Minutes November 10, 1998CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
November 10, 1998
After determining that a quorum was present and convening in an open meeting, the City Council
convened in a closed meeting on Tuesday, November 10, 1998 at 5:15 p.m. in the Council Work
Session Room at City Hall.
PRESENT:
Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Beasley; Council Members Burroughs, Cochran,
Durrance, Kristoferson and Young.
ABSENT: None
1. The Council considered the following in Closed Meeting:
Conference with Employees -Under TEX. GOV'T. CODE Sec. 551.075. The
Council received information from employees during a staff conference or briefing, but
did not deliberate during the conference.
Deliberations regarding real property-Under TEX. GOV'T. CODE Sec. 551.072; and
consultation with attorney-Under TEX. GOV'T. CODE Sec. 551.071
Considered and discussed the valuation and the possible sale, transfer, or other
divestiture of real property pertaining to the City of Denton's electric utility
system, including, without limitation: the Gibbons Creek generation facility
located in Grimes County, Texas; the Spencer generation facility located on
Spencer Road in Denton, Texas; the hydroelectric facilities located in Denton
County, Texas; as well as other component facilities of the City's electric
transmission and distribution system.
The Council convened into a Work Session on Tuesday, November 10, 1998 at 6:00 p.m. in the
Council Work Session Room at City Hall.
PRESENT:
Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Beasley; Council Members Burroughs, Cochran,
Durrance, Kristoferson and Young.
ABSENT: None
1. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding a timeline
for the Charter Election to be held May 1, 1999.
Mike Bucek, Assistant City Attorney, stated that the Council had requested an administrative review of
the Charter that would provide general changes necessary to comply with the law along with
addressing the issues of board and commission membership, conflict of interest, and facilitation of
utility deregulation. The date for the election would be May 1 st. If Council agreed with the timeline,
staffwould proceed as indicated in agenda materials.
Consensus of the Council was to proceed as presented.
2. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction concerning City
Council meeting rules. (security and related measures)
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November 10, 1998
Page 2
Mike Jez, City Manager, stated that as a result of meetings with facilitator Lyle Sumek, Council
expressed a desire to develop rules governing audience behavior and security at City Council meetings.
Staff had developed the draft rules as indicated in the agenda materials. If Council agreed with the
rules, an ordinance would be placed on a regular meeting for formal consideration.
Council Member Burroughs suggested changing the wording on #9 to accommodate when there
would be no lectern such as in the work session room. He suggested changing #11 to make it generic
rather than KNTU radio only.
Mayor Miller stated that the rules would apply for only regular meetings and not for work sessions.
Council Member Burroughs felt that there should also be rules for work sessions as those procedures
had been changed for work session citizen input. He felt #10 should state that on the second request
for a speaker to conclude, the speaker should be removed and the presiding officer called.
Council Member Young suggested reconsidering #5 that would not allow food or drink in the
Chambers. The meetings started early and some citizens might not have had dinner before they
attended the meeting. Some people needed to have snacks during the meeting for their health.
Council Member Cochran felt that some items should be addressed only if they had been a problem in
the past. He suggested changing the wording so to make it more user friendly. The rules should not
be so rigid that they could not be realistically done.
City Manager Jez stated that the answer was in the application of the rules. Good sense and good
judgement would address the issues presented. He felt it was a very poor security precedent to allow
someone on the dais. There was a need to clarify the rules for the police officers present and for
citizen's actions.
Mayor Pro Tem Beasley stated that just because there were rules in place, it did not mean that they had
to be strictly enforced in all situations. She felt it was a good idea to have such rules in place for future
use.
Consensus of the Council was to change the rules to indicate a genetic term for "radio", make the
language more user friendly and strike #5 that did not allow food and drink in the Chambers.
3. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding the Draft
Interim Corridors Ordinance.
Dave Hill, Director of Planning and Development, stated that Council had reviewed a working draft of
the proposed ordinance on October 13th. This session would allow Council an opportunity to review
the draft ordinance a week in advance of the joint City Council/Planning and Zoning Commission
public hearing. The new approach contained guidelines intended to be used by the Planning and
Zoning Commission and City Council during site plan review for proposed development located within
a designated corridor. The site plan review process was based on draft guidelines to allow
consideration of individual property features and development characteristics. The ordinance indicated
that property owners within a designated corridor must submit specific site plan information for
Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council review and approval. Unless accompanied by a
request for a zoning change, planned development detail plan, or specific use permit, the site plan
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November 10, 1998
Page 3
review procedure would not require a public hearing and could be processed within a three to four
week period. The language regarding limited visibility land uses was also amended. Another
suggested change was that portions of land outside the corridor would not be subject to the regulations
even if the property were half in and half out of the city limits. The effective date of the ordinance
would be March 15, 1999.
Council Member Kristoferson stated that at the previous work session guidelines were suggested about
metal in the materials section but were not in this draft.
Hill stated that those were left out by mistake and would be put back in.
Council Member Cochran asked about the timing of projects already in progress. March 15th was a
long way away.
Hill stated that the effective date of the ordinance would indicate that a development would have to
have a building permit issued by March 15th. If a development came in after that date, it would have
to comply with the ordinance.
Mayor Pro Tem Beasley stated that this would be an interim ordinance until the comprehensive plan
was in place.
Hill stated that the comprehensive plan would look at each corridor separately.
Mayor Miller suggested changing the wording on page 7-subsection (a) regarding public hearings in
zoning cases.
Assistant City Attorney Bucek felt that the ultimate protection would be to have a public hearing.
Council debated whether or not to have a public hearing regarding this issue.
Assistant City Attorney Bucek stated that with an administrative act, Council would have qualified
immunity but with a legislative act it would have complete immunity.
Council Member Cochran felt that the same could be achieved if the zoning was in place without a
public hearing.
Consensus of the Council was to leave the public hearing requirement in when zoning was in place.
4. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding the Draft
Growth Management Strategy.
Mark Bowers, HOK consultant, presented the draft growth management strategy. He reviewed
the basic assumptions that were included in the agenda materials.
Renee Jaynes presented growth management strategy general tools and specific recommendations
as indicated in the back-up materials.
Consensus of the Council was to proceed as presented.
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November 10, 1998
Page 4
5. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding proposed
amendments to the Landscape Ordinance.
Dave Hill, Director of Planning and Development, stated that several amendments were proposed.
Many of the proposed amendments were intended to make compliance with the ordinance more
reasonable for property owners without sacrificing the ordinance objectives. Staff requested
Council direction regarding the creation of a task force to consider the proposal.
Council Member Cochran felt that no new task force was required.
Council Member Young felt that a task force was good as he wanted citizens involved in the
process. The task force would make recommendations and not make decisions.
Mayor Pro Tem Beasley felt that the way the prior ordinance was done had worked well and that
the neighborhood meetings would be good rather than a task force.
Hill stated that another issue was resources and staff time. The development of a task force might
delay work on the comprehensive plan.
Mayor Miller suggested that the comprehensive plan ordinance be enacted with the understanding
that this was still an issue and would be considered after the completion of the comprehensive
plan.
Council Member Durrance suggested tabling the issue until February.
Mayor Miller stated that Council would make a commitment that a task force would be developed
but wait until February.
Council Member Kristoferson stated that there was no need demonstrated for such a task force.
Council Member Cochran did not see a need to create a task force because a small number of
people had a problem with an ordinance. He felt the Council was giving special consideration to
the Chamber of Commerce with this proposal.
Consensus of the Council was to follow the recommended suggestions as noted in the agenda
materials.
6. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding Planned
Developments 20, 22, 41, 86, 90, 93, 102, 120, 126, and 139, with the intent to down-zone these
approved concept plans.
Dave Hill, Director of Planning and Development, stated that Council requested staff to prepare
information to discuss the potential downzoning of the referenced planned developments although
no direction was given as to the specific manner by which the change in zoning was to occur. The
reference to downzoning indicated a change in zoning from a less restrictive land use classification
to a more restrictive land use classification. Any downzoning under consideration would require
ordinance amendments on a case-by-case basis. An overlay district could also be considered if the
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November 10, 1998
Page 5
Council's intent did not necessarily require individual planned development revisions. This
required Planning and Zoning Commission input and recommendation. If the proposed
downzoning were protested by 20% of the affected land area property owners, a super majority
vote would be required. Questions to answer included why target planned developments and
none of the straight zoning was included; why these ten planned developments and no others; and
evaluation criteria that could be used for new proposed planned developments in order to ensure
that Council decisions would be consistent with the previous down-zonings.
Council Member Durrance stated that these planned developments were selected as they were
identified as single family zoning. Other planned developments could be affected. He was not
discussing individual planned developments but rather the concept of overall downzoning. There
was a need to manage growth and a need for balanced growth. He suggested considering an
overlay-zoning ordinance until the comprehensive zoning could be adopted.
Council Member Young wanted the legal staff to look into the possibility of lawsuits arising from
this type of downzoning. He did not want Denton to be known as anti-growth/anti-development.
Council Member Cochran stated that there were many old planned developments that were
approved during a different economic climate. Council was trying to plan growth for the
community and one way to do that was to decide what the community wanted at this time. He
was not indicating to not develop the property but if the property were developed, it needed to be
done with 1998-99 standards and not standards from 20-30 years ago. Each planned
development was a different situation with different properties.
Assistant City Attorney Bucek stated that vested rights were the key issue. Vested rights dealt
with platting and subdivision regulations. Zoning was never thought to be a vested right.
Council Member Burroughs questioned that if an ordinance overlay were adopted could a
provision be included that any planned developments approved ten or more years ago would have
to be developed within 12 months from the date of adoption of the overlay ordinance.
Assistant City Attorney Bucek stated that whatever would be considered should be done before
the vested rights statute was readopted by the legislature.
Council Member Burroughs asked how much staff time would be needed to work on an overlay
ordinance without affecting the comprehensive plan.
Hill stated that what was being recommended in the comprehensive plan had the same end result
as an overlay ordinance but was going about it in a different way. He felt it would take a lot of
time to research such an ordinance. He suggested continuing with the comprehensive plan and
included an adequate facilities ordinance. An adequate facilities ordinance indicated that a
proposal could not be built unless it showed how it provided adequate facilities for the
development.
Mayor Miller suggested proceeding with the comprehensive plan. A problem with changing the
zoning that was already in place was that property was valued based on the zoning granted.
Standards for adequate growth development would be difficult to determine.
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November 10, 1998
Page 6
Council Member Kristoferson felt that the Council's comments showed why this effort was
needed. In dealing with an overlay zoning the Council was asking the Legal Department to do the
research and not the Planning staff. She felt this should address all zoning and not just planned
developments. There was a need to downshift in multi-family zoning. It was time to move in the
direction the citizens wanted.
Mayor Pro Tem Beasley stated that she was not willing to compromise the comprehensive plan
process. The overlay district was an important issue to look at but not at the risk of the
comprehensive plan. There were many legal questions that would have to be answered and the
Council could not proceed before knowing those answers. She agreed that there was a need to
look at old planned developments but not at this time.
Assistant City Attorney Bucek stated that the biggest problem was that Legal would have to
proceed in concert with the Planning Department and how much that would involve the Planning
Department would depend on how definitive the overlay district was. Staff would be pushing to
bring something by December and then there would have to be joint hearings. It possibly might
be January/February before such an overlay ordinance was adopted.
Hill suggested that the planned developments could be considered as Council continued through
the comprehensive plan and looked at the earliest time possible when an adequate facilities
ordinance could be done.
Council's proposal was to look at recommendations to these planned development issues
consistent with the growth management strategy and to pursue in greater detail an adequate
facilities ordinance. Another option was to adopt the comprehensive plan in sections.
7. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction on a new
thoroughfare master plan.
Jerry Clark, City Engineer, presented a new thoroughfare plan for Council consideration. Details were
presented in the agenda materials.
Consensus of the Council was to follow staff recommendations on the master plan.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:50 p.m.
JACK MILLER, MAYOR
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS