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March 9, 2010 MinutesMINUTES CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL March 9, 2010 After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council of the City of Denton, Texas convened in a Closed Session on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas. PRESENT: Mayor Burroughs, Mayor Pro Tern Kamp, Council Member Engelbrecht, Council Member Gregory, Council Member Heggins, Council Member Mulroy and Council Member Watts. ABSENT: None 1. Closed Meeting: A. Deliberations Regarding Real Property - Under Texas Government Code, Section 551.072; Consultation with Attorney - Under Texas Government Code, Section 551.071. 1. Discuss, deliberate and receive information from staff and provide staff with direction pertaining to conflicting legal claims regarding a certain 3.814 acre tract of land situated at the northeast corner of Loop 288 and Spencer Road, in the City of Denton, Denton County, Texas and lying in the Mary L. Austin Survey, Abstract No. 4 and in the M.E.P. and P.R.R. Survey, Abstract No. 927, in the City of Denton, Denton County, Texas. Consultation with the city's attorneys regarding legal issues associated with a compromise of conflicting claims regarding said land, where such discussion and deliberation in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the City Council in negotiations regarding a settlement of such claim and would clearly conflict with the duty of the City's attorneys to the City of Denton and the Denton City Council under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of Texas. Following the completion of the Closed Session the Council convened in a Work Session to consider the following: 1. Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the proposed development for the Fry Street area. Mark Cunningham, Director of Planning and Development, reviewed background information on Dinerstein Companies, developer of the proposed Fry Street project. He showed the site location and the Fry Street Overlay District. The project chronology was reviewed. Josh Vasbinder, representing Dinerstein Companies, presented the details of the project, showing how the project was first proposed and the revisions that had happened due to neighborhood input. Council discussed various options for retail in the development in relation to the residential units. City of Denton City Council Minutes March 9, 2010 Page 2 Vasbinder continued with the look of the architectural structures which would be compatible with the historic flavor of the neighborhood. Various elevations of the project from different vantage points on surrounding streets were shown. He indicated that they would be requesting to amend the current overlay to extend the height to 55 feet. Council Member Gregory asked if a special sign district would also be needed. Cunningham indicated that the proposed ordinance for the development contained a section dealing with signs. Council Member Gregory asked about sidewalk width around the development. Vasbinder corrected his prior statement about needing one amendment. The proposal would actually need two amendments. One amendment was needed to add a fourth story and the second would be for additional density as part of the fourth floor. In terms of sidewalks, in front of the retail the sidewalks would be 18 feet wide and transition down to 12 feet. The back side of the development on Oak would have 8 foot sidewalks. They would be willing to change the width of the sidewalks if desired but right-of-way issues would have to be considered. Council Member Gregory asked for the total residential units and a breakdown of the number of bedrooms. Vasbinder stated that there would be a total of 194 units with 618 bedrooms. There would be 20 one bed units, 40 two bedroom units, 18 three bedroom units and 116 four bedroom units. All parking was anticipated to be in the on-site garage. They would be required to do a traffic study which would analyze further the parking and traffic issues. Council Member Gregory asked if all of the retail customers and residents would use the same trash area. Vasbinder replied yes that all would use the same compactor which would be landscaped buffered. Council Member Mulroy asked about the time frame for completion of the planned development ordinance. Cunningham stated that staff was looking to have a draft to council by early this summer. The gas well ordinance would be revised first followed by work on the planned development ordinance. Council Member Mulroy felt that a planned development would be an ideal way to handle this project. He had a concern that if the overlay district were modified, it might create boundaries that could bump up against other overlay conditions. Staff needed to try and determine if the time frame would work for this to be the first planned development with the new ordinance or if language needed to be added to loosen the details for overlay so that the developer would not have to come back through the process for those small details. City of Denton City Council Minutes March 9, 2010 Page 3 Mayor Burroughs felt that this overlay could get very detailed in order to have sufficient clarity. He questioned if an amendment to the existing overlay would allow another project to do to the same thing or would the amendment just carve out this property for this project. Cunningham stated that staff had discussed that internally and was trying to come up with a creative way to not create an overlay within an overlay. Develop the project without applying the overlay conditions to the entire Fry Street district. Mayor Burroughs suggested carving out the boundaries of this project so any amendments to the overlay district would just apply to this location. Cunningham stated that there was the possibility of amending the boundaries of the overlay district to allow for the development of the project. Mayor Burroughs asked if the developer had thought about incorporating public transit into the development. Vasbinder stated that they had met with DCTA but the one-way street system was going the wrong way. They had also talked about internally making a stand lone shelter in the private drive. Another idea was to make improvements to off-site locations near the project. Council Member Watts stated that traffic patterns needed to be considered to maximize the potential in the area and that something different might have to be done in the area for traffic purposes. He asked how many baths the three and four bedroom units would have. Vasbinder stated that each bedroom would have a bath. Council Member Watts asked about the leasing of bedrooms. Vasbinder stated that the leases would be by the unit and not by the bed. Cunningham stated that staff would consult with Legal for the most appropriate mechanism for either an amended overlay or planned development for the project. 2. Receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the status of various drainage projects associated with the sale and delivery of $7,065,000 in certificates of obligation as approved by City Council on October 2, 2007 and supported in the FY2007-FY2008 budget by a one cent tax increase per $100 of property valuation. Frank Payne, City Engineer, presented background information on the one cent tax increase for drainage funding. He detailed the six projects associated with the tax increase and the associated funded amounts. (1) The Mingo Road and Paisley box and channel project was broken into three phases. Phase 1 dealt with replacement of the culvert west of the intersection of Nottingham and Mingo, Phase 2 dealt with the culvert replacement east of the intersection of Schmitz and Mingo and Phase 3 dealt with the culvert replacement on Paisley west of Bradshaw and channel work south of the new culverts at Paisley to Lehrman. City of Denton City Council Minutes March 9, 2010 Page 4 (2) The Ector Street storm drainage project was designed by in-house personnel and consisted of storm drain installation on Ector Street. Construction would begin following the execution of contract documents which were approved by Council on February 2, 2010. (3) The Kings Row at Cooper Branch project was located immediately upstream of the area studied in the Cooper Creek Basin. It was designed and constructed by in-house personnel and was completed in September 2009. There were remaining funds left from this project which would be available for transfer to another project where needed to assist in project completion. (4) The Magnolia Street drainage project was broken into two phases. Phase I included the construction of a detention pond north of Windsor and the McKenna Park Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and channel modifications from the pond south to Windsor Street. Phase 2 would consist of improving the drainage system from the Phase 1 channel north of Windsor Street to Northridge Road and south of Good Samaritan Village. This phase was currently underfunded. (5) Cooper Creek detention and channel improvements. The scopes of these projects involved an analysis of possible overall flood mitigation activities for the Cooper Creek basin and construction of detention ponds and channel improvements to reduce flooding potential along Cooper Creek. Based on the engineering report, staff was moving forward with the construction of a regional detention pond located on the Strickland Junior High School campus to reduce flooding at Sherman and the school and culvert and channel improvements to Mingo Road to reduce flooding at Mingo and Craig's Lane. (6) Pecan Creek improvements include channel modeling and improvements from the existing improved channel at Bell and Wainwright to the intersection of the existing channel at West Mulberry to the west of Carroll Blvd. Phase 1 included the construction of a new culvert to replace the existing channel along a new alignment from the existing channel at Bell and Wainwright. Phase 2 included the construction of new culverts to replace the existing channel from the upstream end of Phase 1 and west to a point on the north side of East Prairie Street. Payne presented information on existing and emergency projects. The Utility and CIP Engineering and Drainage departments continued to process existing bond projects and attempt to address citizen complaints and immediate needs associated with localized flooding incidents after the intense rains and associated flooding associated with the storm event that occurred in April 2007. The following projects illustrated some of those completed and ongoing projects: (1) Morse Street channel improvements (2) Old North Road storm drain improvements (3) Duncan Street drainage improvements (4) Eagle Drive drainage improvements (5) Post Oak Blvd. (6) Pockrus Page road, sidewalk, and drainage improvements (7) Gayla and Mayhill Street paving and drainage improvements (8) Ranch Estates City of Denton City Council Minutes March 9, 2010 Page 5 (9) Thunderbird Drive and Cactus Drive (10) Police training ground on Airport Road (11) Appaloosa Court ditch (12) State School Road at Unicorn Lake ditch improvements (13) City of Denton Service Center Council Member Gregory noted that some of the drainage projects were done with the former WPA and asked if there was any possibility of salvaging some of that rock when the channels were redone. Payne stated that it might be difficult as the rock often fractured and came out in chunks. Some of the walls would need to stay in place while making the new bank. They could attempt to salvage some of the rock but it might be difficult to pull out whole pieces. Council Member Mulroy thanked Mr. Payne for his presentation and the level of detail contained within the drainage report. He commented on the length of time necessary to complete the drainage projects, clarified the project design problems encountered, and questioned the remaining project schedule. Council Member Mulroy discussed the importance of maintaining their focus on a systematic drainage improvement program through the City's CIP Bond Committee process and that historically, drainage projects had received as much as 25% of the available debt service. He emphasized the importance of utilizing General Obligations as a funding source for these drainage improvements, recognizing that the Drainage Fee was implemented for the primary purpose of funding drainage system operation and maintenance activities. He encouraged Council to include drainage projects in subsequent Capital Improvement Plan efforts as part of Council's sustained commitment to improving critical drainage infrastructure. 3. Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding a Best Practices for Pipeline and Municipality Relations Resolution. John Cabrales, Public Information Officer, stated that a group of public officials and members of the Texas Pipeline Association had been working in a collaborative manner to improve communications between the pipeline industry and local municipal governments located in the Barnett Shale production area. This group met on a number of occasions to discuss the issues that surrounded pipeline routing through municipal jurisdictions. The result of this collaborate effort was the "Best Practices for Pipeline and Municipality Relations" document which was designed to enhance the routing process, through communication and mutual respect. Several of the mayors, including Mayor Burroughs, sent out a letter asking towns and cities to support the passage of a resolution and commitment to adhere to the best practices when dealing with pipeline companies. Mayor Burroughs noted that in the last legislative session, cities and the pipeline industry each had proposed legislation for guidelines which ended up competing with each other for regulations. Prior pipeline practices did not take notice of city planning guidelines and the pipeline industry tried to get cities eliminated from the decision making process. In this case, the industry and municipalities were trying to work together for placement of future pipelines. These were guidelines only and would help promote communication between the industry and cities. City of Denton City Council Minutes March 9, 2010 Page 6 Council Member Mulroy stated that he did not have any disagreement with the concept and overview of such a proposal. He did, however, feel that there were details that needed more work. He felt, based on language in the staff report, that staff was not comfortable with the final recommendation. Staff should be able to give recommendations from their standpoint. Mayor Burroughs stated that he had talked with staff and had indicated that he would ask to have the action item not considered if they were not able to work through all of the issues. City Manager Campbell stated that there were still a number of issues to work out particularly in the area of utilities and the permitting requirements. This proposal was strictly voluntary to encourage cooperation and was not mandatory. If the proposal was encouraging gas lines in utility easements, that might be considered cooperative but what would happen when a company asked for a line in a utility easement and the city was not in favor. The company could reference the resolution to counter the city's denial. Mayor Burroughs agreed that there were issues to still work through. He suggested Council not consider the action item on the agenda and take comments for staff to consider. The resolution could be modified any manner. Staff could put in qualifying language to help with concerns. Council Member Mulroy stated that he had issues with the following: (1) 1B did not address the mapping and that needed to be added, (2) 1C had too short a time frame and staff needed to give feedback on the time frames, (3) 2B was slanted too much towards the pipeline company and needed to be reworded for the safety and welfare of the community, (4) #1 in the construction phase had no pre-commitment unless qualifiers were put on it, (5) #3 in the construction phase was questionable as to whether or not trees would be saved in the future and a pipeline company would not have to pay attention to tree ordinance and (6) #4 in the construction phase again needed ETJ mapping. City Manager Campbell asked if the intent was to have same best practices for each city. Mayor Burroughs stated that it was not really possible that everyone would agree on one document. He suggested a shell standardized for consideration and come back with unique conditions for each municipality. The industry would then take those and make one document for their use. Council Member Gregory asked about the safeguards for the city relative to compression stations and their placement. City Manager Campbell felt that right now the attitude from the gas companies was that they could do whatever they wanted. Council Member Gregory suggested that those issues be addressed either in the best practices document or in another document. City Manager Campbell felt that the best practices guidelines was probably not the place to address specific issues. Those should be done in another document such as the gas well ordinance. The best practices was a declaration that all would play fair. City of Denton City Council Minutes March 9, 2010 Page 7 Council Member Watts asked how long ago the meetings started and who else was involved in the meetings. Mayor Burroughs stated that the meeting started about 6 months ago and just elected officials attended the meetings unless one could not attend, then staff was present. Council Member Watts expressed concern about the timing of the proposal. He felt it could have been brought forward sooner and be in concert with the revisions of the gas well ordinance. City Manager Campbell stated that staff could redraft the provisions and have Council provide feedback before the April 6th meeting. Mayor Burroughs stated that Denton's perspective on the proposal could be put in the resolution; items that were important to the City of Denton Following the completion of the Work Session the Council will convene in a Special Called Meeting to consider the following: Ordinance No. 2010-079 A. Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas approving and authorizing the Compromise, Settlement and Release of All Claims by and between the City of Denton, Texas and DBT Porcupine, L1, a Delaware Business Trust; authorizing the City Manager and City Attorney to act on the City's behalf in executing any and all conveyances and other supporting documents pertaining thereto; and to take such other actions as are necessary to effectuate and finalize the settlement; authorizing the City Manager to receive an easement on behalf of the City of Denton, Texas; authorizing the expenditure of any funds for incidental expenses; and declaring an effective date. Council Member Mulroy motioned, Council Member Heggins seconded to adopt the ordinance. On roll call vote, Council Member Heggins, "aye", Council Member Watts "aye", Council Member Mulroy "aye", Council Member Gregory "aye", Council Member Engelbrecht "aye", Mayor Pro Tem Kamp "aye", and Mayor Burroughs "aye". Motion carried unanimously. B. Consider approval of a resolution by the City Council of the City of Denton, Texas regarding the Best Practices for Pipeline and Municipality Relations Resolution; and providing an effective date. This item was not considered. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m. MARK A. BURROUGHS JENNIFER WALTERS MAYOR CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS