Minutes November 11, 2003CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL M1NUTES
November 11, 2003
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Planning Session
on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 4:00 p.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City
Hall.
PRESENT:
Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tern Burroughs; Council Members Kamp, McNeill,
Montgomery, and Thomson.
ABSENT: Council Member Redmon
1. The Council received outcome statements and held a discussion regarding long range (50
year) planning issues for Solid Waste, Wastewater and Water.
Mike Conduff, City Manager, stated that Council had reviewed water and wastewater 50-year
concepts at the last meeting. Outcome statements included the 50-year disposal outcome for
solid waste. He reviewed the concept of reasonable interpretation and the concept that the vision
was the state to arrive at in the future. The statements should be written as though they had
already been achieved. He asked Council if they wanted to revise any of the water, wastewater
and solid waste outcome statements from the prior planning session.
Council discussion added the following out-of-bound statements:
Failure to explore/utilize regional solutions
Unsightly refuse containers in public view
Council Member Redmon arrived at the meeting.
Council suggested the following topics for future discussion: Privatization of solid waste functions
Creation of a reserve fund for acquisition of additional capacity from the disposal of
waste from outside the city
Council also discussed the need for feedback to citizens regarding how outcomes have been
interpreted and what was being done in regards to the outcome statements.
2. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding downtown and
implementation of the Downtown Master Plan.
Linda Ratliff, Director of Economic Development, stated that Council had been provided a copy
of the Downtown Master Plan and a section of the TIP strategies relative to Downtown in the
agenda backup materials.
Council discussed the recent economic/transit trip they took to Dallas. A list of items of interest/
discussion points from that trip included:
Streetscapes and water features
Public/private partnerships
Use of Requests For Qualifications
Development agreements as zoning ordinances
Infill development
City of Denton City Council Minutes
November 11, 2003
Page 2
Community involvement, particularly directly affected parties
Use of external experts for city advocates
Importance of quality
Need of continuity of elected leadership
Planning and Zoning support
Access to the regional transportation system
Access to downtown linkages
Even with improvements, there were still problems
Public art
Variety in rail stations
Mews approach
Interior parking
Open-air concept
Compatible existing to new development
Property acquisition
Need incentive programs
Multi-use spaces
Real cities need great downtowns
Downtowns are linked to economic development and general well being
Big vision, small projects
Nice doesn't have to be big
Transit as a partner
Stops as assets to the community
Council also discussed the newly formed Economic Development Board relative to task force
assignments and assignments based on the TIP strategies recommendations.
3. Council made suggestions to the Agenda Committee on future agenda items and/or
placement of items for upcoming agendas.
Council did not have any suggestions of items to be moved from the Consent Agenda to Items
for Individual Consideration for the November 18th agenda.
Mayor Brock suggested holding a discussion on the Civic Center Park master plan during either
a planning session or a luncheon session.
Mayor Brock suggested a discussion of the proposal by A1 Grones regarding drainage areas.
Council Member Montgomery suggested Council determine a small project to be completed in
2004.
Council Member Redmon suggested Council do some streetscaping along the new sidewalks on
Bell near their adopt-a-spot.
Council Member McNeill requested a discussion regarding gas well revenues.
Other areas of discussion included:
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November 11, 2003
Page 3
Council Member McNeill suggested using some of the fourth Tuesdays for shorter
discussion sessions rather than trying to hold those discussions in work sessions. Council
Member Thomson indicated that he had plans already made for some of the fourth Tuesdays.
A suggestion was made to lengthen the time of the luncheon meetings an extra half hour
to allow for discussion of smaller topics. General consensus of the Council was that this would
be acceptable.
Council Member McNeill questioned why not all of the Council's suggestions were
included in the Future Items Chart. Mayor Brock indicated that some of the suggestions were
merely requests for information from individual members and not topics for future items.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m.
EUL1NEBROCK
MAYOR
CITY OFDENTON, TEXAS
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS