February 6, 2012 Minutes
CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
February 6, 2012
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council of the City of Denton, Texas
convened in a Special Called Work Session on Monday, February 6, 2012 at 11:30 a.m. in the
Council Work Session Room.
PRESENT: Council Member Watts, Council Member Gregory, Council Member King,
Council Member Engelbrecht, Council Member Roden and Mayor Burroughs
ABSENT: Mayor Pro Tem Kamp
1. Receive a report and hold a discussion with Library staff regarding, but not limited to
Library programs, services and project updates.
Eva Poole, Director of Libraries, stated that the Library Management Team anticipated changes
in how the public accessed information. She stated that they would be presenting information on
new programs and services at the libraries including e-books, e-readers, a smart phone
application and new programming efforts.
Kimberly Wells, North Branch Library Manager, stated that new technology resulted in library
services for e-books. She presented information on the number of e-books checked out over the
past year and the number of audio books and e-books on hand at the libraries. She showed how
to find the information on the website. Downloading from the library provided instant access,
customer service from a librarian, no late fees, ability to change font size for easier reading, and
checkout of up to 10 books at a time.
Council Member Roden asked about the cost of e-books as opposed to hardbacks.
Wells stated that it about the same price.
Terri Gibbs, Emily Fowler Central Library Manager presented an update on the library’s
customer focused services. Classes were available for e-readers that included topics of how to
buy, what to do with it after receiving one, Overdrive instructions, and e-reader covers. The
libraries also served the underserved with programs in adult literacy, homebound services,
English conversation classes, beginner technology classes and adult book adventures.
Partnership building was done with various organizations such as Vita for tax assistance; DISD
for ELS and GED; Texas AgriLIFE Extension for senior programming; Library Larry's Big Day
featuring city departments, county offices, universities and other local attractions. With all of
these new programs, the standard favorites were still provided such as the summer reading club,
preschool classes, Adventure Club, special programs that stressed science, annual contests for
teens, crafting classes and book clubs.
Stacy Sizemore, South Branch Library Manager, presented information on how to take the
library with you. Patrons were now able to access the catalog and download e-books and audio
books from one application. The phone app provided access to the library’s events calendar,
social media sites, and Book Look which worked with the camera in the mobile device to scan a
barcode to see if the library had it on file.
Mayor Burroughs asked about the monitoring of blogs and whether the blogger had to be
identified. He felt there was a balance between expression and responsible expression.
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February 6, 2012
Page 2
Sizemore stated that there was a staff person who managed the web blog and looked at the
comments before being posted.
Council Member Gregory stated that there was no way to identify the blogger.
Sizemore stated that was correct.
Poole presented information on the FRID Project, Radio Frequency Identification. The five
components of the system included tags, a station, a reader, workstations and a detection system.
She provided information on how the system worked. The advantages of this system were real-
time automatic check-in, it streamlined work flow, reduced handling time and help with
inventory. She reviewed the project timeline for branch closings in order to tag all of the items.
Branches would be closed two days for the project.
Mayor Burroughs asked if with this system would allow employee hours be used in other areas.
Poole stated that they were working with limited staff so it would help with the amount of
materials circulating each day.
Council Member Roden questioned if the detection location of a book was only in the library
area.
Poole stated that it only worked within the library.
2. Receive an update, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding supplemental
street funding.
PS Arora, DRC Engineering Administrator, stated that in December staff presented a report to
Council on supplemental street funding options. During that discussion, several questions and
clarification issues were raised by Council. Staff had prepared a response to each of the items
and; in addition, staff did an analysis of all building permits going back three fiscal years. For
each permit, staff calculated a road impact fee assuming a $1,500 and $2,000 single family
equivalent. He reviewed the impact fee calculation spreadsheet calculating the fees for the past
three years based on the building permits. Staff then took that information and compared
exactions versus road impact fees from 1998 to current.
Council Member Gregory asked about the time limit to spend aid-to-construction contributions.
Arora stated that after ten years it had to go back to the developer.
Council Member Watts asked if multi-family was based on unit number or bedroom number.
Arora stated that unit number was used.
Council Member Watts asked if the plat determined what system would be used for determining
the fee.
Arora replied correct.
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February 6, 2012
Page 3
Council Member Watts asked if a water line was replaced without upsizing it, would it be an
impact fee project.
Arora stated that the impact fee could only be charged when adding capacity. It could not be
used just for infrastructure
Council Member Watts stated that a road impact fee was based not on increasing the capacity of
roads but was aimed more towards reconstruction. He was having trouble differentiating
between new development and repairing/reconstructing current roads.
Arora stated that impact fees applied only for adding capacity to accommodate growth such as
intersection improvements, signal lights, and turn lanes.
Council discussed street capacity and road impact fee versus construction.
Road Impact Fee Calculation results – Arora stated that the analysis results showed that the City
could have collected approximately $4.4 million more for road improvements in the last 3 fiscal
years with the assumed impact fee of $1,500 per SFE, than was assessed using the current
Denton Development Code exactions. For the assumed $2,000 per SFE impact fee, the
difference would be $6.8 million.
Infill/Downtown Area – This issue seemed to be the most significant issue raised by Council.
Through the adopted impact fee ordinance, Council would have the ability to control this via
policy. There were three possible options: (1) Create a "no fee/reduced fee" service area. This
would require carving out a roadway service area for downtown or infill areas where no capacity
or minimal capacity improvements were identified within the road impact fee CIP. (2) Create a
clear policy for fee reductions. For projects that met some certain set of criteria established via
the road impact fee ordinance, the impact fee collection rate would be discounted. Encourage a
certain development type that met a certain threshold for level of investment, type of
development and number of jobs. (3) Create a hybrid approach with a combination of no fee
areas and policies for fee reductions.
Change of Use Permits/Redevelopment – State law allowed for the assessment and collection of
impact fees for change of use. These required administrative time to calculate proportionality
and created a lot of pushback from local developers. Fort Worth was exploring a change where
all change of use permits were exempt except where there was a major change in intensity. Staff
would need support from the City Attorney on this issue as it related to some equal protection
issues.
Minimum Impact Fee/Size of Development – this issue related to the question of minimum size
of development to which a road impact fee was applied. Staff would recommend against it as it
could create some equity issues. A small development would just have a much smaller impact
fee; however, the issue of equal protection issues could be of concern when developments were
treated differently without a basis to do so.
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February 6, 2012
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Right-Of-Way Dedication Issue/Credits - Assuming that right-of-way acquisition costs were
included in the impact fee CIP, the dedication would still be required and credit would be given
to the developer against impact fees for the dedication.
Capacity versus Pavement Conditions – The impact fee statute required the impact fee to handle
capacity issues only. More fees could not be charged based on the type of vehicle traffic and the
weight via the impact fee. The costs for the roadways were based on the impact fee master plan
and construction standards, so any additional design criteria to accommodate heavy vehicles
were figured into the fee in this manner.
Credit for Internal Capture/TOD related land uses – The impact fee could be reduced for projects
that via their design or their location reduced the amount of vehicular traffic. If the traffic study
showed reduced traffic generation, then impact fee collection rate would be reduced in
accordance with the reduction in trips.
Land Use/Transportation Connection Discount – Arora reviewed the ordinance Fort Worth used
for this issue. A 5-9% trip capture would result in a 5% impact fee reduction; a 10-14% trip
capture would result in a 10% impact fee reduction and a 15% or greater trip capture would
result in a 15% impact fee reduction.
Economic development for industrial Area – There would be a need to write a clear section in
the road impact fee ordinance on how a development would qualify for a fee reduction.
Assessment versus Collection – Impact fees were assessed at the time of final plat, but collected
at the time of building permit. Fees could not be collected on property platted prior to the Impact
Fee Ordinance adoption. Information was presented on the current Denton Development Code
requirements versus the impact fee requirements.
Mayor Pro Tem Kamp arrived at the meeting.
Options for the fee included (1) continue to implement the current DDC embedded transportation
exactions, (2) direct staff to bring additional information on implementation of road impact fees,
or (3) direct staff to proceed on the implementation of the road impact fees. Staff was
recommending proceeding on the implementation of the road impact fees.
Council Member Engelbrecht asked how the streets to be included would be determined.
Arora stated that the streets would be identified ahead of time and approved in the service area
with costs of improvements.
Mayor Burroughs noted that a listing of projects would help determine on how to proceed.
Arora stated that staff would put a few sample projects on a spreadsheet and determine the
impact fee in each category.
Mayor Burroughs stated that it was his understanding that this would be more equitable than
currently was being used. It was critical to know the exceptions. He requested a comparison
among competitive cities of all of the impact fees.
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February 6, 2012
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Council Member Engelbrecht suggested having the legal definitions completed to have those
available to include in the calculations.
3. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding a Street
Improvement Bond Program.
Howard Martin, Assistant City Manager, stated that Council had already seen most of this
presentation at the Council Planning Session. He had included information on a 2012 bond
election schedule. Appointments to the bond committee needed to be completed as soon as
possible.
Mayor Burroughs asked about the number of people on the committee.
Consensus of Council was to appoint three people per council person.
Council Member Roden suggested a geographically diversified panel and to have members from
each council district.
Mayor Burroughs felt a general goal would be to nominate people from the single member
districts and to get the names to Council as soon as possible with their respective districts so any
gaps could be filled in.
Council Member Engelbrecht stated that he would also want some community organizational
representation such as a business aspect, public transportation or the walking community. He
suggested two representatives from a district and one from a different aspect.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:52 p.m.
____________________________________
MARK A. BURROUGHS
MAYOR
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
____________________________________
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS