Minutes June 22, 2000CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
June 22, 2000
The City of Denton City Council held a joint meeting with the Development Code Committee on
Thursday, June 22, 2000 at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Work Session Room.
PRESENT: Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tem Beasley; Council Members Cochran, and
Kristoferson.
ABSENT: Council Members Burroughs, Durrance, and Young
1. The Council discussed, determined and gave staff direction about potential revisions to
the Development Code process and the schedule for completion of the Development Code
Rewrite.
Mayor Brock presented a history of the process and a review of the duties of the Committee.
She felt there was a need to clarify the process from this point forward. She asked if the
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Committee could hold two intensive sessions on July 24th and August 11 in order to finalize
the review. Only a draft code was needed at that point in time and not a finished product.
Council felt that there should be no public review process until after the start of the public school
year. Council also thought of reducing the quorum of the Committee from 8 to 6.
The Council and Committee discussed reducing the quorum of the Committee from eight to six
members. Comments from the Council and Committee included what was the scope of work for
the committee, whether the committee had authority to make recommendations or just rubber
stamp what the consultant was developing, and expectations of the committee on its scope of
work.
Council Member Durrance arrived at the meeting.
Comments/Concerns of the Committee included:
Frustration on the way the meetings were conducted with too many presentations and not
enough time spent on reviewing the document
The consultant was not open to suggestions by the Committee
The Committee’s perception of the plan was more urban/metro rather than suburban – not
reflective of a Texas city
To date, the Committee had not received the revised document to review
Questions regarding the make-up of the document were left unanswered
City Manager Jez felt that the sequence of events were that the City adopted the Denton Plan and
following that adoption, entered into a contract with the consultant to write a code that captured
the spirit of that plan. Following that contract, a citizen committee was formed to review the
technical work done by the consultant and staff. It was his understanding of the charge to the
Committee was to not review the code line by line and vote on that work the technicians did but
advise the consultant where the committee was in agreement with the technicians and staff or
City of Denton City Council Minutes
June 22, 2000
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point out areas to the technicians and staff that were inconsistent with the values of the
community. At that point the code with comments and critiques of the Committee would go
through the Planning and Zoning Commission and citizens and the Council would finalize the
document. He had heard that the Committee wanted authority to direct the technician to change
the plan that was different from that the charge to the Committee as stated in the ordinance.
Bob Shelton felt that the Committee was trying to micromanage a document written by an expert
and that was not what the Committee should be doing.
Council Member Durrance felt that there needed to be a reasonable timetable to complete the
process in order to have it for public input.
The Committee felt that the comments it made were not noted anywhere in the document.
City Manager Jez felt that there were three issues the Council needed to address: clarify the
charge of committee for a better understanding of what was expected of the Committee, clarify
what would be the expected product of the Committee (majority/minority opinion or something
different), and an agreement on a schedule in terms of delivery.
The Council and Committee finalized the issues:
1. The charge of the Committee was to review the technical work of the consultant and
provide Council with feedback/recommendations on the technical work.
2. The consultant would listen to the Committee’s comments about the document and if
valid, in the technical judgment of the consultant, incorporate those comments into the
document. If the consultant felt the comments were invalid per his technical expertise, the
Committee would have an opportunity to provide separate feedback on the issue. Comments
would be noted from the Committee on where they disagreed with what the consultant had
written.
3. The Council would proceed with the changing of the number of Committee members needed
for a quorum.
4. The Committee would determine a time line for completion of its work in order to have
adequate time to review the remaining portions of the document.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
_____________________ _________________________
JENNIFER WALTERS EULINE BROCK, MAYOR
CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS