Minutes November 18, 2004CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
November 18, 2004
Join Meeting of the City of DeNon City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission on
Thursday, November 18, 2004 at 7:00 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room.
PRESENT:
Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tem McNeill; Council Members Kamp, Montgomery,
Mulroy, and Thomson.
ABSENT: Council Member Redmon
Commissioners AbseN: Commissioners Hold and Noble
1. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding
adopting zoning amendments to the Denton Development Code affecting multi-family
developmeN including, without limitation, requiring Specific Use Permits for all multi-family
developmeN in the City of DeNon.
City Manager Conduff indicated that staff did not have a formal preseNation for Council but
rather this was a time for Council and the Commission to review the comments made at the prior
public hearing.
Kelly Carpenter, Director of Planning and Development, presented Council with an estimate of
the total amount of multifamily approved but not yet developed.
Council and Commission discussion included:
What was trying to be accomplished with this proposal?
A concern about the proliferation of the number of multifamily units being
developed in the city.
Information on the zoning categories that allowed multifamily but were not used
for multifamily.
A concern that the application of NRMU and NRMU-12 zoning for multifamily
purposes was not in conjunction with the philosophy of the multifamily along
with single family and commercial uses-only multifamily was being built.
There were an unequal number of multifamily units being built in the NRMU and
NRMU- 12 zoning categories.
The proposal for a SUP for multifamily developmeNs would not be permaneN-
only uNil a review of the Code and zoning categories could be examined.
Another dimension of the problem was that children in apartments tended to move
more often and that might have a negative impact in their ability to learn.
Decisions made today would impact how DeNon looked in the future.
The developmeNs already in progress needed to be protected from any additional
requirements.
It might be better to progressively implement the proposal.
Standards needed to be written on what would be developed.
Put a moratorium on multifamily development if the purpose was to eliminate
additional multifamily rather than burden the Planning and Zoning Commission,
the Council and developers with a SUP.
Let the market determine whether or not new apartments were developed rather
than trying to artificially control development.
City of DeNon City Council Minutes
November 18, 2004
Page 2
Let what was approved at this point in time develop while staff reexamined the
percentage of multifamily in the various zoning categories rather than institute the
burden of a SUP.
One weakness in the code was that there were no percentages for any zoning
categories relative to multifamily units.
Ed Snyder, Deputy City Attorney, reviewed the currem legal provisions now in place in order to
institute a moratorium on multifamily development.
Larry Reichhart, Assistant Director of Planning and Development, presented the following
proposal for consideration - as there already was a L4 limitation in the Code, apply this
limitation to other zoning categories, possibly coupled with a maximum percentage of
multifamily units to be applied to all mixed-use districts. If a developer did not want to meet this
limitation he would have to apply for a SUP.
Council and Commissioners cominued discussion:
· The 60/40 percemage of single family to multifamily developmem was wrong.
There was a need for an analysis of that percentage and to reduce the ratio.
· This was Denton, not Flower Mound or McKinney. These were very different
communities and there was a need to be realistic on what Denton was. Denton
had two major universities and two major highways running through the city,
which was very different from other cities in the area.
· There was no economic base in DeNon for buying power for higher end homes.
The economic base of the city needed to be elevated to promote those types of
homes. Higher paying jobs were needed to attract higher end homes.
· Statements had been made regarding Denton having a higher percentage of low
income citizens and an exception was taken to the implication that low-level
income people were not as desirable in DeNon-DeNon should embrace diversity.
· Caving out niches of zoning would not change what DeNon was-higher quality of
life issues relative to economic developmem was needed.
Consensus of the Council and the Commission was to have staff move in the direction of Mr.
Reichhart's proposal relative to the maximum percentage of multifamily in the zoning
categories; to look at the 60/40 ratio; to consider an increase in open space qualifications for
multifamily; and to define criteria for a definition of "currem projects" so that projects already
with a multifamily designation would not be affected.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 a.m.
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
EULINE BROCK
MAYOR
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS