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Minutes April 22, 1997468 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL April 16, 1997 Joint Meeting of the City of Denton City Council and the Denton Independent School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday, April 16, 1997 at 12:00 noon at the Radisson Hotel, 2211 I35-E North, Denton, Texas at which the following was considered: NOTE: Prior to meeting at the Radisson Hotel, the City Council and Board of Trustees convened at 11:30 a.m. at South Lakes Park to participate in a ground breaking ceremony for the Carroll McMath Middle School. Presentation of Wide Area Network Proposal Legislative Updates 3. President's Comments 4. Mayor's Comments NOTE: As a quorum of the Council was not present for this meeting, no minutes were taken. j~nnif~r Walters C~ty Se'cretary City of Denton, Texas 469 CITY OF DENTQN CITY COUNCIL MINUTES April 22, 1997 The Council convened into a Closed Meeting on Tuesday, April 22, 1997 at 5:15 p.m. in the Civil Defense Room of City Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Brock; Council Members Beasley, Biles, Cott, Durrance, and Young. ABSENT: None 1. The Council considered the following items in Closed Meeting: A. Legal Matters -- Under TEX. GOV'T CODE Sec. 551.071 B. Real Estate -- Under TEX. GOV'T CODE Sec. 551.072 Personnel/Board Appointments -- Under TEX. GOV'T CODE Sec. 551.074 The Council convened into a Work Session on Tuesday, April 22, 1997 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of city Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Brock; Council Members Beasley, Biles, Cott, Durrance, and Young. ABSENT: None 1. The Council received a quarterly briefing from and held a discussion with the City of Denton's representatives to the TMPA Board. Bill Giese stated that his report would be divided into sections dealing with organization, operation, regulation & legislation and litigation. In the organization section, a new mission statement had been adopted. Scott McGough was appointed general manager. McGough was reviewing a new organizational chart and staffing levels with the Personnel Committee. The Audit and Budget Committee would review the proposed chart and staffing levels as a basis for the 1997-98 budget. Staffing levels would be reduced below the current 137 level. In the operation level, the plant went off-line on April 4 and would be off-line until approximately May 18. During that time, the superheater and turbine projects would be completed° In addition, a number of cracked turbine blades would be replaced. It was expected that capacity would reach 462 mwh after the Spring outage. Measurable performance levels were to be established as annual goals. The Powder River Coal continued to be more efficient than lignite and reclamation activities were proceeding on schedule. Several alternatives to the rail spur construction were currently under review. Western coal carrying railroads enjoyed monopoly power. Both regulatory and non-regulatory solutions were under consideration. Regulation & Legislation included the postage stamp transmission rate. San Antonio was s~eklng a p~rmanent injunction against the State PUC interim order establishing the postage stamp rate. Under this rule the four member cities and TMPA would have a net benefit during the three year transition period and latter years. Retail wheeling was another legislative issue and was still active. The 470 City of Denton City Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 2 treatment of stranded costs was critical to future TMPA effective operations. The last legislative issue dealt with a tax on coalo A proposed 7 1/2 cent tax including transportation would have a very negative impact on TMPA's cost structure relative to power producers using natural gas. In the litigation area, College Station had suggested mediation as a means to resolve the various disputes among College Station, Bryan, and TMPA. TMPA had made a counter proposal for College Station to make a settlement offer to Bryan and TMPA. George Hopkins stated that TMPA was moving forward with the cancellation and effect of the leverage leases. The commercial paper rating by the various rating agencies was the highest rating for commercial paper. Standard and Poor changed the rating from A+ with a negative outlook to A+ stable which was a very positive rating change. 2. The Council received recommendations from and held a discussion with the Oversight Committee and gave staff direction. This item postponed until May 13, 1997. 3. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the placement of newspaper vending racks in City right-of-way. Herb Prouty, City Attorney, stated that this was an item which was brought before Council as a result of a letter written to the Mayor by a citizen complaining about the placement of newspaper racks in neighborhoods. There was a history of a few complaints from time to time about the placement of newspaper racks but in every case, the Council, up to now, had decided that the problem was not significant enough to consider regulation. The question of regulation had always been problematical because of the fact that the placement of newspaper racks in public right-of-ways and public places had First Amendment implications. The cases indicated that those public places, public right-of-ways were public forums and the freedom of speech and press was all tied up with the circulation of information through newspapers. One of the problems encountered in trying to consider the regulation of newspaper racks was, in order to overcome the First Amendment considerations, three tests had to be met. First, the regulation had to be content neutral which meant that it could not regulate one type of media over some other type of media. Second, the regulation had to be necessary to achieve some sort of compelling public interest. There needed to be some showing that the placement of newspaper racks in various areas of the city had created a problem. Third, the regulation had to be narrowly drawn so that it achieved its purpose. There were three options to this issue. One was to use Section 25-6 of the City Code to control the placement of newspaper racks which regulated selling and vending of anything on city streets, sidewalks and public places. This was done by permits city of Denton city Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 3 471 issued by the City Secretary. With the exception of 1983 under a prior ordinance when the City Council approved the placement of newspaper racks by USA Today, there had been no real regulation under Section 25.6. Negatives of using this provision were that it was very general and a permitting system would be necessary to require certain administrative costs and enforcement costs and might not be as effective as a more specific newspaper rack ordinance. Another option was to enact a newspaper rack ordinance. An ordinance from the Town of Flower Mound was felt to be very good. It was more specific and effective, was not a permitting system, could be enforced through Code Enforcement and had been tested with a newspaper vendor. Since it had gone into effect, there had not been any challenge to it. It enforced the placement of newspaper racks through a Code Enforcement survey. If the rack was not in compliance, the City issued a notice of noncompliance and either requested the newspaper to remove the rack or removed it by the City. A negative with this option was that the ordinance was not one which would prohibit the placement of newspaper racks in residential neighborhoods which was the initial concern of the citizen. There was no general regulation of the appearance or place of placement. There was a general requirement to relocate or replace a rack which resulted in visual blight or excessive space allocation in the public right-of-way. As a result of questions from Council Members, additional research was done resulting in another provision which could be added to the Flower Mound ordinance. That provision was one from Highland Village which stated that no newspaper rack would be installed, placed or maintained on any public right-of-way which was not adjacent to a commercial business. It also restricted one newspaper rack in each location which was not recommended by staff. There was a Supreme Court case which indicated that residential newspaper racks could be completely banned however, that was from a dissenting opinion. A final option was to do nothing at this particular point in time. Council Member Durrance stated that he was concerned about the fact that an outright ban might be possible. He questioned if that fit into a content neutral issue. City Attorney Prouty stated that if there were other ways of distributing the information in the newspaper, that time and place were discussed, the dissent indicated that that was content neutral and was narrowly drawn. Council Member Durrance asked if that might be a problem where there might be 8-10 racks in a row on a corner. City Attorney Prouty indicated yes that that might be a problem. be shown to ban the racks in the neighborhood and some of those same interests such as blocking the entrance to a residential area or if it were unsightly might be urged by commercial establishments. The Council would have to find that there were 472 City of Denton City Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 4 special circumstances in residential neighborhoods that required a ban in the residential neighborhoods and not a ban in commercials areas. Council Member Durrance stated that it would be permissible to limit the racks to not being placed in a walkway or a place where it would create a hazard. City Attorney Prouty indicated that the best way to proceed would be to create an ordinance similar to the Flower Mound ordinance which centered on specific problems which were being created such as blocking an access way, detracting from vehicular traffic or that it was unsightly. Some of the problems which the racks caused might be controlled under current ordinances such as a trash and weed ordinance. If a rack caused such a problem, it would be in violation of that ordinance. Council Member Cott asked how many complaints had been received in the past five years. City Attorney Prouty stated that since 1983, there had been only three or four complaints. Mayor Pro Tem Brock stated that there was a more immediate problem that if the Dallas Morning News had a program of putting a lot of racks in residential areas, an entire row of racks might appear. City Attorney Prouty stated that staff had been advised that that was happening in some areas. Council Member Biles stated that he drove in a particular residential area today and counted eight Dallas Morning News and six Denton Record-Chronicle newspaper racks. It was his understanding that the Circuit Court made an affirmative finding that a ban on newspaper racks in residential areas did pass the three Constitutional conditions. Council Member Young stated that there had been only one complaint regarding this issue. There were more serious items the Council needed to consider. He suggested leaving the ordinance was it was and if more complaints were received, then proceed with further study° Council Member Beasley stated that the local newspaper indicated that it would like to have racks banned in residential areas because it felt it was a blight in the neighborhoods and would raise the costs to the local paper as it would have to compete with larger newspapers putting the racks in residential areas. She was in support of looking at an ordinance including residential areas. Mayor Pro Tem Brock indicated that she shared concern that citizens have access to newspapers but it was cheaper to take the paper at City of Denton city Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 5 473 home than buy it from a rack. She felt it would be appropriate to restrict the placement of a rack in a residential neighborhood. That would not be restricting the way news was reported or collected. She would support a combination of the Highland Village and Flower Mound ordinances but not restrict the number of racks. Biles motioned to direct staff to prepare an ordinance for Council consideration which combined the findings of the necessity, safety and public health and employed the items 1-12 out of Section 103 of the Flower Mound code which restricted the placement of newspaper racks within a certain number of feet from crosswalks, sidewalks, driveways, etc. and included the prohibition in the Highland Village ordinance that indicated that racks could not be placed anywhere which was not adjacent and contiguous to a commercial business and to not include that portion which limited it to one rack. City Attorney Prouty stated that staff was also recommending not to charge for the permit. Staff would recommend that the city Manager provide a report six months from the day such an ordinance was enacted and based on that report determine if a charge should be made for administrative costs. Council Member Biles stated that his motion did not include any permitting or fees at this point in time. Council Member Durrance seconded the motion. Council Member Cott stated that this was a classic increase in market share and Council was now restraining that. There might be a restraining of trade problem here. He felt the local newspaper was against this due to competition problems. Mayor Miller stated that the citizens brought this issue to Council. He felt that the racks were unsightly in neighborhoods. To restrict the racks in residential areas was not restricting the ability of newspapers to sell papers as there were many places to purchase the newspapers. Denton was not so large that a citizen could not get a newspaper from a convenience store. He was concerned that if something was not done, there might be a campaign to see which newspaper could out do the other. Council Member Durrance stated that Council had a duty to protect neighborhood rights. The ordinance should be framed correctly in order to protect Constitutional rights. There might not be a widespread problem but it was the duty of Council to protect neighborhoods. Council Member Young felt that not enough research had been done in this area. When such a process was started, it limited the access people had to newspapers. More research should be done in this area. 474 City of Denton City Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 6 On roll vote, Beasley "aye", Brock "aye", Cott "nay", "aye", Young "nay", Biles "aye" and Mayor Miller "aye". carried with a 5-2 vote. Durrance Motion 4. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding a briefing on the Police Department's SAFE Team. Sergeant Scott Jenkins stated that SAFE stood for support, abatement, forfeiture, enforcement. The support was for property owners as they improved their properties, abatement of properties used as a base for criminal activity, forfeiture of the assets from criminals and non-compliant owners and enforcement of criminal and civil laws. Today's situation in Denton had people and groups engaging in organized criminal activity, criminal street gangs, prostitution and drug use that often went unchecked. This program could be utilized to fight these problems. The mission of the Denton Police Department was to positively impact the quality of life throughout the community. The SAFE Team would integrate every enforcement arm of the city to neutralize property used as a base of operation for criminal activity. Departments involved included police, fire, legal, code enforcement, building inspectionsv consumer health and other outside agencies such as TABC and the Attorney General's office. The Team would target properties with high calls for service from police, fire and other departments which drained city funds. The Team would start with the worst problems in every district in the city of Denton and closing or seizing properties from non-compliant owners. The Team would be assisting compliant owners in making the required improvements to revitalize their properties which would improve neighborhoods. Improved neighborhoods could bring in additional tax revenue due to increased property values. Current law established non-traditional methods to deal with continual problems which plagued Texas and Denton alike. Crimes targeted included distribution and use of controlled substances, organized criminal enterprises, prostitution, criminal acts at sexually oriented businesses, street gangsv gambling, reckless or discharge of firearms, distribution of pornography. People held responsible were owners of property, owners of businesses, renters of property, managers of property or any combination of these. Council Member Cott asked if this was a new program. Jenkins stated that other cities already had implemented this program. Council Member Young asked if this was this giving the police too much power and inf~in~in~ ~n Fi~t Amendment ri~ht~. City Attorney Prouty stated that police officers would not have the authority to do that. Before action was taken, there would be an effort to get the individuals to comply with the law. If not, a city of Denton City Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 7 475 warning would be issued and then start legal proceedings. This type of program had been used before and was within the legal ramifications of the statutes. Jenkins continued with the process involved in the program. First, problem locations were identified by officer observations and citizen complaints. Once a complaint was received, a preliminary investigation was started which examined the calls for service. Statistics were compiled on arrests and offenses which occur on these properties with an analysis on calls for public safety services. A completed investigation was then sent to the SAFE team coordinator to make a decision to open a case. That decision was based on at least a 3 arrest minimum. A case could be referred if it did not have the minimum number of calls or criminal arrests. The SAFE team officer would coordinate with other city departments to prepare for an inspection of the property. The owner, manager or tenant would be informed of the investigation and would be asked for permission to inspect the property. Property inspections could be done by permission or by a search warrant. Each code violation would then be documented. Life-threatening violations were dealt with immediately with citations. A date for an accord meeting would be set. At an accord meeting, the owner would be informed of all the criminal activity with a complete list of the violations. Compliant owners would sign an agreement to take measures to correct the criminal and code problems and would agreed to a reinspection of the property. Non-compliant violations would be documented, citations issued or arrests made. Additional inspections would be conducted as necessary. The last resort would be filing a civil suit which would be a legal case presented in District Court. The City would request an injunction against the owner to stop the criminal or civil offenses. Consequences associated with the proposal included fines of up to $10,000 and the property vacated for up to a year. The owner could sign the property over to the city, a property management company or a non- profit organization for revitalization. Ninety-eight percent of activated cases were resolved before going to District Court. Results of the program included revitalization of neighborhoods, criminal enterprises eliminated, reduction of crime in target areas, reduction of calls for service in the target areas. Council Member Cott asked if this was new system and had it been through the City Attorney. Jenkins replied that the City of Dallas had been doing this program for over eight years and other agencies had been doing it longer. Denton was not creating a new program and no new personnel would be used. This was doing business a different way by utilizing the same people and funds in a different way. Council Member Beasley felt that the City should proceed with the implementation of the program. 476 City of Denton City Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 8 Council Member Durrance stated that this was a necessary and forward looking program. These programs provided better cooperation of law enforcement and encouraged compliance with current laws. This program worked with the community service programs already started in departments. Council Member Biles stated that this was a multi-disciplinary approach. Often these types of problems were not an isolated violation but multi-violations. Council Member Young stated that he supported the program but felt it needed to be done all over Denton and not just in southeast Denton. People should be given fair warning before legal action. Mayor Pro Tem Brock stated that there were some areas along the highway near where she lived where drugs were sold and other types of problems using traditional policing that was not effective. Having a whole set of approaches would help to resolve those problems. Chief Jez stated that the real benefit was the opportunity which it provided for long term resolution rather than repeated violations. Mayor Miller stated that the program would be one way to work to reduce and eliminate criminal activities. Beasley motioned, Cott seconded to proceed with the program. On roll vote, Beasley "aye", Brock "aye", Cott "aye", Durrance "aye", Young "aye", Biles "aye" and Mayor Miller "aye". Motion carried unanimously. 5. The Council receive a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding off-premise signs along highway entrances. Rick Svehla, Deputy City Manager, stated that the Vision Project and the Denton Development Plan were looking at scenic highways bills and the limited use of signs along entranceways as approved by the Scenic Highway Act. In 1990 Denton became certified by the State to do permitting for signs along highways in Denton. There had been some successes in two areas. One was that there were not quite as many large signs and the second a reduction in size. However, signs wer~ still being built and permitted along highways. Many cities used the right-of-way and regulated space along or parallel to that right-of-way. That distance could vary which would still allow signs 1,000 feet from a right-of-way. Staff felt that if the Council wanted to pursue the proposal, the 1,000 feet should be used for placement. Public hearings would be held at the Planning and Zoning Commission and a% Council prior to amending the sign ordinance. If such an amendment were made, it should be written to not allow an appeal to the Sign Board of Appeals. Staff had also explored the issue of amortization. In the past it was possible to amortize signs but in 1978 a billboard lobby got an City of Denton City Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 9 477 amendment passed which did not allow amortization along Federal highways. It was possible to amortize signs along farm-to-market roads which were State roads. Council Member Cott asked if the Chamber of Commerce had seen this recommendation. Svehla replied no. Mayor Pro Tem Brock stated that there were two issues which made this proposal urgent. One was caused by the race track which would have various kinds of businesses wanting to advertise along the highways. Fort Worth had already created a scenic highway corridor which was something Denton needed to move ahead with. The second issue was the concept of overlay zoning along the major corridors. This would be a beginning and would be appropriate to tack on to the current sign ordinance. Council Member Biles'stated that he asked to have this item on the agenda as a matter of timing because the City was currently considering the Denton Development Plan as well as the zoning ordinance. Both of those were trying to establish a signature identity of Denton. The entranceways would be key to that. He asked if a billboard could be put up as an on-premise sign or was that prohibited. Svehla stated that if the sign were free standing, it would be limited in size as opposed to one attached to the side of a building which could be billboard size. Council Member Biles stated that the present sign ordinance limited the height and square footage of the signs. If a scenic corridor were adopted coupled with the present sign ordinance, billboards, except for current ones, would be eliminated. If amortization was followed for area highways, there would be a time period by the end of which billboards would have to be taken down and be eliminated. He asked if the amortization could be expanded beyond Loop 288 to such streets as Carroll Blvd. Svehla replied it could apply to any street so designated. Council Member Young asked what signs would be eliminated. Svehla replied that it would not eliminate the existing signs on the freeways or federal highways. It would not permit any more to be built. On roads which did not have federal funds, a district would be set up in which, after a period of time, existing billboards would be eliminated. Biles motioned, Brock seconded to direct staff to prepare an ordinance for consideration first by the Planning and zoning Commission and then by Council to designate I35E, I35W and I35N, 478 City of Denton City Council Minutes April 22, 1997 Page 10 U.S.380, U.S. 377 and Highway 77 as scenic corridors. A special designation for amortization would be made for Loop 288, farm to market roads and other major arterials in the city. The corridors would be measured 1,000 feet from the outside of the right-of-way and would include off-premise signs and billboards. Council Member Young stated that signs attracted business and this proposal would attack business. That would send a message that Denton had enough business. Everyone who voted for the motion was saying that. On roll vote, Beasley "aye", Brock "aye", Cott "nay", "aye"~ Young "nay"~ Biles "aye" and Mayor Miller "aye". carried with a 5-2 vote. Durrance Motion With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ACC00381