San Angelo City Council 6-1-21

[0:00:00] 32 a.m on june 1st 2021 we will start with the chaplain prayer and pledges so may i ask gary and marcela jenkins to please come forward and offer the prayer and pledges to uh mayor gunter the honorable members of the city council and all of the city staff and all everyone here will you join with us in a word of prayer father in heaven in the name of jesus we bow before you to say thank you for this day we thank you for the rain over the weekend that we needed greatly we pray father that you guide the members of the city council to take care of the business of the city with wisdom and in a way that will glorify you we thank you father for each and everyone that's here and we pray that your will be done in jesus name amen pledge allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all earth is flagged as allegiance to the texas one state under god one an individual today we have no proclamations but i would ask if there's anyone here who would like to come forward and make public comment on any items that are not on the agenda to please come forward at this point in time with no public comment i would like to

[0:02:06] offer a couple of items one our chaplain pastor dawkins wife is seriously ill in the hospital and we ask that you continue to put her in her your prayers chaplain dawkins has been a great asset to our city and to as a chaplain and we ask that you remember them as we go throughout the week and we hope for her recovery second of all thank you for all of you who participated in the numerous memorial day events yesterday your presence was greatly appreciated and to that degree i also want to announce that on september the 12th at 6 pm at the river stage we will be holding a 20-year anniversary event on 9 11. so many of you might have ideas and thoughts as it relates to what you'd like to see happen that night and if so please contact me and we'll put together a great program for that evening with that we will move into our consent agenda i will ask if there's any items someone would like to pull from the consent agenda tommy no ma'am tom nothing nipple harry nothing to pull lucy lane larry i'd like to pull item c d and g first item g is well let me do this first let's approve the consent agenda with the exception of item c d and g so may i have a motion for that approval so moved by tommy second and by harry and lucy any public comment on the consent agenda with the exception of item c d and g c none will take a vote all in favor of approving those items say aye aye with none opposed those items pass seven to zero item c consider resolution

[0:04:12] authorizing the city manager to donate the old removed playground materials from unided park to northridge baptist church and authorizing the city manager to execute all related documents carl my question on c n on d which is consider resolution authorizing the city manager to donate the old lights and fixtures from the benfican field to the wall education foundation and authorizing the city manager to execute all related documents obviously other people find value in this equipment so the question mark is why do we have no value attached to this equipment instead of buying all brand new equipment instead of utilizing what we already have when other organizations seem to find value in this equipment in terms of the playground there's only parts of it that can be salvaged and typically when we build playgrounds we use new equipment parts of this playground only have a few years life in our opinion left because of the the volume of use of the children using the playground and at the church it would be less volume views so they could get a little bit of life out of a little bit of the playground in terms of the light poles um for us we don't have any anticipated use and we haven't had anticipated use of those poles and lights for at least eight years so they're not currently being used so they're just in a warehouse someplace not being used they're they're standing up at the benfican field um off benfica road so they are being used they're not being used they're just they're just standing up no lights coming no electricity there's there's no power to the light so they haven't been used in a long time are we so are we replacing those lights just taking them down okay we're getting rid of what to us is right currently now a liability because it's something that we have to keep and maintain which we're not using okay any further questions from counsel for carl

[0:06:15] may i ask for a motion for approval on items c and d at this point lucy moved to prove harry seconded all in favor say aye motion passes on items c and d seven zero on item g consider extending an mou with keeps an angel beautiful k-stab for three additional years and authorizing the city manager to execute all related documents good morning bob good morning originally the council approved the keeps in angel beautiful for a three-year contract if you will is that correct yes ma'am um is that a contract or an mou okay so describe that versus because that really in essence added one new person to the city's employee ranks right yeah it's kind of unique um in 2018 we decided to resurrect ksab uh we committed 65 000 for admin to kind of kick start the effort uh the agreement when you say kickstart what does that mean relative to how long did you anticipate that we would be contributing sixty five thousand dollars to this originally it was for it was set for three years uh the hope was that case i would be able to find enough funding to become a 501c3 standalone unfortunately uh we had problems hiring the executive director uh we finally hired charlotte uh we've had three executive directors we had uh we hired this is the third yeah we went through the hiring process three times we finally they started i'm sorry and they started the other two people once started the other one approved accepted then she declined at the end so she didn't actually do any work the other one the first one worked for a few i think for about a couple of weeks and then she left so uh we went through the hiring process again and we were able to get uh charlotte farmer i mean uh charlotte anderson and two in the in uh 2020 and she's done an incredible job in a very short period of time by the way she raised 239 thousand dollars unfortunately none of it was for admin

[0:08:18] and that's the problem it's hard to find grants that are admin driven most of them want projects uh they want events but nothing for admin so we're asking council to continue the uh the funding for three more years to give her a chance to seek that permanent funding um we're also asking for ten thousand dollars increase uh to cover the um kind of uh kind of we need to grade the position appropriately based on roles and responsibilities which we failed to do the the very beginning uh backup documents did not indicate a ten thousand dollar raise is this that's uh i think i believe so i believe the uh the item does have a uh an increase of ten thousand dollars making 75 000 a year is that for paying salary or what's it for it's for admin summit would be for salary of course uh it's basically uh we want to make sure that we uh grade the position appropriately based on what she does um my concern with that is number one she is at this point considered an employee of the city is that correct it's this yes ma'am she is she is that increase in that salary would be a far greater percent increase than increases that we give other employees i understand but and so that doesn't seem quite fair it's the great ma'am it's the greatest that's the issue what's the grade it's from 24 she should be should be set at the 28th based on her roles and responsibilities and why did it start out at 24. it was kind of almost arbitrary at one point it was uh describe the difference between 24 and 28. what's the difference between grade 24 and grade 20. it goes from 45 to 54. 54 is the 28th grade it's things that for division managers at the vision manager level it's based on that managers have employees that report to them they do they do this one does not no but she has a law mom she has a volunteer base of course that

[0:10:20] handles a lot of that as well so a lot of kind of hr duties but she manages the board she uh presents at council she um conducts media interviews things that we ask division managers and department heads to do so we have to make that we look to kind of uh grade that as as other those kind of positions we just said that the grade level for that is up to 54 right and salary yeah and you're asking for up to 75 so that does go i'm talking about 45 to 54 that's the increase now we were talking about 65 000 was the funding and the request is for 10 000 more that's totally out of that range it would be well if you want to cover that salary range you're talking about 9 000 something right fifty four forty five it's about about nine thousand or so and if it's as well i mean talking about benefits as well yeah it's exactly right thirty percent of that sixty five is admin but thirty percent of that goes to other things besides salary so you remember that i know but that's not what was presented no we're asking for another 10 000 to bring from 65 to 75 to cover that range from 24 grade to grade 28 that's what we're asking i will say that i agree that we extend the contract for three more years i cannot support the additional ten thousand we've not gone through the budgets for twenty one twenty two we've not determined the percent increase of wages for any of the rest of our employees and i if in fact she is an employee of the city is that correct then that consideration for increase in salaries would be addressed at the point in time when we discussed increases for the rest of the staff of city hall mayor carrie i happen to be president of this organization because of the way the mou and those things were written um one of the things in this particular

[0:12:26] change it's not an increase in salary as much as it is making it sure making sure that it fits the right listing within in the city 24th grade to 28th grade basically it was not listed correctly when when we hired charlotte so all we're doing today is not increasing the salary as an increase all we're doing is adjusting that and that happens all the time within in in the city you make that change one way or another to to a different grade so from my perspective that little bit of of money and it's not all salary 16 almost a 16 increase in expense well i understand that but i mean if if you're going to put it at the at the right grade to begin with and it wasn't there then it's not necessarily a an increase in salary as much as it is at adjusting dollars are dollars dollars are dollars 10 000 is 10 000. okay but in the same token if you've got somebody out there in in another department that happens not to be at the correct uh at the correct level when you make that adjustment you make that adjustment we're just doing this at the same time that there were we're changing the mou to extend it for three years so from my perspective that it's there so i support extending it for three more years as an mlu i don't support the additional 10 000 at this point in time as we go through the budget 2122 we can take into consideration those challenges to it but at this point time we have not dealt with the budget for 2122 and so i have reluctance to approve those dollars at this point we recreated recreated this we did that during budgetary times didn't we it was done i don't believe during the budget

[0:14:27] conversation it was done either before or after it was not done during the budgetary time period and so that's my issue is we got budgets to consider we're starting that consideration on june 22nd and at that point time i'm very pleased to review and talk about those increases but until we're into the budget session i have a problem doing it now 22 days away daniel question mr salas one other question where does that money come from it comes from solid waste okay and at this point in time there is money in the solid waste budget to handle these things is that correct i don't know i can't answer that i'm sure i believe there may be but are you able to answer that question maybe tina either one of them yes sir there's currently enough funding in the solid waste funds to to to absorb that extra ten thousand what are those solid waste funds used for uh we we have uh the two two staff men uh staff members that we currently have uh jeremy and then art our solid waste manager and um i guess arts are code enforcement for solid waste so that's where we have those monies tied up in salary and then of course we're preparing to redo the permit so but again those monies are in the solid waste account so it's not going to short somebody else out of money if we use this money for something else that we might need it for not currently no ma'am but how about when you talk about budgets for 21.22 right now going into this year's budget next year's budget we should be okay we're we're budgeting out through

[0:16:32] the permitting process which is probably going to take us three to five years kind of depending on how it lines out so but we're right now we believe that we have everything accounted for and can absorb this just one moment tommy you had a question for daniel daniel do throughout the year if someone has moved from one grade to another i don't recall having seen that come to us even though it may carry an increase with is that an accurate statement that is yeah that is correct tommy um we do have individuals that either promote a different level uh so with additional responsibilities of course there is an adjustment in paying that that's under my purview to approve that though okay okay i think mayor this is this is not out out of it's it's just all coming at one time um i i agree with harry that this is something that in my opinion should be done because it was not graded properly to begin with so talk to me about the difference between a 24 and a 28 job responsibilities and expectations well i would refer to hr but my initial discussions i mentioned some of the things that they do that we hold people that are 28 to things like presentative councils as i mentioned earlier so remind me again okay managing the board that's what department heads division managers do they manage boards but sometimes those managers have multiple boards correct so i understand i mean again i won't i don't want to argue the the detox i don't have the details with me that's something the hr would probably have to vet anyway they'll make the decision and the reason i bring it up to you today is because it's part of the mou otherwise we would not have brought this up it would have been more of a city process like we normally do uh tommy but since it was part of the mou i decided we decided to bring it up

[0:18:36] at this point but uh yeah it would be uh there he is right now maybe he can answer brian kendrick director of hr hello mayor city council um so in some just preliminary discussions with bob you know what this would do is this would provide the ability for him to seek that but it would still have to go before our compensation and classification committee we would review that change make sure it's appropriate and then we would recommend you haven't done that we have not done that so why are we talking about it we would then make a recommendation to to daniel and then he would make a decision based on our recommendation process we normally use correct right and we're not doing that this time right i think he's just trying to to um and i don't want to speak for him but i think he's just trying to make sure the funding is there to ask for it because if we go through it from our process and when we start making exceptions we got a problem i just say we go through the normal process of how we manage personnel changing their grade of employment and with that salary increases and i think we should stick to the same process on an ongoing basis and not make exceptions because then it's hard when you make it for one person not to do it for another person or another person we need to stick to the process it's established for some reason yes ma'am and i think probably 22 days is not going to kill anybody like you said before we get into that discussion so hr is flexible mayor if i may just speak to the financial aspect of this we do require departments before they bring a change like this to be considered by the city manager to have a funding source in place so without that funding source in place we would not recommend to daniel to make the change to the classification with that being said if city council were to approve the mou as is and daniel did not agree with the recommendation that came out of class in comp committee then he could still deny

[0:20:38] it and the funding would be returned to the solid waste fund i just say we have processes in place and when we go beyond the processes and make exceptions we end up with problems and i simply ask that we follow the processes that are in place we approve the mou and once we've gone through the normal review period and recommendations are made by hr to upgrade that position from a 24 to 28 it can go to daniel for approval and then we stick with the process that's in place i don't like going outside the process this is an exception and i don't like doing that the mou is unique man you do understand it's just different than we normally do it's not it's not the normal process for us either so because it's part of the mou i wanted to make sure we covered it and we had a funding source before we move forward that's why we brought it to you today which is i understand it is outside the the norm but that's why we did it okay thank you any other questions or comments from council then i make a motion to approve the mou and we'll discuss on june 22nd when budgetary issues are discussed that we'd address a ten thousand dollar issue then second by lane all in favor say aye aye any opposed motion pass seven zero thank you that concludes our consent agenda we will move into the regular agenda comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above applicants proponents and appellants are accepted from the time limit above and must limit their remarks to less than five minutes and i repeat that to less than five minutes item a report by san angelo area foundation on reconstruction project for barracks and mess halls three and four at fort concho and we're going to have an introduction

[0:22:41] by rick weiss assistant city manager with presentation made by matt lewis ceo of san angelo area foundation we'll skip the introduction i guess i think everybody knows who he is all right go right on thank you mayor city council i'm excited that the stand your area foundation is pleased to announce that we've secured we we had secured funding a few years ago to rebuild to start working on rebuilding barracks three and four at fort concho using donated dollars and no city funds challenges i won't enumerate existed anytime you do a historic recreation project and then covid entered into our world and so time has delayed but i we signed an mou with the city back in 2000 in december of this past year in 2020 to begin the process and since then we have uh completed the construction documents we have uh with with council's help there had to be some re formatting or re-plating of of the land that believe it or not fort concho wasn't plot platted properly it's been fixed and we've gotten approval from the texas historic commission we've put it out for bid the foundation has and we had five good bids and we've selected clearview construction brian benson some of you may know brian local firm that has done some custom homes but has been getting into more and more commercial construction in the midland and lubbock area also here in san angelo and we're excited to announce that and to begin construction the mou didn't require that we come back and talk to you about that but i hope you don't mind that we wanted to to come back and say yay and that one of the items of the mou does require that we present a letter to the city of attestation that

[0:24:44] the funds are on hand at the area foundation to complete the construction of barracks three which you will be receiving this week do we have any pictures of what it's going to look like i didn't bring any pictures with me the pictures we have are of old photographs of what it looked like uh back when we had uh good still photography and actually it's in varying forms of decay in some photos right before it fell down the job of the construction firm and the architect is to make it look as good as it did in fact probably better yet to maintain the historic rock work this this particular barracks was constructed by buffalo soldiers so there's a variety of interesting rock work so it it's not going to look like your typical rock work on a custom home that you might see around town it's going to look more as close to the pitchers as we can so from the outside it will look as a completely restricted barracks the inside this particular barracks is going to be reinforced with cmu walls so that it's essentially tornado highly tornado i don't know if the word proof is the right word but resistant to protect the items it will have about hail storms uh hail storms you know that one that came through last may i'm not sure any of us can uh that's why you have insurance on stuff like that but uh fire protection because it will be housing archives and when we bid this we went ahead and had barracks four the other missing bid and that bid is good for 90 days in hopes that if we're able to raise the additional money and it works out to be about 1.8 million dollars that we can start on a second phase of building four i would get on it real quick because from what i understand building costs are going up rapidly in terms of commodities so i'd get that money raised we're working on that and what's great is i've got uh fort concho board members here that have been great for the snow area

[0:26:48] foundation and our donors to work with we're continuing to work on that our goal is that when this project is finished it is at no cost to the city that it is all paid for by donated dollars so uh after we get that letter to the council the yellow cats will show up and the construction will begin so construction date and end of construction the next thing we have to do is request a building permit and uh as soon as we get we're going to make that easy right it's not going to get complicated always make that easy okay yeah that anyone else would have to go through we've we've had great success with working with the city building permit department and we'll get that done and as soon as we get it done and we can get the crews lined up before july 1 hopefully sometime in the middle of this month construction will begin and it's about an eight eight month nine month construction if we get the additional funds if it's outside of the 90 days of the bid we'll re-look at it we have a shared savings clause with our contractor that if he can save money on the project he shares in it with us and if we learn anything in that process those savings would then help us do barracks for as well i'm excited that clearview construction has been selected we have worked with brian or i have worked with brian benson on a couple of projects and he does terrific work and i'm excited we could find somebody local to do it and i also want to make sure that we do it correctly but certainly fort concho has been a primary part of our being selected as a great western city this year second in the country last year first in the country and i know that our ability to get barracks three done will help us move us back up to a number one ranking as a western town so we need that process to start we will get her done questions comments

[0:28:51] harry comment thank you matt carol roger the board this is a vision that many of us had when i was on the board of fort concho several years ago and to see it come to this point where we're almost ready to break ground is great uh thank you for the work that's done and i appreciate what where we're going on this and i guarantee you it'll be a big plus not only to the fort but to this city so thank you treasurer jewel thank you for your work thank you thank you council i just said were there any other questions or comments none all right we'll move into item b consider resolution reauthorizing previously approved uses by approving a special use su 21-01 to allow an indoor multi-use recreational facility and related recreational activities day care community outreach community services and educational programs on property zone single family residential and two family residential on the following property live point baptist church 810 and 811 austin street and 818 kenwood drive john euron thank you john james director of planning and development services you can see the location here on the aerial photography all three of these rectangles represent portions of the lifepoint baptist church property so you've got the church facility here another building and then the gem in question that mostly surrounds what we'll be talking about is is right here on this part of the property and so just a little bit of background the planning commission did consider this back in september of 2019 they made no recommendation because it tied on a 2-2 vote and per the planning commission bylaws a tie comes to you formally with no recommendation the city council did approve that on

[0:30:55] the 17th the following day and so it was approved back in 2019 that gymnastics facility that was the subject of the request has operated there since uh shortly after that approval as with any of these where we bring them back to you we look to see if there were police complaints or code violations in this case there was only one and that was they had accidentally placed a sign out in the right of way and those kind of signs are supposed to be placed on the property and they corrected that as soon as code enforcement contacted them you can see the map here of the comprehensive plan shows this area's neighborhood you can see right at this boundary is where the transition to commercial uses and then you can see on the zoning map itself that we have a single-family zoning in the yellow transitioning to multi-family zoning just about a half a block away and then you can start to see the commercial along abe right there and part of why that's relevant i'll talk about in a minute as well is one of the things that you have to determine in order to approve a special use in a case like this is that it is represents a transition and so staff's recommendation for approval transition from what a transition from one zoning area to another so this isn't a zoning case no that's correct so then why are we using those words well because there is existing zoning that applies to these areas and in order to approve a use that's not allowed by right within a zoning district by special use you have to determine that it represents a transition and so staff's recommendation is that as you get over to abe there that is the commercial corridor and that this area being so close to that commercial corridor is a transition from the larger neighborhood and i think i have a better map that'll show that in a little bit to get to your point you just made this is not a rezoning of the property the underlying zoning of the property remains the same as it is today

[0:32:59] but our ordinance as i mentioned allows certain uses to be considered on a case-by-case basis and so that's the purpose of a special use there are also some similar uses that are approved by the planning commission through a conditional use process but again those are case-by-case considerations of is this particular proposal appropriate for the particular site that it's being considered on so it's not allowed by right you just can't go out and do it you do have to get this special permission but again it does not change the underlying zoning of the property when you talk about special use is it very specific one use and one use only or does it have a broad vocabulary it can be as broad or as limited as the city council chooses to do so in some cases uh special use is approved for a very you know very specific use and with uh you know some of them might have eight or ten conditions uh you might recall some similar ones like the uh the one that came up recently uh at uh sports next level you know there were conditions on lighting and and distance separation from residential and all those kinds of things so you have broad authority to create limitations and approve broad uses or limited uses so in this case what the request ultimately came to you the first time and is coming to you again would allow this list of uses indoor recreational facility daycare community outreach and community services and educational programs it would not allow any other commercial or retail uses other than these listed and as i'll get to in a minute staff's recommendation uh will be for you to limit those a little bit further and they already do daycare if the church is operating the daycare yes they can do that similarly with community without approval right now that's correct so the education how about community outreach and community services can they do those yes activities now without this permit yes and how about educational projects all three of those bullets that i highlighted there

[0:35:01] if they're part of the church function and they're operating them they can do those today it's only when they want to work with a third party so if they hired a daycare company to release a building to a daycare company that's a for-profit daycare then it would require a special use approval like this if the church is operating it then no they would not need any special approval may i have a question yes please if they are allowed to do every single one of these that you are just listed why are we going through the entire property for a special use what do you what do you mean in the entire property or the real estate versus one building real estate is being conveyed under this special use what if they can do a daycare in building a 200 feet away then why are we requiring a special use for that portion of it or if i'm not you're you're kind of getting ahead of me because part of the staff recommendation based on what we heard at the planning commission meeting and some of the concerns of the neighbors part of our recommendation will be to narrow the approval to just a portion of the property rather than the whole church property and i'll have some slides that'll mention that a little bit later eric can i ask yes go ahead larry from what i take you're saying that they can conduct these functions already but as soon as we do this special use that allows them to extend this into more of a commercial level is that correct well if they operate any of these things with church employees then they can do that today so they might not have a daycare today they might in fact choose to say you know what we'd like to have a daycare but we don't want to operate it we're going to go have company c come in and operate our daycare so the daycare is only valid if in fact they conduct that within their own staffing issues within the church where someone doesn't come in and lease

[0:37:02] that square footage and pay a rental for doing that a current daycare that they operated they wouldn't be paying a rental fee to the church so it's about leasing it again this allows them to open up a commercial day care facility if this special use gets passed is that correct if it's approved as as written currently then yes again can be limited right can i add something to that yes our ordinance does require that if this special use is approved for all of these uses that daycare would have to open within the first year otherwise it goes away so these are always time limited in these special use approvals they can't just keep it open indefinitely the daycare the community outreach educational programs would have to open in a year in order for the authorization to stand may i ask if there's currently a daycare i don't believe so but i'm sure one of the speakers that in the public hearing could answer just because we're on this slide i'd like to know now okay is there a community outreach and community services program now okay is there educational programs now yes yes yes i'm asking the question wait till you get to the microphone please announce your name your position my name is jake latworthy i'm the pastor of life point baptist church the reason that we have these broad categories is because we steward our buildings for the betterment of the community not just our church last month we leased to an organization that is for-profit that works with san angelo isd proctoring exams we do similar things all the time so with community outreach education we felt those were broad categories that would protect us in doing these temporary type things on this one permit does that make sense can that lease convey with without a special use i i wrote all of those things into the special use permit

[0:39:04] because i was told when not by the city but by several neighbors be careful because your neighbors will sue you if you do any of this and that's come to pass so right now it sounds like that falls under community outreach if you're partnering with saisd that is one of those provisions that would without a special use you would be allowed to do theoretically unless somebody got upset about it wanted to sue us for it i don't like theo theoretically i can't even speak address that theresa um you know as a church they do have special protections both under federal statutes as well as state statutes and it's always a lot of gray when they're doing commercial activities it has to be decided on a case-by-case basis so for instance in this case there is a religious component to the gymnastics that's happening at their facility so that kind of transitions in my mind into that religious protection that we're going to talk about in a little bit um so it really would depend on how it's structured whether or not i have not heard of this church doing a long-term lease with anybody i think a lot of churches have day use rooms that they lease out on a temporary basis to folks and it's not considered you know a long-term lease those kind of then fit under special use if it's not a long-term lease i mean how do you separate that conversation i think because it's a church we just don't dabble in that too much if it becomes longer term and it's something that is having an impact on the property or the neighborhood that's when it would rise to the level of needing a special use because this gym has operated in another location for a number of years and we anticipate it will want to operate at this location for a number of years that's what made it rise to the level of needing this special authorization so as we're talking about special uses we researched back historically as far back as we had records and that was 55 years over the past 55 years 55 special uses or what used to be called

[0:41:07] special permits the the terminology changed in 2000 about 50 or 55 of those have been approved in the last 55 years in the santa rita neighborhood including eight day cares seven offices six for retailer restaurants six for parking or vehicle storage three beauty or barber shops and three others uh that are non-residential type uses and so i only point that out to suggest that this is not a necessarily unique situation where this is the first and only time something non-residential has been approved in this neighborhood and you can see here in green are the ones that have been approved you can see a few in in pink are the ones that were withdrawn by the applicant for some reason and then the red ones are the ones that were denied for some reason well and so this is the we after the planning commission there were some questions about those denials so we actually subsequently looked at the ones that were denied and those go back 42 years and 39 have been denied and there's a list of uh the different types of things that have been denied so it's true many of these have been approved many of them have been denied and again that points to the fact that it is a case-by-case consideration that you look at each particular site what's around it what they're proposing to do at that site and you can make a case-by-case decision on whether or not to approve those so i have a few pictures we can come back to these if necessary but just a few pictures of the church site the church itself the fellowship hall which was across the street and then the gem there to the left across the street to the north is the river terrace property and that will come up in a little bit as well and these are some homes these are two homes across kenwood drive so directly across the street from the gym a couple more homes or residents back behind the church i think that's across avenue d and then another one across avenue d

[0:43:10] and then looking across washington drive so there are some homes across washington which is by the way a major thoroughfare in the community and so that's part of the staff's recommendation is that this is not in the middle of a neighborhood it is toward the edge of the neighborhood on a major street that handles is designed to handle larger traffic i'll note that when staff went out a number of times to take some of these pictures at the site when i went out one time at the primary pickup time for the the gymnastics facility uh almost every car except for two went out through the alley on to washington and so the cars were not coming through the neighborhood to leave once they picked up their kids with just the exception of a couple of cars but you can see here some pictures this was during a pickup time one of the busier times and if you could see a little bit bigger shot there's not that much traffic and you can see the this is right before that the picture on the right happened right after this picture on the left which was the cars waiting to pick up and so again it's it's not a full parking lot when the busiest times at that location it's come up the river terrace across the street is a very similar commercial use within a residential neighborhood it was also approved through originally a special permit that was revisited and renewed and expanded as a special use permit later on and you can see the operation of the restaurant there this was taken during an event at the restaurant and you can see not only is the parking lot full but the spillover parking spilled over onto the residential streets and so that's again part of staff's recommendation for approval of this is that it's not unique it's right across the street from another use that has a similar special use approval honestly for a higher intensity use of a restaurant versus the gymnastics facility again just a couple more pictures of that parking

[0:45:13] up of the street this is up kenwood i think that if i'm not turned around i think the gymnastics facility is just off to the right there so i'm going to just briefly go through this this was in your staff report in your packet but these are the criteria that staff and you all by ordinance should consider when considering a special use does it are the impacts minimized within the neighborhood we believe that the impacts are minimized this is a fairly low intensity use and i know some of the opponents that the planning commission talked about pulling commercial use into the neighborhood but compared to most commercial uses this is a fairly low impact use is it consistent with the zoning ordinance again the zoning ordinance specifically authorizes special uses to allow uses that aren't normally allowed and again we believe that using an existing building on an existing property that's for a non-residential use is appropriate for this area and again as i mentioned it is a transitional area at the very edge of the neighborhood is it compatible with the surrounding area again this is an existing church that is non-residential has parking large parking lot it has traffic on sundays and wednesdays and then for special events as well and so we believe that this particular recreational facility on the site doesn't add to that in a substantial way that would warrant a denial in this case traffic circulation again it's it's not a huge amount of traffic compared to a typical commercial use it is concentrated in a short amount of time people come up they drop off their kids they leave they come back later pick up their kids they leave so there's a you know a 10 or 15 minute period for drop off and pick up and after that it's it's basically quiet and so again that's different than a typical commercial use that would have coming and going all day throughout the day we didn't see any impact on the natural environment

[0:47:17] and we believe there is a community need for this facility obviously the question for you is this the appropriate location again staff believes that it is again there's no change to development patterns it's already a non-residential use it's a non-residential gem facility that we believe is appropriate for the uses proposed okay we did send out our notifications as we normally do to the surrounding properties let me ask you a question so if it's a zoning issue obviously you have to notify by ordinance those that live within 200 feet of the property does a special use permit require that same 200 feet notification yes for a special use conditional use and a rezoning all three of those require us to notify within 200 feet and so we there were 40 notices sent to within 200 feet we received two responses in favor from within 200 feet we also received 34 in opposition uh 15 of those for from river terrace so if you're counting the stars on the map uh 15 of them are for that one property because it's a multi-multi-owner condominium and so we also received from outside the area i think it's up to 1078 responses in favor from multiple sources individual letters emails the website responses as well we got some questions about where those responses came from so if they you know we we got you know one from uh ballinger and we got some from wall and so obviously i we would suggest you don't give those as much weight as people close in but you can see here they came from throughout the city but you can see i think on the next zoom in on this this is the responses from within santa rita including many you know not within two hundred feet of the church but within a thousand two thousand feet

[0:49:20] we did receive numerous responses from folks who live in the santa rita neighborhood in favor as well as the ones opposed how many uh you can see here um you know i actually didn't count we counted the total uh that matched we went through an address matching process which doesn't catch them all honestly i'd have to count those dots to see how many but that's probably 20 or you have 34 on the floor on the map previously at the very top john yeah 34 in from within the santa rita neighborhood i'm sorry yeah so 34 dots there and again that didn't match that was kind of an automated gis mapping process and so we tried to strip out from emails the addresses so this only caught about half of the responses that we received so if if we assume they were representative then there might be double the amount from within santa rita so this did go back to the planning commission at their may 17th meeting they did recommend denial by 3-2 vote in that case staff does still recommend approval of special use with some modifications i'll talk about those modifications in a second but the first i wanted to go through the condition five conditions of approval and these are not changed from your the original approval uh back in 2019 uh shielded lighting uh limiting of hours of operation uh any illuminated signage would have to be turned off uh overnight so that it's not creating light neighbors across the street any new signs have to comply with our sign ordinance for signs we have special regulations for signs within a residential district and then the city may inspect the property to verify compliance with the conditions and it also says

