San Angelo City Council 4-18-23

[0:00:00] quiet everybody it must be time to get started so it is 8 30 a.m on this 18th of April Welcome to our city council meeting we love to have a full house as we have today so thank you for being here [Music] start with our chaplain prayer and our police chaplain Artie how do you say it Red Road got close we got the first three right thank you for being here would you bow your heads while as I pray in the scriptures you have said that citizens ought to obey the governing authorities since you have established those very authorities to promote peace and Order and justice therefore I pray for our mayor for the various levels of City officials and in particular for the assembled Council I'm asking that you would graciously grant them wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues of our times a sense of the welfare and true needs of our people a keen thirst for justice and right and rightness confidence in what is good and fitting the ability to work together in harmony even when there is honest disagreement personal peace in their lives and joy in their task I pray for the agenda I said before them today please give an assurance of what would please you and what would benefit those who live and work in in and around our beloved city of San Angelo it is in your Most Blessed name I pray amen third grade third grade so my notes are wrong well welcome third black third class we're glad you're here does anyone want to come more forward and speak into the microphone your voices

[0:02:09] okay so what do we do we put our hands over our heart right legislation of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much we're going to have you back again y'all want a picture hello [Laughter] he's adorable I'm gonna raise the roots they were definitely going to show us up that they need to pledge allegiance good morning Lucy okay hey Larry [Music] baby okay you know what we'll do because we're doing the proclamation index why don't first because that work for you all yes okay the first Earth day was held on

[0:04:20] April 22nd 1970 when San Francisco activist John McConnell and Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson ask Americans to join in the Grassroots demonstration supporting environmental challenges at that time president Richard Nixon led the nation in creating the Environmental Protection Agency now 53 years later more than one billion people in 193 countries participate in Earth Day activities each year making it the largest Civic observance in the world Earth Day is an annual celebration that honors the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the need to protect Earth's natural resources today we honor Fort Concho Elementary student cash koi who has acted boldly and believes in investing in our planet in creating a sustainable environment keep San Angelo beautiful continues its Mission and duty to create awareness and persuade businesses governments and citizens in our community of the need to invest in our planet to improve our environment for future Generations therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city of San Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby Proclaim April 22nd 2023 as Earth Day and encourage all residents to use this day to celebrate the Earth and commit to the stewardship of the environment together we can make the earth a safer and healthier place to live thank you so we want to thank cash for his bold action to invite us to our to his classroom today and for the presence of Miss fluitt's third grade class from Fort Concho Elementary in honor of Earth day which is Saturday the 22nd it's a perfect time to remind

[0:06:24] everybody of their commitment to Restoration and sustainability of not only the planet but of San Angelo so it keeps San Angelo beautiful we'd like to remind you of three things one get outside if you need to go to the KOA and take a walk if you need to go to the beach at the lake if you need to go uh Mosey on down the river we have beautiful beautiful places in our community that will lead you right into number two which is choose to be Litter free it's hard to believe in 2023 people still throw things outside of their car windows and that people keep things in the back of their truck that could fly out and not cover their loads so number two please choose to be Litter free and then number three would like like to invite you to join us and volunteer with keep San Angelo beautiful we have several events all throughout the year May 6 is our hazardous waste event we'd love for you to drive through and drop off some paints some chemicals some oil if you've got shredded documents we'll take those and if you have a little bit of extra effort we'd love to see you in October on the 14th at our fall sweep this past year we had over 400 participants so lots of opportunities to get out in the community and make a difference right here and we're so excited that these students who are all ksab Junior ambassadors who took a pledge to never litter to recycle when they can these are the reasons we do what we do it's their future it's their city and we want to make sure that we leave it bright and beautiful for them so that's all I have cash did you want to talk a little bit good morning my name is Cash koi and I'm a third grader at Fort Concho Elementary the main reason I wanted to talk to you today is in case you didn't know the 22nd of April is Earth Day it is an annual celebration since 1970. millions of people get together and talk about why it's important to protect our Earth I've tried to do my part in the past last year I earned my world conservation

[0:08:26] award and recently on the fourth I volunteered to keep San Angelo beautiful trash off event as a community we picked up over 2 700 pounds of trash insane right and that was just in a couple of hours there was some little guy like me can make a difference I owed all of you in this room anyone listening to give Earth the greatest Earth early birthday present today and every day on your walks runs in the car and the bus anytime day or night it all starts within ourselves be mindful of where the trash cans are and throw your trash away thank you for listening hi my name is Elizabeth Vu and this is what Earth Day means to me to me Earth day is great for the environment I wish that Earth Day is every day Earth Day saves trees nature plus a million things in our world um Earth Day keeps our world a healthy and a better place Earth Day also keeps our planet more beautiful when we plant trees flowers and Gardens you're saving the environment and I love that to me the most important thing about Earth Day is the changing of lives and improving of lives especially here in San Angelo so keep San Angelo beautiful I'm Ebony norgery and this is what Earth

[0:10:31] Day means to me Earth Day means a lot to me because I want our world to be a better place I'm thankful for Senator Gaylord Nelson because he's the reason we have an Earth Day or since Earth Day is a national holiday everyone around the world chimes in plants trees cleans up any litter and cleans up any litter or trash if we didn't have an earth day then people wouldn't care about our world and how litter really affects it I would be really disappointed if we didn't have an earth day before it's my favorite holiday and it's for our safety and our city to keep San Angelo killing thank you for listening [Applause] hello April 22nd is early who are you say that loud and knows who you are my name is Will Haddad and April 22nd is Earth Day it is very important to all of us that's why our class is dedicated by cleaning the Contour of it one reason it is important to me is because I live on the country and I don't want to see trash floating around everywhere plus we would like to clean the Concho of it clean enough clean enough to swim in I would like to say thank you because of you city council and Earth Day San Angelo is the most beautiful place on the world in the world hi I'm Gentry Beatty and what Earth Day means to me it's a day to plant trees and worry about our nature earth day is a day that we need to worry about and

[0:12:36] clean our rivers and Earth Day matters to me because it's a day to plant flowers and pick up garbage on the side of the road and our world really matters to to me and I think or they should be a bigger holiday than it already is [Applause] hi my name is Sydney Brantley and this is what Earth Day means to me to me Earth Day is a chance to give back to Mother Earth because every day the trees filter the air and give fruit we wouldn't have apples pears and oranges if we didn't have trees and to give back to our soil to grow crops and flowers and make the Texas Ground beautiful if you know what I mean I think that Earth Day is a day to change the world literally change the world and maybe it's just you or your whole neighborhood but whoever you are you can make a difference Earth Day is important to me my class and my school what does Earth Day mean to you here in San Angelo hi my name is Victoria Figueroa Perez and this is why Earth Day matters to me Earth Day matters to me because it fights to protect our planet if and if we didn't have Earth we wouldn't be alive to this day Earth gives us water and food to eat so we definitely have to honor our Earth also it tells me and probably others to not litter so our street and bridges are nice and clean and that's just great we plant flowers trees and vegetables on Earth day where we can also do a not in this earth day but other days this is why everything matters to me thank you for listening [Applause] hello I am Lucas Ramirez

[0:14:42] and airstay is important to me because if we don't plant trees or vegetables we would have no food to eat and we couldn't rely on animals because the food the animals that rely on grass and like all the other plants they would die of hunger and then we would die of hunger next hungry how about you yeah okay presentation hi I'm Callum Matthews and today I'm going to share with you a project on cleaning the Contra River [Music] here's some questions for you how many of you have ever been on the banks of the Contra River would you ever swim in it away what if I could help San Angelo pull together and get the Contra River clean enough to swim in Make a Difference by being successful and finally filtrating the water in the country River and getting it clean enough to swim in I chose this project because I want to make San Angelo a better place my name was Charlotte farmer and she served on a city council for 12 years she inspired me to do this project here's some facts San Marcos has been successful in infiltrating narrow River there are several ways to filtrate water people make tons of trash over the years and it ends up in the rivers um some filtration systems have a dump to throw their trash in riverfill Traders have three goals one get the trash out

[0:16:45] two remove garbage through filtration in three take out heavy pollutants [Music] on January 27th the fort Concho Elementary third graders made an oath to keep San Angelo beautiful [Music] here's some pictures Zoom combest is my mentor he showed me different ways to filtrate the Contra River we could modify existing dams to include aeration with possible walkway we could put aeration fountains in the river we could put in filtration systems near the celebration Bridge [Music] we could also labor turn piping bed we could lay return piping in the riverbed to avoid excavation trenching we could have a filtration waste Pond for settling then transfer to landfill or Compost Facility could possibly use some copper sulfate doston River for algae control we can we can have a makeup water source and possibly have Wills are there any Wells we had a question if there were any wells around the golf course that have substantial water we need feasibility study and or Pilot project [Music] in conclusion cleaning the country River could be the biggest project stanza has ever done this project is to make the river safer cleaner to swim in and will bring more people from all over the world thank you for listening [Applause] here are some people that I've been working with I've been working with Charlotte Anderson the director of keep San Angelo beautiful

