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2017 02 09 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN FEBRUARY 9, 2017 The City Council of the City of Baytown Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday February 09 2017, at 6 12 P.M., in the Hullum Conference Room of the Baytown City Hall 2401 Market Street Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance Laura Alvarado Council Member Charles Johnson Council Member David McCartney Council Member Chris Presley Council Member Terry Sam Council Member Stephen DonCarlos Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Ignacio Ramirez City Attorney Leticia Brysch City Clerk Keith Dougherty Sergeant at Arms Mayor DonCarlos convened the Febmary 9, 2017, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 6 12 P M. all members were present with the exception of Council Member Hoskins who was absent DISCUSSIONS Discuss future land use plan and growth along Bayway Drive corridor Mrs Tiffany Foster Planning and Community Development Services Director presented the item and stated that the land use plan is a guiding document that is part of the City's 2007 Comprehensive Plan, which was revised in 2013 through the ULDC and city wide rezoning process She stated that tins plan basically gives guidance of a 20 to 40 year lookout to where different types of development should be and how to individually zone every single parcel within large swaths or land or corridors Mrs Foster presented the council with a map that identified the land use plan, both the existing and proposed, for an area identified as the Bayway Corridor She noted that the existing map showed that the land along Bayway along with the neighborhoods on either side are zoned low to medium residential which means that it allows for some commercial development, but very small and residential She further noted that there has been a lot of commercial development interest along Bayway such as the new building for Dollar General among others She stated that there s a developer that has shown interest in purchasing some land along Bayway to build office space for a cross fit studio, contractors office and a self -storage facility, but in order for the City Council Regular Work Session February 09 2017 Page 2 of 4 developer to build the self storage facility the property would have to be rezoned to General Commercial (GC) Mrs Foster stated that this last development interest prompted staff to review this area already knowing that there were some conflicts with having the lots fronting Bayway Drive as residential as they don't want a residential home facing Bayway m it continues to grow City Manager Davis noted that the City has received numerous requests from adjacent neighborhoods in this area for more commercial development along this corridor, such as grocenes and other such things which would not be permitted under neighborhood serving commercial Mrs Foster clarified this statement by stating that neighborhood serving commercial does allow for some commercial development but it just limits the size of said development She further noted for example that a grocery store could be developed in neighborhood commercial, but would just be limited to be no more than 10,000 square feet or a restaurant that could not exceed 5,000 square feet She stated that the intent of the neighborhood serving commercial was to limit the size of the commercial development that only serve small areas or small neighborhoods Mrs Foster noted that in their review they noted that Bayway is a truck route and portions of Bayway already have a lot of commercial interest which resulted in staffs conclusion that the zoning for this area needed to change She identified the proposed land use map which takes the land along Bayway Drive on both sides that is fronting the road and turning it into a commercial corridor She stated that the change being proposed on the land use map is expanding the industrial buffer, which is now land that has been acquired over the years by Exxon that is now encroaching along Bayway Additionally she stated that this would change the 2013 zoning of residential to an industrial buffer because that is what it is now and will make it stay as a green space Council Member Sam noted that when he and his family moved to Baytown in the 70s they lived off of Bayway Drive and the area fronting the road had a lot of commercial buildings, restaurants etc Council Member McCartney stated that he owned 10 acres off of Bayway between Baker and Petterson and he bought it as mixed use but the map shows it as general commercial Mrs Foster stated that this area would have been changed in 2013 and no other changes have been made to this parcel since that time so whatever use is shown on the map in front of them that is what was approved by the council in 2013 Council Member McCartney also stated by changing the zoning from neighborhood serving commercial to general commercial opens up the uses that residential areas may not want next to them similar to the issues that are happening along Alexander Drive. He noted that it may be best to zone m you go in order to limit what can be placed in these areas in order to not get something that you don't want Mrs Foster stated that at this time, the proposal is only for the rezoning of the three properties in question whereas the applicant is proposing one and the City is proposing two adjacent parcels City Council Regular Work Session February 09 2017 Page 3 of 4 During further discussion, Mrs Foster stated that if the intent is to develop and redevelop this area, general commercial will give you more options than neighborhood serving commercial She noted that there are more protections with general commercial such as larger distance requirements between a commercial building and a residence, it is 20 feet for open space in general commercial and only five (5) feet in neighborhood serving commercial She stated that the masonry standards are the same for both zoning areas but the setbacks for general commercial are further off the street than if it were in neighborhood serving commercial She further stated that there's more open green space than in neighborhood serving commercial because in the latter zone the area can be covered up to 90%, whereas the former is up to 75% Mrs Foster stated that staff wants to look at more opportunities to redevelop in this area and general commercial will allow a potential developer more options particularly since many lots along Bayway Drive are a lot smaller and of difficult configurations She stated that staff believes that this area is a commercial corridor and by changing the land use plan to general commercial it will allow developers to come in look at the lots and have more options to redevelop the lots to commercial Council Member Presley asked if a developer still had the option to request a zoning change in this area Mrs Foster stated that if the land use plan stays as it is, which is low to medium density you cannot get commercial zoning in this area and that if the land use plan is changed then council can review the requested zoning on a case by case basis Council discussed the uses allowed in general commercial versus neighborhood serving commercial and ways to control what use can be introduced next to a neighborhood, such as creating an overlay district City Manager Davis noted that even with these overlays, the developer would still have to deal with the setback and ground cover requirements and in order to eliminate those, staff would have to tum the neighborhood serving commercial into general commercial He also noted that the best option was to make the land use map change and then deal with zoning request on a case by case basis Council Member Johnson stated that his biggest concern and those of his constituents in this area relates to the use of self storage and storage facilities He stated that he'd spoken to the applicant and she wants to open an office space and a cross fit which is fine and is allowed under the current zoning however the self -storage facility which is not allowed in neighborhood serving commercial and is the reason for this rezoning request, is not the type of use that is (1) needed in this area or (2) desired in this area by the local residents He noted that he has a concern with approving a rezoning for general commercial and then having the applicant decide to only build the self -storage facility and forgo the office space and cross fit Council Member Johnson stated that there are 20 storage facilities in Baytown, with 9 10 of them being located between 110 and Bayway Drive and of those one has an application to add twenty-six RV and boating spaces He stated that the city does not need any more storage facilities and questioned whether the city could set a moratonum on storage facilities in town. Council Member Johnson requested that the zoning nem be suspended for a period of time to allow staff and council more time to review the request Additionally, he noted that he had not spoken to the applicant about pulling the zoning item tonight and voting on it at a future meeting City Council Regular Work Session February 09 2017 Page 4 of 4 Council Member Presley stated that from the information received from staff the applicant wants to build the office space and cross fit first and then build the storage space as demand requires it therefore holding off on the rezoning should not be an issue at this time Council Member McCartney noted that the office space and cross fit is already allowed in the existing zoning so that should not be a problem Mrs Foster noted that if council felt that there were too many storage facilities in the city, staff could look at something similar to what was done with multi family housing to have more control over this issue Council Member McCartney noted that these types of storage facilities are allowed anywhere there is mixed use or general commercial zoning Council Member Johnson asked if there was a way to restrict these facilities Mrs Foster stated that staff could look at this use and see what options they could bring back to the council for their consideration She noted that a true moratorium could not be done on the use but there are some options that can be explored further Council Member Johnson stated that he was going to make a motion to suspend item 3 b regarding the rezoning of the properties along Bayway Drive to allow time for review Mrs Foster noted that even if the item is tabled and new regulations are approved regarding storage facilities, we would have an existing rezoning application on file, which means that any new restriction could not be applied retroactively Council Member Presley noted that if council denied the rezoning request the item could not be brought back before the council for another six (6) months Council Member Johnson stated that he had heard from his constituents and he was not opposed to denying the request this evening b Discuss an ordinance authorizing a master equity lease agreement, a maintenance agreement, and other related documents with Enterprise Fleet Management, Inc., and its associate, affiliate, and subsidiary companies for the leasing of seventeen (17) vehicles for the Police Department through The Interlocal Purchasing System This item was not discussed c Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for February 09, 2016, which is attached below This item was not discussed 2 ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss Mayor DonCarlos adjourned the February 09 2017;,City Council Regular Work Session at 6:31 P M Leticia Brysch City CI City of Baytown