2019 01 24 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN
JANUARY 24, 2019
The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday,
January 24, 2019, at 5:30 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
Robert C. Hoskins Council Member
Chris Presley Council Member
Brandon Capetillo Mayor
Ron Bottoms
Deputy City Manager
Ignacio Ramirez
City Attorney
Leticia Brysch
City Clerk
Mayor Capetillo convened the January 24, 2019, City Council Regular Work Session with a
quorum present at 5:30 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Mayor Pro Tom
Betancourth and Council Member Himsel who were absent.
DISCUSSIONS
a. Receive presentations and discuss contemplated developments in the City's
extraterritorial jurisdiction located in Chambers County, including the creation of a PUD
for property located in Chambers County Improvement District No. 3.
Planning and Development Services Director Tiffany Foster presented the item and stated that
the item before them is a new proposed development in Chambers County Improvement District
No. 3, which is east of SH 146 and is just slightly to the west of State Highway 99; i.e., at the
intersection of SH 99 and Kilgore Parkway. This property is located in one of the City's Limited
Purpose Annexations that were developed in 2011, which is prior to the City's Zoning Code
approved in 2013.
Mrs. Foster noted that the proposed developer has action items on the Council's agenda for
tonight that include a request for a zoning amendment for this area from light industrial to
general commercial and single family residential. He is also requesting a change to the City's
Future Land Use Plan that would allow this area to be commercial and residential instead of
industrial, which is what it is now. Lastly, there is an application for Plan Unit Development
(PUD) where the developer has proposed different standards varying some of the regulations in
the Zoning Code for the general commercial and residential.
City Council Regular Work Session Minutes
January 24, 2019
Page 2 of 5
Mrs. Foster turned the presentation over to the developer Mr. Matt Wells with Wells Holdings
Mr. Wells stated that he is the proposed developer for this tract of land. He noted that they have
been in Baytown now for almost eight years and are very familiar with the City and staff. Mr.
Wells presented the Council with the proposed development called Kilgore Crossing.
Mr. Wells noted that they are also the developer of Trinity Oaks, which is on the south side of
Baytown, and they want to be on the Grand Parkway in Baytown, as they feel that this is going
to be the feature area of Baytown, similar to how it is for Katy, Cypress, Sugar Land, everything
else all the way around the Houston MSA.
Mr. Wells noted that they are proposing a mixed use development of retail, commercial, general
commercial with a single family component for the northern half of the land. He noted that this
would be a better use of the property as it leans to a higher and better use of the land instead of
light and heavy industrial. He also noted that there are other MUDS that are in the process of
being approved by the legislation in the same area and they are all supportive of Kilgore
Parkway.
Mr. Wells showed the Council picture renderings of the proposed development that are similar to
other developments along the Grand Parkway, which are also in close proximity to industrial
areas and have been successful.
Mr. Wells noted that he believed that Kilgore Parkway would be a good buffer between the
industrial areas to the south; leaving the north to be of higher and better uses; such as single
family residential, retail, commercial, etc. He noted that they are proposing setbacks of 300 feet
from the industrial use to the west of the development to their fence line, which is the equivalent
to a football field, between the two uses; i.e. the industrial and the residential. He also noted that
they are proposing an 8-foot tall perimeter fence along Needlepoint, made out of Fence-crete, or
what is a concrete fence, and similar to their Evergreen development, it will include a type of
landscape that will run up and down, the length of the corridor, which will be used to create a
buffer to the Grand Parkway.
Mr. Wells noted that they made some concessions to the Planning and Zoning Commission (the
"Commission'j, which are as follows:
• Rotated the entry point to the neighborhood to the south to where the neighborhood will
enter directly onto Kilgore Parkway with a monument feature, showing the neighborhood
name and entry into the neighborhood;
• Added a buffer on the west side, by sacrificing about 15 feet out of the lots, the back of
the lots, to get a 300 foot distance between fence line to fence line;
• Increased the landscaping budget by 25% more than what was done for Trinity Oaks,
which means that they have increased their standards, beautification, and greenery; and
• Incorporated one of their tracks with a larger track to the north that is located in Chamber
County MUD #2.
City Council Regular Work Session Minutes
January 24, 2019
Page 3 of 5
Mr. Wells noted that they would drag sanitary sewer lines 7,000 feet from where the Southwinds
development would be located to the proposed Kilgore Parkway, which is about 7,000 feet and
about 1.3 million dollars' worth of sanitary sewer infrastructure. Mr. Wells noted that he felt that
their development would serve as a spring board for the development of the entire area with
these new sewer lines.
Mr. Wells further noted that they wanted to bring a progressive nature to the development and
raise the bar in Baytown as it relates to quality development. Mr. Wells noted that their
proposed development included retail and commercial components along with a residential area
that would include 10 foot sidewalks for parks, hike and bike trails, a park, detention ponds that
have been placed between the pipelines that will turn into a nature trail type of system. So the
idea is to create walkability, so people can walk around the neighborhood and be able to get
down to the retail and other uses as desired.
Mr. Wells concluded his presentation. Mayor Capetillo opened the floor for questions and
discussion.
Mrs. Foster, in response to a question from Council noted that, she is not exactly sure what is
being developed the entire area east of SH 99, but noted that as far as she was aware a portion of
the area is Bay 10, which was just purchased and will remain industrial. She also noted that the
property purchased by the Angel Brother that is in close proximity to the proposed development,
is going to be their industrial headquarters and will include a batch, and concrete plant, a
crushing plant, and some other heavy industrial uses.
The Council discussed the proximity of the residential development to industrial uses and noted
that they do not feel comfortable with residential uses encroaching on industrial use areas,
similar to how they do not want industry encroaching on already existing residential areas, and in
this case the industrial uses were there first.
The Council discussed options on the park, trails, the landscaping of the area and price point for
the proposed development. Mr. Wells noted that their price point of the homes would start in the
mid-200s, but they are trying to push it as high as they can into the 300s.
In regards to the proposed lot sizes, Mr. Wells noted that their development would have two lot
sizes: one being 45foot lots, the other one being in 50 foot lots, which is why they would need
Council to approve a PUD.
Mr. Wells further noted that they need the PUD because they are asking for 45 foot lots, which is
less than the standard for the City of Baytown. The City's standard begins at 50, and they are
asking for 45; however, he noted that all of the other items that are listed in the PUD are more
restrictive than what the City requires; such as: 25-foot setbacks to get the cars off the street and
in the driveways, a 75% masonry requirement on all the frontage of the home and 60% masonry
requirements on the sides, and a 5-foot curve linear landscaping requirement on all the front of
the houses, among other items. So he noted that while they were asking for a smaller lot size, it
City Council Regular Work Session Minutes
January 24, 2019
Page 4 of 5
was more about geometry and trying to fit everything in with those existing pipelines. Mr. Wells
further noted that in the existing market, people wanted to buy a nicer looking home in a smaller
lot, which is what they would be offering.
The Council discussed the size of the requested lots and felt that they had elevated the standards
of MUDS in order to get the higher price point homes with larger lots, and they no longer wanted
entry-level homes in Baytown, of which the City has an over -abundance of and really wanted to
bring in developments that are going to get the City above the 300s. Council wants the
developers to bring in 65-foot lots, with $300,000 to $400,000 houses in a master planned
community and they didn't feel like this was the product that the City wanted or needed at this
time. The Council also voiced their concerns about having to rezone the area in addition to a
PUD that allowed for smaller lot sizes that the Code allows.
Mr. Wells introduced a representative from Lennar Homes that noted that they had trouble
selling larger homes in the area around Mon Belvieu, and noted that people in that area were
more willing to pay for those high priced homes than in Baytown because of the Barbers Hills
School District. He noted that with the quality of their product, they could attract buyers, even if
it is on a smaller lot. The Council looked over some of the proposed home renderings for the
development and noted that they were not impressed with what they saw and would not buy the
homes regardless of the lots size.
In response to a question from Council, Mrs. Foster noted that the Commission declined this
item because they were concerned about the industrial areas to the west of the proposed
development, and while there were some of the comments, she did not recall any discussion
regarding the proposed lot sizes. She noted that Mr. Wells did attempt to mitigate some of the
Commission's concerns as was evident in the changes he noted this evening.
The Council noted that they wanted to focus on the zoning issue and while Mr. Wells attempted
to mitigate some of the issues, the focus of this item should be if this rezoning is the right choice
for the area.
Mrs. Foster stated that she wanted to clarify what the Council had before them tonight. She
noted that they have presented kind of a packaged deal with three different actions that need to
be taken: a change to the future land -use plan, then a rezoning and then the PUD.
Mrs. Foster noted that as it related to the future land use plan, Council has two alternatives of
which the Commission recommended the alternative that changes the future land -use plan to
accommodate the Southwinds Development to the west. The Southwinds Development came in
in 2015 and the City did not change the land use plan at that time and the Commission did
recommend changing the land use plan to accommodate the Southwinds Development, but the
change stops with Southwinds and everything else continues industrial right east of Southwinds.
Mrs. Foster further noted that action on the land use plan needs to be taken anyway; it just
depends on the alternative that is chosen.
City Council Regular Work Session Minutes
January 24, 2019
Page 5 of 5
Mayor Capetillo closed the discussion for the sake of time and noted that this item will be
continued during the regular meeting.
b. Discuss possible amendments to the City of Baytown Rules of Procedure.
City Clerk Leticia Brysch presented the item and stated that the review of Council's Rules of
Procedure was something that was originally brought forth by the former mayor; however,
Mayor Capetillo felt there was value in reviewing the rules as a new council and consider
changes as appropriate.
Mayor Capetillo noted that with the new council members, now was a good time to review the
rules and consider any changes that might be needed. He asked that Council take the Rules of
Procedure home and review them and be prepared to discuss them at the next work session.
C. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda
for January 24, 2019, which is attached below.
This item was not discussed.
2. ADJOURN
With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the January 24, 2019,
City Council Regular Work Session at 6:28 P.M.
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Leticia Brysch, City Cler
City of Baytown