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2012 06 28 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN June 28, 2012 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, June 28, 2012, at 5:00 P.M., in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Robert Hoskins Council Member David McCartney Council Member Mercedes Renteria Council Member Terry Sain Council Member Stephen DonCarlos Mayor Robert D. Leiper Ron Bottoms Kevin Troller Ignacio Ramirez Leticia Brysch Keith Dougherty City Manager Deputy City Manager Assistant City Manager City Attorney City Clerk Sergeant at Arms Mayor DonCarlos convened the June 28, 2012, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:00 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Council Member Renteria who arrived at 5:04 P.M., and Council Members Sain and Sheley who were both absent. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Discuss the City of Baytown's Participation Regarding Bay Oaks Harbor Subdivision Streets - Administration. City Manager Leiper presented the agenda item to discuss the City of Baytown's participation regarding Bay Oaks Harbor Subdivision Streets and stated that Bay Oaks Harbor was built in the late 70's, early 80's as a private community in which at that time were not required to build the streets and utilities to the City's standards. Additionally, he stated that the utilities were also considered private and that the development had a shared CCN with the City. City Manager Leiper stated that since that time, the developer had gone bankrupt and the water system had been taken over by TCEQ leaving the residents left with a lot of problems related to the developers. City Manager Leiper stated that the system was taken -over by the City and the City advanced $165,000 to bring the system up to the City's standard. Additionally, he stated that the residents began repaying the City in 2008 City Council Regular Work Session Minutes June 28, 2012 Page 2 of 4 through a utility bill assessment of $15 per month and so far $120,000 of the $165,000 cost has been repaid. He stated that a little over a year remains on the assessment. City Manager Leiper stated that various plans were developed over the years to address the substandard streets, which is a much more costly repair than the utilities were. He suggested that repairing the streets may be done in a similar way to that of the utility repair. He stated that in one of the plans to address the condition of the streets, the residents of BOH created a Public Improvement District (PID) in 2009 but that the developer who was going to use the PID never followed through on his plans. He indicated that the PID remains in place. A PID allows the levy of fees for PID projects and the fees are assessed along with property taxes and are due and payable by all property owners just like property taxes. The same rules for payment and delinquency apply to PID charges. City Manager Leiper stated that if Council was interested, the City could implement a plan whereby the City advances the estimated $1.725 million for street reconstruction of the main street. He said that the repairs would include streets with concrete, appropriate drainage and width which would meet City standards. He stated that the funding would come from existing street bonds that have been left over funds from previous years. Additionally, Mr. Leiper stated that payment would be annually on the tax bill and at the time in which this would start, the utility repayments would be completed. City Manager Leiper stated that the utilities is only paid by those people who are connected to the utilities and the assessment would be paid by every property owner at the per lot level. During further discussion, City Manager Leiper stated that in terms of the other streets in the area, another option was explored which would redo all of the streets at a cost of about $3 million, but he was not comfortable with taking that much money out of the bond program at once. He stated that his recommendation was at the time that the main streets are deeded to the City, that the City take ownership of all of the streets with the understanding between the property owners association that the City would do patch repairs on the loop streets until after 2015, which at that time the voters would be asked to reauthorize the street maintenance sales tax. City Manager Leiper stated that under state law the street maintenance sales taxes could only be used to repair or replace streets that were in the City on the date of the last election. City Manager Leiper stated that while the main street would be concrete, staff's proposal is to do a base restore and overlay and create 16 to 18 foot wide asphalt loop streets using street maintenance sales tax on a pay as you go basis. Mayor DonCarlos inquired if the drainage would continue to have open ditches. City Manager Leiper stated that it would be a combination to the extinct of putting in limited collection systems and that to put in a pure underground drainage system is cost prohibitive. Additionally, he stated that all of the loop streets would be open ditches because currently they surface drain down to the main street and the plan is to provide the most cost effective system to improve the area. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes June 28, 2012 Page 3 of 4 Members of Council stated comments in supportive of the proposed plan. City Manager Leiper stated that the City's engineer would develop the design for the streets in house to help lower the cost, but would consider comments from the POA's engineer. He also stated for clarification that although comments are encouraged, the City would be responsible for the street's maintenance and therefore the City would determine the final design. City Manager Leiper stated that the next steps in formalizing this process are: • Determine the cost of Public Improvements, • Prepare Service Plan and Assessment Plan, • City Council Approve Service Plan and Assessment Plan by Ordinance, • Conduct Public Hearing with regard to assessment roll related to conference of benefit of the person/property paying the assessment, and • Approve Assessment Roll and Levy by Ordinance. City Manager Leiper inquired if the streets to be reconstructed would have to be deeded from the Property Owners Association to the City before work could begin. Mr. David Hawes stated that the assessment would begin when Council decides it and could be included in the ordinance calling for the assessment. Mayor DonCarlos stated that all involved in the process need to be sure that the drainage issues are taken care of to make the area better and not worse. Council Member McCartney stated that the projected start date would be somewhere in the middle of 2013. b. Discuss Noise Ordinance - Administration. City Manager Leiper presented the agenda item to discuss the noise ordinance and stated that City's current noise ordinance addresses noise that originates in the City and that Council has the option to extend the application of that to 5,000 feet by state law. He stated that the ordinance does not contain specific decibel levels and that information would have to be placed in the ordinance, such as was done with the Nuisance Ordinance. Council was provided a survey from surrounding cities that showed what other cities were doing in relation to decibel levels. City Manager Leiper stated that he would like participation and input from the Council Members in drafting this ordinance. He stated that his concern was that Baytown is unique to many cities in the sense that there are a number of operations such as mobile noise sources other than radios and even flight noises in which the City received complaints about. He stated that he wanted to make sure that we were addressing the problem and don't add a level of expectations that the police would respond to and recommended an exemption or different standard for safety requirements. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes June 28, 2012 Page 4 of 4 City Manager Leiper stated that if Council was interested in changing the City's noise ordinance, in order to set specific threshold criteria and also to provide an ability to issue citations for noises originating in our ETJ (within 5,000 ft. of the City limits), staff would develop a draft ordinance that's reasonable and enforceable for consideration at an upcoming meeting. Mayor DonCarlos inquired as to what the City does in the event someone rides down the road with loud music. Chief Dougherty stated that the City has a disorderly conduct by noise citation which is a Class C violation if done in the presence of an officer. He the officers would let the individual know that what they are doing is unlawful; if it is recurring then a citation would be issued if done in the presence of an officer. Chief Dougherty stated that it is the unreasonable of the noise, which is subjective and the officers have to be able to explain the level of the noise. In conclusion of the discussion, members of Council agreed that the industry noise is a concern and stated supportive comments on providing protection for the citizens by having an enforceable noise ordinance. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor DonCarlos adjourned the June 28, 2012, City Council Regular Work Session at 5:38 P.M.