to people answering questions and in meetings they're always
looking for process improvements and last year they instituted a new and
improved review process where instead of giving lists of comments that we used to
do we used to just write out our comments now we're providing up markups
to developers it just gives that visual representation of what we need them to
do in order to fix the plat or the site plan what have you action two point nine
point three is those those regulatory impediments to infill you saw something
about that last year and that's that missing middle with ADUs in townhomes so
we worked on that action last year area plans for centers and corridors some of
you may remember the East University Drive study that's where staff looked at
the existing land uses the mobility the economic development goals and also
talked with the surrounding property owners to make sure we had the
comprehensive future land use map correct it actually resulted in in an
update to the comprehensive plan and then finally I want to talk about
promoting the stability and quality of commercial areas and addressing
obsolescence as part of working on the implementation of this action staff has
created an inventory of underutilized and abandoned big-box bases within the
city this has developed a key list of these commercial sites and all of them
are were constructed or renovated prior to 1996 and they would be perfect infill
opportunities so we are continuing to evaluate those sites as well as our
urban design goals our economic development goals to make sure that our
development standards are consistent with those goals in terms of that type
of development element three fiscal and economic vitality multimodal requirements
for new development and active transportation our transportation group
has started working on a transit 2.0 study to get money to do that study
applying for a grant to look at things like land use city policies and
demographic changes that will help inform updates to our active
transportation component of our mobility plan which they have applied for a grant
for so they've been working on setting the stage for that going forward our
mark our mark home marketing communications department has also been
hard at work on the city branding there was in the comprehensive plan a an
action to update our city branding as well as our sub branding for our
different departments they've been working on that talking with
stakeholders community members city leadership while this project is on hold
pending further direction from the budget direction from the budget
process and they are doing work behind the scenes so when it's ready to go
they'll they'll get going on that community character calls for art and
music venues in vacant or underutilized spaces in downtown our economic
development department continues to monitor and study those vacancies in
downtown as well as putting together finding those businesses and those
spaces that fit together and trying to put those two two entities together to
to create a winning situation for all and then create guidelines for
residential areas to establish unity and distinctive architecture you're all
familiar with a southeast end area plan and the residential overlay that's been
in progress for the last year with public input and drafting and talking
with with the planning and zoning Commission and that's consistent with
that action plan or that action item and then finally updating historic
resources survey if you aren't aware a historic resource survey was completed on
the Southridge neighborhood in the city of Denton and it included in community
meetings and included pop-ups at National Night Out the the survey team
went out and looked at every single property within the survey area took
pictures looked at the architectural styles did research on Southridge the
people who live there it's a really interesting survey and document if you
are interested you can look at the link and that will take you to the survey and
you can read it element five parks conservation environment action five
point nine point nine talks about minimizing erosion clear cutting and
sedimentation the DDC has erosion and sediment controls actually above what
TCEQ requires however they have been working in the last year on updating the
criteria manual to make sure that they are clarifying those interim grading
plans and also to in order to reduce that sedimentation also in element five
there's an action to coordinate the development of greenways and trails and
floodplains some of you might be aware of the concrete trail that our parks
department has been working on it now is funded and they are they've been working
to get together a to go to council with a contract to start that full design of
that project and that is that concrete trail will go all the way from east of
Woodrow and then almost toward downtown through southeast Denton through the
floodplain so it's going to be a really great project and I know that they're
looking forward to getting that underway and then this element also talks about
new park facilities coordinated with other community facilities this is one
of my favorite projects so the Parks Department has worked with Denton ISD to
make sure everybody gets what they need at the Borman Elementary and and Denia
Park area so Borman Elementary Denton ISD wanted to rebuild it what they did is
they worked with parks to do a land swap so that the new Borman Elementary is
being constructed on the south side of the Denia Park once that's completed then
the old Borman Elementary will be torn down and that will be turned into a
soccer field so it really does you know coordinate these two uses make sure we
have additional connectivity and it's it's really a great project you should
go take a look at it element six is mobility our transportation department
is very busy and one project that they've been working on is vision zero if
you're not familiar with vision zero it is a it is a plan to eliminate fatalities
and serious injuries in our transportation network they've done a
lot of work on the on the ground floor and the data on this in the last year
looking at the crash rate ratio as well as those final high injury network roads
so looking at where those those high injury roads are within the city then
they they researched the roadway safety countermeasures things that could be done
to those roads in order to increase safety gone to the community both in
public meetings as well as online to find out what they what they liked or
didn't like about the those countermeasures they've also been working
with their task force I believe they had four meetings last year three or four
meetings so they've done a lot of work they still have to complete the plan but
they are working toward completion oh and if you are interested when you get
the slides there is a link to their discuss denton page you could take a
look at it element seven housing and neighborhoods one facet of that is to
integrate public art into the planning and design of city facilities these two
projects have been great in southeast denton I have first the MLK community
mural project through grant funding the MLK junior recreation center has been
working with the community to design two murals for the exterior of that
building they've asked the community like what are your art styles do you like
what what kinds of things do you want to see in those murals so they have been
working through that public engagement once that's completed they'll then go
forward and start working on actually installing that mural another art
project is was something with the American Legion Hall senior center and
they coordinated with the art room and and with a community art project and if
you haven't gone to see that you should it includes three pieces a quilt that
was that was sewn by the community there was there's a painting and that there's
also a bench in order to beautify and elevate the underrepresented voices of
seniors veterans in the black community that was the purpose of it so it's a
great project you should go take a look at it element eight is community health
safety and services our environmental services department launched in July of
last year their air quality dashboard and this allows community members to
refer to this website to look at the the weekly average data for each sensor and
pollutant so there are sensors throughout the city and they measure
different things things like ozone or wind speed or other pollutants and
provide that information to the community also provide some links to
information so if you aren't aware of what that pollutant is or maybe the
potential impacts you can go ahead and do some research I have a link to that
website on on your slides and then finally element nine I did not put all
of the action items in because there's the criteria manual really kind of takes
care of a lot of those so the criteria manual if you're not aware is a
companion to the Denton Development Code it outlines engineering standards and
guidelines for development and construction in the city of Denton in
years past we had a separate criteria manual for for transportation water
wastewater drainage what they did in 2024 is combine all of those into one
really well organized document they they published this document in July of 2024
but it's it's their goal to stay on top of the updates for it so last year our
engineering folks went through the criteria manual looked at things that
needed to be updated or clarified and have gone through that process as well
as the public engagement it was adopted in January of this year I believe and it
will be it will be effective in March so we've gone all over the elements but the
work continues generally you can expect that all the departments will provide
updates on these comprehensive plan elements on a yearly basis there may be
some there at a little quarterly or more than yearly depending on maybe it's a
department initiative but generally assume yearly staff is going to
continue to improve this this information within this in Visio
dashboard making sure our information delivery our reporting and
classification of action items are are are clear and transparent and provide
that information to the community and then just one other thing you might want
to look at there are also dashboards for the southeast in the area plan and the
design downtown didn't plan so you can also check on those as well there's a
variety of them I have a link to that dashboard on the on the slide so you can
look at it there and then finally I'm not sure if everybody saw the video from
City Council a few meetings ago that kind of celebrated all of the things
that the city did in the last year we're not going to watch it it's eight minutes
long but you are welcome to go look at it it's really neat and I I recommend as
you look at it and with that I will be happy to answer any questions questions
Commissioner Dyer well I do kind of have questions but first I just want to say
you guys do a lot like this is a lot so kudos to the entire city staff because
obviously there are a lot of moving parts to what happens here that I think
you know like your layperson has no idea but looking at all of this and I know
that this gets revised so you know right now we're in the 2040 plan at some point
is it the 2050 plan is that like the next plan that goes I'm gonna look at
Haley for that question what and like when does that happen so general rule of
thumb is like every five to seven years we try to start working on the next
update to it not sure if we'll go with like a 45 or a 50 most likely 10-year
horizon so probably a 2050 plan would be the next step but we we have started
applying for grant funding in conjunction with our transportation team
that Julie referenced they're really great at finding grants for all of these
sorts of things so we're working on getting money to do that mobility plan
and comprehensive plant update concurrently hopefully we're starting
that the next year or two okay so so this is basically four years old and in
looking at like what we got in our agenda packet it says here that since
the adoption that the city has made progress on 69 specific actions
approximately 30% of the plan is that correct because then I saw some other
numbers that were higher than that well and that is the caution on those
summaries so when I wrote the staff report I was really looking at those
summaries after I after we went through that I kind of went back and looked
through individually each item and so it's the translation from the key action
items to this reporting system has been challenging and so I I hesitate to say
specifically all of these items have been done is that because of the
program that you guys use that like there's some flaws in it no and it
actually it's been really interesting I'm doing this so you're right our
comprehensive plan was adopted four years ago and that was actually really
just an update to our 2015 plan it was Tina used to say it was a light touch on
that and so the the plan wasn't really set up for this kind of specificity and
reporting we've we've learned a lot of lessons and I assume that the update
will have will will kind of be drafted in a way where we really are looking at
a way how we're going to really measure these actions so I don't remember your
question well I'm just I'm just kind of looking at all of this information and
you know we got two different documents we got the ongoing action report and
then we also got the ongoing or the action progress report and it looked
like almost the same thing but one was like 80 some pages and one was like a
hundred and forty four pages and so it was very overwhelming you know to look
at all that and then I was looking at thirty percent of the plan and yes and I
remember you saying like you know because this is going to get reviewed in
like the next one to four years for possibly 2050 so like do you ever hit
the goal like 30 percent 40 percent like what is the goal to hit the goal you
know do you hope that all these items would have happened by 2040 but then
we're really gonna now be talking about 2050 like that is a really great
question I'm sorry it's a lot but it's just my brain I'm just like and I'm a
pay I'm a personally I like paper I like tangible I like to be able to look
through things so it's very hard for my how I process information to just yeah
to just look at like I would love to have some of these things that we talk
about refer to I'd love to have a big old binder with those things you know
like the four or five inch binder so I can be looking at all of that stuff and
you know when we're getting ready for these meetings because going on to the
lengths like for me it just doesn't do it for me and and I know it's I'm sure
it's a cost-effective saving because that's just so much paper and we're
trying to save the trees and all of that but the trees help me when I'm trying to
figure this stuff out so that's what I'm just trying to figure is like when we're
looking at all these goals and this was like 2015 plan and you know all of this
got added on to it so now we're like really 2040 and in a couple years we're
gonna be talking about 2050 so how do you know when you've really achieved it
um and you know because of the updates I'm not sure you ever achieve it but you
really you want to make sure that you are working toward that goal and
especially those items and I would your your backup had two two exhibits one was
the short mid and long-term actions and then the the second one was the ongoing
and I would kind of separate those two in your mind and that the ongoing really
is though it includes those day-to-day things that staff does to in order to
achieve what the community's vision has been established the short and mid and
long-term items action items you know they they um we we work every day to
achieve them but in one of them that I think of there's one of them that says
create area plans for mixed use and corridor districts that that is just an
on it is it is an action but it also is something we're gonna continually do
find different corridors different areas that we feel like need area planning and
so that is one of those where it's an action but it just may never get done
because there's always a new place or an our new update something to look at does
that make sense yes and I guess as somebody who you know sits on on this
board and we don't have the day-to-day workings or the understandings or the
expertise you know we do rely on city staff because this is you guys have that
but when you talked about like in all the different departments you have to
routinely go and remind them hey I'm assuming it's like hey this is exists
these are the things you should be working on this is what this is where
we're at in the progress road to all of this do we have too many goals is it
better to more have your goals more concise so that way ever you know when
you have this and it can be so overwhelming and people are having a
hard time keeping track of it all is it better when we get ready to do the 2050
plan to really hone in and do shorter sweeter items that can be more
achievable and everybody is working together like broad is not always
better I and Haley can tell me if I'm wrong it some of it is aspirational and
so we want to always be trying to achieve these goals that the community
has set we may we may not always get exactly to that point but we always want
to continue to strive toward meeting those goals in terms of the overwhelming
nature and the other departments yes there are a lot but remember the
comprehensive plan it also includes a variety of other plans like the parks a
master plan and the mobility plan and so all of these different plans inform each
other and so while they may be separate plans a lot of their goals and actions
are coordinated in and similar so while we do want to talk to the different
departments about hey the comp plan they often have their own plans that are very
similar to those goals and actions in the comprehensive plan so and I know
we'll bring Charlie up if he wants to answer yeah Julie made the point that I
was gonna make to is that each of these departments have a lot of like climate
action plan or the mobility plan has its own goals and stuff that tie back into
this but I do think the goal structure is we have a lot of goals and they're
they're not all achievable and they also don't have any costs associated with
them as well so I think as we're looking towards a future update that we we need
to be more realistic with what's achievable to get done what's feasible
cost-wise to complete because the area plans is right but that also is a few
hundred thousand dollar commitment that we had to do to complete those area
plans and though those also have goals associated with them that should you
know everybody should be working towards achieving and so just just to put some
context behind it when we look at going into this future update is to look at
what all goals we have in other master plans when those master plans were
updated and try to make this a really comprehensive look at what we can do as
a city moving forward in this next comprehensive plan well I would just
like to encourage when we get ready to do this that again that you really take
a deep dive that there's not a lot of redundancy especially if some of these
other departments have their own comprehensive plan I mean unless
there's a couple things that you know the committee that oversees all of this
feels like it's not being met but your community and I am predicting guessing I
would assume that your community would much rather see less plans or less goals
that you guys achieve than all these things you know you got a hundred
things but maybe only achieved you know fifty of them where if you instead of
having a hundred maybe you achieved seventy and then your time and effort
maybe you could achieve more of the seventy of them because more time energy
money is putting is put forth on a smaller amount that's more doable yeah
and I'll say that that's an effort that we're gonna all have to have that
conversation with community because there there are we're gonna have to pick
one thing over the other and so we'll have to go through the effort of
prioritizing some of these things and not everybody's things gonna get on the
list you know there's 546 it's a lot of a lot of goals there and so there will be
some things that we won't just we won't be able to do in that time frame well I
think it's the Rolling Stones that said you can't always get what you want
Commissioner Riggs yeah so I just kind of wanted to comment on on your comments
and whatever I go and think about about this this is a long-range master plan
and so you want to always be planning for the long-range future but yeah I
think of it like the state water plan is every five years they go and update
their 50-year plan because everything changes and so you need to have your
long-range goals and then you need to have your short-range action items but
you know the way development comes in communities opinions of things all those
things change and so you kind of want to make make progress for that long-range
goal but also know that sometimes that's a moving target right and so you've got
to be able to adjust it and so that is a lot of goals I will definitely admit
that but I think one of things when we're thinking about it is you know that
some of those are way out in the future and if and if the citizenry opinion
never changes then you will eventually get there but we also know that that
changes so that is kind of a moving target to Commissioner McDuff yes
chair prove it say out loud to me again what we've talked about in the last
couple the last couple months of last year we talked about continuing doing
revisions and making amendments to the comprehensive plan land use and then
rezoning am I correctly linking those together and the need to look at this as
a public and revise instead of continually doing and changing and doing
amendments to this you we had several proposals with our large developments
that we voted that we had lengthy discussion on sure so just to make sure
I'm we're tracking with you are you referring to the applications where
there's a simultaneous application for a comprehensive plan amendment and the
zoning amendment yes and land use change correct so were those the three that we
were concerned about there were three proposals coming at once I think in the
cases we've seen over the last year it's it's been a mobility plan change along
with the comp plan land use there's the compute comp plan future land use map
there's the comp plan mobility plan map even though we also have a separate
mobility plan and then there's the the zoning change right yeah okay all right
well I'm I'm still concerned about that I had a lot of time to think well we were
in the ice and you know I missed a meeting so I'm still curious about all
that but I will say I see your point in that instead of continually revising
things to have a comprehensive a comprehensive review of the
comprehensive plan an update so for the citizens to to have a serious input I
have a couple sorry first of all that I think this will be an easy one can you
explain what the difference in the the status markings are of pending and
upcoming on in the in the in the pending is is has been determined it would be a
a a a mid-range goal and so it hasn't yet gone into the reporting system it's
it's in there but it won't be acted on or they won't be reported on until next
year okay we we base the system on those short mid long time frames so that
really well while in looking through those reports you can see that city staff
has worked on a lot of those mid-range projects they they really aren't being
necessarily tracked or reported on until next year which would be when that that
would start okay no that that helps so so therefore upcoming suggests that we
actually have hopes to be able to start on it within this this or next fiscal
year essentially well and that in using that comprehensive plan and that action
plan as that guide is really how we we structured this once again remember
element 10 it was really a recommendation for a framework we did
use those time frames when we when we broke apart those actions we really
applied those time frames that the action plan had already assigned to
those actions but but there may be some tweaking that needs to be done okay no
I appreciate that I really appreciate all the questions and comments to you
know talk about priorities when Charlie is talking about how many actions do we
have I I honestly think that the biggest need that we're gonna have as we look
forward to the next big update is to cull things down and have clear
priorities because I think that the the overabundance of things that we could
point to has caused a lack of focus on what the clear top priorities are I also
think that and and you can feel free to try to convince me otherwise as we get
started on this in a year or so but the the ongoing actions to me I think you
said something at the beginning about we've learned through this that not all
the actions we wrote within this plan and I know this goes back to the 2030
plan were measurable right and I think many of our ongoing actions fall into
that camp whereby if you spend a few minutes with them you can probably come
up with a hey let's establish a process for this right as opposed to do this all
the time right if if I've learned one thing from being here it's that the city
loves processes and and that's necessary when you have a larger organization
right but just just as an example the one of those ongoing actions was the one
to basically look at the the cost of maintenance and reconstruction of road
ways when building new roads and and widening them and and I know you said
that not all these comments are exactly where we are right now but I just want
to read the response and see if that's true it says the city incorporates the
cost of regular road maintenance and reconstruction when estimating the total
cost of building and widening roads this approach ensures that long-term expenses
are considered upfront rather than focusing solely on initial construction
costs by evaluating and adopting road construction methods that minimize
lifecycle costs the city advances fiscal responsibilities sustainable
infrastructure and resilient community growth I would love if that were true I
have never seen a report to council for a construction of a roadway include any
of those figures so so my point is not to like hey let's beat up on this one
thing my point is that it's it's very easy when you have a large organization
of too few people trying to do too much work that an ongoing action turns into
well let me think about how we do this already and then we'll check it off
whereas if we if we identify clear things that we can do to start changing
the culture and the processes so that we get to the goal as opposed to checking
it off the list I think we would get more actionable results right so thank you
sorry any other questions comments I'm certainly looking forward to moving
forward and and I don't mean to minimize the amazing amount of work that staff
has done I know it's been a years-long process to get this into and video and
and and like you said I think it's it's even though it's been a mixed bag as far
as how useful it's been in this round I think the value is really truly in
teaching us how we should set goals how many we should have the need for
priority as we go forward so yes yes mm-hmm okay thank you thank you yes okay
we do have food here and we've got one more work session report so it is five
fifty six now we'll take an eight minute recess to grab food and then come back
and finish the last work session report at 6 o 4 p.m. we'll reconvene at our
work session next item is 3b pz 26 - 24 good evening associate planner here to
present zoning 201 all right so question we're looking to answer tonight is in
part so your zoning has changed does that mean everything has changed what
has actually changed and one of the things we want to touch on is when y'all
see a plan development a PD or an SUP you get a lot of details you find out a
lot about how it's going to look on a normal zoning case you don't see much of
that and so it could feel like oh my goodness it's the Wild West they're just
gonna go build things so part of what we want to highlight is all of the things
that we are always reviewing even if you're only approving a zoning change
there are many many rules that we're looking at on a regular basis and also
look at those things that zoning does change versus the things that stay the
same things we're always going to check no matter what the zoning is we want to
look a little bit just at what our base zoning districts are so you have clarity
when we're talking about like how man what is an r7 how can I find out more
about that and then just a discussion on some of those specific regulations in
kind of the lens of is this something zoning changes or is this one of those
things that is really not affected by zoning all that much it's driven by very
different factors so just so you have a better sense of what we're looking at on
a day-to-day basis as planners so you also have that confidence that when
you're approving a zoning change and it's going to be kind of by the book
what that book is what we're checking so I am a suit fan and I have a friend
many years ago said all right when you have three buttons how do you know which
ones to button and the answer is sometimes always rarely or never so you
can use this if it helps you you can forget it if not but when when you are
asked the question did my zoning changed what did that change the answer is well
some things it sometimes changes other things always change some things rarely
change so for instance your dimensional standards the setbacks the height
limitations that's always going to be a little different when zoning changes
always the mix will always be a dip a little bit different so if you're
wondering what sets my height zoning it's going to change versus something
like landscape standards sometimes they're gonna stay fairly similar across
a whole range of districts sometimes some things about them will change so
for instance the required landscape percentage that's usually going to be
different by zoning district other parts of it will stay the same parking almost
never changes the parking that's required for a given use no matter what
the zoning district is it's going to be the same similar with tree preservation
tree preservation is gonna be that your zoning changes you have to preserve
trees doesn't matter it stays the same so if you're worried about one of those
things in the red category bear in mind that a zoning change isn't going to do
much to that that's going to be enforced across the board so sometimes always
never now our base zoning districts so we have that whole list there and that
is within our code you can pull that up that's all of the districts we have a
zoning district is a property classification that determines permitted
uses and certain basic development standards for each property within that
classification the key here is that a zoning district should be consistent
across the entire city so our three on the north side of the city are three on
the south side of city the rules are the same you have a consistent expectation
of what you are getting in that zoning district so if you ever want to look at
that DDC sub chapter 3 every one of these is in there and it includes a
couple things the purpose so what is this good for what is the goal of this
district what should you find there so I put up an example r7 tells you r7 you
should have a variety of housing types it should allow for both neighborhood
serving retail parks and schools and housing you should maintain neighborhood
character provide a safe environment for pedestrian cyclists it can support
compatibility between single-family neighborhoods and higher intensity mixed
use and non-residential so if you consider a new zoning change we will
always tell you hey does this align we have to assess and we'll tell you in
that report does this zoning change fit with the purpose of that district but
that's something you can always look up yourself as well say hey does this make
sense with the purpose of the r7 district it will also always have
dimensional standards and I'll show you an example of that in a minute but
basically that lays out within this district what are the setbacks so how
far does the building have to be from all the lot lines what is the height
limitation how much of that lot can you cover with a building so for every one
of those you'll have dimensional standards and that's the same in every
r3 and every r7 and every MN so those are base zoning districts hopefully
that's and that is these all differ from versus a PD which will have customized
elements to it these are the un-customized the rules are what they are
so dimensional standards as I just mentioned here is an example again r7
this is the table that tells you if you are an r7 lot this is your world this is
how big your lot needs to be it needs to be at least 4,000 square feet how wide
does it be how deep how far does the building need to be from the lot lines
that's going to be the same in every unmodified r7 and we as planners are
going to check that every time and that's going to limit where and what you
can do on that lot building height is going to be set building coverage so
taking our always sometimes never always if zoning changes at least one aspect of
your dimensional standards are going to change it's always gonna be a little
different the our districts are residential ones are 1 2 3 4 a lot of
those are fairly similar but there's always going to be at least some changes
sometimes so townhomes are very unique so at times those will change at times
they won't they're going to be fairly narrow regardless thing that almost
never changes is within 50 feet of residential district we have
limitations on the height period those are always there as a protection now I
also want to highlight key non-zoning factor so adjacent zoning districts and
uses can drive those dimensional standards they can change them a little
bit because we have protections on how tall you can build next to residential
uses so besides zoning sometimes dimensional standards are impacted by
what's next your property allowed uses so this is what can you do in a zoning
district kind of the original purpose of zoning way back when what are you allowed
to do here what are you not allowed to do this is our table of allowed uses
you'll see across the top there are all of those zoning districts so if you scan
down let's say single-family detached one you see a P plus that means say
we'll look in our seven there so single-family detached dwelling your house
that is permitted in our seven but there's a plus there that means if you
go all the way over to the right you specific standards there's some
additional rules that apply so it's allowed with additional rules P plus in
some cases not on here but there you'll have a P with no plus that means it's
just it is allowed no additional rule it is allowed within that district and then
s means it requires a specific use permit so where y'all often see that is
in our seven a multifamily development is permitted but it has to have an SUP
so that means it's going to come to y'all before it can be built it has to
have one of those special permits that you get to look a little bit deeper and
the idea is there it's permitted if it's done right so it should there should be
a way to do it but it has to be done right and that's where y'all come in and
City Council comes in to say hey is it being done right in this district so
permitted SUP and then if it's blank that means it's just not permitted you
can't do it in that zoning district you can't build it there so going back to
our always sometimes never so always the mix of uses if you get rezoned is going
to change no zoning district allows exactly same uses another so zoning it
changes what uses are allowed unless it's a use that we just don't allow
anywhere in the code and then you just can't do it use specific standards
that's those things in that right-hand column so for some uses we have some
additional rules and that's usually either there's some concerns about ways
it could impact what's near you or we have restrictions within certain zoning
districts so for instance we may have rules for medical uses if they're
located next your neighborhood we had a concern you'd have ambulances coming out
lights and sirens directly headed towards neighborhood so we added some rules
about where you can direct vehicles coming out of saying urgent care if it's
near a neighborhood so that sometimes is going to apply and sometimes it won't
it'll depend on what you're near so does zoning change or use specific standards
sometimes sometimes it will change if it's a mixed use standard we may have
some additional standards that apply if you're going to be downtown versus not
downtown again for that use sometimes we'll say you can build it up to a
certain size but no more within this zoning district again trying to tailor a
little bit where we see these uses for the most part though there will be a lot
of you specific standards that are the same no matter what zoning district
we're always going to check certain things so how outdoor storage is handled
with certain vehicle repair uses they're just going to be things we were always
going to say you can't do that you need to have those things inside zoning
doesn't really drive that that's just going to be what the rules are this is
also driven by what your use is and what your Jason zoning is so who's around you
and usually it's are there residences around you if there are there's often
additional rules and as planners we're checking what are you next to and what
additional rules do we need to apply so that's where we'll come in someone says
hey the code says that my use is allowed here and we'll say yes but the building
you're wanting to do there is too big we have some extra standards so we're
checking that landscape standards so you're real familiar with this minimum
landscape area and tree canopy on a lot what specific types of landscape elements
are required what plants you can and can't plant street tree requirements
buffer requirements one thing that's always going to change if your zoning
changes you have a different landscape and tree canopy percentages you'll see
on the top there it could be 70% if you're out on a big r1 almost rural lot
it could be all the way down to say 15% if you're down by the square and a lot
of landscaping doesn't make sense so those two things are always going to
change if your zoning changes buffer requirements will sometimes but not
often change generally buffer requirements are going to be the same
across the city except downtown we recognize having a big landscape buffer
between two uses doesn't make that much sense you know just don't see that
otherwise we're checking for those buffers other things that are almost
never going to change so we're going to require basically the same landscaping
requirements for commercial use anywhere in the city zoning isn't going to change
that similarly your single-family use you're going to need to do roughly the
same type of landscaping whether you're in r1 all the way up to r7 landscaping
is fairly zoning neutral we are going to check those landscape standards
regardless and we set a high standard for landscaping because we have a
beautiful city and our residents would like it to stay that way as it develops
site design standards basically this is how your how your site is laid out where
do your buildings go which direction your entrances have to be pointed how
much open space do you have to give this is again not super impacted by what
your zoning district is it's much more driven by what's your use is it a
commercial or residential use how big is it the development as you're doing a
large development more requirements come in if you're doing more buildings we're
going to look at it more closely there's going to be more restrictions you have
to follow open space requirements will kick in based much more on your use not
based on your zoning there are some so in industrial zoning districts we do
have some lighter touches because if you're doing an industrial use in
industrial zoning we're a little less concerned about you know what that looks
like as long as your way step back there's a little more flexibility
whereas if you're doing an industrial use in some other areas we're going to
look real close at that so zoning can change that a little bit but for the
most part site design standards we're taking a good long look at that no
matter what the zoning is it's going to be much more as I noted based on other
factors than zoning so we're going to be looking real closely about how you laid
that side out have you met all of those standards similarly with building
design so this is what does the outside of your building look like does it look
like a bland box or have you given us some nice architectural features you laid
that out according to our requirements again not real zoning driven we're going
to be looking at those things intensively no matter where they're being
building the big driver there is going to be much more is it commercial is it
single-family residential isn't multifamily standards will vary based on
that more than the zoning so you change from an R7 to an MN we're still going to
look real closely at the architectural features for that sometimes we will look
a little bit more closely within our mixed-use zoning districts because we're
wanting to have those buildings closer to the street that's your more downtown
uses so we're going to have some additional rules that apply in our mixed
use zoning district say hey those commercial uses you need to not have a
big parking lot out front of that this is more for the downtown need to pull
that building up so that it is more walkable similarly with our multi-family
more downtown areas because those zoning districts are intended for areas that
are denser and supposed to be more walkable so we're going to look more
closely because of the zoning at how those buildings are designed but for the
most part no matter where in the city is we're looking at roughly the same set of
building requirements and checking in very carefully on that basis parking as
I noticed so that's how many parking spaces do you have minimum and maximum
and where does it have to be located so in some cases there's parts of the city
where we say you can't put that parking between your building and the street but
that's primarily not driven by zoning it's it is partially but it also
depends on what type of roadways so along a bigger roadway you might see
more front parking on those smaller roadways we want that to be more
walkable and not have a big parking lot right next to where someone's wanting to
walk so sometimes zoning will change the parking area location and in the case of
MD downtown zoning that is the one case where we do say we're not setting
parking minimums except for large multi-family but in general zoning is not
going to change parking we're going to force parking rules consistently across
the city regardless of zoning tree preservation again how many trees do you
have to preserve on your property how many inches of trees that is not going
to change based on your zoning we are going to enforce tree preservation
regardless across the board the same way and actually even in a PD still you
cannot use a PD to change tree preservation tree preservation is what
it is and you have to follow those rules regardless of your zoning district you
can't find any way around that we enforce it access so that's can we get
safely onto and off the property do you have enough access points for that use
you have safe conditions for vehicles pedestrians that's not again not gonna
be real heavily impacted by zoning we're gonna check that carefully no matter
what occasionally pedestrian bike circulation if your zoning is our our
rural residential we are not going to be looking for the same level of sidewalk
and pedestrian paths as we will for the rest of the city so zoning change might
impact you there understandably but other than that we want to have good
pedestrian infrastructure and safe ingress and egress no matter what your
zoning is and so we're gonna look like so again you can bear in mind if you've
approved a zoning change and you didn't see a lot of details about how the
access was going to work don't worry we have a long set of rules that we have to
check against that before they're going to do anywhere and we do lastly
definitions so this is something that y'all probably have never had to think
about and we have to think about a weirdly large amount which is what is
that use how do we define it how do we measure so if it says it can be this far
from something else well how do we measure that is that door to door is
that property line to property line definition become very important if
someone says I want to put this use here and we have to figure out well you've
just described that what use is that what you're wanting to do that what box
is that fit in and therefore where can that be built definitions by definition
need to have the same meaning across the city regardless of zoning so we're not
going to change the meaning of multifamily or of auto repair because
you're in a different zoning district it is what it is and that's consistency
for everyone both for citizens for decision-makers and for us so
definitions stays the same so all that say again just to give you a sense of
zoning changes some things but there's a whole lot that we are checking
regardless of what the zoning change is and that applies on things y'all never
see so things that are by right they have that P in there they come right in
they get a zoning compliance plan they get it civil plans they get a building
permit and they build and doesn't come before y'all we are still looking at all
of those rules which reflect the decisions that have been made by past
councils that reflect the values our community and what we want to see we're
checking all of those against that even if there's not a detailed PD that goes
with it so happy to answer any questions questions any five minutes commissioner
Riggs do you think you could just quickly kind of describe three different
things that we we almost always see and it seems to be what creates the most
concern from the public of we're considering a zoning change and we
always hear that's going to increase the traffic that's going to increase
drainage issues or so those obviously too but then also sometimes it seems
like we'll get recommendations to approve a zoning change and it might be
it almost seems like a multifamily and next to a large rural residential is
there certain guidelines that we do for the transition I guess three those three
things and that's a lot to unpack there I understand that okay I'm gonna do my
best and you let me know if I answer you correctly or not so for instance on
draining on drainage yeah absolutely across the backboard no matter what we
are going to look very close to that and folks smarter than me are going to look
very close to that documentation because we do not allow you to have any negative
drainage impact on the properties around you you have to be able to show that
you're not going to have that impact in terms of one use next to another so for
instance just take multifamily for example we have buffer standards that
apply between a multifamily or basically it's a that that type of use and a
residential single-family residential use no matter where you are in the city
that's always going to apply and so we're always going to be looking at that
and enforcing that to create that greater transition the other thing is
the height transition so the requirements we have if you are putting a building
next to you a single-family residential we're going to look at that say within a
certain distance you have to follow the height restrictions not of your zoning
district but of the single-family district that is next to you for a
certain distance so that you are not putting a giant apartment building right
next to a single-family residence so those things were always going to apply
regardless and I'm sorry we said drainage you said streets or parking
traffic traffic okay so again that goes to we are always going to require at
least information about traffic generation and based on that we decide
whether we need to have a traffic study traffic impact analysis if it meets
certain triggers then we have again engineers much smarter than I am that
will look over will tell the applicant you need to have your engineers submit a
study showing what your impacts will be and then we're going to look at it and
tell you if you did your job well enough and that will include the things that
development needs to do to mitigate any negative impacts they're having on the
traffic around them so again a significant amount of studies that's a
whole separate project type for traffic if you're generating enough trips that
it's going to have an impact so again yeah looking very closely at what are
potential negative impacts of that and how do those need to be mitigated before
we can approve this yeah thank you and I guess one of the things too that may be
the kind of a leading but you know a lot of times whenever we hear public
concerned about drainage and traffic impact is whenever we're deciding whether
something should be rezoned those studies have not been done yet so it's
more if you're okay with this going in and they can make the engineering work
then it'll happen if they can't make the engineering work it doesn't happen yes
absolutely and that's the same on cases that never come before you were also you
didn't see them and they're still going through a long and detailed process
before they're getting to build and I mean those are some of those things it
may take folks a long time to finally prove that okay we are not going to have
that negative impact or they may just not be able to build because it can't be
done you can't put that much building on that much lot and if it's not then it's
not mr. Garland I was just gonna say great job I love the visual of the suit
as a mom of four boys I'm glad you finally put that argument to rest of
how you're supposed to button your jackets and I think we all recognize
that the great way to retain and remember information has have kind of a
visual attached to it so I like the creativity and I just wanted to shout
you out for that thank you I'm gonna attempt in a minute and a half to wrap
up some things and give it a lesson on development economics could you flip
back to your first agenda slide that was very helpful to me yes the is it correct
to say that that those specific regulations under the third bullet those
are things that get applied either after a zoning change or for a by right
application yes okay and when an applicant comes in their pro forma
typically has what they refer to as hard costs which is building materials and
paying people to put it on the land and then they have soft costs which is all
the design analysis how are we gonna do it where are we gonna put stuff paying
the architects all that kind of stuff is that kind of how it's split up I cannot
speak to that just go with me here and and I just want to point out that all of
those bullets under that third bullet are the majority of those soft costs when
an applicant comes in for either a full PD or an SUP most of those things under
the third bullet they have to have done a lot of due diligence on is that a fair
statement yes okay so just keep in mind commission that those soft costs are
typically on the order of 25 to 30 percent of the project cost and so when
an applicant comes in for an SUP it's not just the six thousand dollar fee to the
city that they're paying it's the many months of delay as well as 30 percent of
the whole project cost so if it's a hundred million broader project they're
spending thirty million dollars to bring the SUP for us is that that a fair
statement it is definitely true that they're having to do a lot of that work
on the front end yes okay and just to shout out back to Julie's point earlier
everything that we do on the facilitation side to improve that is
exactly for that reason to keep those costs as low as possible so we're doing
a great review without unnecessary cost okay thank you any other questions
Commissioner McDonough just quickly I just want to I think the word is echo
Commissioner Garland said it thanks and a great job Sean I wish I would have had
this at my orientation back in the summer and also behind me miss Julie back
here thanks at a girl to you too and both excellent presentations and slide
decks thank you yeah thank you very much I feel like we're ready to go to go grad
school now at 628 we will call the work session to a close and reconvene in
council chambers for the regular meeting
good evening at 637 p.m. this Wednesday February 11th I will call this meeting
of the Denton planning and zoning Commission to order with the quorum
present our first item of business is to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance
to the u.s. and Texas Flags
honored our next item is to a PZ 26 - 8 consider approval of the January for
January 14th planning and zoning meeting minutes open the floor for a motion
Commissioner Dyer I make a motion that we approve the minutes from January 14th
meeting Commissioner Garland and I will second that the motion and a second not
seeing any questions I'll call for a vote on the board that item passes 7-0 the
consent agenda we're gonna pull item B FP 250040 so if I could have a sorry is
it I'm sorry I put it in the wrong place we're gonna pull item C fr 250019 so
let's we can go ahead and look at that now for questions so I'm going to talk
about the TIA that was approved in October of 2025 I do have a
presentation if we want to pull it up on the screen okay so I'm just gonna kind
of highlight the key items here that were approved as part of that TIA in
October 2025 so looking first they are gonna be installing a traffic signal at
the intersection of the East driveway which is highlighted there in that
lower right-hand corner on us 380 additionally there is going to be
construction of a northbound right turn lane deceleration lane here at the south
driveway and Bonnie Bray and then lastly there is going to be construction of a
westbound right turn deceleration lane at the middle driveway right here there
is additionally ongoing conversations with our capital improvements group as
well as textile regarding south Bonnie Bray and if there is any additional
questions staff is happy to follow up with MMO any other questions on this
item I don't see any thank you so let's take a motion for item fr25 - 19 for
this final replat Commissioner Ketchers it a motion to approve fr25 0 0 19 and
Commissioner Garland and I will second that motion the motion and a second not
seeing any discussion I'll call for a vote on the board that item passes 7-0
the the remaining items are just a and B I do have a card and I'm just gonna
allow this is the applicant on 3a fr fp 25 - 28 I think this is the one that that
had four this is the fourth or fifth requested I'm sorry no that's something
else so does does anybody from the Commission have any questions for the
for for 3a for the applicant who is here and available if not I think we can just
move forward okay so I'll take a motion for the remaining items on the consent
agenda Commissioner Ketchers said a motion to approve the consent agenda
Commissioner Riggs second with the motion and a second not seeing any
discussion I'll call for a vote on the board that item passes 7-0 brings us to
our items for individual consideration for a PZ 26 - 7 elect a chair and vice
chair for our planning and zoning Commission so I will open the floor for
a motion or discussion Commissioner Riggs I make a motion for you to
continue as chair Commissioner Ketchers said I second that motion I'm glad to
accept I'll try to keep the the riff-raff to a minimum but usually it's
me as opposed to you all kind of causing it any discussion not seeing any I'll
call for a vote on the board that passes 7-0 and there's any motions
Commissioner McDuff oh yes I'd like to make a motion for Commissioner Riggs to
serve as vice chair very good Commissioner Dyer I'll go ahead and
second that any comments Commissioner Riggs I'll just say I'm glad that that
we are we get business done but we don't don't get been out of shape so thank you
for the humor not seeing any discussion I'll call for a vote on the board that
item passes 7-0 so we will continue with myself as chair and Commissioner Riggs
as vice chair the that brings us to 4b ZZP 25 - 38 evening chair members of the
Commission me a high and senior planner and this is a zoning compliance plan for
crunch fitness the item on the agenda for you tonight is to or they are seeking
approval of this site plan for an indoor outdoor recreation facility and a public
restroom on a site that's approximately three point eight seven two acres
located between Heritage Park and I'm sorry here is his trail and East Park
Boulevard approximately 400 feet south of us 380 surrounding the property to the
west is it's all it's within the razor ranch area and so to the west of the
property is retail to the north of the property is retail as well and some
restaurants just east of the property across from East Park Boulevard is a
multifamily development and then just to the south of the property is a public
park and open space as a part of the razor ranch overlay area so this item is
zoned within the south commercial district based zoning of the razor
ranch overlay area and that includes permitted uses such as commercial uses
retail and restaurant as well as the proposed recreation and entertainment
uses the reason that this is before you as you all are aware you don't typically
see zoning compliance plans unless they're attached to like a PD or
something to that effect this is coming for before you all because as a
requirement of the razor ranch overlay district all properties that are being
developed south of the West University US 380 Drive is required to seek
approval for their zoning compliance plans from the planning and zoning
commission that zoning compliance plan package does come with a site plan a
landscape plan as well as four-sided building elevations for the proposed
structure here's a criteria for approval that you are supposed to put the site
plan up against that is that the site plan substantially complies with the
concept and schematic plan approved by the City Council and the the zoning and
land use layout that was approved with the razor ranch overlay the site plan
provides for a compatible arrangement of buildings and land uses that would not
adversely affect adjoining properties or neighborhoods the site plan should
provide for adequate and safe circulation of vehicular traffic and the
site plan should fully comply with all other sections of the overlay district
and I will walk you through some of those components now so as proposed the
indoor recreation facility or fitness center is approximately 26,000 square
feet it's a one-story building it's shown here in the brown at the sort of
north if you are looking at the screen is facing to the right so the building
is at the located at the southeast corner of the property they are also
proposing an outdoor recreation area just to the west of the property in this
area here and then they are also proposing to construct a public
restroom dedicated to the to the city and for public use for ideally for those
patrons patrons using the park just to the south of the property they are
proposing 240 parking vehicular parking spaces for this fitness center and 12
bicycle spaces as well as far as connectivity and accessing the property
you would be able to come from us 380 that's up here to the north down to here
it's a trail access the property with a designated left turn lane here that they
will be required to make as an offside improvement you will also be able to
access the property from East Park Boulevard just to the east of it as far
as pedestrian connectivity they are proposing to connect to existing stubs
that were developed with the overall razor ranch area they are also proposing
a sidewalk connection directly from the public restroom facility to that public
park that is just south of the property as far as landscaping they are meeting
the minimum requirements and proposing required site trees as well as parking
lot landscaping that is totaling approximately 25% landscape area
coverage and a an approximate 70% tree canopy coverage they are including the
correct buffer trees relative to heritage trail to buffer and screen some
of the parking components that you would see when driving past this site as well
here are the proposed elevations for the building this one at the top left corner
is that front elevation that would be facing north or what you could kind of
see from West University the building is actually kind of tucked back because
there's some developments just to the north of this property so you wouldn't
necessarily be able to see this from West University unless you're driving in a
west west direction the other facades of the building have a similar
architectural style and again this is just a one-story building that they are
proposing so with that staff is recommending approval of the request as
it does meet all of the established requirements of the razor ranch overlay
district that I read before and I will happily take any questions that you have
or comments and the applicant is also here if you have any comments or
questions for them the floor for questions or emotion
Commissioner McDuff yes I'd like to make a motion to accept the recommendation of
the staff which would be the approval of the food street didn't project and
Commissioner Riggs second okay any questions from the Commission I have one
and maybe I'm gonna answer it immediately here just occurred to me
that the the park south of here is fairly large and long typically our bike
parking spaces are required within a certain number of feet of the front door
and in this case there's two buildings there's the bathroom and then there's
the the main building it looks like the the bike parking spaces are in front of
the main building but there aren't any in front of the bathroom is that correct
okay I don't want to hold this up because you know it's it's a bike rack
but it's more just information for the future I guess in cases where we have a
an accessory structure that we expect to get a high level of use especially in
proximity to a public use like the park are there ways that that the current
code allows us to require bike parking in front of a restroom so we can certainly
ask the applicant would be willing to include a couple of bikes racks in the
area I will say that the restroom itself as an accessory structure doesn't have a
parking requirement attached to it so that's the where that requirement gets
sticky but I can absolutely ask if that would be something they would be willing
to do okay I think it makes sense okay that's that's my only comment any other
Commissioner Dyer I apologize because I know that Commissioner Mcduff asked this
in our workshop but with regards to the bathroom remind us again who like the
city is going to be responsible for cleaning that and take caring taking care
of that correct yes so the developer was responsible for constructing it and they
are currently working with our parks department on like specific specified
schemes and sort of their preferred model of it and then it will be dedicated
to the city for maintenance and ownership are we seeing a need of this
because of the park on the other side of the street on the south end of this
property I don't know if there's a need I believe this was kind of when the when
the property was developing this was kind of what what was expected to come
of this property to develop with the public park attached to it I don't know
that we've heard a need from the community but I think this is something
that parks is is is wanting our parks department is wanting at this site and
then I think my last question is do we have anything like this at other parks
do we find that there's nefarious happenings in a situation like this where
there's a standalone restroom in such a you know high traffic area with retail
lots of apartment buildings things like that I can't speak to them and look at
Haley to see if she has I'm just curious if we're concerned about safety public
safety I cannot think of another park that has a situation like this I will
just add to what Mia said from what I recall when the dedication and
development agreement for the park within razor ranch went before City
Council I believe this restroom being on this property was tied to that
agreement at that time because there was not going to be restroom facilities
within the park itself okay yeah I'll just add I know through our last parks
planning effort the master parks plan that one of the highly requested
features was bathrooms you know when you take your toddler to the park you never
know what's gonna happen but in most cases they are prohibitively expensive
given city budget constraints to just go out and install when there's no water
and sewer infrastructure necessarily at the park so any other discussion okay
not seeing anyone all right not seeing any further discussion I'll call for a
vote on the board to approve this razor ranch site plan that item passes seven
zero which brings us to our next item of sorry next item 4c pp 25 - 5 good
evening chair and members of the Commission Sean Jacobson associate
planner and pardon me I get to the correct slide here I'm here to present
PP 25 D if I can find it see so this is a preliminary plan there we go
preliminary plat that has not yet met all of our criteria for approval so staff
is recommending denial but does not object to the requested extension to a
date certain of February 25th happy to answer any questions any questions or a
motion Commissioner Dyer sorry I would like to make a motion that we move
forward to approve a recommendation for the preliminary plat of Rosaline Meadows
sorry I think the I get that wrong there's a request I would like to move
forward that we go ahead and agree to accept the requested extension to the
date of February 25th sorry about that Commissioner Garland and I will second
that motion okay just a question for staff because this has been going on
for a while is there a difference in staff time between these getting delayed
versus denied and then resubmitted generally the extension is a smoother
process just to kind of keep it moving forward okay have a dedicated calendar
for that you don't have to create a new project number etc it's there's just
things that are would have to be done otherwise okay no that's fine thank you
any other discussion or questions not seeing anyone I will call for a vote on
the board that item passes seven zero to approve the extension that brings us to
item 4d fp 26 - one evening Commission map would be an assistant planner here to
present a final plot for approximately 120 acre tract in the city of Denton's
ETJ at this time this final plot doesn't meet our criteria for approval but we
have no objection to their first extension request to a date certain of
February 25th 2026 okay open the floor for a motion or questions on this
request Commissioner Riggs yeah I'll make a motion to grant the exception to date
certain of February 25th 2026 to grant the extension extension and
Commissioner McDuff I will second that motion for the extension thank you not
seeing any discussion I'll call for a vote on the board and that extension is
granted 7-0 moves us to our public hearings our first public hearing is 5a
which is Z 25 - 25 hold a public hearing and consider a recommendation for by
McAdams to rezone from rural rural residential to general office the
applicant on this project has requested for it to be postponed but at this time I
will go ahead and open the public hearing as it was noticed and I will
leave the public hearing open and we will be hearing this item on our next
regular scheduled meeting which is 630 p.m. on February 25th in two weeks from
today but I'll need a motion to continue it to that meeting date
Commissioner Riggs I'll make a motion to continue it to that meeting date
Commissioner Garland and I'll second that motion okay not seeing any
discussion I'll call for a vote on the board that item passive brings us to our
last public hearing of the evening 5b s 25 - 14 good evening chair members of the
Commission Bryce Van Arsdale assistant planner this is s25 0 0 1 4 related to a
request for a specific use permit for an outdoor storage use this property is
located approximately 1150 feet west of I 35 West and about 287 feet north of
Metro Street the purpose of this request is to separate the accessory outdoor use
which is existing from the primary use which is a concrete batch plant the
surrounding area is predominantly zoned as light industrial and is developed
with a variety of industrial uses the criteria for approval for a project such
as this is that the proposal is consistent with the goals and policies set
forth in Denton 2040 comprehensive plan as well as the future land use map this
proposal is consistent as well with the use specific standards which are set
forth in the Denton development code for outdoor storage the utilities and
infrastructure are available to serve this property and the approval of this
specific use permit is not expected to generate any significant adverse impacts
related to the environment infrastructure or fiscally with the
future land use map this area is designated as industrial commerce and
this applies generally to areas where the predominant uses include both light
and heavy industrial uses primarily this designation is present near the airport
west of I 35 West this proposed use is situated west of I 35 West and north of
Metro Street it's compatible with the surrounding area and there are also
minimal visual and auditory impacts given that it's set back as far as it is
from the right-of-way this proposed use does conform with the future land use map
goals and purpose this project was noticed in accordance to state statute
we did not receive any feedback from the community the staff does recommend
approval of this request as it does with the following conditions the conditions
are very standard for a specific use permits and largely relate to
administratively approved revisions as well as the ability for the city to
require a an amendment to the ordinance should revisions above that level be
proposed and I'm happy to stand for any questions
Commissioner McDuff yes I'd like to make a motion this is a public hearing so
let me open the public hearing at this time and I don't have any cards signed
up to speak on this item but it is a public hearing so anybody who would like
to speak is welcome to come down not seeing any I'll close the public hearing
go ahead Commissioner McDuff you have the floor thank you Chair Pruitt I'd
like to make a motion that agrees with the staff recommendation for approval of
this special special use permit for outdoor storage and Commissioner Riggs
second I have a question on this one place the and this is going to expose my
lack of understanding of concrete batch plants and who regulates what when I
read in our code it looks like temporary batch plant means that it's only used
for a certain number of days up to three times a year is that correct okay and
and there's also a stipulation of it has to be a half mile from certain other
uses correct is is that true in this case there is a multifamily kind of
north of here sure so this is a it's not classified as a concrete batch plant is
a high-impact manufacturing and this use was developed in 1991 so it's been
existing since okay prior to the 2002 so it's it's a legally non-conforming use
correct in some sense yeah okay okay thank you any other questions from the
Commission okay not seeing any I'll call for a vote on the board that item passes
seven zero that brings us to next order of business which is the planning and
zoning Commission matrix yes so there are a couple of items that will roll
off of the matrix given tonight's work session and the housing data report that
was shared with you all so we will update that accordingly regarding City
Council updates since your last meeting I believe only one item that you all had
seen has gone before council in the the time in between and that was the
rezoning for the multifamily at Hickory Grove the the municipal utility district
on the west side of town and that was approved at the February 3rd council
meeting besides that those are my updates and happy to add anything to the
matrix the all my want any additions from the Commission um first off welcome
back it's nice to see you secondly um I appreciate that you sent us the
information on the multifamily I have printed it to go through it I just
haven't had a chance to go through it but I'm curious if we could have it in
our workshop just kind of a debrief and how that information affects potential
future items before us when it comes to that zoning in that development type is
that is that possible so that we have questions sure so you're just wanting
like a work session summary of the zoning information that was in the memo
yes and so then because you know in my mind I'm gonna have a bunch of question
once I you know like I said I printed it I just haven't had a chance to go
through it but I'm gonna take I'm gonna take notes on it and then I want to be
able to ask questions and how it could relate to future stuff before us when it
you know comes to having to vote on things sure we can plan to do that okay
yeah we can we can add that given that that will be coming for a work session
the one thing that I I didn't understand maybe it was my reading comprehension
that would be good to have handy at that work session is I didn't see a
definition for at which stage of a development project the GIS analysis
assumed MN zoned property flipped from undeveloped to developed or future
project does that make sense there was the GIS analysis that had undeveloped
versus developed and then there was a list of backlog projects that were in
the queue and and I didn't know how to connect those backlog projects to either
land that was marked undeveloped or developed okay I think I follow we can
yeah make sure we provide some explanation on how that analysis was
done okay thank you any other comments or requests for the matrix
Commissioner McDuff yes I have an item that's been here since October number
four and I appreciate us going through this with all due diligence and miss
Haley glad to have you back but I was just wondering if we had any thoughts on
there no rush just a thought about when we might be looking at number four
communal living in small home communities code changes I don't believe
we have the follow-up on that one scheduled yet but we can work on getting
a more solid date for that for you thank you Haley right very good
Commissioner Kettresett is there a way that we could get a definition of what
compatible development is or neighborhood character like what staff
themes you know what they might use like an example maybe of what that looks
like we're happy to provide some I'm trying to think what form that might
take right I don't know exactly how you know sure how you can put that into
words because it's very subjective yeah we can try to put together some sort of
work session discussion on just what analysis goes into compatibility
considerations are you thinking more specifically like with respect to an
SUP or permitted uses within a plan development or it could be a bunch of
different things potentially right like what did they do they look at that for
plats for platting you know certain things you know in all of the residential
purposes it talks about a neighborhood character so in those situations as well
there's you know a different host of sure but whatever you can provide would
be okay yeah we can do maybe a planning 301 that's a deeper dive into kind of
the analysis and the process that goes into development review that would be
great thanks all right we'll look forward to that not seeing any other
items that brings up number seven item seven concluding items does anyone have
any concluding items I'll say thank you Commissioner Garland for putting your
name in the hat good luck trying to get some sleep in the next three months that
will not be happening but thank you I appreciate it anyone else seeing none at
710 p.m. this evening I will call this meeting of the Planning and Zoning
Commission to a close thank you