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2021 01 28 CC Minutes, JointMINUTES OF THE JOINT MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISION OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN January 28, 2021 The City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of Baytown, Texas, met in a Joint Meeting on Thursday, January 28, 2021, at 5:06 P.M. in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Laura Alvarado Chris Presley Charles Johnson Jacob Powell Mike Lester Brandon Capetillo Rick Davis Karen Horner Leticia Brysch Keith Dougherty Jeffrey Walters Helen Berrott-Tiros Tracey S. Wheeler Agustin Loredo Donald Spencer Carnes Jr. Donna Winfrey Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Mayor City Manager City Attorney City Clerk Sergeant at Arms Commissioner Commissioner Chairperson Commissioner Commissioner Vice -Chairperson Mayor Capetillo convened the January 28, 2021, City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting with a quorum present at 5:06 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Mayor Pro Tern Heather Betancourth, and Commissioners Shawn McDonald, Mitchell Pearce and Stanley Ballou. Pledge of Allegiance, Texas Pledge, and Invocation was led by Council Member Jacob Powell. Due to the COV ID 19 Disaster and the CDC's recommendation regarding social distancing measures there was limited amount of space when maintaining the required 6-feet separation from others. However, the meeting allowed for two-way cornmunications for members of the public who were not allowed to be physically present at this meeting. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Discuss the 2021 City of Baytown State Legislative Priorities. City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes January 28, 2021 Page 2 of 8 City Manager Rick Davis presented the item and stated that as the Council is aware, the legislative priorities were redrafted. He noted that this document will be distributed to the City's legislative delegation and will serve as a kind of philosophical foundation of how we are going to approach the next legislative session. The City Manager Rick Davis received feedback from the members of Council, which he has incorporated into the current format being presented today. Mayor Brandon Capetillo asked if the City Council had any additional comments. The council had no additional comments. b. Discuss the City of Baytown's Community -based Strategic Plan, Comprehensive Plan, committees, processes, and timelines. Director of Planning and Development Services Martin Scribner presented the item and stated that this item allows the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission to hear and comment on the new comprehensive plan process. He also noted that Assistant to the City Manager Brian Moran is heading the Strategic Plan process and Principal Planning Manager Francesca Linder is heading the Comprehensive Plan portion, but they are fortunate enough to have a consultant who can assist with both plans at the same tithe. Director of Planning and Development Services Martin Scribner introduced the consultants Gary Mitchell and Meredith Dang with Kendig Keast Collaborative, who presented the proposed plan and took in feedback from the council and commission members. Mr. Gary Mitchell, President of Kendig Keast Collaborative, stated that it was early last March that they were allowed to work on the City's Comprehensive Plan update as well as the Bayway Drive Corridor Plan, and after a couple of weeks Coronavirus occurred, which put these plans on hold due to the need for community interaction and dialogue. Due to the issues, their focus was on the Bayway Drive Corridor Plan, which is on the council agenda as a final proposed agenda item. In the meantime, the City's Strategic Plan update came around because it has been five years, and the opportunity came up to handle both the Strategic, and Comprehensive plan on the parallel tracks starting 2021, so it has worked out nicely. Mr. Mitchell will be discussing backgrounds, processes, timelines, principles and the context in regard to the plans. Both plans are from the grassroots level requiring input from the community questioning their aspirations, concerns, and hopes for the future of the city. Strategic Plan is more of a short-tenn outlook for the next five years and the Comprehensive Plan really looks down the road several years or several decades. He further noted that the Comprehensive plan looks at things like infrastructure, roads, housing, things that you put on the ground for the long tenn, shaping the physical aspects of the city. The Strategic Plan can cover a lot of the same ground but affects the budgets, resource allocation, and day to day procedures. Mr. Mitchell stated that both the Strategic Plan and the Comprehensive Plan are meant to help city government, city departments, the budget process, and help focus on the priorities of the community and its citizens. Mr. Mitchell also presented the proposed timelines for the plans, and noted within the first six to nine months, they will be able to be doing both efforts at the same time, some engagement efforts can be coordinated, data gathering, looking at where Baytown is today, and then at the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes January 28, 2021 Page 3 of 8 seven to a nine -month point, the Strategic Plan should be winding down, and will be brought back to council, while the Comprehensive Plan process continues. He further noted that it will be at this time when they will begin turning to the future city portion of the plan, after having looked at where Baytown is today and really setting that longer -range roadmap. Mr. Mitchell also noted that they see a lot of good synergies with this process and the completion of the Comprehensive Plan will be some time next summer about the June time frame. Mr. Mitchell stated that they definitely had a number of ways between theta and staff that they could all reach out to the community; this workshop is at the top of both of the lists, and tonight they are kind of touching on both plans after which they will come back to this group, both Council and the Commission, two more times along the way to finalizing these plans. Mr. Mitchell noted that the next point would be when they are at that plan direction step, where they have heard from the community, and they have numbers and data that will help them formulate a plan in order to make sure everybody is comfortable with the direction being taken. He noted that once this is completed, they will come back at the end with a draft plan for input prior to conducting the required public hearings and consideration of the plan. Mr. Mitchell noted that they are working with the staff to conduct public outreach on the application process for both the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee and Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee. He further noted that they would continue to work with the staff to coordinate efforts, meetings, and public input as they move along the same timeline. Mr. Mitchell noted that the city had formulated a Comprehensive Plan right around the 2000 timeframe in 19991 and then completed an update in the 2007 timeframe, however, they like to look back and think about how the community developed originally. They look at maps, images and data to review and compare the communities through the decades. We know the history of the three separate communities that blended together over time, but it was in the 1950s, and into the 1970s, that they really came together by way of highways and major streets. He noted that today, they are looking at a very different city from just even sixty, seventy, eighty years ago, but he noted that they felt that there was a lot of progress in terns of roads, amenities and quality of life concerns that spoke of a new vision for Baytown. Mr. Mitchell stated that they wanted to ask the groups a few questions in order to receive input on a number of items. The first question was what are some things that you are really proud of, things that you like to tell about that Baytown has accomplished as a community in the recent decade or so? Council Member Alvarado: • Connectivity in the City of Baytown transit, and additional routes such as San Jacinto Boulevard Council Member Johnson: Development of new communities Development of master -planned communities City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes January 28, 2021 Page 4 of 8 Chairperson Tracey Wheeler: • Commercial development along Garth Rd. near I-10 • New developments impacting the tax base Commissioner Agustin Loredo: • The connection within the city, such as trails and thoroughfares • Creating wider sidewalks Commissioner Spencer Carnes: • ETJ development warehousing and the work commercial • The peripheral area that has grown around the core of the city is the biggest movement • Chambers County area is blooming and supported by Baytown Mr. Mitchell stated one of the items that is in the strategic plan from five years ago is community appearance, image reputation, and things like that. He mentioned that staff first got involved in trying to work with this project having seen Baytown himself, he worked at SJC the Houston Galveston Area Council during the 1990s, Meredith was there more recently. He grew up in Houston, so just having seen Baytown for so long, what struck him after not been into the city as much in recent years was the beautification efforts, the appearance, amenities, things that were in those comprehensive plans twenty years ago. Things have changed and these are long-range plans. It takes some time to make those investments in the partnership sometimes to get those things done. He mentioned that sometimes working with so many communities people always say, sometimes you have the blinders on, you see your community every day so you do not see solve of those differences. People like us, that have been gone and came back, there are some definite accomplishments visually that were just words on paper, twenty years ago. Ms. Meredith Dang, the Practice Leader in Community Planning of Kendig Keast Collaborative, thanked Mr. Mitchell and stated that it was a pleasure to be here tonight. She stated she was going to provide just a few data points in the initial data gathering about Baytown as it is today and then she will turn the discussion to what they would like Baytown to be like in the future. She stated they know that Baytown is growing and is projected to continue to grow into the future. The latest estimate from last January was a population of 82,017, which is a twenty-three percent growth over the past twenty years when the year 2000 population was 66,500. Looking at the demographics, you know that Baytown has a relatively slightly younger population than the state and the Houston Metro region as a whole. The median age here in Baytown is 32.9, compared to nationally that is a bit higher at 38.2, lower in Texas at 34, and about the same in the Houston Metro area. Therefore, that population over 65 is just at eleven -point six percent. We do like to know who is here and what their different needs of different age groups might be. Ms. Dang discussed housing units. She discussed the growth, and the new housing that has come on board within the past twenty years with over a quarter of all the housing units in Baytown having been built since the year 2000. There is fifty percent of fifty-eight percent of the housing in Baytown that is owner -occupied, which is higher than the overall rate in Harris County, but a little bit lower than the national and the state rates and lower than the very high rate and City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes January 28, 2021 Page 5 of 8 Chambers County of eighty-three percent, owner -occupied. These are just a few data points about Baytown as it is today but of course, both of these plans really focus on Baytown as we would like it to be in the future. They had to turn the discussion to where to focus as we start to initiate these two different planning processes, and would love to open the floor to you all to hear what your top issues are could be something that is an ongoing issue or perhaps a new or emerging issue, as well as what your personal hopes and priorities for Baytown's future are, and any issues that will need to be tackled, but that are perhaps difficult. She started with requesting any ongoing issue, something that council and the commissioners see really carrying forward from past plans that still need to be addressed. Mr. Mitchell stated with the first item being quicker than anticipated that they would have enough time to work with and it would be great to give everybody an opportunity to voice their opinions. He explained that it is up to the council and commissioners to talk about items. Ms. Dang mentioned they could discuss any issue that is ongoing, emerging, or something that is very personal to them or maybe the reason the council and commissioners decided to volunteer and be on the commission or run for office. He decided to start with that. Chairperson Tracey Wheeler: • Protection of neighborhoods • Commercial developments • Better regulations as it relates to the development of subdivisions such as wider streets or setbacks. • Traffic Vice -Chairperson Donna Winfrey: • Larger lots like 50 and 55 foot lots compared to the 40-foot lots, in planned communities • Additional shopping within Baytown to avoid driving toward Baybrook Commissioner Helen Berrott-Tiros: • The continuation of revitalization to communities Commissioner Spencer Carnes: • Mobility needs improvement for automobiles, and grade separation trains. Commissioner Augustin Loredo: • Development of businesses toward the west and south sides of Baytown. • Additional amenities around the convention center, older communities Commissioner Jeffrey Walters: • Cleaning up and utilizing our waterways to draw in different types of businesses • Larger driveways for families to avoid parking on the street Council Member Laura Alvarado: • The aging infrastructure • Continued efforts around that area and maybe helping homeowners City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes January 28, 2021 Page 6 of 8 • Adjusted code enforcement or regulations for small businesses and even homeowners in older homes where they may not be able to afford, codes that would apply to big box stores or chick-fil-a • Lack of connectivity for Wi-Fi, and access to the internet in certain parts of town Council Member Chris Presley: • Agreed with everything that had been said and included mobility • The aging infrastructure • Incentivize the businesses toward the older side of town • Mandate that they do come to the older part of town, we will be needing residents and new purchasing power, but at some point, in time we have said no, no newer multi -family for four or five years now • Demanding larger lot sizes for new housing developments Council Member Charles Johnson: • Entertainment which would go with amenities. • Mobility and separation of grade to deal with the issue of trains and that affects every part of town • Incentives for small businesses, especially in the older parts of town. Council Member Mike Lester: • Mobility • Focus on bringing the proper commercial retail to the south side of town • Improving the residential requirements. 30-foot lots, you are not going to get much support from me. But we need the quality lot, you look at our age group those folks want quality housing and they are going to demand it. • Infrastructure maintenance for the three older districts. Council Member Jacob Powell: • Mobility • Transportation • Right turn lanes Mayor Brandon Capetillo: • Mobility and urban mobility • Providing reinvestment opportunities and zones and then the new areas • Larger lot sizes, we do not want to see all the cars down a street that is too narrow, it is unsafe. • Drainage • Retail amenities, the residential amenities, the educational amenities, so that we are certainly sought-after community. Ms. Dang stated that they will be looking at the major thoroughfare network as part of the comprehensive plan. She stated that she thought the discussion has really provided them a good City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes January 28, 2021 Page 7 of 8 foundation for continuing the discussions with all the residents of Baytown. She thanked council and the commissioners for giving them a good starting point. She then turned the discussion to Mr. Mitchell to discuss some of the principles and parameters for how they will be undertaking the two plan processes. Mr. Mitchell thanked Ms. Dang and presented the last slide of the presentation. He discussed that within the past fifteen to twenty -minute discussion, lie did not hear the word Exxon once. He emphasized that there was nothing wrong with that word. It is ExxonMobil now, but ten years, twenty years ago, we would not have this conversation without that coining up. All tine discussion about amenities, housing, all these other things we talked about revitalization, economic development industry did slip in there at the end, but it just shows to me the evolution of Baytown because that was the center of discussions always in the past. So, they want to put some principles in front of the council and commissioners just a small set of thoughts here of how to approach this process. This is mainly about the strategic plan but it certainly carries over to the comprehensive plan as well. He wanted to touch on some of these real quickly, data -driven is not just numbers and the work that they do as consultants, but it is tine input side to converting all that conversation and input into understandable and summarize information that the committee and ultimately you and us can work with. Boosting participation, this is something we talked about from even five years ago and especially the Baytown engaged tool, four thousand people roughly were reached through the surveys and work for the 2016 Strategic Plan. Let us beat that because we can do better than that just with the size of the community five years later and the tools that we have today. With our challenges of COVID, of course, we will see how the months ahead play out. Certainly, inclusive just reflecting everything you all have just talked about, in reaching this entire community, and all the diverse groups within it. They have tools and ways that they outline for doing that. He went on to state that the final one, was the thought of nothing being off the table. He mentioned that the conference of plans tends to deal with a certain set of subjects in terms of physical development. The strategic plan discussion can go a lot of directions, and especially when you are in a community that has an ExxonMobil global industry and all this effect your community, especially with the Houston Ship Channel right next door. He needed to talk about anything that comes up relates back to this community and ultimately the government's governance aspect. They just want to make sure if those ring true and does that sound good as a set of principles to frame this effort, and any that the council and commissioners might want to add to that list for us. Mr. Mitchell wrapped up the discussion by discussing his background in economics. He came to all this planning work from that perspective of scarce, stating they call it RTE or Resources Time Energy, and trade-offs. In regards to economics, there is that idea of opportunity cost. If you do this thing, you are not doing that thing or not doing as much of it. You all do that all the time, allocating resources for city government but that is really something we need to keep in mind as we do all these things. What is on people's tminds? What would they like to see? Then we work our way back to what can be done next year. What is something to aim for is that you have talked about fifteen to twenty years but get to work on that. He mentioned that it is a great opportunity here with the city manager having written the book on community -based strategic planning but one thing that really struck him is the grassroots aspect. The input from the bottom but leadership supported, it has to meet in the middle, and that is what they will bring back to City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting Minutes January 28, 2021 Page 8 of 8 them, the results of the community -based aspect. He stated that they look forward to being this item back before council and the commissioners several times in the months ahead. C. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for January 28, 2021, which is attached below. The mayor entertained the item, and received no feedback. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the January 28, 2021 City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Meeting at 6:09 P.M. gpYTO ft pQ••••.a••••••. T Angela Jack on, Acting City Clerk6. .bF City of Baytown a" . N tp ............ ��