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Minutes July 27, 1999CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES July 27, 1999 After determining that a quorum was present and convening in an open meeting, the City Council convened in a closed meeting on Tuesday, July 27, 1999 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, and Young. ABSENT: Council Member Kristoferson 1. The Council considered the following in Closed Meeting: A. Consultation with Attorney— Under TEX. GOV’T. CODE Sec. 551.071. 1. Discussed and consulted with the City’s attorney, including outside legal counsel, litigation styled City of Denton v. Denton County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1A and Denton County Fresh Water Supply District nd No. 5, Cause No. 99-40158-362, filed in the 362 District Court of Denton County, Texas, including strategy and possible settlement negotiations. Work Session of the City of Denton City Council on Tuesday, July 27, 1999 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Work Session Room in City Hall. 1. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the draft scope of work and contract for consulting services prepared for the Development Code Rewrite, a process that would result in revisions to the City’s Zoning Code and Subdivision Regulations. John Fregonese presented a summary of the scope of work for the Development Code rewrite. Basic objectives were to implement the Comprehensive Plan, improve the process and increase effective involvement. Guiding principles would be based on the Comprehensive Plan implementation, Development Code goals and identify issues to address. He reviewed the development code project key steps as listed in the agenda materials. Supportive tasks included communication strategy and materials, a preference survey, land use modeling, opinion survey and focus groups. A decision making system included basic structure of land use decisions, descending level of decision maker, standardized structure for process, delegation by Council involved the use of criteria, clear and objective standards, and the limited use of discretion. The list of Development Code and site design standard tasks was reviewed as presented in the agenda materials. A proposed timeline was presented for Council consideration. Consensus of Council was to proceed with preparing of a contract for consideration on the rd August 3 agenda. 2. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding an update on Y2K. Alex Pettit, Director of Information Services, stated that the objective of the Denton 2000 was to ensure that the City’s systems and service deliveries would function beyond the millennium change. Success meant that computer systems would accurately process, store and report data up City of Denton City Council Minutes July 27, 1999 Page 2 to, during, and beyond the year 2000; and that day-to-day business practices would continue as usual through the change of the century. He reviewed the progress to date on this project. 3. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the Memorandum of Understanding, Toledo Court Subdivision, the proposed amendment to the 1999 Action Plan for Housing and Community Development and the proposed amendment to the Agreement between the City of Denton and the Denton Affordable Housing Corporation. Barbara Ross, Community Development Administrator, presented a review of the three documents associated with this item. Those included the Memorandum of Understanding - Toledo Court Subdivision, the proposed amendment to the 1999 Action Plan for Housing and Community Development and the proposed amendment to the agreement between the City of Denton and the Denton Affordable Housing Corporation. The Denton Affordable Corporation did not support the public notification section and the liaison section of the agreement for the Corporation. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley suggested separating the two issues from the rest of the agreement in order to move forward with the contract. The neighbors and DAHC were in agreement to separate out those issues. City Manager Jez stated that DAHC refused to sign the contract as it currently was presented. They felt the prior contract should be followed until the next RFP was done and then change the conditions. Mayor Miller supported the idea of separating out the two issues and proceeding with the contract. Next year those issues could be incorporated into the request for proposal. Council Member Durrance disagreed with this course of action. He felt that the problem to ensure that this would not happen again was not considered. Consensus of the Council was to separate the two issues from the main memorandum of understanding. Item #5 was considered. 5. The Council received a preliminary report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding an annexation schedule, including public hearings, with regard to the proposed voluntary annexation of a 34.336 acre tract located on the north side of Ryan Road and east of Forest Ridge Drive in the City of Denton’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. (A-90-Shadow Brook Place) Dave Hill, Assistant City Manager for Development, reviewed the schedule of the proposed annexation. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with the schedule. 6. The Council received a preliminary report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding an annexation schedule, including public hearings, with regard to the proposed voluntary annexation of a 37.11 acre tract located on the east side of Teasley Lane approximately City of Denton City Council Minutes July 27, 1999 Page 3 700 feet south of Hickory Creek Road in the City of Denton’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. (A-88, Teasley near Hickory Creek) Dave Hill, Assistant City Manager for Development, reviewed the schedule for proposed annexation. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with the proposed annexation schedule. 7. The Council received a preliminary report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding an annexation schedule, including public hearings, with regard to the proposed voluntary annexation of 46.21 acres located at the southeast corner of Nowlin Road and Robinson Road, in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Denton, Texas. (A-91, Kirby Tract) Dave Hill, Assistant City Manager for Development, reviewed the schedule for proposed annexation. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with the proposed annexation schedule. 8. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding an application for Statewide Enhancement Program funds to move, restore, renovate and preserve the old Union Pacific railroad (UPRR) freight depot, located on East Hickory Street. Ed Hodney, Director of Parks and Recreation, reviewed the history of the project to salvage and renovate the freight depot. The best option was to pursue Statewide Enhancement Funding for a grant for funds for the project. Staff was requesting permission to apply for those Enhancement funds. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with the preparation of an ordinance for consideration rd on the August 3 Council agenda to authorize the application for funds from the Enhancement Program. It was felt the depot and the loading dock should be moved prior to the deadline for demolition and then continue with the renovation funding requirements rather than wait until receiving confirmation of grant funds. Council returned to Item #4. 4. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding research related to the recently imposed multi-family housing moratorium. Dave Hill, Assistant City Manager for Development, reviewed the background of the moratorium on the processing of all multiple family rezoning, plat and permit applications. Four options were presented for Council consideration. Those options were to rescind the moratorium, continue the moratorium pending additional staff research, revise the off-street requirements for parking, or explore the options to temporarily mitigate some of the impacts of leased bedroom multifamily complexes by revising density requirements. The staff recommendation was to repeal the moratorium. If Council wanted to pursue revisions to the parking requirements, staff suggested continued research to be integrated into the Development Code rewrite. Density was being addressed as part of the draft Comprehensive Plan review process, and would be addressed during the Development Code rewrite process. City of Denton City Council Minutes July 27, 1999 Page 4 Council Member Cochran stated that the moratorium had a termination date built into it and did not see a reason for terminating it early. He did not like the idea of waiting for the Development Code rewrite to take care of the problem. He suggested that instead of continuing the moratorium to look at the possibility of attaching a reasonable parking requirement that was different from the requirements of multi-family developments. Those requirements would be 1.25 parking spaces per bedroom unit. Mayor Miller suggested that for one bedroom keep the parking requirement at 1.5 spaces and for two or more bedrooms have the requirement at 1.25 parking spaces per bedroom unit. Council Member Cochran stated that he would be agreeable with 1.5 spaces per bedroom unit. Hill stated that a specific type of zoning category would be developed for lease by the bedroom developments with specific requirements for that type of zoning. Council Member Young suggested rescinding the moratorium as soon as possible and follow the recommendations by staff. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley felt that the moratorium allowed staff to do needed research in this area. She would like to follow the suggestion to increase the number of required parking spaces. She felt all of the parking requirements for multi-family housing should be studied for an updating of those requirements. The moratorium should remain in place until the parking requirements were in place. Council Member Durrance stated that the moratorium should remain in effect but felt that only considering the parking restrictions would not adequately address all of the concerns of the citizens such as density and height restrictions in relationship to single family neighborhoods. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with parking restrictions and definitions for this type of zoning for Council consideration. 9. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding a joint meeting with Leadership Denton. Council Member Cochran stated that he had a difficult time with holding joint meeting with private groups and where was the line drawn for qualifying for such a joint meeting. Council Member Young felt that it would be a good idea for such a joint meeting. Communication was a great idea for the Council for such groups. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley stated that perhaps a different term needed to be used instead of “joint meeting” such as workshop or informational meeting. th Consensus of the Council was to hold a work session on December 7 with Leadership Denton as an item on that work session. 10. The Council held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the nomination process for members of the Public Utilities Board. City of Denton City Council Minutes July 27, 1999 Page 5 Council Member Young stated that he might be wrong on this issue and he had an informative meeting with the Mayor regarding this issue. He would be receiving more information regarding this issue and then would make a determination on his course of action. 11. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the relationship between the 1984 Denton Development Guide and the 1988 Denton Development Plan, including the potential impact of a 3-year time limitation imposed on planned developments approved between 1984 and 1988. City Attorney Prouty stated that all of the research on this issue had not been completed. Certain conclusions had been reached based on the research thus far. He was concerned about going into the legal aspects regarding this issue due to the threat of possible litigation with the issue. There was an amendment to the Denton Development Guide in 1984 that set a three year time limit on planned developments. That meant that if there had not been substantial development on the planned development within 3 years, the matter was to be brought back for reconsideration by the Council. This was not self-executing and the property was not automatically rezoned with the ending of the three years. The Guide was a policy and not a legislative enactment. The Guide was repealed in September 1988 by a resolution adopting a 1988 Denton Development Plan which did not include any of those time limits. The Guide also could have been replaced earlier by Ordinance 86-84 adopted in May 1986 which was the first comprehensive planned development ordinance that repealed the provisions of the Guide. That ordinance did have some provisions for planned developments. There was to be a development schedule and if that was not complied with, the Planning Department would notify the Planning Commission and the Commission could recommend rezoning to the property developers. The Commission could also extend the schedule an additional 3 years and Council could extend that for an additional three years from that time. Because this ordinance attempted to legislate all planned developments it was felt that it replaced the Development Guide. However, there was no conclusive evidence for that at this point in time. No cases were found that property was rezoned due to the Development Guide. The old Guide, under a section of the Code Construction Act, could be applied but only for planned developments between 1984-88, the time period that the Guide was in effect. It should apply only to those cases in which the 3-year time limit had expired. He felt there would be many legal challenges if the old Guide were used. It was felt that until a comprehensive site plan was approved, the Council had more discretion with the planned developments. Council could try to apply the Development Guide but there would be a lot of legal risk to doing that. It would be better to look at each planned development individually for compliance. Staff would continue to review all planned developments to determine the wording of the planned developments and report on what regulations were in effect at the time of the planned developments. In some cases, the time frame might have elapsed or it might not be in compliance with the 1986 ordinance. Further research was needed with the 1986 ordinance due to an ordinance that was passed in 1991. He recommend additional research to make sure the research to date was correct, look at the old planned developments to determine the language in each and what applied at the time it was approved. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley asked how to give sufficient notice to potential buyers of property with planned development zoning. City Attorney Prouty stated that more research was needed to make sure their findings were not changed by the 1991 amendment to the planned development ordinance. Once staff determined City of Denton City Council Minutes July 27, 1999 Page 6 that the original findings were accurate, based on the notice provision in the 1986 ordinance there would be a need to get a notice to the property owners especially if the time limits had expired. Before that was done he felt there was a need to return to Council with a final report on the research and with a proposal on how to proceed. Mayor Miller stated that there were property owners thinking they had certain land uses. He questioned how staff would know what kind of zoning was acceptable. A procedure was needed on how to handle the zoning on planned developments presented to the Development Review Committee in the near future. Hill stated that a notice could be sent to property owners that the City was in the process of researching the zoning on their particular property. Consensus of the Council was to continue with the research of the issue. Following the conclusion of the Work Session, the Council convened into a Special Called Meeting to consider the following: 1. The Council held the second of two public hearings regarding the proposed voluntary annexation of 167.477 acres located southeast of the intersection of Robinson Road and Teasley Lane (FM 2181) in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city of Denton, Texas. The proposal was to develop the property for single-family residential and commercial development. (A-89, Wheeler Ridge) Dave Hill, Assistant City Manager for Development, stated that this was the second of two public hearings regarding Wheeler Ridge. This was a voluntary annexation. The Mayor opened the public hearing. Robert Pendergrass spoke during the public hearing. The Mayor closed the public hearing. 2. The Council considered nominations/appointments to City Boards and Commissions. The Council made nominations/appointments per Attachment A. 3. Miscellaneous Matters from the City Manager. City Manager Jez did not have any items for Council. 4. New Business The Council did not have any suggestions of items for New Business. 5. The Council did not meet in a continuation of Closed Meeting under Sections 551.071- 551.085 of the Texas Open Meetings Act. City of Denton City Council Minutes July 27, 1999 Page 7 6. There was no official Action on Closed Meeting under Sections 551.071-551.085 of the Texas Open Meetings Act. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. ______________________________ JACK MILLER, MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS _______________________________ JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS