Loading...
Minutes September 20, 2004CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES September 20, 2004 After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Special Called Work Session on Monday, September 20, 2004 at 12:30 p.m. in the Council Work Session Room. PRE SENT: Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tem McNeill; Council Members Kamp, Mulroy, and Thomson. ABSENT: Council Members Montgomery and Redmon 1. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the initiation of voluntary residential cart refuse service. Vance Kemler, Director of Solid Waste, presented information on a voluntary residential cart refuse service. There were 19,800 homes on twice per week bag service and 3,050 homes on once a week cart service. Staff was proposing an option to extend once per week cart refuse service to current bag collection customers on a voluntary basis to the first 3,000 customers requesting the service change. New subdivisions would continue to be placed on cart service. The rate for cart service would be less than the bag service. Cart service would be only once a week versus twice a week service for bags. Council discussion included: Type of truck that would pick up for bag and cart service in mixed neighborhoods. Clear bags would be issued for yard waste, household bags would continue to be black. Cart service customers would be getting yard waste bags. There was a need for good public education on how to properly use the cart service. New subdivisions would have carts but not infill construction - cart service in that situation would be voluntary. Currently extra bags outside the cart were not picked up - in the future, extra bags would be picked up for an additional charge. Consensus of Council was to proceed with the proposal. 2. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the placement and enclosure options for existing commercial dumpsters located forward of the front building line. Vance Kemler, Director of Solid Waste, stated that in January staff presented a White Paper on aesthetics. Along with that White Paper, the Denton Development Plan and the Development Code presented regulations for dumpsters. He presented pictures of dumpsters in compliance with the regulations. Existing property constructed before adoption of current code were not required to meet current regulations. Dumpsters in the street numbered about 30. Dumpsters in City of Denton City Council Minutes September 20, 2004 Page 2 the right-of-way numbered about 400. Those were on the curb and right-of-way areas. Solutions for the dumpsters in the right-of-way and street were to relocate the containers; change requirement for collection to bag rather than dumpsters with the property owners billed for the service. Departments impacted by dumpster issue included police, code enforcement, Keep Denton Beautiful, Planning and Development and Solid Waste Delivery. Suggestions for implementation of changes included providing a general policy on the location and enclose requirements for existing dumpsters forward of the front building line, not covered by the current Development code, provide a target date to begin and complete implementation, and consider strategies to minimize impact on affected dumpster users or customers. The Denton Development Code would need to be updated or revised to include container screening, placement of containers to the rear or side of a structure, accessibility, and applicability for property expansions, remodeling rezoning or re-platting; update the site criteria manual and revise portions of the Code to meet the goal. In order to ease the burden on a customer with a dumpster in the right-of-way Council might consider alternatives with incentives to encourage container relocation. A fee for continued use of the City's right-of-way for customers choosing to keep their dumpsters in the right-of-way might also be considered. Council discussion included: Prefab enclosures were available for dumpster enclosures. Increase interaction with customers regarding placement of containers. Develop a policy on sharing of containers among different businesses. The situation included two service issues - billing and site development. A possible solution was to change service in all apartments to bag/cart service instead of dumpsters. Industrial areas and large developed area requirements would be different from apartments. Provide a reasonable time to get dumpsters out of the right-of-way. Get with owners of larger properties and get buy-in on how to eliminate the dumpster issues. Consensus of the Council was to meet with the owners of larger properties and get a buy-in on how to eliminate the dumpster issues. The move might be from dumpsters to carts without bag service. A meeting would be scheduled in the first quarter of next year to get the process started. 3. The Council held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding City Council priorities relative to the Denton Development Code including but not limited to development standards and zoning categories. Mayor Brock indicated that the Agenda Committee had requested this item be placed on the agenda so that Council could begin developing items to discuss in the joint meeting with the Planning and Zoning Commission. City of Denton City Council Minutes September 20, 2004 Page 3 Council discussion and priorities included: One top priority was to create a higher value for residences in city. Make Denton so desirable that people would be willing to pay a higher price for homes in order to live in Denton. Landscaping in public places and private locations made a city more desirable. The current Development Code encouraged small lot developments with a trade off for quality. The quality standards were not high enough to make the equation balance. Look at the minimum square footage to raise quality standards such as amount of brick on the home and required landscaping. Examine city policies such as impact fee exemptions and to re-examine the apartment to population ratio for future years. Consider all future apartments with a specific use permit until a comprehensive plan solution was found. It was not good planning to allow homes without garages or to have garage conversions thus requiring residents to park outside on the driveway, street or yard. It was important to provide incentives to bring in higher quality developments. Encourage street trees, wider widths of sidewalks, and masonry instead of siding for developments. Consider an ordinance requirement for multifamily developments to have a specific use permit while the issue was re-examined. This would not be a moratorium and could be changed later if needed. Develop a matrix of what can and can't be done with building standards. Several options were needed for developers to consider in order to meet certain criteria to raise standards. Determine numbers on existing occupancy rates for apartments. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:35 p.m. JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS EUL1NEBROCK MAYOR CITY OFDENTON, TEXAS