[0:18:49] um Turner Doggett from SK engineering we've been working with the TGC Upper Colorado River Authority there it goes thank you for listening foreign [Applause] we help with your presentation today and all your wonderful comments that you've put a lot of guilt into everybody's life okay so we can all start making a difference thank you all for being here today we appreciate all the hard work and and energy and efforts and your pledge to keep San Angelo beautiful thank you very much [Applause] thank you oh I've got another one more minute one more I hope you were listening we now have a proclamation for Beta Sigma Phi day or there are individuals in our audience who would like to come forward for this please come on come on up hello welcome thank you for being here the month of April is a fitting time to honor Beta Sigma Phi the world's largest Greek letter Women's Service cultural

[0:20:52] and social organization with six chapters in San Angelo the badge of the organization signifies Life Learning and friendship by its Greek symbols Beta Sigma Phi today we recognize San Angelo Beta Sigma 5 for the charitable work to our community these women have raised thousands of dollars and donated thousands of volunteer hours to local charitable organizations therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city San Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby Proclaim April 30th 2023 as Beta Sigma Phi day for their achievements and positive determination to make a difference in our community thank you would you like to come forward and speak well the proclamation pretty much says it all we are an international organization of women who get together to have social service and cultural programs and we're hoping to build our chapters so if you're interested we'll get in touch with us well they can reach out to me I'm Betty Drennan and it's 325-245-9413 and uh we're hoping to have a tea maybe this summer and where we can invite people and see if they would be interested in joining thank you whatever foreign

[0:23:27] we will now move into the public comments section of our agenda today issues are concerns not on the regular agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the DS Begin by stating their name and address or single member district number and limit their remarks to less than three minutes do we have anyone here today to offer public comment if so please come forward hey my name is Brian bilsma I'm a retired San Angelo police officer retired in 2019. I lived in the single member district one down on Crestwood Drive I'd prefer not to get my address uh the reason I'm I'm here today just so that you know what I'm going to talk about does not affect me I'm retired military I have my insurance through the military I do have some insurance through the city but not the one that I'm mainly talking about the one one I'd like to address is the insurance the health insurance the city of San Angelo in 2000 voted the council at that time voted to do away with the health insurance for employees when they retire I have been told that they didn't completely do away with it that they turned around any employee has the option of being able to buy in but they have to pay it a hundred percent 100 percent is just financially unstable for a city employee and it doesn't matter whether he's a police officer a firefighter or or he's mainly a ditch digger within the city because of the because of the cost for retiree only it's 586 dollars a month at a hundred percent

[0:25:30] the I've been talking to my councilman sending questions and and Brian Kendrick has been answering them uh I understand what Brian's saying I don't agree with it in 2009 they had a discussion in the minutes that talked about a three-tier system concerning the insurance and the HR Director at that time put an email out when somebody questioned it or asked about it and said that the retirees did in fact have insurance upon retiring and then she actually said past the word since then people have been retiring and even and they come to find out that they don't have access to the insurance I believe that as a city employee if they're if they're loyal enough to the city for 20 plus years and has has gone through everything that they have to had to do in order to be able to be eligible to retire I believe that the city should have the loyalty to them and allow them to be able to have the option of buying into an insurance at at a lower reduced rate whether it's what the current what the retirees pay that retired or that were hired before 2000 you know would be equal to it I don't know what the numbers are uh I know Michael Dame Dane has been involved in some of that in the past but to give the employee an option to be able to buy into the insurance at a reduced rate is up to you ladies and gentlemen up here I know the city staff does a lot of recommending but it's up to the city council and I think the city council owes it to their to their employees when they get ready to retire

[0:27:33] when I first got hired what I used to always hear you need to wrap up your comment please I'm getting ready to what I used to always hear is that the the older officers would say we get paid a low amount but because of the benefits you know we accept that well since then the city has taken away most of the benefits thank you very much thank you any further public comment today mayor I'd like to make a comment yes um as the Ada coordinator Who was appointed last week I'd like to give an update to the public on all the things the city has been doing recently I've come to realize that not everybody knows these things just because we do them we actually need to tell them we do them sometimes so um in the past couple of weeks last week we sent out 234 self-assessment documents to 78 different staff members who manage programs or services with the city of San Angelo these are evaluating things such as effective communication General accessibility the department web pages the city website ticketing General administrative requirements to the Ada and then some specialized forms for police emergency management and whether or not we have sidewalk or ramp curb ramp kinds of programs these were due back yesterday so anybody that didn't get it back to me I'll be calling them today to check on them to make sure they're okay um and then I'm going to compile that information we'll provide it to the task force and and have some conversations with them and ultimately that information will be coming back to you guys as a report as well as to the public um last week we also trained 70 front line staff members as well as a few managers who jumped into those trainings um Daniel and both assistant city managers were trained and 17 directors or assistant directors on Ada etiquette and the Ada's requirements we haven't started the facilities assessment yet and that's because we're going to be doing that with a consultant who we will hire that utilizing a 700 000 Grant we have received for that purpose we have to work through that Grant process which takes a bit but that project is coming we also have an item on the agenda today regarding additional funding for that but we can talk about that later I'm

[0:29:35] Brian with the assistance of Staff such as Carl and Sid created a web page that lists all of our accessible City facilities we update this page as more information becomes available we hope to have maps and a lot of different information on there there's a quick link to that page at Costa tx.us backslash Ada that will take you there there are 41 different facilities listed that people can explore you are allowed you can have drop downs to limit your search of those facilities based on whether the facility is fully accessible or has limited accessibility as well as by the kind of program you're looking for so if you're looking for an accessible playground you can do the drop downs for that and it'll list all of those playgrounds for you we're updating web pages with forms to include language for informing the public they can request alternative formats they can do that without us putting it on the web page but to have more transparency about what we offer we're putting that all of our public meetings now should have agendas that are in large print and we're working on getting information that we hand out to the public either just on that people can pick up as they come into our office is to have large print documents available we're using the American Council of the blind large print guidelines to create those documents we are very close to executing that contract with the provider who will improve the overall functionality of our website it'll identify things such as broken links which has been kind of a nightmare the last couple of weeks as we've been making some out of applications to our website as well as identifying accessibility issues for us so that we don't have to go Page by Page link by link looking for those things we've added Ada accessibility review to the special events process in the last week I've identified four events that had plans which block some of the accessible parking at those events I turn we turn that information back all of those events made Corrections and those events are going forward without a problem the events area is one of those areas I would like the accessibility committee to like talk with me about a little more about what kind of things we can look for we had an accessible we have an accessible entrance to City Hall by the Circle Drive and that door has been locked since I came here and Daniel and I had a conversation about why is that door locked it was initially locked for safety concerns but if you come in the front door of the building you can access all parts of City Hall that you can access if you come in that back door

[0:31:37] so there was no point in keeping it locked at all it did was made people who needed that insurance have to go through the extra step of ringing the bell and waiting to that have that door unlocked so that's no longer locked we've revised the guidance on parking lot permits to comply with the Ada that doesn't require an ordinance change it's already part of our code so we are going to now be including permits whenever somebody's re-striping a lot which is the kind of work that's required under the Ada to look at upgrading those facilities we're reviewing all of our policies and incentive programs to see if there are ways that we are either limiting access to people so we can change that or if there are ways we can promote a more accessible San Angelo through our funding mechanisms and some of those conversations will probably be coming to you and then I've had conversations with Rodeo say pack as well as our own Civic events folks regarding ticketing there is some new guidance that came out and there's some some portions of that guidance that I think are going to make um a little more difficult for people with who need those accessible seats to get those accessible seats but you know if the Department of Justice is telling us to make those changes we're going to look at making those changes and Sid's committed to having new ticketing rules in place by our big events this summer I would just ask the public when you are purchasing tickets for events that you don't try to purchase those tickets for that are accessible seating unless you absolutely need them so people who do need them can get those seats so that's all thank you thank you anybody else like to offer public comment I just want to make one comment if anyone and if the public has received an email from me about Publishers Clearing House I did not send it be very clear I did not send it I had a couple people come into my restaurant on Monday and ask if I sent them an email about Publishers Clearinghouse I did not I have not and will not so just to be clear all right with that Lucy sent it that's it

[0:33:40] we will move into our consent agenda Lucy do you have an item you'd like to pull yes I'd like to pull F please Karen no ma'am thank you Larry the ma'am Tommy Tom no ma'am Harry no ma'am may I have a motion for approval of all the consent agenda items with the exception of f motion to approve with the exception of f Aaron made the motion second by Lucy um all any public comment on any of the items on the consent agenda seeing none hearing none will take a vote all those in favor say aye aye motion passes seven zero item F consider a resolution of support of the city's application for the TxDOT Transportation Alternatives set aside Grant in conjunction with the Rick's Dr Rick's Drive pedestrian improvements project and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents Patrick you're on good morning mayor and Council this is one of three exciting grant opportunities that the city is trying to take advantage of the Rick's Drive project has been on our list of of priorities for several years now just waiting for that perfect opportunity to find the funding in order to do it what this particular project is it is a an accessible pathway from Holloman Elementary and we're going to go all the way to Gregory over to the Family Dollar and then down to Poland church so it really provides a connect a connective pathway through that whole Poland area to get those children to Rick to uh the school and the church and and even a little bit of shopping safely and efficiently can you um explained this says resolutions so talk about the process so it's simply a resolution what's the time frame of being told whether we will or we won't get it what's the chances of us

[0:35:42] getting it just go a little more into what these resolutions mean absolutely so the city proposed or put put in a preliminary application to techstop for this project and and the other two and we're we're approved to move on to the next phase which is a detailed application as part of that detailed application we have to have a resolution of support from our governing body so from City Council on this I know Lucy's been very adamant about trying to get the sidewalk in her district for a while now and and she's absolutely right there is a need there you can see it if you could go down there and see that pathway that's been beaten into the Earth there so as part of that detailed application Community letters of support Partnerships with different entities and and so are all part of that application process what this is it's an 80 20 match grant that we're looking at so the total project is a little over a million dollars so we'll put up just just shy of that um you know 200 000 in order to get that sidewalk done but that's a big opportunity to get something that's necessary that we quite frankly don't have the funding for any other way so we're excited about that opportunity the awards should be announced probably in October is kind of what txdot's anticipating so we'll know by that time if we've if we've gotten there we should have a good feel moving through there typically in these grants there is communication going back and forth between us and the in the granting agencies so we'll have a good idea of moving into that if if we're going to be a good applicant for this great just want to make sure everybody understands there's no funding for it right now this is very competitive all of these so it's not just F it's all three of these resolutions that we have submitted it's very competitive every city in the state of Texas is going to be applying for the same thing that we are resolutions to support their projects but we think we have some really needed great projects and hope tax dot looks at them with the same passion

[0:37:45] and need that we believe our city has for these Lucy yes I just wanted to thank you for the presentation and I wanted the constituents to know what we were looking at and what we're trying to do and how we're going to submit for this Grant and I'm just so excited to see that the fact that it's on paper now I mean we've just been talking but now we're started starting point and so I'm really excited about that thank you so much for taking the time to do that you're welcome any other questions for Patrick okay I moved to approve a motion for approval do I have a second second by Larry public comment concerning this resolution item seeing none hearing none will take a vote all those in favor say aye aye motion passes seven zero thank you thanks we will now move into our 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 a pallets are exempt from this time limit above and instead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes item a is a presentation of the downtown San Angelo Inc biannual report and we have Monica Ramos and Dale Velasquez here to present today thank you mayor council for the opportunity to let you know what's been happening with downtown San Angelo and your support I'm going to turn it over to Monica thank you Dell good morning Council good morning mayor I'd like for y'all to take a close look at our first slide here we have a collage of historic photos this was done intentionally as a reminder that next month is historic preservation month so you will see us back in May with our Proclamation as we do each year downtown San Angelo is a strong support system for historic preservation Economic Development and revitalization of

[0:39:49] downtown we are one of 90 cities that are a part of the Texas Main Street program and this program is also on a national scale across 44 States we're proud to uphold our Main Street accreditation which shows our exemplary performance across all four points of the Main Street approach which is design organization Economic Development and promotion uh we submit quarterly reports to Main Street and this helps us identify the needs of our community record our accomplishments track and record changes and it also helps us improve our programming one of the most important reports that we submit to them is our reinvestment report reinvestment is in measure of economic impact and so what we see here for our first quarter that we've accumulated January through March we are already at 1 million 161 760 dollars making our current overall total 281 million 494 592 dollars of economic impact what this dollar amount shows is the improvements from private and public projects within our downtown so this report really means a lot to us and to Main Street as far as the reporting system goes on a local scale we also have a reporting system of our mixed beverage and sales tax report this helps us track our growth and kind of look forward to our future overall what we see here is a positive increase I will note that for 2023 the first quarter that is not a complete first quarter impact and this is due to March numbers not being due until April 20th but I wanted to go ahead and show it because it does already show a gradual increase from

[0:41:53] 2022 and 2021 so once those numbers are submitted we're hoping that that will even out across the board and be a plus for us do you have any questions on this report when you look at 2023 first quarter that is not the total number so you're reflecting a decrease but you don't have March numbers in there that's correct okay I'm going to skip past this slide we'll come back to it since we're on our reporting I'll move into our tiers projects for the South the total that has been approved at this point is 199 141 dollars for three projects 213 to 215 South chadburn is undergoing interior improvements with secondary Ingress and sprinkler to prepare the property for either cell or current use 109 South chadburn is undergoing facade improvements as well as safety features and I will note that there is a tenant at the bottom which we hope will be opening its doors soon and the top floor is empty and that one will receive a little extra love as well 402 West Beauregard this one is currently in progress of construction and Rehabilitation this is going to be the angoria boutique hotel so I think this hotel will look really nice and be an added feature to Beauregard Avenue it's not talk about it being called the boutique hotel so Boutique Hotel means that it's going to have different hotel rooms Hotel space it's going to be a different design from a normal hotel that you would see and so we're really excited about this there's going to be a patio up front with a pool undergoing some really great Renovations so we're really looking forward to this one it's a prominent location so almost definitely it's great all right my favorite reporting to give

[0:43:57] is about new businesses we love to see new businesses in downtown at this point we have nine new businesses as compared to last year's overall total of 11 new businesses and we're already almost there and we're barely here in April so I imagine that we'll see more come along throughout the end of the year we have a couple of boutiques the Barcade we're glad to have Greg grigsby's Boutique relocate and move to downtown as well as number three the Buffalo Soldier Art Gallery is complete and open as a venue and Art Space we declared 123 North Chadbourne as the most the the worst facility building in all of downtown it was the the biggest eyesore so yes it was very dilapidated so the work that has been done on this building has been phenomenal and we're glad to see it renovated and up and going and doors open and available to the public they're even holding painting classes a lot of different activities that are being held at this art gallery they're not they're not finished yet they just uh got approval for an ani and um and they've applied for tiers funds for that as well as they're going to be putting in a a mural on the on the building on the side of the building so talk about number nine wandering mind Brew Company wandering Brian why hard to say wandering mind Brewery um I I would say it is open to the public it's open with um to go service at this time they are also in the process of undergoing dhrc and possibly tears but they still have a few more developments to make to this Brewery before they fully open to the public and allow visitors to come inside and hang around but we're glad that they're here they're inside of the

[0:45:58] BackBeat building the old mason Lodge and so we're happy to welcome them into downtown gonna go back now this event here I'm really excited about it it's the imagine the possibilities tour this is a targeted event to real estate developers real estate agents developers contractors anyone involved in looking for properties in downtown this is the event to go to on Sunday May 7th from two o'clock to 4 30 p.m that Mother's Day no it's not good because I get a small audience if it was and we chose a Sunday just so that everyone has their free roam to come out and attend this event we'll have refreshments and a presentation to start the tour and we have three properties on this tour they are all three located on chadburn street we did that because this will be a walking tour and it might be a little warm on May 7th so I advise everyone to dress comfortably but really what it is is an opportunity to come out and view these properties that are either for sale or for lease it's kind of like a commercial open house so besides developers and real estate agents it is open to the public so anyone can come out and attend this event on May 7th and you've gotten permission from the farm marshall to open these buildings to allow people in no but I will do that okay thanks for pointing that out okay we'll be honestly um I have not spoken to the foreign to walk around and view the properties um kind of like a real estate agent taking in someone to come and view the property and those will be the hosts at each location are the real estate Personnel that will give information about each location um this is being promoted across the state as well because this is in conjunction with the Texas historical

[0:48:00] commission and the Main Street program so they put that on their website oh yes absolutely and there are 10 other cities that are participating as well they have different dates throughout May that they'll be hosting their tours our seventh annual Brews use and barbecue event huge success is always as you see here on the map we had 40 adult teams that came in from across the state as well as New Mexico to compete in our barbecue competition we had 16 youth entries in our kids Q competition and that ranged from ages 6 to 15. we had 44 craft vendors food vendors and local breweries as well as entertainment local entertainment by Shinola Billy Dan Langley's one-man blues band Grupo animal and also one of our former interns Kyler Dean they all rocked the stage as well as rocks and on belly dance group and Angela Express Athletics so they really brought some excitement to the event what I'd like to announce which we're really excited about is that our region director let us know that we have maintained a good status to become a state qualifying barbecue cook-off so we are in the process of getting that going for next year and what this would mean is that with it being ibca cook off and state qualifying that our teams could more than double so that'll really bring more people to San Angelo and we know that when these teams come and stay at our barbecue cook-off they're bringing their family and friends as well and we've received compliments from them letting us know that they enjoy the location down by the river because it's close to all of the shops and restaurants so their families can kind of take a break from the barbecuing festivities that they're involved with all year and go and walk around our downtown and enjoy our environment on our marketing and promotions updates

[0:50:04] our sheep spectacular continues to do well with 132 total sheep sponsored in this photo shown here it might be a little difficult to see but this is an Airbnb on David Street we received compliments from the owner that received positive feedback from guests that were staying in his Airbnb they mentioned how much they loved the decor especially the San Angelo local decor and so those photos hanging on the wall are of our sheep spectacular our historic downtown magazine I'm just a little bit of history on the magazine it began 10 years ago in a partnership with downtown San Angelo and the standard times um it was later then passed on over to Grace media as the publisher Grace media moved to Euless Texas and just like any other long-distance relationship communication became a little bit difficult so downtown San Angelo decided to make a change and what we did is we decided to do what we know best and that's Go Local so we have media Advantage taking over the publish publishing part and editorial part of our magazine and we're very confident in media Advantage as they're a highly professional and creative media agency so we believe that no doubt that they're going to be able to produce the content that fits our mission and our needs for this magazine we do have our latest issue with the coverage thrown here of the lady in blue that will be out at least within the next couple of weeks we'll see that distributed out to businesses across downtown across San Angelo hotels and places of high traffic I missed my stroll the downtown stroll continues on we have our next draw on April 28th then we'll have one in June as well as in December all of our stroll dates are listed on

[0:52:08] our website downtown sanangelo.com we have our trolley that will be running around for passengers it's a free trolley ride to stroll guest from 5 to 7 P.M those are new hours it does start at the Museum of Fine Arts and goes around each location and comes back to the museum to drop off guests few event Partnerships going and the United States Air Force Band of the West came to visit San Angelo and this was their clarinet quartet that came to the Museum of Fine Arts this really speaks a lot because they travel over 125 000 miles across the U.S so them coming to San Angelo meant a lot to us and the importance that we were able to help them out help with their promotions and bring them to San Angelo really stands out the comfort and joy Christmas concert was held in December we helped the Christian House of Prayer host and promote this event we brought Tom Braxton who was a really great saxophonist who shared the stage with Aretha Franklin um and many other notable names and this concert was sold out at the Museum of Fine Arts our Partnerships with the Asus BDC goes strong we have been actively involved with the business Brownback Series this is an important seminar because we're able to provide Educational Tools and resources and information to businesses business owners management employees and anyone who is welcome to attend this event will receive Educational Tools from this event in August on the 17th we have partnered with ASU Student Life to bring rambunctious week to downtown and for those of you that aren't familiar with rambunctious week what this is is a week

[0:54:11] where the new students to ASU get accustomed to the campus as well as San Angelo we wanted to bring them to downtown because I don't think that very often ASU students really leave campus so we do want to draw them in and let them see all of the entertainment and shopping and dining that we have available here in our downtown and that will be on August 17th from 5 to 8 pm foreign and before I go into this this slide here we actually have a couple more that I didn't list we've also partnered with old Central Firehouse to host a Mother's Day outing it's Mother's Day Mosey that'll be on May 11th this is a day to celebrate all the moms out there and give them some free treats and refreshments from 5 to 8 pm a notable event as well is the Santa Rita oil well number ones 100th anniversary that is coming up on May 28th as far as the actual anniversary date downtown will be hosting an event on Saturday May 27th with the Railway Museum of San Angelo we'll have a vintage car show and food vendors the Railway Museum will be providing historic tours giving facts about the Santa Rita oil well and then on Sunday May 28th the chicken farm Art Center will be hosting various activities on the actual anniversary dates that will be a weekend to celebrate again the Santa Rita oil well number ones 100th anniversary The Star Spangled Banner concert and fireworks show everyone save the date it is happening and coming on Monday July 3rd we are very excited about this event because we always bring an elaborate fireworks display we will have other organizations participating in this event this is something new that we've brought to the table of the San Angelo Hispanic Heritage Museum and Cultural Center will host a car show at the Farmers Market Fort Concho is having a hamburger lunch there'll be activities

[0:56:13] along the Bosque and possibly many more to come so just stay up to date with either our Facebook or our website for updates on the Star Spangled Banner concert we really enjoy bringing this entertainment to San Angelo without this fireworks show there really wouldn't be a whole lot happening in downtown so we want to make sure that we keep this alive and going in closing for me this report really signifies our impact that we have on our citizens the city and our partnering organizations a lot of what we do kind of goes unnoticed but as long as we have these tangible tangible benefits that are available far and wide to everyone and everyone thinks of us for San Angelo gives we're okay with that thank you Monica one more thing couple of things one we are we have taken over at the beginning of the year the processing of the tiers applications for both the North and South so we've been helping take on that responsibility also I'd like to note that our board chair is here today with us Michelle babish and also Andy Markey and our interns Samantha is also here with us um I made a mistake at our last well we're one of the city council members meetings I was uh making a comment about the number of vacant buildings in downtown and I recited a number that was incorrect I was remembering a a report that we did in 2019 at that time we had 52 vacant buildings we were actually down to 38 as of current building so we went from in 2007 we went from 120 vacant buildings to now 48 vacant buildings in downtown and I think a lot of that in that that's a increase between I mean a decline of vacant buildings from 2019 to currently I want to say and I attributed some of this to

[0:58:20] our streetscape program that we have the city under to to make sure that our downtown looks awesome so thank you so much for your support on all that and that's concludes our report do I have questions or comments from any city council member thank you very much keep keep up the good work [Music] with that we'll move into Item B consider approving tax increment reinvestment Zone tiers incentive funding for two private projects in the north tiers area for the properties located at 802 North chadburn and 2901 North Chadbourne totaling 102 591 and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents you're on John thank you John James director of planning and development services I'll skip this slide because we have another the same thing later in the presentation but the first project is 802 North chadburn they've requested about thirty one thousand dollars the recommended funding is thirty thousand nine hundred and seventy one the only reason for that is the calculation of the match they're required to do 10 percent match and their proposal was nine point something percent so we had to shave off um about eight hundred dollars just to make sure they met that match they are proposing facade improvements Paving Landscaping outdoor storage and screening this is the existing facility it's called BG's this facility did receive some tears funding a few years ago to make some improvements but these the new owners have applied to do some additional improvements they want to paint the building they not a fan of the yellow and so I want to make it a more muted color adding some outdoor patio space some Landscaping towards the front as well they've got space for a food truck that's not actually part of their current proposal but as they remodel the

[1:00:24] site they plan to set aside a space that could be used in the future for a food truck I didn't mention they're also going to have some fencing back towards the back as well the next project is 2901 North chadburn they've requested about 71 thousand dollars this one is mostly facade work a little bit of Paving and lighting this is a grocery store there at the corner of 29th and chadburn it's basically they want to extend the front porch with a covering concrete make that entryway nicer it also includes a new front door on the building it does include some resurfacing of the parking lot although that's a very small portion of the overall expense on the project as well as redoing the facade there of the the building you can see the paint peeling a couple more pictures again this existing cover they want to extend the whole length of the building and extend it out and cover that front porch area so again there are two requests today a total of 102 000. this is the funding available about 1.6 million in the north so if you recall over the past few cycles that number is coming down at one point it was getting close to two and a half million dollars so we've been successful in getting more North projects to apply and come in for these grants we've already got two or three more that are in process that will be going to the board in a month or two um and so we like to continue to see those coming in just as a reminder in case you're wondering um the north projects when we amended the policy uh almost a year ago uh we opened that up to those North projects can apply at any time and so that's why you're seeing some of these North projects every couple of months versus the South projects we like to get them in a batch because we often get more requests than we have money so we want

[1:02:27] to compare them all against each other to decide what makes sense but with all of that money in the north we're encouraging them to apply at any time with that I'd be happy to answer any questions I think it's important that first slide that you showed if you'll go back to the BG's [Music] there you go what a big difference Landscaping makes and we had asked for support to to invest in the streetscape landscape on North chadburn and of course we were turned down for that but you see from this slide how important the streetscape landscape is in terms of warming it up and improving the overall visual impact on it so I want to applaud the new owners for the work and and what they're doing here that is as you come underneath Houston heart one of the first businesses that people see as you go into our historic downtown so I think this is exactly the kind of project that we want to see and I like the fact that over a three-month period almost three months maybe a little less that over almost seven hundred thousand dollars has been reinvested back into businesses that are going to help Drive additional interest in opening up business and improving the existing facades and or the way those businesses looks I want to thank you the applicants if you're here for these two presentations I think they're smart they look great and they will have a great impact and I appreciate that any other questions or comments yes yes ma'am yes the lady that submitted this one on the 802 actually included some aspects of ADA in terms of parking but we really don't have a component within the application system that addresses if

[1:04:31] you're going to fix up the facade then you also have to fix it up in terms of the ADA requirements a couple of them in the past have had relatively small problems that weren't addressed in their application and you know here we are they've been approved yeah and that's a good question we um recently at actually the last meeting we talked with the board about coming back to them with some changes not quite sure if it requires changes to the policies or just changes to what we um the way we operate the program but we did talk with them about adding in some Ada related Provisions so that number one we obviously encourage people to do that and we'll provide funding to do that but also to add that into the criteria that's considered for projects moving forward and in fact similar to the mayor just mentioned oftentimes when we get people coming in for parking lot improvements we tell them well we're very hesitant to to do parking lot improvements without also Landscaping to make it look nicer similarly we can start telling people if you're going to do things to improve your building we also want to see you do those Ada improvements as well and that's something that I think in some cases we we've had projects in the past where the board has offered them more money that you know they ask for forty thousand and the board will say well we'll give you 50 if you'll do this thing as well and so I think that's something that even if an applicant comes in not projecting any Ada improvements we can take a better look at those and say hey have you thought about doing these things and we'll give you the extra money to do that as well it's not required legally well no that's a good point mayor the if it's required through the remodeling that they're doing in many cases they have to do that anyway so I think what we're talking about is cases where they're doing such minor remodeling that they may not be required to do it that we would encourage them to go ahead and do it anyway

[1:06:35] um I would just like to agree with the mayor's comments and also with my colleague councilman Miller and with you as well John I appreciate that you're acting um proactively when you see an opportunity but I also want to specifically call out how valuable it is for all of us to see design drawings and photographs that help us visualize what is coming forward it makes all the difference in the world and I would like to encourage applicants to continue to do that with that go ahead John I just need to confirm both of these are commercial retail facilities correct they are yes that's correct all right thank you without me I have a motion for maybe improved Lucy made a motion was that Karen yes seconded public comment scene none will take a vote all those in favor say aye aye motion passes 7-0 we look forward to seeing the business Community improved with these changes thank you item C first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to rezone property from the neighborhood commercial zoning District to a planned development which is pd23-02 to allow bases zoning of General commercial also allowing a welding shop and Outdoor Storage being 4.651 Acres located at 2025 East Houston heart Expressway John euron and just just so it's clear the property is is actually two pieces of property right there the initial proposal is they're developing the just the northern part but this zoning does apply to both both properties they are proposing well let me talk about the notification first we did send out notifications did not receive any in support or in opposition here is their proposal again just a reminder you're not approving this proposal you're just approving the zoning but this is their current

[1:08:37] proposal um the there's some homes over here and that'll come into play when we talk about the planning commission's recommendation but this part of the property would be mini storage and then the welding shop portion would be there on the easternmost part um the subject property is designated transitional in our comprehensive plan which is typically an area between heavier either industrial or heavier commercial kinds of uses and residential and so it's intended to be something that helps transition between the two uh oftentimes it can be apartments or a lighter type of of commercial so the Planning Commission knowing that believed that The General commercial zoning is appropriate they were uncomfortable with the welding shop and the related outdoor storage of welding you know materials Outdoors given the presence of the residential there to the West as well as some planned residential to the East and I can show you that on the map in a second um so uh staff did recommend approval of the rezoning to the plan development however the Planning Commission did deny the request for the plan development but alternatively a recommended approval of The General commercial and so that creates a little bit of an odd situation if the council uh if you're feeling is you want to approve the originally recommended or the originally requested plan development that would take a super majority of at least six of you to approve the plan development as requested because of the denial by the Planning Commission however if you choose to follow the planning commission's recommendation of General commercial that would just take a simple majority uh prove let me go back to the map real quick one of the things that the Planning Commission remembered because it happened just at one of their recent meetings was a portion of this property over here

[1:10:40] basically this Southern piece just came in for a residential subdivision development so there'll be a new road coming through the Middle with homes basically on each side this front piece will remain commercial and so in fact this this property with the welding shop will be next to commercial when that develops but given all of the homes that would be built here that was part of the planning commission's thinking in thinking that this is appropriate for commercial but really not for something as intense as like a welding shop when we say as intense as a welding shop is the welding shop most of the work done in the interior of the building or on the outside the fact that it's a welding shop shouldn't be at odds yeah is where the work is done because everything's about the facade and the look of the building the business more than it is just about what it what they do I think that's a good point the plan development that the staff had recommended does require that all of the welding activity be inside the building to help reduce that impact on the surrounding neighborhood I think the Planning Commission felt that just the appearance of a welding shop given all of the things that could be stored Outdoors all the metal and all the things that they would use in the course of of their business just isn't appropriate both because of the adjacent residential but also because of this being on the major entryway into town that something like a welding shop maybe should be tucked away a little more rather than being right there on uh right there on a major entryway question mark is if you drive Houston heart right now what part would you do away with that's already there I mean I'm confused what the issue is in terms of oh my gosh this is going to be awful on Houston heart sure

[1:12:46] and I can only relay again staff originally recommended approval of this uh um I can only relay what was discussed by the Commissioners at the meeting uh let me get to that I didn't I think I got to the recommendation here um it was a vote of two in favor in foreign opposition so there were a couple of planning Commissioners that were supportive uh but again of course it takes a majority to recommend approval so there were four in opposition but um basically the the details that I outlined are what they discussed at their meeting and why they uh were opposed I know we have this site um map in front of us but um did we and I can't remember when I go through this did we have any pictures of what this welding shop would look like and what is the percent of outdoor storage that a business can have a commercial business can have because I think there's a percentage of the total square footage that can be outdoor storage if you will or versus not well yes but that's one of the reasons for the needing the plan development is because in General commercial you're limited to only 10 percent of the site which doesn't actually work for the welding shop and so the plan development would would allow that to be increased uh to accommodate uh the additional outdoor storage limit let's clarify that and I will default to the mayor Lucy so if we don't do plan development they can't do the welding shop and they can't do the or they can't do the storage units they can do the they can do the storage and so the Planning Commission was fine with the storage um what they couldn't do is the welding shop itself and they could not exceed 10 percent of the site for outdoor storage proposing this the same owners of the welding shop and the storage units that's my understanding so that would almost be a deal breaker I mean if you can't get a to B I went ahead and said that the people said it was okay that

[1:14:49] they would take the storage units and go ahead and say okay we're not going to build the welding shop is that correct is that well at the Planning Commission they were obviously they wanted everything they asked for but it at the end they decided Well part of it's better than nothing so um I can't guarantee that they would go forward with that if it may be a package deal in their mind but um storage buildings look like speaking of what might be offensive what do they look like because I'm just you know sometimes storage buildings aren't fabulous to look at so what's the Viewpoint here of the storage buildings versus this Commercial Business and particularly since you're showing us that the whole freeway here is going to be commercial well what commercial is going to be on that what what are the adjacent commercial Lots going to have on them sure and we don't know that and in terms of Aesthetics this isn't like a tears project or a downtown project where we get drawings and renderings of what things will look like it's again since we're just zoning the property we don't have any ability to to get drawings of what they're proposing and they just have to meet our our basic minimum standards for building which in an area like this we don't have any higher aesthetic standards like we do in some areas Lucy I wanted to ask a question John um had we not approved a welding shop along the access road yeah in fact a welding shop had been approved on this particular property a few years ago it expired they never went forward with it and so that prompted them to come back with this request Larry I'm a little confused over why this welding shop is such an issue is it an air quality or noise abatement what is the reason that the folks I think it's just that that welding shops tend to have an appearance that with with the

[1:16:51] things stored outside you might have issues with noise moving Metals around in the outdoor areas trucks delivering things and coming and going um just kind of in general they are a little bit more intense use in terms of those kinds of things I don't know if it's air quality or anything like that because it everything's supposed to be done indoors at least per this plant development but I think it would be more of the coming and going of of trucks and vehicles and all of the outdoor materials moving around I've had Lucy and then Tommy you'll be next okay you were talking about it being a residential that there was going to be houses built on the second half of the property not the front of the road yeah yeah there's some existing homes over here um and then there'll be some homes built here um now remember that this zoning would apply to this entire piece so um one thing you might consider again there's no proposal before you for a welding shop but if you approve it as written the welding shop could go here where they've proposed it or it could go anywhere down here which would back right up to this area of home so you might if you're inclined to actually approve the plan development you might limit the welding shop to just that Northern property that might address so we can do that as well yes okay Tommy John do we have any idea what what is going to be stored outside do they do they even have to disclose that as a part of a plan development what will be stored no again with the plan development you have large discretion in terms of what you could limit it in other words but we're not they haven't indicated exactly what they would be storing out there I imagine it's it's you know the metal and materials that they would use to do the kinds of things that they do or somebody brings in something to be repaired it's sitting out there while

[1:18:54] they are waiting to repair it or after it's done that kind of thing I wonder what the difference in this look would be versus those use those bad cars that huge big lot of rusted out old cars I mean I'm just saying Karen thank you um I was present at the Planning Commission meeting when this was debated and discussed and I I want to make public the fact that I support the planning commission's recommendation for reasons as follows so we've been having increasing numbers of conversations about strategic planning about long-term planning about Vision planning for our city and no one is against a welding shop it's not about the welding shop specifically it's about the fact that that Frontage is immensely valuable real estate to the property owner it has the potential to be purchased or developed by an incoming National retailer or restaurant chain or something like that which would make sense as the city grows and as we connect to the interstate systems that are coming our way and so part of the conversation the Planning Commission discussed those very things Forward Thinking appropriateness and of course the fact that a welding shop while not necessarily undesirable would be better placed a little bit further back on the site for reasons of visual hazards safety hazards potential for noise so that's where I stand and I think it's I think it's worth considering we have once again we have an opportunity to be thoughtful about the future and still permit the property owner to develop his

[1:20:56] land in accordance with his wishes with slight modifications Tommy John if if the plan development is approved does that stay with the property regardless of how long any I would assume the storage units would be very long term but the welding shop May at some point not be in business so if we have a plan development they have a welding shop on it how does and somebody wants to come in and do something different are they restricted to a welding shop or could it be even less desirable more desirable how does that work with a plan development well in the way the plan development works is it is it's established with a base zoning which in this case is General commercial but with the added use of the welding shop so if the welding shop goes away the only thing that could go there is either a welding shop or anything else in General commercial so nothing heavy commercial and so that's the reason uh I think they they could have requested zoning to heavy commercial but I think everybody recognized that we may not want many of the other things that could happen in heavy commercial which is why we step back to The General commercial but with the added use of the welding shop and I will add based on what I just said this does include their site plan which is adopted which would be adopted as part of the plan development so unless they amended that which would have to come back through the process that welding shop would be limited to that portion so again if they wanted to put it down here adjacent to these new homes that would have to come back through the process of Planning Commission and Council and the part of it that is designated for development for commercial there is at this point in time no business specifically attached to that commercial piece of real estate it's just that it

[1:23:01] is going to be developed as a commercial piece of land you mean the subject property or that adjacent property the one that the housing is going to be behind it you showed us where that is going to be commercial right and then below that's residential that's correct so the question mark is again if on the other side there's already residential and you got storage buildings across from it right that's right which doesn't seem to be an issue if in fact this piece of land is going to have commercial with residential below it and they're having no problem presenting the idea that you're going to have residential with commercial on the other side of it so and we don't know what that commercial is going to be but if it's zoned General commercial it could be a combination of things including a welding shop no and that's the distinction is that it would only allow The General commercial uses which would not allow the welding shop or the outdoor storage so any without a rezoning at least anything that happens in this area would be General commercial and I think that was part of the planning commission's thinking and and saying that that area also makes sense for General commercial but not the more intense uses that aren't allowed in General commercial so on that piece of property we're talking about what part of the real estate is going to be the storage facility and what type of storage facilities because we have a lot of storage facilities all across the city some of them are far more attractive than others but they all serve a purpose but um that's my question what kind of storage is it self storage is it controlled storage is it temperature controlled what kind of environment does this present and the short answer is we don't know they they've shown where it's going to be located on the site uh but again we we at this point

[1:25:04] it's just zoning the property for The General commercial we know storage units are allowed but they don't have to provide any information about what it looks like or you know what type of storage it would be as long as it's allowed in The General commercial then it's allowed here is there going to be a fence between the storage and the welding shop at least based on this plan they don't show that the other question mark is with the storage facilities being built there you already established a point of view the chances of a nice restaurant or some other uh business being put there next to these storage buildings probably limits who's going to want to put anything there in that location going to do the storage buildings right they're they're part of it yeah I mean so with that being a part of the development already and then the other part going commercial which again we don't know what that commercial piece of real estate's going to be all we know is it's commercial and Define what that commercial could be that General commercial talk about what General commercial could be on that particularly strip General commercial is kind of our standard commercial District that would allow retail restaurants basically the the full range of what you might think of as commercial that's not that the heavy commercial things that have lots of outdoor storage lots of equipment those kinds of things fall into heavy commercial but just your basic retail restaurant service kinds of uses is what General commercial shopping centers strip center that kind of thing we're going to do housing behind it and that's that's not uncommon we do require a buffering between housing and Commercial and so in a situation like this area it's not uncommon to have along a freeway the commercial with

[1:27:07] housing behind it you know the housing will face inward towards the road and so basically the back of your backyard will back up to the back of a you know a commercial Shopping Center or restaurant or whatever and like I said we do require screening which would be fencing and possibly Landscaping between the two yes Harry I needed some clarification we started talking about storage units but that's not where we or we've talked about storage but I don't know that that's where we were when we first started the conversation two pieces of property they want to change the zoning on both presently the site plan says that the welding shop would go in the Northeast portion of that particular upper property the bottom property you said storage I don't know that we said storage units at the time do you anticipate that the applicant was thinking about storage of his own materials that they were going to use in the welding shop I don't believe so I mean I would defer to the applicant and I'm not sure if they're here but basically all we know at this point is there would be Mini Storage on this part the welding shop here and this would be future commercial which would be limited to The General commercial basically anything allowed in General commercial I don't think they would be allowed to store their welding materials on that southern piece without coming back and revising their side plan but could they not have the front of the building closest to the street and any parking or outdoor storage on the back side not the front side they could and and looking at this that that appears to be the way they've designed it again unless we write that into the plan development they wouldn't be obligated to do that but it looks like this is probably their parking and driving area so my guess is any outdoor

[1:29:10] storage would be back behind uh in the back and I suspect that they intend to fence this property although there's not a requirement for them to do that but we could require that you could so that on that piece of real estate in essence that welding facility could move more forward to the street and create bigger parking with required fencing around it behind it good that's correct you all could make that as an additional condition for the plan development Gary what else did you want to say no I I got sidetracked somehow I'm sorry that I didn't focus on this particular one because I probably yeah it shows the storage facilities I don't know I think I would want to see that storage building as the Planning Commission stated that if it was just it was back a little bit from the street coming through I mean the welding should be closer to the street with storage behind it right that's what I'm saying is you try to move that where all the work is going to be done a little more forward and then you can fence it and do all the storage and outdoor work behind it I'm not sure I went out and looked at that piece of property twice over the weekend I'm not sure that that's exactly feasible just looking at that the the you essentially have cut that that track that they're wanting to Zone the entire tract it's in half but that upper half that I don't know it's not enough but it I'm not sure you could move that building back much if anything yeah it just didn't appear that way to me what's this what's the distance between the front of that building and the street that's a good question if if that's labeled here it's too small to read but those parking spaces are typically 18 to 20 feet deep and so

[1:31:14] um I mean it obviously they if they took the building and parking they could slide it up towards the road a little bit I think the way we've done this in the past on plant developments if that's the way you're leaning is we could simply say no outdoor storage between the building and the street then they could move the building front or back however they want just knowing that they can't have any of that outdoor storage between the building and the street which might prompt them to move it up or we can require that we can say there will be no outdoor storage allowed in front of the building that it all has to be behind the building and it has to be fenced in we can do that Gary does that require a change in a site plan and bringing it back through the okay if you make that condition today that it has a listed condition that would be part of the approval other comments Karen Smith um a question and a comment so do we have any control over the appearance of a storage facility yes absolutely with plan developments we often I mean you could require it to be fenced you could require Landscaping various other things and so that that is uh under your purview with a plan development uh Place conditions the tricky part at this point is what conditions we might be able to place it's a little tough to rot them on the Fly and so when the Planning Commission has done this in the past they've often sent it back to be reviewed and and but if you have particular things in mind that are that we can clearly write you know on the Fly that's obviously possible but the more complicated and detailed we get we often would want to take a look at that to make sure we're not creating any unintended consequences that sort of thing thank you and and my comment is again to my previous remarks this is a city Gateway so we have an opportunity to think about the appearance of that

[1:33:19] gateway to our city and to make choices that have long-term impact that are positive so I leave you with that do I have a motion for the on the floor I'd like to make a motion to um support allowing the welding shop to be allowed with a requirement no outdoor storage in the front all outdoor storage in the back and it has to be fenced a fenced storage area so the visibility and the impact on what it looks like would be dramatically decreased in terms of whether it looks like what we want it to look like because the storage facilities are going to be there and I'm not sure that the visibility and the Gateway into the city is impacted by the welding shop any more than the storage buildings perhaps but that's a complicated thing I just said so I added a lot of stuff in that comment so let me get down to getting rid of this stuff I think I make an emotion that we allow the welding shop with the requirement that all storage must be behind the facility and fenced in and storage limited parking in the front which is going to be limited anyway it has to be defended mayor's not including the requirements that are already listed in your packet as things from the planning condition yeah let's go back over those just a minute just to be clarified just to be clear on it thanks for bringing that up Theresa I need to go back and review that so thank you read them to you okay go ahead um there's four of them listed the first says with the site plan application the applicant shall be

[1:35:21] required to provide a landscape plan for planning to review to help buffer the transition from residential to commercial along Montague Avenue and provide additional screening from the residential neighborhood to the West the second one is all new sight Lighting on the premises shall be shielded downward admitting and configured in such a manner as to satisfactorily minimize or eliminate light trespass onto the adjacent residential uses or lands the third one is no recreational vehicles or mobile homes shall be placed on the premises nor shall there be any salvage or junk Vehicles maintained on the premises and then the last one is all welding and construction shall be done inside an enclosed building pretty much covers what I what I think I said I think you added a couple of things regarding parking and where storage can occur on the site but right I think those things cover I don't know well they don't cover the limiting it between the building and the street which you added and then they don't necessarily require the fencing which you added so I think those are the two those two things to that are we talking fencing along that East Side that would provide a buffer between the potential new residential and the east side of the subject property here is that part of the fencing I think so definitely but as I understood it would be fencing any any outdoor storage areas would have to be fenced right right okay contiguous all the way around right all right that's a motion on the floor is there a second I'll second that second by Harry public comment candy do you have an opinion on this yeah so John this has just thought you were this has to be super majority vote yeah six votes too whatever happens even if we go back changes Candy's quick opinion on this good morning Council candy Poole serve on the Planning Commission this was the very first Planning Commission meeting

[1:37:23] that I attended it was um as you see a vote of two for this and four against it and much of the conversation was the concern about the housing that would be in that lower part of these the one on the side and what I would say is I voted against it because of the housing and it did not have the fencing requirement and we were concerned or heard concern about the welding shop doing anything outside so it's all supposed to be contained inside as far as work the idea of everything being outside storage or their welding equipment or whatever that the mayor just put out as a change to this motion that it all be in the back and fenced takes care of some of that concern I think but I did vote against that candy any other public comment all right so it's going to be a super majority so five must support it six must support it no good all right so we'll take a vote uh Tommy hi Tom hi Gary hi Lucy Karen nay and Larry and Brenda I still passes five two it doesn't pass because there's two Nays so now we go back and what do we do now you could either suggest another alternative add additional conditions to the plan development or you could take up the planning commission's recommendation which was straight General commercial zoning without the additional Provisions for the outdoor storage and Welding I'd make a motion to approve the the storage units um that that's income producing for the for the uh for the applicant which obviously

[1:39:26] be one of their goals I'd make a motion to approve the outdoor storage to be clear you're approving the the The General commercial Zoning for the correct no PD with that those things that you just read no because that only attached to the welding shop correct those were only you can only place conditions on zoning through a plan development if you're zoning it straight General commercial you don't have the ability to place any additional conditions and this too has to be a six seven this can be a simple majority there's a motion and now Lucy you seconded it okay I'll uh Tommy I mean public comment please comment so Tommy hi Tom uh Harry hi Lucy hi Karen no Larry hi Brenda nay so it's five two so that passes all right we'll move on to the next item which is first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to rezone property from a plant let me ask I'm going to stop for a minute before I finish reading that obviously the zoning was there to allow all of that outdoor storage and I might not be able to talk about this with all those cars that have all of those cars that are Outdoors a big area where they're crunching the cars and doing all of that I think that's all like heavy industrial type zoning on that side of the freeway it's on both sides yeah I mean there's some on both sides but there's there's quite a bit of manufacturing and heavy heavy commercial and light and heavy Manufacturing in that area because the

[1:41:28] reality is as long as that's there I'm not sure anything we're passing is going to even come close to having the negative impact if you will as the Gateway into the city because as long as that's there it's there it's more on the egress side of the loop than it is yeah but you're coming from Abilene or Dallas Fort Worth and we just passed up the opportunity to control that yeah we did there you go all right moving on to item D first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to rezone property from a planned development pd02-0 through 203 to a new plan development PD 23-03 being 9.088 Acres located at the southeast corner of Melrose Avenue and Stratford Avenue John euron thank you this is plan Development Day with all three cases being planned development this this was part of a much larger plan development from back in 2002 as part of the development of the Bluffs area in general that larger plan development was amended recently for this Creek 27 apartment development as part of that it made some changes that now is needing the resulting changes for this property um and so there it's effectively amending that existing PD but since some of this other has already been developed um we didn't want these new Provisions to apply throughout that old PD so we're basically creating a new PD just for this property uh so I think that's what I just described but um again it's it's basically for the purpose of commercial development uh it does continue to include some of the aesthetic requirements for some landscaping and screening that were in the PD back to 2002 so it didn't change that but it addressed some of the use issues to make sure that they can do on

[1:43:31] the property what they intend to do we did send out our notifications did not receive any in support or in opposition this is what they want to do with the side is basically split it into two lots and as you'll see the planning commission's recommendation includes some different Provisions for each separate lot and so here are the proposed conditions storage Lots would only be allowed on lot two so one of the concerns is a similar concern from Planning Commission that this is the freeway and this is Melrose going into the Bluffs um they were concerned a little bit about what storage units might look like in this area particularly on this major corner at that intersection and so they wanted the storage units to be limited to the back part of the property and not allowed on the front it'd still be Frontage yeah it still fronts over here there is some requirements for some landscaping and screening over there uh to help soften the appearance uh and then of course if if and when something develops on this property it will help screen the view of those I I think their primary concern was um just being at this right at the intersection and keeping that for more retail restaurant kind of commercial development as I mentioned this it would require Landscaping per an approved Urban Design review that would typically be required anyway but the plan development just ensures that that would be required even if the the threshold there is building size so if they build a building too small it wouldn't normally trigger that requirement but this requires it regardless the same with Landscaping between this property and the apartment development adjacent again four and five are not really necessary with the new sidewalk ordinance sidewalks will be required for both of those frontages anyway but those were required in the prior plan development so we just carried those requirements over as well staff does recommend approval as did the Planning Commission unanimously

[1:45:33] questions for John yes please um General commercial allows self-storage by right is that correct that's correct yes so would it be possible to revise the zoning Provisions to restrict outdoor storage and you and Self Storage as well to conditional use for GC instead of by right yeah in fact most cities not familiar with that's the way they treat it ours is a little more permissive and allows those units in General commercial but that would definitely be something that would that address some of the mayor's concerns in the prior case that sort of it could because again a conditional use would allow you to place conditions on the approval so each storage Warehouse if that were in the zoning ordinance each of those would have to come through for a review uh an alternative way to deal with that would be through some design review standards as well you could place fencing Landscaping building kinds of standards many cities as well for storage warehousing to create some aesthetic controls so you can either do it through rules that apply to everyone or you can do it through the conditional use where you get to review each one individually would you be willing to share your opinion on those two options I think either either one or fine the conditional use gives that additional flexibility so if if you're doing storage units in an area kind of off the beaten path they're away from everything maybe you don't need as high of aesthetic standards if you're on a major Frontage Road entryway into the community maybe you want a higher standards so um having that flexibility of a conditional use would be helpful the downside of a conditional use is it makes an applicant property owner go through an extra process each time rather than being allowed by a ride and so oftentimes Property Owners at least some of them would rather it just be allowed tell me what the rules are and I'll do it

[1:47:34] rather than having to jump through an extra process so it's the proper place and time to address that issue no that would take in that would take a change to the zoning ordinance which would have to be something that comes back separately but again with as a PD if you have specific concerns about this site you can place particular conditions on it beyond what the Planning Commission recommended but not not globally you want to repeat what the Planning Commission conditional approval is based on I'm talking this item or the previous item yeah well they're kind of related called storage units well I get it but on the Frontage Road there's only so much you can do a storage unit I mean like the recent ones they put in they're metal they're nice trimmed they you know the ones that I hate are the ones that are 20 30 40 years old and you hope those get those down and replaced and I mean you know the the people put in that really nice when they're on Sherwood Way nobody even notices how pretty that one is so I just think there's only so much you can do with the storage unit upon that path but I get it and as I mentioned this does require a landscaping plan and them to do some things along that Frontage to ensure that it is maybe more attractive than or what our minimum standards would require so that's already on these proposed conditions so it already exists based off of that's right what was approved and those sidewalks are required based off our sidewalk ordinance because it's commercial development on arterial roads they're required anyway okay questions for the comments okay do I have a motion for approval so move don't move by Harry seconded by Tommy and public opinion or public comment yeah sorry it's one in the same okay with that we'll take a vote all

[1:49:36] those in I mean Tommy how do you vote aye Tom Gary aye Lucy hi Karen aye Larry Brenda i-7-0 moving on to item e first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to rezone property from the single family residential zoning District to plan development pd23-04 to allow reduced setbacks and an increase in the maximum floor area ratio being 9.595 Acres located along Riviera Court South of Clubhouse Lane thank you this this is in the Bentwood area this property is currently zoned rs1 they had originally come in with a request um well I'll get to that uh they had originally come in for a request for uh RS3 which would allow zero lot line homes um to basically build a little bit bigger home on the lot because they move it to the side um and one side property line is the building is built right to that property line RS3 also allows some other things like townhouses and things that the neighbors did not like now the applicant assured them that's not our intent but because it's theoretically possible with that RS3 zoning they didn't like that so the Planning Commission basically tabled it the applicant withdrew and came back the next month and what we came back with is a plan development basically to keep it rs1 zoning but to allow a little bit larger homes on the lot the floor area ratio just means how much space of the lot is covered with building and so it allows them a little bit bigger it allows them to reduce the setback basically they want to do side garages those are a little more attractive than just having the garage Escape that's facing the street but to do that and make it work they wanted to move the buildings a few feet closer to the street we did send out our notifications to an opposition our understanding from the

[1:51:40] Planning Commission meeting the second one uh all of the neighbors were okay with this modified approach I think those opposition were to the original uh request basically there's no opposition technically they never withdrew it in writing and so we have to treat it as if there's still formal opposition um I think I've gone through this basically they want to allow that mixture of housing types and a little bit bigger homes on the lot so the proposed conditions as I mentioned base rs1 zoning same as what's current reduce the side setbacks from five feet to zero on one side basically the same rules that apply in zero lot line what that means is the other side has to be 10 so if you picture a normal development you just scoot every house along the whole street over five feet which gives you a little bit bigger side yard on one side I've already mentioned the increasing the floor area ratio basically 0.4 means 40 percent of the lot can be covered raising that up to 60 percent of the lot that can be covered and then the just a five foot setback reduction on the front to allow the home to be five feet uh closer to the front so on this one staff does recommend approval as did the Planning Commission unanimously any questions mayor um Tommy I watched both I didn't attend but I watched both uh February and March Planning Commission meeting I had have had no comments to the second proposal that was uh discussed at the March Planning Commission meeting there was lots of discussion at both meetings from the folks that were opposed so I think they've gotten this all worked out again I've not heard any opposition whatsoever to the March Planning Commission decision so with that I would move approval as presented second by Larry any public comment seeing none will take a vote Tommy hi Tom Harry aye Larry

[1:53:45] Karen hi Lucy hi motion passes seven zero we will now move into our closed session it's an executive session on the provision of government code title V open government ethics subtitle a open government chapter 551 Point open meetings sub chapter D exceptions to requirement that meetings be open under the following sections section 551.072 deliberations about real property regarding real property regarding 11.693 Acres out of the E Michaela survey 319 abstract 1657 section 551.087 business process Prospect negotiations regarding a project Monet project stockpile Project New Wave Rosenberger and project Bess then C section 551.071 consultation with attorney regarding Hotel occupancy tax delinquencies and section 551.071 consultation with attorney regarding litigation related to fire fighting film with that we will be back to do the rest of the agenda once completed all the topics in closed session order and the time is right now is in fact 12 24 on it is going to be today it will be today the 18th at 12 24 call back to order thank you for being patient all of you out there who were waiting for us to return we appreciate that with that no no items were approved or discussed in executive sessions so we will move on to Item B consider approving various board nominations the Ada advisory committee which is Mike Sanders Jim Johnson Benjamin bro jakowski Leticia McPherson all to first

[1:55:49] term ending April 2025 and then our public art commissioner Jamie Hein Smith smd1 Elaine stribling smd6 both to a second term ending April 2025. do I have a motion for approval of those two items as Larry made the motion and seconded by Tom with that we'll take a vote all in favor say aye aye the motion those individuals have been approved with a 6-0 vote and now we will move into announcements I got to make a suggestion on us all of the Ada advisory people essentially signed up and and we never vetted them and essentially they're also at large which means that they're responsible in a way to all of us so my question is should we be requiring an application for future people on this well we talked about that in the meeting that night the town hall that we had and most of those people that we just approved signed up that night so and we said we would have future Town Hall meetings where and we would put it on our website and other places for other people who wanted to become a member of this Ada committee would have that potential to do that yeah and I think this committee is different it's more like the task force that we did for um the police and it's not like a board that we have um as we go on we're the first meeting is actually this week of that committee and we're going to be looking at who's on the committee and see if there's any populations of folks in our community that are missing and try to get some insight and input from those people and to develop what that criteria should be to be on the board or on the committee advisory yeah it's advisory it's not a formal board which is really going to make it a lot easier to manage we're not going to have to do postings for meetings we don't you know I can hand out information between meetings in a

[1:57:51] way that I just can't do with you but I hear what you're saying and we can I'm not anticipating bringing anybody else back but as a group we can divide some sort of devise some sort of requirements for that committee and bring those to you all right moving on I see announcements to consideration of future agenda items the meetings of Mayors scheduled for Thursday May the 4th and Wednesday May the 17th and so um Heather are these the ones that you said the Planning Commission has already been notified of these uh program these dates yes the planning commission's already sent out for those regular meetings in May the 4th and the 17th and those dates were voted on y'all in January to change those and so all of the other meetings listed and these are proposed dates that were discussed between myself and Daniel and other staff for you all to consider or suggest other dates we always move it away from the July 4th meeting so that makes sense July 6th the one there's strategic planning Daniel you had a proposed date different than this one as I did yes yes ma'am so we have an additional week between April and actually May and June so I would suggest that it really made the 26 Falls right in the middle of those that additional weeks which buys is about a week and a half between City Council meetings so that seems more appropriate as far as the day for May 26th all right so we'll have it there at this point that but right now be the 26th and then two budget workshops on the 25th of July and one August 10th so those does anyone have an issue with those dates based off of your calendars as of today I know those seem far out so okay mayor for me we've got the fourth and the 17th 17th yeah okay yeah and then the 26th yes ma'am yes ma'am and another date that just came to light just yesterday we got information about

[1:59:53] the legislative Summit that is um they're going to be 31st and August 1st which would be that first meeting and so we wanted to consider moving that to Thursday August 3rd the August first date would be the first Tuesday of the month correct okay so you would move it to that Thursday okay so if you'll make a note of that anything else all right with that do we have a motion for German all opposed say aye aye all opposed okay in session that we are officially adjourned at 12 30 p.m on this 18th of April done

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=y6OMGBKniQ4