Lori: I received an email stating the monuments would have to .... HEIGHT, BULK, EXTERIOR ELEVATIONS AND USE OF ..... A.
State of Texas County of Brazoria City of Angleton The City of Angleton, Texas City Council conducted its Regular Monthly Meeting at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 14, 2009, with the following in attendance: J. Patrick Henry Rudy Santos Bonnie Church John Wright Bonnie McDaniel Gregg Dykes OTHERS PRESENT: Greg Smith Herbert L. Prouty Shelly Deisher Herb Smith Mike Jones Robert Heinemeyer Robert Owens And those listed on the guest registry.
Mayor Mayor Pro Tem Councilwoman Councilman Councilwoman Councilman City Manager Interim City Attorney City Secretary City Engineer Lieutenant, Angleton Police Dept. Public Works Director Fire Marshall
1.
CALL TO ORDER BY MAYOR HENRY. 6:00 p.m.
2.
Pledge of Allegiance.
3.
Moment of Silent Reflection/Prayer.
4.
Citizens wishing to address council: Larry Shaefer: Speaking on agenda item 11, consideration for purchase of backup radios and inoperability radios. I have been looking at it this afternoon. Although it was done through HGAC, it does not seem that several people were consulted about it and perhaps you did not get the best price. What is the urgency for this purchase? It is essentially standard shelf equipment and it does not require factory fabrication or long lead times. There is a question about the old fire station tower, whether it will stand two more additional channels and more cable. You do not have the frequency to run this equipment. You have a simplex frequency but not repeater. Your vendor is looking for a channel. If they would look with me, I could probably help them. Seems premature when you do not have all of the equipment for it. Maybe you should look instead of running and walk a little bit and look at other vendors that might save the City some significant money. Thank you. Mayor: We will see if we can address some of those items when we get to item number 11.
1
5.
Requests to address Council other than citizenry: None.
6.
Ceremonial presentationsPrevention Truck
Angleton
Fire
Department
Fire
Eric Smith: Grant was received from Dow about six months ago for fire prevention. We wrote it up for fire prevention vehicle, somewhat similar to the DARE vehicle that the police department uses. Set up to haul all of the fire prevention equipment as well as able to show videos outdoors. We tried to make it to catch kids’ attention. (Council and audience go outside to look at vehicle for approximately five minutes). Mayor: We appreciate Dow’s contribution for the work on the truck. We appreciate the Fire Department’s educational program for the kids. 7.
Consent items: 1)
Minutes from meeting.
March
24,
2)
Purchasing a front-end treatment plant.
2009 loader
Regular for
Council
wastewater
Motion by Councilwoman McDaniel to accept consent items. Motion by Councilman Wright. Motion passes with 6 for; 0 against. ACTION ITEMS: 8.
Discussion and possible action to authorize the City Manager to allow Republic Waste Services of Texas, LTD to subcontract with Waste Connections, Inc. to provide solid waste services pending the approval of an assignment of the Solid Waste Franchise from Republic to Waste Connections. Greg Smith: See Memorandum of Agreement. We did due diligence last week with Waste Connection in Tennessee. Came back very positive. Very pro-community company. Likes smaller markets with their business plan. Do not like being in large market. This is allowing them to subcontract the agreement until such time when we can do formal franchise agreement which takes about 62 days to complete. Waste Connection has agreed to freeze residential rate for two years and go back to the residential rate as of January of this year. Will continue to pick up for two years at that rate. Additionally, they have agreed to take all recyclables at no cost. Two year agreement with an extension for 10 years after the two years if they meet all conditions. Everything with the contract will stay same with those basic changes. Recommending Memorandum of Agreement. City Attorney has drafted the Agreement. Their two attorneys need to review the agreement to see if there are any changes. If our attorney agrees with any changes they have, this will authorize me to sign the agreement. Councilman Wright: Did you say extension of two years or ten years? 2
Greg Smith: It will be two for the first term and ten for the extension that we have. We have four years left on our current franchise and seven year renewal, so we are taking it down to two and giving two at the end. City Attorney: This agreement covers subcontract with Republic Waste Connection. On April 28 agenda we will have the ordinance approving the assignment of the franchise with conditions. Motion by Mayor Pro Tem Santos to approve Memorandum of Agreement as presented. Second by Councilwoman Church. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: Has legal staff from both Republic Waste and Waste Connections had an opportunity to review this memorandum? Smith: No. We will approve it in substance to give their legal attorneys the opportunity to make any comments and suggestions to our City Attorney. Upon Herb’s recommendation, I will be authorized to sign once all legal parties have had an opportunity. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: Do we anticipate any major legal changes to this Memorandum? City Attorney: We don’t, but you never know. If there are any changes of substance, of course we would bring this back to you before Greg would sign. Councilman Wright: During the 62 days, will rate revert back or is it after we approve the next one? Smith: Subcontract of current contract. Republic said they will not put the rate change in. I will get that confirmation in writing from Republic. Will reverse on next month’s water bill. Will show that benefit to citizens. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: Can we do it all in 62 days? Greg Smith: By statutes, that is what we have to do. Motion passes with 6 for; 0 against. 9.
Discussion and possible action on approval of variance to the Sign Ordinance requested by CVS Pharmacy, allowing CVS Pharmacy to have three monument signs, allowing for 513 square feet of wall signage and allowing the signs to exceed the two square feet allowed by the Sign Ordinance. Greg Smith: Council, I will turn this over to CVS for discussion. They are asking for multiple variances of the sign ordinance. Lori Bell (CVS sign representative): This is at the triangle of 274, Miller and Cedar Streets. The Sign Ordinance allows 1.5 square feet of signage per one building frontage and since we are encompassing three streets and really have two frontages 3
we are asking for signage considering both of those frontages facing Cedar and 274. On Loop 274, we have 137 linear feet of frontage, which will allow 205’ square feet of signage. That particular elevation has 180 on it so we are a little under on that side. On the Cedar Street side, we have a little over 89’ linear footage, which is approximately 135 square feet allowed by code if you would consider that frontage as well, because we have a corner entrance at a diagonal. That side actually has a total of 166 square feet; all in all, if both are considered, we would have a total of 340 allowable square feet. The total signage for both sides adds up to 346 so we are six square feet over if you consider both elevations. This is not including a little drive-through canopy on the back side of the building, which I would like to discuss as well, as a separate matter, as it is more of a directional for traffic flow. The other items on there are the prototypical CVS signage directional signs; exceed square footage (two square feet and prototypical 3.125 square feet) After reading the report, I think the issue the City may have with that is that we have CVS signage written on those directionals and we are willing to take CVS name off and have directional only. They are a little over but we will take the CVS name off if that is your preference. On that property, you have to direct traffic around to drive thru which is in the back side so those little directionals do that. Once you approach the drive thru, we have drive-thru pharmacy written on canopy in little 9” letters with exit on back and full service for each entry into the two drive-thru lanes, which is all signage but necessary to direct traffic through the right lanes. The other item is the individual monument signs. We are allowed the one pylon which we are putting on 274 and then another monument by code is allowed, which we are putting on Cedar Street, but since we have two other entries and exits on that property, CVS would like additional monuments at each entrance and exit because it is such an usual site with extra entries than we are normally used to, being that it is on a pie, we would like added signage for the free-standing signs. Code allows 50 square feet and ours are 22.5 each, so it is more signage, but smaller than what the code would allow. For those signs. Councilman Wright: I have a question for Robert Owens. Do we have anything that compares with this inside the city limits? Robert Owens shakes his head no. Councilman Wright: We are talking six square feet over? Lori: Six square feet over if you combine the frontages. That is allowing both elevations as linear frontages. Mayor: Is that six square feet over with the monument signs you want? Lori: No, that is calculated separately. So like the code will calculate building signage in one calculation. Mayor: So what is six square feet over, the building? Lori: Yes sir. 4
Mayor Pro Tem: The elevation signs. Lori: The elevation signs are 6.45 square feet over. Councilman Dykes: The total. Lori: In total. Mayor: I am assuming that these signs already made to size, to fit the buildings? Lori: Right. Mayor: Instead of custom making the sign, it is one that is already built. Lori: Right. We do CVS signs nationwide, so we are literally pulling these …. Mayor: So it is a standard. Lori: It is a standard, yes sir. nationwide.
It is what they ask for
Mayor Pro Tem Santos: But it is a standard for CVS, not a standard for every city or municipality. Lori: It is a standard for CVS. Typically, we have this branding book that we go by. It is full of every sign that they prefer and the order they like to obtain them in…different sizes. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: Does your book have a sign for multiple sides for elevation, monuments and direction signs that would fit within our ordinance? Lori: In this particular case, they would probably remove some of the services like the photo and the beauty off the elevation if they have to. Their main criteria is getting CVS Pharmacy at least 48” and they like to do that across the board. That sign alone is 133 square feet and they would obviously like it on both elevations. After that, their next order of business is to get product and services on the building when they can, so they have a guideline we have to follow to make it fit. Mayor:
Do you have a CVS in Sugarland?
Lori: I am sure we do, yes sir. Mayor: Do you know if they complied with Sugar Land’s sign ordinance or if they were given a variance there? Lori: I personally did not work on the Sugar Land site, so I do not know that. Mayor: Robert…did Walgreens conform to the sign ordinance. Robert Owens: Yes.
5
Lori: Does Walgreen have main signage on two elevations? Robert Owens: Our ordinance allows that our wall signage is hinge descriptive one elevation, whichever (inaudible). Lori: Are they on a corner lot or a pie shaped lot? Corner? Councilwoman McDaniel: They have two sides. Lori: I did drive by there earlier and I thought I saw two, but I couldn’t be completely sure. They had product and services I believe one hour photo and something else on theirs, but their frontage seems considerably shorter than our footprint. I think ours is larger than theirs. So obviously we would have signage according to the linear frontage. Councilman Wright: Are there any concerns that this will be a traffic safety issue? Lori: May I say that our signs are LEDs which the amperage on LEDs is considerably less energy savings and about half the brightness as neon if that matters. Herb Prouty: Sign ordinance allows for variance for the sign area, sight, length of time to make a non-conforming sign a conforming sign. There is no variance allowed at this point for number of signs. In other words, if you want to increase the number of monument signs you would have to amend the sign ordinance to allow that. You had also asked for some guidance on the finding that you have to make to improve the variance and basically those are the granting a variance would not be contrary to public interest which is pretty broad and have a lot of leeway and also because the conditions peculiar to the property and as a result as the action of CVS would a little enforcement of the sign ordinance as it now reads would result in an unnecessary and undue hardship. Again, you have some leeway to make those findings. Motion by John Wright to approve the variance to the sign ordinance requested by CVS Pharmacy allowing CVS Pharmacy to have three monument signs, allowing 513 square feet of wall signage and allowing the signs to exceed the two square feet allowed by the sign ordinance. City Attorney: The only comment I make to that is that you can do that, but we would have to come back at your next meeting and go ahead…it is just a simple amendment to give you that other option to vary the number of signs. We would have to amend the ordinance before the variance could take affect. Greg Smith: If we are going to look at the ordinance to make any variations to it, KAB and Robert have been looking at the sign ordinance for quite a while now and have some recommendations for it. Actually, the recommendations, I believe, are to become more strict, not go the other way. If we open up that ordinance, it may be the opportunity to open it up and look at all of it and see which way KAB may want to go with it. Mrs. Church may want to comment a little bit on 6
that. KAB and Jamae Bowman have been working diligently on getting some of this modified. Mayor: There is a motion on the floor; do I hear a second? Mayor: No one seconded the motion, therefore the motion dies for lack of second. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: I make a motion to deny the request for a variance of the sign ordinance to CVS. Councilwoman Church: variance.
Seconded the motion to deny the
Councilman Dykes: Is this a variance for all of them. John brought up the monument signs. I thought we were talking about the building signs. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: My motion is to all of the signs. I want everything to stay within the ordinance as it exists today. Councilman Wright: signs.
The agenda item reads the monument
Mayor: If the agenda item reads only the monument sign, would you like to amend the motion? Councilman Dykes: It all says wall signage. Mayor: Actually, it does have all three. Lori: It does have all three. Mayor: The motion can stand as it is. Lori: Can we vote on each item separately? Mayor: That is not our motion. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: I am sure CVS has done this with other municipalities. You are with Delta Signs, is that correct? Lori: I am with Southwest Signs. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: You are with Southwest Signs. Who pulled the permit under Delta Signs? Lori: My installer, Delta Signs. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: This is not your first rodeo. Lori: It is not my first rodeo. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: So you have gone to other cities and you tried to put big signs. I am not sure how many cities have denied you. I am sure CVS can put up an outstanding building with outstanding signage with your guide book there to stay within our city guidelines and we will all be happy.
7
Councilwoman Church: type of signage.
The previous CVS does not have this
Lori: That is an inline store, I believe. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: Yes, it is. Councilwoman Church: stores?
And they want this on stand-alone
Lori: Yes. Councilwoman Church: Are there CVS stores around the country that do not have the standard signs that CVS requests. Lori: In certain municipalities, there are lighting ordinances so we have the signage, but some of it is not lit sometimes. Yes, there are probably limitations on ones that limit square footage. They always try to get a variance to get the prototypical, which is what we are presenting here. It happens, certainly. Councilman Dykes: You said one of your options is to reduce the information you have on the sign where it would fit or reduce the sign itself. . Lori: We would probably omit signage instead of reduce because that is their standard to get the 48” CVS and that pretty much eats up your ordinance right there. I guess I need to have a clarification that we are allowed to use both linear frontages in calculating this because that really wasn’t clear when I started the process and it didn’t become clear until I got this fax this morning that you are only allowed to use one frontage and not two when you are on a corner lot. Robert Owens: That is addressed in the definition of the sign ordinance. Councilwoman Church: How did Walgreens get two? Robert Owens: You can have the signs on each side of the building. The amount of square footage is limited to one wall area. The total signage on the building. Councilwoman Church: The total signage has to equal whatever our sign ordinance says and that includes both sides of the building. Robert Owens: If you have a building that is 100 feet long, you can have 150 foot of square wall signage. Wherever you put it is your business, but you can’t go over that 150 square foot of wall signage. Councilwoman Church: We don’t have very many buildings that sit on a lot by itself that has two frontages. Lori: Three. Councilwoman Church:
Is that something the City needs to 8
look at? Greg Smith: That is something we could look at since this is a building that you could say does have three main visible roads. I wouldn’t necessarily say three frontages because you have three sides that have road access. Maybe not a drive, but viewable from the road. Pie lots with three accesses are not real common. Lori: I have to put signage up next month. Whatever we decide, I will have to back and start fabricating right away. So, I don’t know if a decision be made to help guide either a portion of this one way and deny me another way. I can understand the monument signs….maybe tabling that portion to a later meeting. I would like to address building signage with some clarity. Councilwoman Church: Since the way the agenda item is written, we can’t separate it, can we? Herb Prouty: I think you have the power to do that. I think you can approve the changes in area, the other changes. The only thing you don’t have authority to approve is the monument signs until you decide whether or not you want to amend that portion to allow a greater number of signs. Councilman Dykes: Are you counting the three different frontages or is it one or how does it work in this situation. Do we just count the one road…is it all we are allowed to count as far as frontages? Mayor: If you would like to look at Walgreens, you can. have Walgreens frontage right here.
I
Councilman Dykes: Do we count three or is it one? Robert Owens: We count only one side. Councilman Dykes: So even though it is three roads, we only get to count one? Lori:
It is the building frontage, not the lot frontage.
Greg Smith: Basically, the lot that would make most sense to count would be their physical address for 911; whatever that address is, probably the most accurate one to declare the front of the building. Robert Owens: (inaudible)…. on the 137’ side…(inaudible). Mayor: So what I see on Walgreens is one monument sign, one sign saying Walgreens on two sides of the building and something directly on the front. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: It is a sign that is inset. Lori: They have a one-hour photo I believe and then they have…no, I thought I saw two on each elevation…one hour photo and another ancillary…maybe the word pharmacy…I can’t 9
remember. exactly.
We were just by there, but I don’t remember
Mayor: They have one monument sign for sure. Councilwoman Church: want three.
Monument signs…I definitely don’t
Mayor: Well, we have a motion on the floor to deny what has been requested and to me, at this time, it sounds like it is what we need to do since we don’t agree on all of it and not prepared to do anything with it. Councilwoman McDaniel: Can I amend the motion? Mayor: No. You can…. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: I can amend the motion. Mayor: Well, she can make a motion to amend and get a second and we can vote on that. Lori: I received an email stating the monuments would have to be addressed under a sign ordinance change and that would be a separate discussion as opposed to the building and directional signs. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: What is your critical path you being the sign fabricator and evidently the sign installer under your sub? Lori: My critical path? Mayor Pro Tem Santos: What is your critical path for the building..you need building signage. Lori: Ideally, I already have or will have a permit on a pylon sign that fits within your code. I have one pylon on 274. I am good with that. I have one monument allowed by code on Cedar St. I am good with that. I can table the other monuments we are asking for a variance on a later meeting or if you decide to deny me, that’s extra. I am okay with freestanding signs as far as moving forward. The building signs I need to address. I need to get those up next month. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: You can do that. Lori: So that is what I would like to address how can we negotiate that and then those little directionals. Those are a little over a square foot larger than what you allow, as long as I take off the CVS name. They were saying in this report they are not considered directionals as long as they have the CVS name. I am willing to take off the CVS name so then our only issue is, are you going to allow me those one square feet larger than what is allowed by code. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: My motion is to not allow you anything over what code says. What I am leaning to a little bit is your monument signs. I am thinking your critical path is your 10
building elevations, your directional signs. Your monument sign…you can build them later….and if later means we can discuss that, so be it. Lori: I totally agree. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: That is what I am leaning toward. Mayor: Right now you can put up a pylon and a monument and will be under our code. Lori: Yes, sir. Mayor: Okay. Lori: That is not even on our topic because it is within code. What is on our topic is what we want additional to code as far as the free-standing signs. Mayor: So if we went ahead and denied the variance, they would still have signage. Lori: Not any building signage. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: You could…out of your book. elevation size, you will go to the next step smaller.
Your
Lori: And I will be back here next month asking for larger signs and then I will have to re-install all new signs if I get it approved. Is that what you are asking me to do? Because I don’t really want to do that. Councilwoman Church: Why do you need larger than what code allows on the building? Lori: I am asking for six square feet additional…that is just how it works out square footage wise. Mayor: Because the signs are a standard and they are already built. Councilman Wright: That is right. Mayor: Not because the signs cannot be constructed to meet the guidelines. Lori: Okay. On Cedar Street, I will remove the word “Drive Thru Pharmacy” and “Photo”. Okay. So I guess we are there. Of course there is the drive-through canopy. I have got to add that into the calculation but that is a total of 30 square feet so I think I can fit that in. Councilwoman McDaniel: two sides?
So does that address your having
Lori: No, it doesn’t. If I have to use only the one elevation, I am only allowed 205 square feet of signage and that takes me down to two 36” sets of CVS pharmacys on each elevation and that is pretty much it. 11
Mayor: I am glad you don’t have a long name. There is a little bit of a point to that in that this will be a big deal to open up in Angleton and its a relatively small town. I am pretty sure everyone will be able to find it. Lori: May I also add that CVS is removing your sign at their expense…the one on the corner and reinstalling it at the Shipley’s corner and I am doing all the work to get that done. Mayor: And that is great and I hate to start out on the wrong foot, but if you want to withdraw that, we probably can move the sign ourselves. I don’t want to get into one of those contests. We are glad to have you, but we also, to an extent, want to follow our sign ordinance. I asked you if you had a store in Sugar Land and you are not sure, but my guess would be that if you have a store in Sugar Land, you adhered to Sugar Land’s sign ordinance, which are more restrictive than ours, I am pretty sure. Yes, it is cheaper to put up a pre-fab standard sign that is already built, but it is not impossible to modify a sign. Even the mighty Walmart will bend and change frontages and signs and facades for…. Lori: That’s not an issue. My time frame is getting to be the issue, not necessarily rebuilding. Mayor: I am not so sure that some of this…like on the little signs on the entrances is not something we can’t do, but at this point, that wasn’t all you were asking for. We have a motion. Is there any further discussion on this motion? Motion denying the variance 5 for; 1 (John Wright) against. 10. Discussion and possible action on approval of Ordinance No. 2009-O-4A AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF ANGLETON, TEXAS, REPEALING THE ZONING ORDINANCE (CHAPTER 28) OF THE CITY OF ANGLETON, AND ORDINANCE NO. 854 ADOPTED ON THE 17TH DAY OF MARCH 1981, TOGETHER WITH ALL AMENDMENTS THERETO; ESTABLISHING AND PROVIDING ZONING REGULATIONS; CREATING USE DISTRICTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL; REGULATING WITHIN SUCH DISTRICTS THE HEIGHT OF BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES, THE SIZE OF YARDS, COURTS AND OPEN SPACES, AND THE HEIGHT, BULK, EXTERIOR ELEVATIONS AND USE OF BUILDINGS AND LAND FOR NON-RESIDENTIAL, RESIDENTIAL AND OTHER PURPOSES; PROVIDING FOR SPECIFIC USE PERMITS; SPECIFYING MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR OFFSTREET PARKING OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND OFF-STREET LOADING AREAS; PROVIDING MINIMUM REQUIRED FLOOR AREAS FOR DWELLING UNITS AND THE TYPE OF EXTERIOR CONSTRUCTION WITHIN CERTAIN ZONING DISTRICTS; REGULATING THE DENSITY OF DWELLINGS AND OTHER STRUCTURES AND THE PERCENTAGE OF EACH LOT THAT MAY BE OCCUPIED BY STRUCTURES; ADOPTING PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR NON-RESIDENTIAL USES; ESTABLISHING THE BASIS FOR CREATING A BUILDING SITE; PROVIDING FOR APPROPRIATE PLAN APPROVALS; PROVIDING FENCE AND 12
WALL REGULATIONS; PROVIDING SPECIAL ACCESS STANDARDS; ADOPTING A ZONING DISTRICT MAP AND MAKING IT A PART OF THIS ORDINANCE, TOGETHER WITH ALL SYMBOLS, MARKINGS AND TABLES APPEARING ON SAID MAP AND WITHIN THE ORDINANCE; CREATING A ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT AND DEFINING ITS POWERS AND DUTIES; CREATING A PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION AND DEFINING ITS POWERS AND DUTIES; PROVIDING FOR NONCONFORMING USES AND A METHOD OF DISCONTINUANCE THEREOF; DEFINING CERTAIN TERMS AS USED WITHIN THIS ORDINANCE; PROVIDING FOR A CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY AND COMPLIANCE; AUTHORIZING PUBLICATION OF THE DESCRIPTIVE CAPTION AND PENALTY CLAUSE; PROVIDING FOR A PENALTY NOT TO EXCEED TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS ($2,000.00) FOR EACH AND EVERY OFFENSE; PROVIDING A SAVINGS CLAUSE AND A REPEALER CLAUSE; PRESERVING RIGHTS IN PENDING LITIGATION REGARDING VIOLATIONS UNDER THE EXISTING ORDINANCE; PROVIDING AN OPEN MEETINGS CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Motion by Councilwoman Church to approve Ordinance 2009O-4A; Second by Mayor Pro Tem Santos. Greg Smith: Last Tuesday, at Planning and Zoning Commission suggested approval of Ordinance with map, as well. We have had two public hearing notices. For a period of time, we accepted any zoning request changes from our citizens. We had 25 of those and all were approved. We have discussed this multiple times. This is a two and a half to three year project, possibly longer than that from the inception of the discussion of it. We do have a final map. Staff is recommending approval of this ordinance. Mayor: I have talked to Greg. I am not sure we are 100% comfortable with everything in the document, but it is a document and can be amended and is something we can live with. It is a living document. Santos: As long as we have a good Planning & Zoning Commission, they are willing to listen to concerns. John Wright: We call it a living document, but when do we think we will get around to making the changes? Mayor: I think we will make changes in it regularly. I do not think you will say that it is ever completely done, that if something arises that you might want to make a change in it. Herb Prouty: As you apply the ordinance to certain situations, and you see that it is not working the way you want it to, then you will make amendments. When an ordinance is over 200 pages long, you will make a number of amendments before you get what you really desire for this community. Councilman Wright: I do have a few questions. I read every 219 pages, so some of my questions will be a little obscure. Cancellation of building permits: anything currently as of right now is going to be considered dormant after one year, but in 13
section 12(i), it says a valid site plan is two years. Say we enact this next week…there is one that is issued…they have two years to go and the one before this ordinance only has one year. Are we being… Greg Smith: Building permits and site plans are two completely different things. Site plan is a drawing that is presented that shows retention/detention…where buildings are to go. That is not a building permit. A building permit is a complete set of plans that has site, civil, plumbing, electrical, exterior finishes, walls…those are two totally separate situations from one year and two year. Site plans…after two years, probably need to be re-evaluated because a two year old site plan, if we change a requirement, due to traffic flows or something like that, that site plan may no longer be valid. A year on a building permit…that is actually pretty liberal. Councilman Wright: So we are not being unfair? Greg Smith: No. Councilman Wright: 12 section B…can it go around Planning and Zoning? It says the review and approval process for a concept plan shall generally be reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Just wondering… Greg Smith: Concept plan, not final plan. Councilman Wright: So who would make the determination if it went before P&Z? Greg Smith: Typically, if it is a concept plan, they may present it to staff, comment about it and we send to P&Z for review and comments. P&Z may not approve it, it was strictly for comments. Depending on what it is, will determine whether this City Council will have final authority, like a planned unit development, the site plan, if I am not mistaken, has to be approved by this governing body, where a site plan of a shopping center could possibly be approved by Planning & Zoning and not have to come to the City Council. So, the final governing bodies will be determined by the ordinance itself. A conceptual plan is just what it says, it is conceptual, staff has reviewed it, made comments and then they want to go before a governing body whether they think they like it or whether it will fly…that is a conceptual plan. Won’t be able to circumvent P&Z. Councilman Wright: Okay. We have light industrial district, but we don’t have the heavy industrial district? Greg Smith: That is correct. That was the recommendation from the committee from the very beginning. Councilman Wright: AG exemptions. Would the fact that we have a zoning for AG outside the city limits…that is correct, right? As I understood it? We wouldn’t have any AG inside the City Limits? Greg Smith: You could have AG inside the city limits. That is the most restrictive zoning so if we annex something into us as 14
R-1, under this Zoning Ordinance, we would annex them in as AG and then they would have to get a re-zone from that. Councilman Wright: My question is…would that affect their AG exemptions if they had some on the property? If we were to bring them in, they were AG, and then I think there is some…you say this is the most restrictive, right? Greg Smith: Uh huh. Nothing can be built on it. Councilman Wright: Right. So if it is an AG exempt…if they have an exemption, they have to follow the exemption guidelines and they would be zoned AG. Do you think that would be affecting them in any way? Councilwoman Church: They are already AG. Councilman Dykes: It wouldn’t take away their AG exemption. Councilwoman McDaniel. order to do construction.
They would have to be rezoned in
Councilman Wright: My question is barns, specifically, because I think in the AG district, that there had to be only a single story, so many square feet. Herb Prouty: When they are annexed into the City, they would retain the agricultural zoning unless they requested a rezoning to something else. Unless we rezone them, they would remain an agricultural zoning, which, as Greg said, is the most restrictive zoning district and their exemption should not be affected. It is only if they made a request to be rezoned and that was granted and that took away the agricultural character of the property. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: But they would have to plat, if they are already existing AG, and they had a conceptual plan that they wanted to do something…build a house, strip center, whatever, they would have to plat it and rezone the plat upon the guidelines of the zoning. If it was large acreage, they could keep the balance outside of the plat and keep it AG, even though it is in the city. You have to get out of that AG restriction…get it platted, go through conceptual, go through Planning and Zoning, P&Z either approves or denies, goes to Council and then the end user goes to work. Greg Smith: Just like Rudy said…if you have a 20 acre tract and somebody wanted to build a house and they are zoned AG, they would come in and replat one acre of that 20 acres for SF4.2..whatever the square footage is. Once they replat, they would ask that one acre be rezoned. Their AG exemption remains the same except for the one acre. Councilman Wright: What if someone didn’t want to be annexed and they were annexed in the middle of something else. Their property would fall in an area where we were annexing. I am just trying to throw out some scenarios. Mayor Pro Tem Santos:
We had an area we de-annexed a 15
section of land in Angleton once. Herb Prouty: I think the answer remains the same. Until they request a replat and rezoning, their property still remains agricultural, even if it not going to be used. Wright: They would be grandfathered, basically. Herb Prouty: They would be non-conforming use, but they wouldn’t lose their AG exemption. Councilman Wright: Retention/detention: I know this is a requirement. Did we ever look at requiring it to be fenced off and what was the thought process? Greg Smith: No we never determined whether retention/detention had to be fenced off. When we had that discussion, I recall we were going to go back to the committee once we determined we were not going to increase the retention/detention requirements and we were going to look o look at the fencing requirements, at re-certifying the pond, making sure the pond was being property maintained. Those recommendations have not come back yet. Councilman Wright: What about requiring every commercial that they have to have a proper retention/detention pond. Greg Smith: That is covered under us and the drainage district to get their plat approved. Commercial property has to have it. Councilman Wright: addressed now.
We have some issues that need to be
Mayor: We are addressing that. We are making sure they don’t flood anything with improvements. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: What is the square footage where they automatically have to go through drainage district and city? Is it 30,000 square feet? Herb Smith: The Drainage District has a minimum of 5,000 square feet. Anything below that does not have to go through their approval. Engineer has to approve the retention/detention. 30,000 feet is what Council has to approve. Councilman Wright: Landscaping requirements say that the tree shall have an average spread of crown of 15’…shrubs 2’ high, then all required landscaped areas have to have automatic underground irrigation….how restrictive do we want to be? Mayor: Used to be much more restrictive. Councilman Dykes: The whole concept is for what we want our city to look like in the future. Did this so we wouldn’t have someone cut corners later on. Councilman Wright:
I just want to make sure we aren’t 16
making it too restrictive for small businesses. Mayor: If you can’t afford to put in something that looks decent, you can’t afford to open a business. Councilwoman Church: When we were looking at this, why require the big businesses to have landscaping and let the little ones come in and do whatever they want. That is not fair either, not if we want Angleton to look good. Greg Smith: Countless hours by staff, citizens and individuals have been spent to make this in the best interest of the city. Councilwoman McDaniel: I still have a lot of concerns, but I have finally reached the point that I understand that the living document was the only thing I could deal with. We have to start somewhere. I feel like it is going to get a lot of changes, but that is okay. But it will be based on the needs of the community. Councilwoman Church: It is always something that can be changed, but you always have to have a starting point. Mayor Pro Tem Santos: several times.
It will be challenged…not once but
Motion passes with 5 for; 1 against. Council taking five minute break. 11. Discussion and possible action on purchase of radio equipment for inoperability solutions for emergency management. Greg Smith: After Hurricane Ike, there was an after-action meeting. Two major issues came up, one of which is EOC and the second was inoperability radio equipment. There has been a committee of Robert Owens, Eric Smith, Dahlstrom and myself to come up with options for radio equipment. There are multiple parts to this. Redundancy system is the first part. We are on the 800 system which is owned by Harris County. We go through Braz. Co. Sheriff’s Dept. then Harris Co. radio system. They have made upgrades to it over the past several years. There were communication lines that were lost during Ike. This proposal is to purchase two VHF high-band repeaters. We already have one, which is Fire Dept’s. One would be dedicated to Emergency Services/Public Works. Put police dept. on VHF Feeder. They already have the channel, just not repeater channel. Did get prices from four companies. There is a fourth company today and today his prices were still not lower than the ones we received. Tower appears to be good. Support pole is in need of replacing. It was identified about 16 months ago to need replacement. Second is handheld. Want to stay with Motorola. Everything that we used will be about to be programmed, no matter the situation. 10 handhelds for PD and 10 handhelds for Public Works. FCC license has to be secured before we can be up and running. Motorola manufacturer suggested Houston Two-Way. With the police dept. We have about 4-5 smart net/smart zone 17
radios. MIP 5000 is the final step. This equipment will allow us to remotely dispatch all radios from any location as long as you have an internet connection. Councilman Dykes: Repeater sends out the signal? Eric Smith: And receives the signal. Councilman Dykes: Technology-wise….how long do these last? The 20 handheld. Dykes: With normal use, 5—10 year life? We are looking out for the best interests of the citizens. Eric Smith: Longevity is what you get with Motorola. Motion by Councilwoman McDaniel to approve recommendation to purchase radios by low bid from Houston Two-Way for $86,758.90. Second by Councilman Dykes. Motion passes with 6 for; 0 against. 12. Discussion on Municipal Court/EOC/City Hall addition. Greg Smith: Currently have a balance of $215,017 left in budget for municipal court/EOC, less what we just approved. May 18 is approximate move-in date. Breakdown of pending: $86,758.90 for inoperable radio equipment, $25,000 for generator grant through DEM (150 KW generator), $55,000 for telephone system which includes Rec Center and the Service Center to have one-number dialing. We will be going to Rec Center and Police Dept. systems; will not have to buy new handsets for them. $12,500 is to take fiber connection and turn it into a telephone system. $17,500 for furniture and fixtures. Balance of excess of $30,000 left in fund, without using $80,000 contingency. 13. CITY MANAGER REPORT: A. CTY connect-mass mail-out. Trish from Rec Center helped us get the job done. B. Freedom Park-We have power and lights. Well on the way to completing first phase. Playground equipment has been ordered and sidewalks have been approved. Playground equipment should be ready and installed before the first of June. C. Swimming Pool-Outdoor pool progress is still ongoing with AISD. Will have contract with Rancho to you by 28th. D. Rec Center expansion-out for bid right now. Nine bidders for it. They cannot interfere with operation of Rec Center. Can only have one weekend to have shutdown of operation. E. Relay for Life-Golf tourney and BBQ.
18
14. Council Information Mayor Patrick Henry- concerns about noise with Relay for Life and forwarded that info to Police Dept. Police Officers will be present all night. Excellent clean up. KAB did planters uptown. Easter Egg hunt went well. Mayor Pro Tem Rudy Santos – Ditto what you said, Mayor. Chamber hosted candidate luncheon. They are hosting an evening function, April 27. Councilwoman Bonnie Church – Ditto plus the Senior Commission has met and we have a very enthusiastic group. I think they might make a go out of this time. Murphy Rankin took some of us to Sweeny, Pearland, Alvin to visit their centers, which all of them have their own Senior buildings. The score committee was long today, but we got everything done today. Councilman John Wright – Easter Egg hunt was attended by over 1,000. Rode with police department again and it was great. Councilman Gregg Dykes – go along with comments about Clean-up days. Jamae did a great job. Amazed about how much waste there was in electronics. Councilman Bonnie McDaniel – Had a great time serving hot dogs at the clean up. Arbor day was celebrated on the same day. 15. The City Council of the City of Angleton will adjourn into executive session as authorized by Texas Government sections 551.071 (consultation with attorney) to consult with its attorney concerning the possible settlement of pending litigation styled USFilter. Council adjourned into executive session at 8:20 p.m. Action coming out of Executive Session: Discussion and possible action on authorizing the City Manager to execute a Settlement Agreement based on the terms discussed in executive session. Motion by Councilwoman Church to authorize City Manager to execute a Settlement Agreement based on the terms discussed in executive session; Second by Councilman Wright. Motion carries with 6 for; 0 against. Adjourn at 8:41 p.m. __________________________________ J. Patrick Henry, Mayor __________________________________ Shelly Deisher, City Secretary
19
