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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes 2008-02-27 Special 02/27/2008 2874 ,.... STATE OF TEXAS )( CITY OF FRIENDSWOOD )( COUNTIES OF GALVESTON/HARRIS )( FEBRUARY 27, 2008 )( MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDSWOOD CITY COUNCIL THAT WAS HELD ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2008 AT 6:00 PM AT FRIENDSWOOD CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 910 SOUTH FRIENDSWOOD DRIVE, FRIENDSWOOD, TEXAS, WITH THE FOLLOWING PRESENT CONSTITUTING A QUORUM: MAYOR DAVID SMITH MAYOR PRO-TEM CHRIS PEDEN COUNCILMEMBER LAURA EWING COUNCILMEMBER JOHN LECOUR COUNCILMEMBER JIM HILL COUNCILMEMBER LESLIE REID COUNCILMEMBER ANDY RIVERA CITY ATTORNEY BOBBY GERVAIS CITY MANAGER BO MCDANIEL DEPUTY CITY SECRETARY MELINDA WELSH Mayor Smith called the meeting to order. 7:00 PM—SPECIAL MEETING � Mayor Smith announced that there is a 125 person capacity for Council Chamber and asked the overflow to stand in the foyer since the meeting could be heard there. A discussion was held regarding Buzbee Properties, Inc., Downtown developments. Mayor Smith stated the plan tonight is for him to make an opening statement and go from there, welcomed everyone from former Mayors to various Boardmembers and stated citizens have been looking forward to making the revitalization take place. Tony Buzbee, Tony Banfield, Alton Todd and others are taking direction to revitalize Friendswood. Mayor Smith asked Staff to develop a fast track punch list and introduced developer Tracy Goza, former Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) member Kevin Holland, current P&Z Chairman Jim Gibson, former P&Z member Bob Bertrand who were in attendance at this meeting to give insight and knowledge and announced that the people who work with Buzbee Properties Incorporated (BPI)were there as well and invited the City Manager to make comments. City Manager Bo McDaniel stated documents were provided to Council explaining the situation and solution, the Hometown Center problem is mainly a platting issue and asked for the Community Development Department (CDD) to summarize the key points that are needed to bring the project online, the key target would be issuing a permit. Community Development Director Les McMahen stated he had asked BPI to submit corrected drawings for the plat and have back on March 10, 2008. Mr. McMahen gave a list of tasks and dates that were planned to complete the project. Mayor Smith asked Les McMahen if the assumption on these dates revolve around P&Z meetings and possible Council meetings for ordinance approvals. Les McMahen stated the dates were a guesstimate time BPI would need to complete work on the items listed. Mayor Smith reminded the public that these are target dates and not set in stone, plans need to be given before meetings for P&Z Commissioners to review, special P&Z meetings can be called, the City does not have to stick hard and fast to the schedule. Councilmember Rivera asked Les McMahen if the City can work with BPI to make sure they have everything they need and would that shorten the process. Les ,,_„ McMahen stated Staff currently does that to do a quick turnaround and Councilmember Rivera asked if the City could help them from the start to hasten the process and Les McMahen answered the City does what they can and are always willing to help. Les McMahen stated regardless of any review or submission process to CDD there is a thorough checklist on what has to be done to comply with a plat or 02/27/2008 2875 ...� subdivision submittal. When BPI came in for design review, rediine copies were returned to them with a list of what needs to be done, this procedure is done until it meets the requirements. P&Z Chair Jim Gibson stated P&Z meets when they can and wouid just have to follow the 72 hour meeting notice. Mayor Smith reminded the public that P&Z have to follow the letter of the law for public hearings as well. Councilmember Reid asked if the City goes along with the timeline will BPI break ground the next day. Les McMahen stated no that BPI would have to submit building plans and record their plat first. Mayor Smith stated the best way to do this is parallel those tasks instead of domino to speed up the process. Les McMahen stated the City is currently doing a courtesy review of the building plans, the schedule is very fluid. If the City works faster than BPI it can be switched around to accommodate. Mayor Smith asked Kevin Holland to review and asked why the City could not do it concurrently. City Planner Mona Miller stated practice is not done in parallel. Community Development Deputy Director Mo Kabiri stated part of the 2005 legislative session where the developer can sign a waiver to make it not required but the City will risk a liability. Until the developer has a recorded plat they do not have a legal property to build on. Tracy Goza stated the builder should be allowed to choose if they want to do a waiver and further stated he did it in League City. Mayor Smith asked if CDD could offer the waiver and Councilmember Reid also asked if Council needs to approve it and the City Attorney stated no. Councilmember Rivera asked if Council can do anything to speed up the process and Mo Kabiri stated the sidewalk issue would need to be resolved. Kevin Holland stated P&Z could use the sidewalk fund and the Mayor explained where the City is on that and stated the first reading will be held at the next meeting and also explained the entire process of how an ordinance is created, amended and approved. Councilmember Reid stated it is speedy if process goes smoothly, if not it can go back to the drawing board. Kevin Holland stated anyone purchasing property in the Downtown District can opt in or opt out. Councilmember Rivera stated he would like Staff to expedite as much as they can. Councilmember Peden stated he would like everyone to be treated the same and if something is broken it needs to be fixed. Councilmember Rivera stated a sense of urgency and bypassing procedures are two different things and all of economic „� development should be sped up. Councilmember LeCour asked if Buzbee had withdrawn and Les McMahen stated nothing has been withdrawn with CDD and Deputy Director of Community Development Frank Manigold concurred. Frank Manigold stated he has done a courtesy review of the plans and is still working on it. Councilmember LeCour asked if the City is on the same schedule as BPI and have they concurred with the City and Frank Manigold answered that he does not know if they have seen the submitted schedule or not. Les McMahen stated they tried with the schedute to be conservative, the quicker and correctly things get done the schedule could even be better. Mayor stated Council and P&Z schedules can be flexible and meet as needed. Councilmember LeCour asked if there has been indecisiveness within the City and the inability to make decisions, it does get tough when trying to get guidance from the City. Les McMahen stated there was a significant number of redlines on the plans in the beginning and the City is now on the fifth review set and there is still same inaccuracies on that set as there was on the first set, the main point of indecisiveness is the 15 foot sidewalk, the City told BPI to show the 15 foot sidewalk on the plan and can amend later, the fifth review set finally showed the 15 foot sidewalks and the City had asked for this in the beginning. Councilmember Reid stated the BPI letter was not specific on what the problem was, if a builder or developer got 2 different answers what would be the procedure to solve it and Mayor Smith stated it would probably depend on the situation, ordinances do not cover everything, sometimes it is just regular practice, if someone is not happy or feels conflicted they should see the City Manager and then he would direct the City Attorney to provide an opinion or the CDD Director. If someone disagrees they can also go to the Zoning Board of Adjustment and Appeals (ZBOA) or to the Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals (CBOA) which are separate from City Council. A request for a legislative change could be done which Council can do if they follow State requirements or a lawsuit can be filed through the courts. Councilmember Peden asked what the goal of the meeting was tonight and the Mayor answered to examine what needed to be done to shorten the timelines to get the building permit done. Councilmember Peden asked about the purpose if they have to go to ZBOA or CBOA and the City Manager stated there are regulatory policies that have a specifically ordained process and not come to the City Manager's office, will agree there is always room for improvement, talking about � a systemic review and will slow down getting building permit, the purpose is to move as fast as possible to get the building permit done. Councilmember Ewing stated tonight the goal is to move forward in what 02/27/2008 2876 --- they can do to assist with this, is an important development and efforts are being made but want to make sure what is put on the ground is safe and follows what the rules are, P&Z has reopened a discussion about a particular problem BPI has done, the City had more paperwork delivered from BPI after the letter was delivered and finds that encouraging. Mayor stated if Mr. Buzbee is willing to continue to move forward he should be able to sit down with Council, CDD and P&Z and shorten as much as possible and make sure the City's process is not more of an impediment to get this thing done. Mayor Smith asked to discuss the Robert's Auto Parts issue, the language is not easy for a layperson to understand, if Council does not like ordinances or not clear on one then Council works on it, Council has already started working to clear up the ordinance that affects this property, it addresses areas in the Downtown District regarding buildings that are legally non-conforming, there was language in the ordinance that was not clear and are working on it now to make it clearer and change the ordinance. If it passes then it would allow a building like Robert's Auto Parts property to improve just the improvements, P&Z is taking up this issue. Jim Gibson stated the City Attorney is working on drafting the language to change up the ordinance, as long as they move toward the requirements it is okay, Robert's Auto Parts building could stay and only have the improvements up to code. Mayor stated the fastest way to correct that is to change the ordinance. Councilmember Peden asked if the Shell gas station changed with no problem was that illegal. Frank Manigold stated it was not in the Downtown District at the time they made changes, Mayor Smith answered the use did not change for Shell but it did for Robert's Auto Parts. Councilmember Reid stated the Downtown District ordinance was put into effect October 15, 2007. Councilmember Hill stated he went to P&Z meetings and stated whoever interpreted the ordinance did not realize the intent of P&Z and does not know what the problem is. Mayor Smith stated P&Z made recommendations and Council made it law, must be careful about asking Staff for their opinion and not ask them for"my" opinion and can see after re-reading the ordinance where Staff understood it the way they did. The problem with the Massage Therapy Center property has to do with the sign, the ordinance requires old signs that are not monument ,,,.,,. have to be brought to code, common sense would tell you not to build a new sign if you have not finalized what you want it to be, P&Z are in the process of changing it now and is likely in the next couple of weeks that those changes will be taking place. Les McMahen stated State law prohibits that, sign ordinance issues are not easy to deal with, takes lots of conversation. Councilmember Hill stated he agrees with the letter Mr. Buzbee sent, has been in the building community for 40 years and does not know if these issues can ever be resolved. Councilmember Hill read a statement from BPI owner Tony Buzbee. Councilmember LeCour stated he hopes this meeting is productive, has had some concerns in the past and present with CDD and tries to be sensitive of the Staff, is not here to publicly denigrate anybody but he is in the public, has had others that had problems with Staff and hopes Staff is not creating rules to impede development, should have rules to protect citizens and should be encouraging development, it is the responsibility of the City Manager and would encourage him to do that. This project will bring in money for our schools, it is a win-win situation and encouraged the City Manager to be more proactive and listen to the citizens and bring issues to City Council when they have them, requested for citizens to speak up and call him anytime, his number is in the phone book, is here to make development better and listen to citizens. Councilmember Peden stated he would like to make sure Council does not just fix the Buzbee issue and not fix the entire problem, do not put up roadblocks and should be more proactive in development and not just Single Family Residential, do not look for ways to interpret in their favor, show leadership at the Council level that Council wants development, needs to fix the bigger problem. Councilmember Rivera stated he agrees with Councilmember Peden and would like ongoing developments to be on the City Manager's Report at regular Council meetings. Councilmember Ewing stated the Development Review Committee (DRC) should communicate with Council again. Councilmember Reid stated all of Council would like Mr. Buzbee's development in Friendswood and would like to do what can be done to get it in place, Tony Buzbee is the first one with such a big development and the City is working out bugs with him. Mayor Smith stated Mr. Buzbee is the first one to use Downtown District and would like to be more proactive and would like Mr. Buzbee to come talk to ,,,� Mayor or Staff. o2i27i2oos Zs77 � This meeting was adjourned at 7:44 PM. ayor Da id .H. Smith Attest: F R�EpO ' � pF S� � loris McKenzie, T MC v � City Secretary * * � ��rF OF tf�'�'P� ,..� �