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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 08.23.2022 CC-WMinutes of Meeting of the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Tuesday, August 23, 2022 The Georgetown City Council met on Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at 2:00 PM at 510 W. 9th Street Georgetown, Texas 78626, Council and Courts Building. The City of Georgetown is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you require assistance in participating at a public meeting due to a disability, as defined under the ADA, reasonable assistance, adaptations, or accommodations will be provided upon request. Please contact the City Secretary's Office, at least three (3) days prior to the scheduled meeting date, at (512) 930-3652 or City Hall at 808 Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Georgetown, TX 78626 for additional information; TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. Mayor Schroeder called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. The following Council Members were in attendance: Mayor Josh Schroeder; Amanda Parr, Council Member District 1; Shawn Hood, Council Member District 2; Mike Triggs, Council Member District 3; Ron Garland, Council Member District 4; Kevin Pitts, Council Member District 5 and Mayor Pro Tem; Jake French, Council Member District 6; and Ben Stewart, Council Member District 7. A quorum of Council Members was present in Council Chambers. Policy Development/Review Workshop - Call to order at 2:00 PM A. Presentation, discussion, and possible direction regarding revisions to the City's Code of Ordinances to reflect suggested changes as forwarded from the Animal Shelter Advisory Board -- Jack Daly, Assistant Public Works Director Jack Daly gave a presentation and explained the different language suggestions and provisions that are proposed to the code. For example, abandonment is defined, additional restrictions are proposed to animal cruelty provisions, and providing further standards of care. Pitts asked why we are doing this if covered in state law. Masson explains that this presentation is to show items that could make our code more specific. Parr explained that a state representative, Texas State Humane Society, explained that it would be a best practice to enhance our animal ordinance. Daly explained that this ordinance would be a forward leading, more robust code and improve our code enforcement measures. Parr is for these changes in bringing us up to state standards and beyond. French and Hood are concerned about this possibly being more than what we need in our code. Prefer to not go beyond state requirements. Pitts asked to look at the code in regards to dead animals on private property versus public ROW. Morgan says we need to look at specific language of the code. Pitts also suggested this should have been reviewed by the Animal Shelter Advisory Board and vetted by them first. He prefers staff work on council driven activities. Mayor explained that it was his fault since he agreed with their plan and led them to believe this was acceptable and supported. Parr explained that staff was working through the process with the information and board direction they had. Stewart questioned the Award statement and whether this would hinder the 4H program. Daly will look into that question. Mayor summarizes that there are items that need to be cleaned up to be consistent with state law, but not to go beyond that scope of work. B. Overview, discussion, and direction from City Council regarding the possible creation of an Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) Municipal Utility District (MUD) for the proposed Ragsdale Ranch Development -- Nick Woolery, Assistant City Manager This item was moved to the end of the agenda for discussion later, Nick Woolery explained that this ETJ MUD was being revisited to address Council's direction. The dense multi -family in a rural residential area was discussed. Connectivity to the water system and connectivity to Ronald Reagan were the concerns of the council previously. Mark Baker, Land Planner with SEC Planning presented the status of the project. He explained all the development that is occurring around the project. They are increasing the lot size now, larger than other developments in the area. They have increased the parkland for the development and for the general public. Adding a trail system and non-exclusive park amenities. Saving water by using existing tree canopies and minimal turf. They are sensitive to the water use in the entire development. Scott Mayham with Cude Engineering shows the surrounding area water and wastewater use and the connection to Ronald Reagan now. They have a traffic distribution plan now as well. Nick Woolery explained the rest of the development proposals and the items that will be included in the agreement. Master Developer Fee, Fire Station site, HOA Requirements, Architectural Design Standards, Tax Regulations, Wastewater Impact Fee Multiplier and Public Parkland Requirements. Mayor asked Council for feedback. French states he is glad to see the reduced density. Parr says they have addressed the issues and likes the parkland presentation. She would appreciate keeping as many trees as possible and using xeriscape plants. She will support it at this point. Hood thanks for the presentation and the changes. He is supportive of this new project and conservation items. Pitts asks about density. They called out 3.3 units per acres. He appreciated that it is better than originally planned. Garland and Triggs support this project. Stewart also says this is much better than before and he is supportive. C. Presentation and discussion regarding the Downtown Master Plan project management update -- Kim McAuliffe, Interim Economic Development Director Kim McAuliffe gave an update on the Request for Proposals, submittals on August 91h. Eight proposals were submitted. Advisory Committee is the City Council and serves as the Steering Committee. There will be a staff supporting core team of David Morgan, Laurie Brewer, Nick Woolery, Kim McAuliffe and Sofia Nelson. A Technical Team of cross - departmental staff will also provide input. Planning and Zoning will provide input and guidance, as well as several other boards for stakeholder engagement. Key stakeholders were identified, and several plans already being reviewed will be considered simultaneously. Finalists will be chosen and presentations will be given on September 13th for final selection. Mayor asked for council comments and commitment to serve on the steering committee. Triggs says we need to understand the history of how we got the current regulations before trying to change them. Courthouse View Corridor was given as an example. Morgan says this could be discussed as a kick-off of the project and part of the quarterly council workshop. This would be a study kick-off in October. Garland says he excited to be a part of this. Pitts asked if this will be a rewrite or update. McAuliffe says the original document was done in 2003 with an update in 2014. Since then, many things have changed so it will probably be a large update of the plan. Hood is glad to work on this project and to open the discussions of how the current regulations were developed and where are we moving forward. Parr is looking forward to identifying where we want to go in the future and how far that timeline goes as far as long-term goals and implementation. French agrees with looking at the history first and encourages a robust public engagement. Mayor says by having council serve as the steering committee, the hope is that more people will be engaged. D. Presentation, discussion, and direction regarding future water conservation planning efforts -- Tiffany Diaz, Regulatory and Conservation Manager Tiffany Diaz introduced the topic with the why, long and short-term goals, ordinance review, proposals and future considerations. She reviewed the conservation program and public outreach numbers. Current conservation timeline shows 2023 short-term goals, 2025 mid- term goals and 2027 and 2030 long-term goals. Short-term goals include xeriscaping and low impact development programs. She reviewed the different stages of drought plans. Proposals for the future include limiting new turf installation during Phase 2 and above and requiring a variance to apply that regulation. Mayor asked for comments. French wants to incentivize native plants and grasses. He does not want to be onerous in violations, negatively impacting builders to install grass in the wrong season. Parr asks if this would apply to other vegetation, beyond turf. Chelsea Solomon explains that other landscaping materials can be hand -watered and commercial developers can ask for a delay in installing landscape. Turf is the real water guzzler. Parr asked about violations and enforcement process and Diaz explained. Parr asked for a grey water map or way to educate people about who can water with that. Hood asked about the time between violation and second violation. Solomon explained there is a large lag time in between but it is based on the notification type. Hood likes the idea of trying to shorten that time. He also likes increasing fees for commercial over usage. Morgan explains that the city is also manually reading water meters in the western district, the old Chisholm Trail area. Staff is working to automate those meters. Mayor is concerned about new built houses being allowed to defer installation of grass and how that impacts the homeowner when the builder does not come back to install grass and vegetation. Pitts asked how automated the process is now. Diaz says they are working to get it automated, but now it is manual, and interns are currently driving around looking at meters in the middle of the night. Pitts also complains about the fact that residential users and builders will choose to pay a fine over replacing an entire lawn. He suggests penalties should be increased to be more of a deterrent. Pitts is also concerned. He is in favor of xeriscape and allow faux turf and native grasses. St. Augustine should not be allowed here, even though he has it. He wants to fine the commercial businesses that don't follow the regulations. He also thinks use of water should be penalized if they go over a certain level. Allowing people to pay exorbitant fees if they want. Garland thanks staff for the presentation and amount of education that was put out this summer and to make people think and change their behaviors. He wants higher fees for fines. Triggs appreciates all the work the conservation department has done. And he also says to increase fees to stop the overuse. Make the demand meet the supply through price. Stewart agrees with everyone and says to give extreme rates. He doesn't necessarily agree with mandates to not use a certain type of grass. Just penalize those who need it. Also get HOA's on board so they aren't driving bad behavior. Mayor summarizes and states he is behind a UDC emergency amendment to address this issue now. Morgan says staff will start work to get things in place for conservation for next summer as well. Mayor recessed from 3:33 to 3:45. Council came back, and Item B was visited. E. Presentation and discussion regarding land use priorities for the Inner Loop/Sam Houston corridor -- Sofia Nelson, Planning Director Sofia Nelson explained there are new developments coming in for this area and she would like to get councils priorities for this area. Do they have targets for commercial, multi -family or residential uses? She showed maps of undeveloped acres and proposed developments. She also showed all the zoning applications proposed for potential developments. Nelson stated the take-aways from this discussion are that Less traditional Single -Family lot and block development is proposed, and more Low -Density Multi -family (1 master lot with multiple units )requests are on the rise. PUDs are being utilized as a mechanism for shaping the above low density multi -family and proposed commercial is taking the shape of neighborhood commercial — generally 3-5 acre or less tracts. Mayor asked for Council comments. Stewart says he appreciates PUDs because they can tie the developer to do what they say they are going to do, as opposed to base zoning. Those less dense multi -family projects are more desirable and the inclusion of a commercial component in this area is needed. Westinghouse area is contentious because of the higher density multi -family next to the single-family neighborhoods, so he is not likely to support any more of that type of development. Triggs agrees with the fact that they need more commercial development in this area. Summarized is to push the commercial and the lower density residential development. Pitts asked about the future of Sam Houston and 130. Nelson explained that hopefully it will develop like the Wolf Ranch area, with transitions. But parts of Sam Houston have single- family right up next to the road, without a transition. The south side of Sam Houston should be considered carefully. Nelson says this has been helpful and these comments can be shown to the developers to show what the desire of the council is. She also says we need to consider more predictability with PUDs as they come through. Flexibility is good, but developers need to know what the expectations are before moving to far with their projects. Morgan says this area is planned to be larger, in the area comprehensive plan than Williams Drive, more in line with even a highway 45. Pitts says this is an even better reason to make sure our PUDs are bringing in commercial development. Morgan spoke about many of the changes already in progress with the major thoroughfares. Hood expressed appreciation for this type of presentation and discussion of the area at a much higher level. He has concerns about conserving property for bigger box retail in an area where lots are 3 — 5 acres. Nelson says we really need to match the Transportation Plans with the Future Land Use Plan and really identify what is needed and what is protected. Parr appreciated the discussion and feels like her district is right in the middle, but a lot of her constituents feel like the west side of 35 has much more commercial and opportunities than the east side. She does not want high -density multi -family in the area discussed, there is enough. She likes using the PUD format of development to get what is needed for each project. French appreciates the presentation and likes the big -picture discussion. He thinks we should do what we can to protect the commercial potential on Sam Houston. Mayor agrees and feels that this discussion can give developers the information that they need to move forward. Executive Session In compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551, Government Code, Vernon's Texas Codes, Annotated, the items listed below will be discussed in closed session and are subject to action in the regular session. A. Sec. 551.071: Consultation with Attorney Advice from attorney about pending or contemplated litigation and other matters on which the attorney has a duty to advise the City Council, including agenda items - Litigation Update Sec. 551.086: Certain Public Power Utilities: Competitive Matters - Purchased Power Update Sec. 551.072: Deliberations about Real Property - SE Inner Loop Lease - DB Wood Right -of -Way Acquisitions Adjournment Mayor Schroeder adjourned into Executive Session at 4:45 p.m. to start at 5:00 p.m. Approved by the or town City Council on 1-3 Date Josh itvr�f� _1 �mij MUM �.