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Minutes June 14, 2005 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 14, 2005 nd After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a 2 Tuesday Session on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 at 4:00 p.m. in the City Council Work Session Room. PRESENT: Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tem McNeill; Council Members Kamp, Montgomery, Mulroy, Redmon and Thomson. ABSENT: None 1. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction on the contract with Freese & Nichols, Inc. concerning the engineering review in the Development Review Process and associated fees. City Manager Conduff stated that this was another step in the process of reorganizing the Engineering Department as outlined to Council several weeks ago. It was proposed that the engineering development review process be outsourced and he reviewed the process of how a qualified firm was chosen. Kelly Carpenter, Director of Planning and Development, stated that the outsourcing would allow for streamlining of the department and change a mind set in the engineering functions. It was proposed to contract with Freese and Nichols. Council asked for a review of the evaluation of the firms. Carpenter replied that the proposal first addressed reoccurring tasks such as availability in the city for 19 hours a week, attending meetings, attending Planning and Zoning Commission meetings if necessary and second addressed the actual fees for development review. It was determined that an hourly rate contract for review of plats would not be successful. The proposal by Freese and Nichols was tied to the number of plats in a subdivision. Additional fees were proposed for work above and beyond plats such as additional reviews for projects. Each project would receive two reviews for the initial fee. She reviewed the rate of the fee with the number of types of review. Options for cost recovery included partial recovery, total recovery, or partial with some portion of recurring costs passed on to developers. Outstanding issues to consider included: (1) Was there an expectation by Council that development pay its own way so that there was total cost recovery built into the fee structure? (2) Should the community subsidize the proposed fees to the development community? Alternatively said, what level of economic development incentive, if any, did the Council want associated with land development? (3) Should the recurring costs proposed under the contract be renegotiated with fewer or revised services? (4) Should the recurring costs be rolled into the fee schedule instead of remaining free standing? Council discussion points included: Part of the challenge was the development. What did the development provide the city and how much should citizens subsidize that. Should the developments be subsidized at the same level? Some developments were perceived good for the community and others that might not be as valuable for the community. Should they be subsidized at the same level? City of Denton City Council Minutes June 14, 2005 Page 2 Make the process adaptable in order to achieve the first goal to have development pay its own way. Make a decision on whether or not to be totally self funded, then determine where to put the costs. If outsourcing were used, the cost would more than doubled what people were accustomed to paying. The general perception of outsourcing had been met with good acceptance from the developers. Consensus of Council was to keep the costs at a 2% review charge with a schedule of rates; clarify the Code in terms of titles and how appeals would be processed. The process would be reviewed in a year for potential amendments. 2. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding rental property inspections and other rental property concerns. Rick Jones, Fire Marshal, presented current regulations for building and occupancy of rental properties. Single-family and multi-family dwellings were inspected through the plan review and permit process when constructed. After construction and final inspections were completed for single-family dwellings, the structure was released to its owner or occupant. Usually no additional inspections were made unless a complaint was received. Multi-family rental properties included apartments, boarding houses, and dormitory occupancies. These structures were inspected through the plan review and permit process and also inspected on an annual basis by fire inspectors. These occupancies were tied to their Certificates of Occupancy that could be revoked if code violations were persistent. Each time a multi-family occupancy had a change in ownership or was remodeled, they were required to renew their Certificates of Occupancy that generated another inspection from building and fire inspectors. Single-family units did not receive such inspections once the final inspection was completed. Multi-family rental properties could be covered by a rental property registration program. Each time an occupant vacated his apartment, the apartment owner had to arrange for an inspection prior to the new tenant moving in. This would mitigate issues associated with multi-family properties. Adopting the Rental Property Registration Program along with the International Property Maintenance Code would provide a minimum level of health and safety and allow the Code Official to keep existing structures and premises within a reasonable degree of life safety. Council discussed the aspects of rental property concerns in terms of number of unrelated people living in one unit, the number of square feet required by the Building Code per person, and the fact that working on a complaint-by-complaint basis was difficult. Jones indicated that it was difficult to determine residency just on the basis of cars parked outside a single-family home as there were factors that had to be considered such as determining who parked the car, etc. Alice Gore of the Denia Neighborhood area and Cheryl Ellis of the Emery Street area presented information on their neighborhoods and asked for help with the conditions in the neighborhoods. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 14, 2005 Page 3 Consensus of the Council was to create a task force with members from Code Enforcement, Building Inspections and neighbors to develop a proposal to Council on how to work with the problem and to consider creative ideas on how to solve the issue. Components of the proposal would be considered during the budget process. 3. The Council discussed the nomination process for the City?s Boards and Commissions. Jennifer Walters, City Secretary, indicated that staff would be preparing notebooks on the boards th and commissions information to be presented to Council on June 24. Council was asked during the break to gather nominations and submit them to her to compile for a luncheon in mid-July. th Council consensus was that nominations would be discussed at a July 18 luncheon. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m. _______________________________ EULINE BROCK MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS _______________________________ JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS