Planning and Zoning Board Regular Meeting

Minutes of Planning and Zoning Special Meeting The City Council City of Richwood A Planning and Zoning Special Meeting of the City Council of City of Richwood was held Monday, May 7, 2018, beginning at 6:00 PM in the Richwood City Hall, 1800 N. Brazosport Blvd. Richwood, Texas. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Guthrie called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. INVOCATION Michael Coon led the invocation. PLEDGES OF ALLEGIANCE Pledge of Allegiance & Texas Pledge Mayor Guthrie led the pledges. ROLL CALL OF COUNCIL MEMBERS Mayor - Mark Guthrie Council member Position 1 – Mark Brown II Council member Position 2 – Frank Blanks Council member Position 3 – Sarah Reed Council member Position 4 – Lauren LaCount Council member Position 5 – Chris Hardison - ABSENT Others present: Michael Coon, City Manager; Kenny Williams, Building Official; PUBLIC COMMENTS All public comments will be subject to the following rules: all speakers will be permitted to speak no longer than 3 minutes; all speakers will only be permitted to speak once; speakers cannot defer their 3 minutes to another speaker; the first five individuals who sign up for the public comment section will be permitted to speak There were no public comments. APPROVAL OF MINUTES January 8, 2018 April 9, 2018 On motion by Lauren LaCount second by Mark Brown, with all present members voting “aye” the minutes of January 8, 2018 and April 9, 2018 were approved as presented. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS Public Hearing and action to consider rezoning 20 acres of Oakwood Shores (A0030-A0333) (Richwood) Lot Reserve A from R-3, Multifamily Residence to C-1 Commercial. Said property being located at the northeast corner of 288B and Highway 2004 Juan with Texas Land Engineers presented. He provided details on the proposed 5- acres and did not have a lot of information on the remaining 15-acres. He mentioned that the developer may want to use the remaining 15-acres for multi- family or commercial. He stated the main purpose is for fact finding and to find out our expectations and what the developer can expect from us. In closing, the engineer understands the concerns and it truly was a fact finding mission. The process is in place to protect the residents. I have not read ordinances yet, because I am really trying to figure out the facts. He can make the drainage work, and he does want to find out if there could be a win-win. There are features that can be added to make the storm water better and to make sure the development is a higher quality. Will find out current businesses that are owned by the developer as some references. Public Comments • Clint Kocurek o Seems like they are a lot of unknowns. Agrees that the rezoning would be best, but does not believe that a truck stop would be the best use. What type of businesses or people would want to go there with a truck stop. Makes him wander what is in it for the city and what will the development look like in five years. Wants to see more information. o A lot of people are concerned about drainage. He would like the 50 foot buffer with the trucks in and out starting and stopping. Wants to know plans for one-acre wetlands. Thinks best use is commercial. • Zane Bagget o Lives on the street that backups to the property. Is concerned about 24 hour operations, lighting and noise nuisances. If they rezone the whole property, what are they going to do with it. We don’t know the developer at all. What if they are parking 18 wheelers in my backyard. How are they going to do their sewer? People are not concerned much about the commercial or convenient type store the biggest concern is it being a truck stop. • Sarah Roth o Is concerned about the noise because tractors are a lot louder. Does not want noise keeping kids up. Does not want to see additional truck traffic and the nuisances associated with that. Is a truck stop what we want to be seen as people enter the city? Has concerns about property. Does not want a truck stop in her backyard. Would the truck stop devalue the surrounding property? Does not think we have enough information to make a decision to re-zone the property. Would be okay with commercial, but not gas station. • Melissa Strawn o Stresses her out a bit. The lights at Crawford’s cause a problem. It will depend on what is brought in for the businesses on if the retail is successful. Is afraid of crime and other activity that may come with a truck stop. Do we have enough police officers to currently handle the situation and to monitor complaints and the truck stop? There are already a high number of accidents at that intersection. Do we want to make it more congested and do we want 18 wheelers blowing through lights? The land flooded, so where will the water go? Does not want water being pushed back onto her property and her subdivision. Eighteen feet of a buffer is small and not very much. Don’t sell your soul for tax revenue. Would like to see garden homes or patio homes. It would put more houses and increase water flows. You can put a lot of garden homes on 20- acres. Does not want commercial there at all. • William Biggs o He does development as a business and is