Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

all right good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Dr. Ignacio Nunez I serve as chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of Arlington it's on just I need to point it down here a little bit there you go and hereby I'll call this regularly notice meeting of the City of Arlington's Planning and Zoning Commissioner commissioned regular session to order for August 19th 2026 let's see Commissioner Blake would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please.

Please stand ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you very much. At this time, I will ask our administration to read the speaker guidelines and general decorum for tonight's meeting.

We ask that the citizens and other visitors in attendance assist in preserving the order and decorum of this meeting and to provide for attendance at and participation in the meeting without fear of intimidation, threats, or hostility. Any person making personal, profane, hostile, slanderous, or threatening remarks who uses vulgar or obscene language, who engages in any other actions that disturb or are calculated to disturb the meeting, or who becomes disruptive while addressing the planning and zoning commissioners, or while attending the planning and zoning meeting, may be removed from the council chambers. All speakers shall address the commissioners and not the audience or city staff, and shall not call out individually named members of city staff or the public. For speakers tonight, when your name is called, please come to the microphone at the podium and state your name and the city of residence for the record. The applicant will be asked to speak first and will be given 10 minutes to make a presentation. Speakers in support or opposition of the item will be given five minutes each to make their statements. If there are many speakers for an item, each speaker will be given three minutes to make their statements. The applicant will then be given five minutes for any rebuttal. If multiple speakers plan to provide the same or similar comments, those speakers may, if they so desire, designate one or more individuals to provide public comment on behalf of the group. A bell will signal the end of each speaker's time. In consideration of other speakers, please conclude your comments promptly when you hear the bell. We ask that you address your comments to the Planning and Zoning Commissioners.

Thank you very much. Our first item of business is approval of the minutes of the July 29th, 2026 Planning and Zoning Regular Session Agenda. All the commissioners received these minutes in advance. Were there any changes or corrections that were needed to the minutes? Seeing no comments, do I have a motion to approve? I do, by Commissioner Winkles. And I have a second by Commissioner Maddox. Please cast your vote. Somehow that got erased.

One moment. Sorry, computer issues here.

Okay. Okay, so right now what we do, we have a...

Here we go.

So the minutes will show... Oh, there it is. Well, Commissioner Blake made the motion, and Commissioner Greer is the second. Motion passes seven to nothing with one abstention. Oh, and so we'll let the, let the minutes show that Dr. Uh, commissioner Finley is a yay vote. Yes. Yes.

I'm so sorry. Uh, I'm going to go ahead and ask for a brief pause just so we can include commissioner Finley if that's okay.

Please do so.

Thank you.

Uh, but we can move forward though, right?

Absolutely. Go ahead.

All right. Very good. So it'll be AEA with one abstention. Next, we have a consent agenda. Plats to be approved with conditions. We have one consent agenda under plats to be approved with conditions. It is entitled the final plat autumn park edition. Do we have any speakers on this item? Do I have a motion to approve the plat on the consent agenda to be approved with conditions? I have a motion to approve the consent agenda by Commissioner Blake and a second by Commissioner Greer. I ask for your vote. Okay. Commissioner Finley, are you in favor? Okay. So minutes will reflect. There were eight yes votes with one abstention. Thank you. consent agendas plats to be disapproved tonight we have on under the consent agenda a plat to be disapproved it's the kevcat edition you have a motion to approve the plat On the consent agenda, Platts to be disapproved. So a yay vote means that we will be disapproving. Is there a second? Yes. Commissioner Semptor has moved for the motion and a second by Commissioner Blake. Cast your vote. We have eight yay and no, oh, wait a minute. We have nine to nothing. Very good. That includes Commissioner Finley. Very good. With that, if you are here for the second case that was listed on the agenda on the website, SUP 25-13, located at approximately 500 East Abram Street. This has been... delayed to September the 16th, I believe, is what we were told upstairs. So we will not be reviewing that case tonight. Yes. I'm going to pause the meeting for five minutes for technical issues. So what did they used to say in the military? If you got them, smoke them. But that would be bad for me to say as a doctor. So let's take five minutes out, and we're going to reset the cameras. We'll do a little five-minute recess. Staff will let us know when they're ready. Thank you.