[0:51:23] that we can bring this back to you like in this case if we receive complaints on issues that affect the neighborhood it can be brought back for reconsideration so the staff recommendation part of this is based on the public input we received at the planning commission there were very few if any comments about the gymnastics facility itself and the impact on the neighborhood the biggest concern and especially from the discussion by the planning commission was a concern of it opening up the area to commercial activities and so we want to ensure that we're limiting it to just the uses they want to do it would not allow retail it wouldn't allow a restaurant it wouldn't allow any commercial activity except those listed and so we're proposing to limit it even further than what was requested to only the athletic facility related child care and educational programs limiting the special use to only the gym and the parking area if you see in your background information there's a lease agreement that allows them to use not only the gym but the adjacent parking we would propose to limit this special use just to that area so it would not include the fellowship hall it wouldn't include the church building itself and then finally again based on the discussion from the planning commissioners many of them are a few of them seem to want to limit it to lifepoint church as the owner so if the property ever sells either to a different church or to a non-you know a non-church entity then they would have to come back for a new special use approval if the ownership changes and so again the hope here is to limit it to address some of those concerns raised by the the opponents as well as the planning responses so a second option you would have is just to approve as presented that's basically what was approved in 2019 you could reapprove it as is and then your third option is to make a

[0:53:28] motion to deny uh if you do that and teresa can probably talk a little bit more about this but we we would need findings to answer these three questions on why were the findings not addressed during the planning commission i would defer to the commissioners themselves the staff raised the concern that if they deny it without findings that could be problematic the planning commission chose to go ahead and vote on the motion that was on the table without addressing making findings to answer these questions let's go back to why we're even here today teresa describe why we're here today because obviously that has come before council before there was a vote on it and i think everyone needs to better understand why we're even here today right after the last vote there was a lawsuit that was filed and that lawsuit is still being litigated a number of the issues in that lawsuit had to do with notice the city still contends that we complied with notification requirements we received information from the appraisal district we notified the people that they gave us names for but it later came to our attention through the lawsuit that there were people that the appraisal district did not list on the information they provided to us so you know there was always an intention and a discussion ongoing about why don't we just bring it back and fix the procedural issues but then coven happened and so there was really no way for the gym wasn't operating for a period of time there was no way for us to evaluate really what the impact this facility would have on this neighborhood would be to give a real recommendation to you but now the gym has been operating for a period of time we can see what kind of impact it's going to have on the neighborhood and to cure some of the you know the deficiencies in the notice even though we think we have a valid legal argument i think as city employees and you know public servants we do believe that people should have the right to speak on things that address their property and this is the way to do that you should know that this is a different application we're not just reauthorizing the other one this is a whole new

[0:55:30] application process part of the resolution that we have included in your packet will rescind that prior approval if this one is approved so all of those past deficiencies and notice should go away okay do i have some comments to make in a minute but i want to ask first if any of council members would like to be acknowledged and offer comment are there any lane nobody else doesn't have to first or this much district we can finish with me or whatever let me go ahead and then go ahead and finish i will always be a big supporter of business development and economic development opportunities but at the same time i remain committed to protecting our neighborhoods quality of life is about the quality of our neighborhoods and we need to be protective of our neighborhoods citizens looking for a new home evaluate neighborhoods and look for a neighborhood that has good schools and a church of their choice in a neighborhood that reflects what they want in a place santa rita is one of the oldest neighborhoods and many people refer to its charm due to its historic cottages and architecture it is important to protect the integrity of the area yes there are some very expensive homes but within a block or two mini homes are much less much more less expensive people want to find a home in santa rita due to its old heritage and unique cottages and their architecture i believe that when we start allowing commercial development within a neighborhood then we start to deteriorate what we traditionally call neighborhood with that said there will always be a bridge or an area or a block that leads from commercial to neighborhood where one bleeds into the other i also know that a home is generally one's largest asset and so one never wants to create a situation where we diminish the value of that asset residents of santa rita certainly have the right to fight any issue that they feel could negatively impact their neighborhood

[0:57:32] with that being said i believe that residents of the area deserve a higher level of voter support in what happens in their neighborhood many of the supporters of the texas tumbleweeds organization do not live in the neighborhood but strongly support the organization for obvious positive reasons we take great pride in this city with the success of our central high school gymnastics team we have to give some credit to texas tumbleweeds it is a great organization but remember this is not about texas tumbleweeds this is about a special permit for for the use of a gym texas tumbleweeds has positively impacted the lives of our kids but this is again not about the activity it is it if if it was there would be no lawsuit or issue because i don't believe that people who are concerned about this special use are against the kids correct me if i am wrong but i believe this is not a zoning issue or rezoning it is a request for special permit allowing a church a special permit to better utilize their facilities by leasing out a building for the purpose of gaining some income and utilizing a vacant building that is in need of repair most buildings in a deteriorating state do not enhance a neighborhood the situation we are discussing is a difficult decision due to the falling issues one it is not about a new commercial development being created or built it is about an existing church building being allowed to lease their buildings to a business but the church has existed for decades and the gymnasium has existed for decades in fact the facility gymnasium is in obvious need of repairs unquestionable a building in need of repairs can create an unwanted eyesore and start to impact the character of a neighborhood it is also difficult to understand why allowing texas tumbleweeds to use a gymnasium would create a burden on the neighborhood when existing special permits have been strongly supported by not only the santa rita citizens but citizens who live in other areas of san angelo

[0:59:35] one business just across the street has overflow parking with many people parking on the street and side streets and yet i believe the riverview restaurant serves a great purpose as many organizations need a place to meet and eat and many families need a place to celebrate if there are no issues or criticisms of the river terrace and its impact on the neighborhood i'm not sure what the issue with the church is again correct me if i am wrong riverview restaurant was not grandfathered but actually apply for their special permit as well and that was in 2003. the rare review restaurant serves a need in this community although it too is a commercial business and exists in the same santa rita neighborhood that the live point gymnasium does i believe our goal today is to find a win when for all those involved and i believe the win when in this case is to allow the lifepoint church a special permit to allow the texas tumbleweeds to lease the gymnasium and the gymnasium only but the permit cannot go with the land if the building goes so does the permit if the texas tumbleweeds go so does the permit the permit should be for the gymnasium only not all the facilities the past year has proven that there have not been any problems with the gymnasium being leased to texas tumbleweeds with that being said we as a city also have the burden of ensuring that we do not violate the religious land use and institutionalized persons act which basically means the church has the right to be treated the same as a business in regards to issues such as this permit is that correct as mayor i have the responsibility to represent all citizens and to protect all citizens and the city from potential lawsuits and to uphold the law with that said i find today a very difficult decision to make because i believe strongly in neighborhoods and the protection of the neighborhoods i don't ever want to make a decision that i feel like would deteriorate and compromise a neighborhood from being the great neighborhood

[1:01:36] that it is above all things we must protect our neighborhoods as councilman is in this district it's been i've been fielding phone calls texts hearing each side like the mayor said our goal is to protect our neighborhoods and our districts that is our number one responsibility but this can be established with some simple wording and up until now that simple wording has not been placed into the presentation the presentation right now has been pretty cut and dry until we have discussed getting these provisions placed into the into that permit [Music] it hasn't been presented like this by till now but with these other options of limiting it to that one facility of the church the gym not allowing it to be conveyed over the entire property and living it limiting it to how long that special use permit will be allowed to be conveyed i have not heard any complaints on the actual business none whatsoever no noise complaints no traffic i've driven by multiple times and counted cars in the neighborhood and to see what the impact was so with that being said i highly agree that this special use needs to be does not need to be conveyed with the property upon the determination of the lease or the sell of the property it does not need to be spread so wide because we've already seen how many of these uses can be completed by the church themselves coming up and

[1:03:38] doing it without our permission so with that being said i'm going to move to approve the special use permit with adding the provisions that upon termination of the lease or the sale of the property the special use will revert back to its original standards and that the permit is only effective to the gym building of the property along with the recommendations that the planning commission has provided with us today on items like shieldings i have two seconds um on that motion and i'm going to open it up for public comment before we take a vote yes ma'am may i ask for an amendment to the motion to include the adjacent parking facility and jason parking has talked about its staff recommendation as well yes that's not the let's be clear what the motion is it is it is provided for the gym and the adjacent parking facilities to be included in the special use with the provisions provided and upon termination of the lease with the the current holder or the sale of the entire property outside life point baptist church that it will revert back as i see it this protects both sides this is the win-win that the mayor is talking about this is the win-win that i've been looking for and i wish that it would have been discussed before now but the the two complaints that i the there's three complaints but the two heaviest complaints are the conveying of the special use with the entire property whether it be sold outside lifepoint baptist and how long that goes this will prevent anything else to come in other than the gymnastics facility is everyone clear on the motion and we have a second we will open it up for public comment i

[1:05:40] will ask that when you come forward to offer public comment that you state your name your address or your smd area that each citizen just speak just once per item and unless asked to comment by counsel and we ask that that be a three minute comment and so at that point in time please come forward we'll take one at a time good morning madam mayor and members of city council my name is dustin gaines and i'm the attorney for lifepoint baptist church and texas tumbleweeds gymnastics and thank you so much for your help this morning it's our hope that this matter is resolved and that we're able to move on and that the underlying lawsuit would even be dismissed and there wouldn't be amended petitions and all of those things that would encumber and tie the church in gymnastics academy and litigation i spend my entire career 100 percent of the time litigating church lawsuits it's an interesting world to live in and it's been an honor to be able to be here with you all this morning seeking some good solutions and this morning the entire purpose that i have is to explain the intent behind lifepoint baptist church in texas tumbleweeds gymnastics academy and the reason for this there's been a lot that was said at the planning commission hearing and a lot that's going on in social media and i wanted to clear up several things that were said previously first the church is not in financial ruin and the church is not doing this primarily for a financial benefit that's not the reason why the church opened its gymnasium the church charges texas tumbleweeds a discounted lease rate 3 300 per month to be able to rent the gymnasium the prior gym for texas tumbleweeds was half the size and the monthly lease payment was more expensive than what is being charged

[1:07:44] right now and every penny that comes in from the lease does not go into the church's operational funds no salaries are increased it doesn't go into any of the operational type funds that the church needs to sustain itself but those funds are going directly back into the renovation of the property to date insurance hvac repairs the next big item on the docket for the church for repairs is to repave and to finish the parking lot and to get that improved which is a betterment for the area it's a win-win for the church and then also for the surrounding neighbors but the reason why the church and texas tumbleweeds entered into this agreement it was so the church's religious purposes could be fulfilled and that's why the church charges a discounted rate texas tumbleweeds was looking for a new place that had the space that it needed to be able to operate the church had its gymnasium both were of the same faith and the church said we want a way to be able to minister to the families here in the area how can we do that and texas tumbleweeds at the same time needed the gym so they were able to move in and if you were to look at the memorandum of understanding that was executed between the church and the gym several things are really important to show that this is a religious purpose and the context as to why this is important the document that was just circulated it talks about as i'm sure the city council is familiar with the religious land use and institutionalized persons act it's the federal legislation that touches and concerns local government bodies and their decisions on a religious purpose or religious exercise that is being used here's what the memorandum of understanding said to demonstrate the religious purpose it says whereas lifepoint baptist church in texas tumbleweeds gymnastics desire to enter into an agreement in which lifepoint baptist and texas tumbleweeds will work together to promote the gospel and whereas lifepoint baptist and texas tumbleweeds are desirous to enter into a memorandum of understanding between them setting out the working arrangements

[1:09:48] that each of the partners agree are necessary to promote the gospel services rendered by life point to maintain as of first importance the pursuit of the glory of christ in all things to offer literature to the participants of texas tumbleweeds programs that aim at evangelism and spiritual formation offer spiritual care and counsel to any member of the texas tumbleweeds community offer spiritual oversight and guidance for the mission and work of texas tumbleweeds to promote the mission of lifepoint baptist and texas tumbleweed activities when requested services rendered as a part of the agreement by texas tumbleweeds to maintain as first importance the pursuit of the glory of christ in all things and that's the motto of texas tumbleweeds we stopped one moment theresa um talk to me about church versus state because we're talking a lot about church right now and there's always great concerns about church versus states so let's talk about why this is or is not an issue at this point yes please come forward yes yes sir my name is greg gossett i'm a local attorney i represent many of the homeowners in the santa rita area we've had a new proposal today and i would suggest uh in the interest of the entire community that we recess this hearing for a short time and let us visit with the other side and see if we can work something out is that what is requested from a majority of the people here today okay then we will do that with the supportive counsel are we all in agreement may i ask you to recess we will move to recess how long would you like 30 minutes 30 minutes thank you good to meet you thank you we can just recess the meeting for that 15 minute period if you like or we can 30 minutes 30 minutes and then come back or we can place this item on hold go address our other two items which aren't going to take 30 minutes executive session okay and then possibly executive session yes all right we will anyone who wants to join the group in that

[1:11:51] discussion please go forward and we will continue to do the business of the city moving on to item c that is what i was hoping and item c is the following consider selection of mayor pro tim for june 21 through may 2023 election and i would like to nominate tom thompson as our mayor pro tem second all in favor say aye aye motion passes tom thompson will become our new mayor pro tem consider appointment of city council members to boards and committees and julia you are on for this mayor could you call for quiet in the room so that we can move on may i ask that the conversation in the room listen up everyone quiet we're conducting business if you want to talk please leave the room [Music] thank you okay julia okay so we have several boards that council members serve on and some of those have outside terms dates others are just um for the term of the council member so we just wanted to have a discussion and see if there's any boards that council is currently serving on that they would like to step down from if there's anyone who kind of wants to shuffle around and then of course we did have the one vacancy on the transit board from the last election so let's i'm going to say i want to stay on all the committees that i currently am on and i would like to ask larry if you'd like to fill the vacant position of the concho valley council of government's transit board would that be something you'd be interested in okay let's put larry there okay and then do we have any other open holes that we need to fill those are the only open holes do i have any council members who would like to resign from their committee assignment at this point or change their committee assignment with none do we need to make a motion of approval yes please may i have a motion to approve the existing committee

[1:13:54] assignments with the addition of larry miller for the concho valley council government's transit board seconded with all that may i have a vote all in favor aye aye passes 7-0 we will now move into the closed session executive session on the provision of government code title v open government ethics subtitle a open government chapter 551 open meeting sub chapter d exceptions to requirement that meetings be open under the following sections a 551.071 consultation with attorney regarding one lake nasworthy contracts and water rights and two gexa contract at this point it is in fact 9 47 a.m we will adjourn and be back within the 30 minutes that we are close session being back to order at 10 32 a.m and what we will do first is discuss any of the items that we had in closed session which there are none so we will move back to our regular agenda item b and with that i'm not sure where we stand i get we have a motion we have a second we've had public comment um i don't know if we've had complete public comment we kind of got interrupted in the middle of public comment okay so do we first of all amend the motion or do we move forward with public comment in the motion i don't think i think the motion is okay as it stands correct yes and the motion if and i want to say it out loud so that everybody can double check me was to um to do it as presented with the exception of the at the palm the termination of the lease or the sale of the property this special use will be terminated with that any further public comment just very very briefly to conclude from

[1:16:01] my earlier remarks we would respectfully request and we're in agreement with the tailoring that has been done on the special use application the one request that we would make is that it would be amended to remove the restriction as it pertains to only going to texas tumbleweeds gymnastics i know that there is some concern in the community that if texas tumbleweeds were to end its lease and it were to move on and a different entity were to come in that it potentially could be bigger and it could be all the problems that are contemplated in the special use permit ordinance the factors that john was able to talk about but what we would like to remind council of is that it's a small gymnasium it has an occupancy limit of 100 people already so what you're seeing right now with texas tumbleweeds is what you would get and so long as it would accomplish the other purposes and it would be limited to athletics education those types of things were completely okay with any of those restrictions but we would respectfully request that it be amended to omit that part with the texas tumbleweeds so we're not back here when a new tenant comes in because there are those other restrictions that would limit it in its scope and size and so forth before we were able to take our recess i was able to provide some clarifying remarks of the purpose and just to briefly conclude texas tumbleweeds gymnastics its purpose is to maintain as a matter of first importance the pursuit of the glory of christ in all things to allow lifepoint baptist to promote the gospel by disseminating literature provided by the church to have regular devotions with the participants of texas tumbleweed these devotions will be evangelistic and spiritually formative and that texas tumbleweeds is to conduct activities in accordance with and not contrary to the statement of faith of life point baptist church and for the last several months that's exactly what's been happening texas tumbleweed starts off all of its gym classes with devotions and prayer for the kids pastor clattworthy is able to attend their literature is provided people are invited to go to the church events

[1:18:04] and there is pastoral care and as you'll hear today through some of the comments about how involved life point baptist is so it is a religious exercise under the reluca statute and we would respectfully request first that the motion that is being considered right now be amended to pull out that texas tumbleweeds restriction only and that it would be passed thank you for your time very much further public comment winky please come forward members of the council for the record my name is h.r wardlaw i live over on 1201 south park and been around here for a long time we we do our side does object to what the attorney requested we do not want the amen the motion to be amended to that effect and i just wanted to point one thing out to you if it makes any difference to anybody whenever this thing came up uh we drafted a letter to texas tumbleweeds and i've got a copy of that here and i'd like to introduce that into the record if i may miss mayor please do when all of this started back in august yeah august i guess of 2019 we saw what was transpiring and uh so texas tumbleweeds at that point in time was over there on a m street as we all know and and so uh the rumor was they were going to move over here uh to the santa rita thing and so uh before we ever file suit and i believe that was in september of 2019 i drafted a courtesy letter

[1:20:09] to the texas tumbleweeds asking them not to move in over in santa rita from south am street where they were located at that time telling them that we had a dispute between uh the residents of santa rita and tech and the city and it was going to be a zoning dispute and we told them that we didn't think they would should move in later on because they would be caught in the middle of that and we gave him the courtesy of that and that's what that letter shows and so that was that was over 90 days before they moved in they were still over there and and we gave them that letter and uh then we filed suit after the letter came out and then 60 days later is when texas tumbleweeds moved in so we've never understood why that we were being vilified from day one because we had given them notice of the pending litigation long before they ever moved in and in a legal situation like that when you move in like that you move in at your own peril there was nothing else we could do we we didn't have anything against texas time of weeds uh you know we like them but we we've got a zoning to preserve over there in santa rita and we didn't want them to get caught in the middle of it but they went ahead and chose that on their own so i think when you're talking about amending this motion i think you ought to keep that in the back of your mind well he didn't do anything wrong we did everything we could do i don't know what else you could so unless anybody has any questions i'll leave thank you thank you winky further public comment hello my name is sarah negovetic i live at 3310 cumberland drive you've all been presented the

[1:22:12] information here today i don't need to go into the legislative and legal guidelines quite frankly we're probably all pretty tired of hearing about it but there is some information that the city attorney and other members of the community can't provide to you and so i want to talk to you about the need of texas tumbleweeds the city planner mentioned the special use approval criteria number six is community need it's whether in the extent to which the proposed special use addresses a demonstrated community need in front of you today are girls who need texas tumbleweeds it's not the kind of need that your toddler has when they're asking for that 10th glass of water when you've been trying to put on bed for the past hour this is a real and true need and the loss of it negatively impacts these children both physically and emotionally when covid19 forced our gem to shut down i watched my daughter grapple with that loss as she went cold turkey from 12 hours a week in the gym to nothing i saw her using a second hand mat and old foam balance meme to try to recreate routines and mimic what her time in the gym is i saw her coaches create online conditioning to help the girls so they wouldn't lose too much muscle tone and i witnessed my daughter struggle with not being in the gym unfortunately what we've seen we've seen what it's like when our children don't have the ability to participate when that need is not being met having lost it once i'd bend over backwards to make sure that we don't have to face that again texas tumbleweeds is the only usag women's gymnastics in our area and it has become a major feeder program for our 10 times state champion central bobcats gymnastics team but more than that ttg is a place that our kids and our community need i'm eternally grateful that texas

[1:24:14] tumbleweeds is there for my daughter today and i humbly ask that the council ensure that our children will continue to have their needs met tomorrow thank you hello i'm landa knight and i'm the owner of texas tumbleweeds so we were over on a m avenue and the gym was very small it was 50 by 75 which is my new compared to most gymnasiums normally you need at least 5 000 square feet in order for all of the equipment the matting all of that type stuff and so we um we had been looking for several years for another building but normally when you get that type of space like we need a 100 foot long runway for our vault and we need 20 foot tall ceilings for bars and trampoline and when you talk about that size of a building normally you're talking about a commercial building when commercial buildings aren't going to give you the public restrooms that you need for the class kids for the parents coming in and out okay and then you've also heard i'm sure of the congested parking that was over on a m and the traffic flow there was only one way in and out so it didn't flow very well so when i found out about life point in the building over there i went over and i looked at that building and it was like a dream come true not only do we have ample space over there we've got the ceiling height we have the you know we can spread out with all the different matting we have wonderful spectator viewing we've got the wonderful parking and the traffic flow is wonderful so that was just like a dream come true for us and so it's not like if we can't be here it's not like we can just find another building there buildings like this aren't out there okay so i just wanted to add that thank you for the public comment hi my name is bridgette barbie and i

[1:26:22] live on 1937 pine valley street in bentwood um i just wanted to also stand like was said before most points have been hit but i want to come up as a parent and say how much this gymnasium means to our children we moved to san angelo a year ago my family had been overseas for seven years and when every time we move what makes um that country or um that town a home is my daughter finds gymnastics and church and it's funny that these are the two things that are in this situation is gymnastics and church and um though that is how she finds what she calls her second family and this is her second family and i'm here to help her fight for that thank you very much i just want can i sure you can thank you um i just wanted to reiterate that this is not found everywhere um we have had to find situations that compromise to that and if this is not provided for her then we have to compromise as a real estate agent landa is providing a better situation for that building and the church is how i feel and um sorry i'm clearing my head and it helps the residents around that area their their price and their value does not decline it helps it's helping the community it's helping the situation in santa rita and i only see positives i don't see negatives and it's feeling like we're being discriminated against and that's how it's spilling religiously

[1:28:24] and as a person driving into the santa rita area and thank you thank you for the public comment susie smith i want to just bring that microphone down a bit and i live at 33601 willowbrook off of college hills and the introduction of the letter i really have more a question i guess than a comment or statement but the letter uh concerning the go the zoning issue seems to my question is if that is um i'm interested in the zoning dispute and if it will affect the river terrace who seems to be the one whose residents express the greatest opposition so this zoning is for this facility or this these specific addresses there's no consideration at all in changing the special use permit that the river terrace has they received that in the year 2003 it was approved and it stays there's no question about changing anything to do with the river terrace special use permit that they have okay so the zoning issue this isn't a zoning issue it is a special use permit request there's no zoning issues being addressed today okay so according to the letter um which letter are you referring to that was circulated that that is okay so it might have referred to zoning in that letter but the reality is is that letter was from one attorney to another organization it has nothing to do with any legal action that this council took okay thank you

[1:30:34] you can come forward and sit on the front row if you want if you're going to add comment then you'll already be up here good morning my name is sierra morrison i live at 8386 links lanes buffalo heights i'm here as a parent um my oldest is a gymnast we've only been there for a year our first year was coping so it wasn't a normal year i don't really know what to expect or or what the future will look like for us as a gymnastics family but i've homeschooled for six years this facility is a i'll say bible-based program i would not have chose it otherwise having the freedom to choose our curriculum and what we participate in i chose it mostly because when i walked in philippians 4 13 is on the wall mrs gunter do you know what that one says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me and i have seen my daughter grow and believe that i walk in that in this past year with this program so i'm just asking the council to consider the educational and athletic purposes for this special use permit thank you thank you my daughter took time to write this the past two weeks so i'd like to give her the opportunity to read it we live in mertzen um but we are inno inextricably related to san angelo my husband is a firefighter and paramedic and has been for 14 years i taught at san angelo isd for 11 years and was an administrator and now i'm the elementary principal out at mertzen and we drive in five nights a week for gymnastics five nights every single evening

[1:32:37] we come in so that my daughters can train because there's no place like this in in san angelo anywhere and she wants to share with you a little bit so i want to move the microphone down just a little bit more you want to hold this down where you can read it hi my name is presley and i am a member of texas tumbleweeds gymnastics team i have been in gymnastics since i was two years old gymnastics is a big part of my life and i haven't just learned new skills i have also made lifelong memories and lifelong friends and it is one of my biggest dreams to succeed in gymnastics if my gym gets shut down i might not get to follow my dream you wouldn't only be hurting the coaches and the people who work at tgg you would also be hurting the little girls and boys who have fun and follow their dreams also tgg could tell you a thousand reasons why you should not shut down our gym but there are only one or two reasons why you should i i have heard people say they're worried about our traffic but other businesses near our gym have cars filling their parking lot and pouring out into the street why can't they stay open and not us at ttg we have fun worship god and work hard if you take that away from some innocent kids just know you will be taking some little girls and boys dreams away so please vote to keep our gym open thank you thank you presley thank you for your consideration as far as traffic is concerned i do drive a long way every day even saturday for guitar we spend a lot of time in your community we eat here i run errands i take car naps in this particular parking lot um i got to get re-energized somehow we spend a lot of time in this this neighborhood this community it is not providing any more traffic or or issues than i see every single day

[1:34:41] crossing the county road we live on a water crossing and i see more traffic of their people stopping the flow of traffic and have to call to ask people to move off the road there than this is i understand that it is a neighborhood and we want things you know protected just you know just like everyone else but this isn't a retail it's not a shopping mall it's it's it's a place where a church is wanting to use a building that was dilapidated and falling apart it's thank you for your comments thank you i appreciate it further comments [Music] my name is sarah clatworthy my husband is the pastor of life point baptist church um you all spoke to most of the stuff that i was going to say but there are two things that i want to highlight very clearly still um and i think larry this will go back to answer your question from earlier today about why if we are allowed to do this without the special use permit why are we seeking this permit those who are opposing us have consistently brought up the reality that as a church we do not pay taxes and this is correct we do not the state and federal government give us that right we don't stand here today challenging those in opposition as to how much of their own income is tax deductible because they themselves donated to tax-exempt organizations so i would say taxes are irrelevant to this decision we could larry if we wanted to carry texas tumbleweeds under the umbrella of the church which would then then allow them the same right that we have that is not the route that we are seeking we are here asking for a special use permit because while we want to partner with texas tumbleweeds as a service to the community and as a partnership and promoting the gospel we do respect the government and we do not desire to take advantage of the privilege that is granted to us

[1:36:43] as a church however we do retain maintain our right to do so if we feel necessary i will skip point two because our lawyer did well to address that and point three mayor i would just say thank you for addressing multiple times today that this is not a rezoning issue um those in opposition have brought that up time and time again and i will say that that is part of why we are here today is because on may 17th when we went before the planning commission travis stribling who is the chairman of the planning commission is also the son of beverly stribling who is a resident of santa rita that is suing us travis used the word rezoning and he bullied his way through to an opposition boat for our case he was asked very specifically by a fellow member on the commission to recuse himself because of his conflict of interest and he refused to um had he recused then we would not be wasting your time here today thank you for the public comment thank you i think you all have heard from me more than you want to and i'll be brief i just want to reiterate that we're asking that the lease e portion of your motion be dropped every other special used permit i'm not arguing that you might be able to do that but river terrace has had multiple leases and if landa were to move on in three years i don't have to go through all of this again the three suggestions that john james has put together we wholeheartedly adore indoors and are behind so thank you for your time further public comment i just want to emphasize a couple points

[1:38:46] and one is is that today is about a special use permit to be given to the church under no circumstances today are we evaluating or making a decision about the value and what tumble reads tumbleweeds brings to our community obviously they have a long-standing reputation and they've come committed tremendously to this community into children's lives gymnastics like many athletic activities add value they do not take away value but this decision today is not about tumbleweeds the decision today is about a special use permit to be given to the church with the opportunity to lease it to the tumbleweeds organization so i want to make sure everyone understands that the santa rita people are not against tumbleweeds they're not against young kids they're not against the program they're trying to be very protective of their neighborhood and when anybody has the opportunity to come into a neighborhood and perhaps create or maybe not create additional traffic one has to be concerned obviously over the past year we have found that the traffic has not been created as an additional burden at the same point in time we must protect our neighborhoods and i believe today based off of the motion that has been made that we are trying to solve the issue by continuing to protect the neighborhood but allowing the gymnastics program to be leased to the church under a special permit and move forward with that yes before you take a vote i just want to make clear that the resolution that we're we're um approving does a number of things the first it has lane's amendment as to the use itself but it also um it rescinds terminates and replaces the case su 19-03 which was approved in 2019 um it directs john to put a note on the zoning map showing there's a special use on this one specific property so you know on the original there were

[1:40:47] three parcels it'll be just the one parcel and that's if there's interest or there's um complaints in the future we can go pull that special use off that property and we know it's there and we can use it for enforcement it also has a specific statement that said this has no fundamental effect on the subject properties underlying or base zoning classification and then it also spells out the following conditions those five things that were present in the first one also in the second one there was no changes to that is everyone clear with what motion is before us and what we'll be voting on with that we'll take a vote i will go member by member to take this vote harry your vote tom tommy hi larry lane hi lucy brenda i motion passes 7-0 with that that concludes our regular agenda conversation we will follow up with item a which is follow-up in administrative issues obviously the closed session has been discussed and there were no issues announcements and consideration of future agenda items are there any yes mayor i have one that i want to bring up at the next meeting and that's the animal shelter i need someone to talk to us about the ordinance about stray cats and feral cats will do i think there's some work being done on that anyway with that may i ask for a motion for adjournment second all in favor motion passes we are officially adjourned at this 11 a.m

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=YoE1yU_X0AM