familiar with presenting to city council. He knows that there are concessions that can be made by developers. Is concerned that the city is seeing dollar signs before considering the residents. He can’t imagine the lights and noise from the truck traffic. He is oaky with commercial and small convenient store as long as there is separation in the back part. Has concerns about where water would go and that it would flow down Oakwood Shore ditches. Would be alright with development of first section. • Rodrigo Escalante o Thank you for taking the time to listen. Is disheartened that the developer didn’t show up or that the engineer hadn’t looked at the site yet. Owns a trucking business and the trucks will be hitting their brakes at their locations. Has concerns about increased accidents. Has a huge concern about the water drainage. If you put 20 acres of concrete the water will go somewhere. Think about the future of the community, what plans does the city have for schools. Does not  want city to sale out. Think about future of children and community. For residential. • Marcus Allen o Vision, leadership, quality of life came to his mind. Elected officials were elected by residents and does not think a truck stop shows leadership. It would be interesting to see what are options really are if we do go commercial. Do we want a Pop-eye’s Chicken? He likes the sight when he enters Richwood and wants it to stay that way. His grandfather was a truck driver and they are hard-working people, but is a truck stop what we want? Against the truck stop. • Armando Contreras o What is the urgency in trying to develop the property? There are a lot of things that we can do with this property. Who will be paying for the cost of developing the property? What happens if the developer walks away with a half-finished project. Look at Oakwood Shores and what happened because the developer didn’t do an adequate job. Developer is just fishing and he doesn’t want to say yes to that. Would like the developer to show what they are really in brining and doing for the community. This is a small town that is growing and we need to plan and invest in the future. It takes time to make sure things are a perfect fit for us. He wants to retire where he is now. He does not want to have to move. As a city we need to have a more active approach telling developers what we want to see. He does not know what he wants commercial or otherwise. Wants to sit on it until there is a solid plan in place to develop the property. Wants the developer to bring something that the residents want. Trucking industry was pushed out of the cities and do we really want those trucks and the associated risk coming through Richwood. We need an investment that will be here forever. As of right now keep it residential. Wants to see the developer’s portfolio. • Kevin Moriarty o The presentation was vague and he is concerned that a plan is not in place. Is concerned that our guidelines are not in place to prevent something that we may not want. If you want to get bigger companies in here then we need to sharpen up our ordiance. The proposal is not disgusting, but he feels like the whole truth isn’t being told. If it is done correctly, he would have either multi-family or commercial. Council asked the developer to consider re-platting the lot and submitting a new request to rezone only the smaller five acre tract. Public hearing and action to consider amendments to Section 3 Definitions and Section 4 Districts - B.6.L. B-1, Business zone, conditional uses; B.7.a – C- 1, Commercial zone, permitted uses of Appendix B Zoning Ordinance of the Code of Ordinances, to include but not limited to, add the definition of gas station; allowing gas stations as conditional uses in B-1 zones and allowing gas stations as permitted uses in C-1 zones • Armando Contreras o Does not want a gas station turned into a truck stop. Does not think we are ready as a City to move forward. It is important for information to get out to the public. This is about the whole city of Richwood. You will be making enough money as long as you fix the roads in the subdivision. If it has to be done, he would like a conditional use. • Melissa Strawn o We already have gas stations, do we need anymore? There is no need for anymore. Not at all. Grandfather the additional ordinances. • Zane Baggett o Not at all interested. • Sarah Roth o Not at all interested. • Joe Laswike o Wants conditional to leave room for expansion. • Rodrigo Escalante o Section B is pivotal because the question is do we want a gas station or not. Thinks the way it is brought up was manipulative. • Tosha Biggs o Do we allow showers? Do we allow diesel? Does not think a truck has enough stopping distance to pull in or out. • Clint Kocurek o Would like to leave it as is. Does not think that we are ready. • Lauren LaCount o Check with Jason to see if we could just leave it alone or what the consequences would be of not taking any action in. CITY MANAGER'S REPORTS There was no city manager’s report. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business the meeting adjourned at p.m. These minutes were read and approved on this 9th day of July, 2018. Mark Guthrie, Mayor Attest: Giani Cantu, City Secretary