Thank you.

um before i move on to the next item on our agenda i want to make note uh for the record i want to welcome uh mr paul johnson he is our newest commissioner this is his first meeting tonight welcome paul thank you very much for being here and thank you for your service to to our community all right very good next case is sup 25 nope sorry let me move back Okay. First case is, what did you guys do to me?

There it is. There we go.

PD91-09R1, located at 300 and 330 Lock and Green. This is an application to revise an approved development plan on approximately 2.293 acres. It is currently zoned a planned development for local business uses with a development plan that reduces a side yard building setback on the north side of the property by four feet, three inches, creating a minimum building setback of 15 feet 9 inches. At this time, I will call on our staff to present its report on zoning case PD91-09R1.

Sir. Good evening, Commissioners. Ken Bloom, Assistant Director of Development Services. This case is at 300 and 330 Lock and Green Trail. It's zoned planned development for local business. The request is for a 4 foot 3 inch variance to the required 20 foot side yard setback, putting the side yard setback then at 15 feet 9 inches. This would be on the north side adjacent to the residential single family zoning. The development plan shows this request. There's one deviation from the Unified Development Code, and that's the requirement that LB zoning, as a base zoning district, have a 20-foot setback from property zoned single-family residential uses. So the proposed setback is 15 feet 9 inches. The building itself, if built, would be between 15 feet 9 inches and 16 feet 3 inches from the property line. How we got here, the original building was built in 1986 under just straight LB zoning. In 1991, a second floor was added and to facilitate that, there was a development plan that was approved. The building itself was approximately 38 feet from the north property line. moving ahead to 2023 there was an administrative change to a development plan the administrative change was primarily for landscaping and fencing requirements that did show a building expansion but the building expansion was 15 feet 9 inches and this was erroneous in the way it was shown in here so the 2023 administrative change the applicants narrative at the time was again for landscaping, fencing related changes, reduction to building setback was not requested. And if it had been requested, it could not have been an administrative change because the unified development code has a limitation stating that a permit substantially complies with the PD development plan if it does not significantly, among other things, reduce the minimum yards or setbacks. So this, since it's a reduction of about 21%, this is more than just, this is considered significant. So it would not be able to have been approved administratively at the time. But the 2023 plan was approved and it showed that building expansion at that location. Subsequent building plans and permits that were submitted all were based on that plan, the 2025 site plan for building permits. This was approved by the city, but it was based on those 2023 dimensions. The elevation drawing is shown here. In early 2026, there was an alternative equivalent compliance or AEC that was for some alternative landscaping primarily to move what was originally going to be trees at the along the north property line to, and I misspoke earlier, I said trees on top of the wall. It was actually supposed to be a hedgerow on top of the wall. Trees would be a bad thing directly on top of a retaining wall. And then there were some other landscape changes as well. So again, the timeline building was constructed in 86, 91. The PD development plan was approved to add the second floor. In 2023, administrative change was made for landscaping and fencing, but a setback reduction was never requested at the time. Nonetheless, staff did approve site plans and construction permits using the 2023 plan that had the building in, an area that couldn't have been approved by the administrative change. The city, upon investigating this, due to neighbor comments, did issue a stop work order, as was the procedure, and after we identified that there was a setback violation, the applicant submitted for a zoning board of adjustment variance. The zoning board of adjustment denied the variance It was a six to one vote in favor, but the zoning board of adjustment requires that seven votes be in favor of a result in order to improve it. So it was therefore denied. And then subsequently the application for the amendment development plan, which is here for you today. Purpose of the 20 foot residential adjacency side yard setback is the root of that is because most side yard setbacks for most residential districts is five feet. So five feet from the building to the side property line. The idea was to require buildings that are commercial buildings to have a larger setback from the adjacent residential building. So that's where the 20 feet came in. So 20 feet plus five feet, that would allow for a minimum of 25 feet between a residential single family building and a commercial building. The case we have here, the relationship to the adjacent property is very unique. There is on the residential property a 15-foot wide access easement and fire lane that is adjacent to the commercial property line. And then the house, the garage door is 28 feet from this access easement to accommodate a 25-foot driveway and three-foot apron. That puts the house at 400 Lock and Green, approximately 43 feet from the property line. The subject property is proposing to build the building at 15 feet 9 inches from the property line this will put it at roughly 59 feet from the house 58 59 feet the building is approximately two to eight feet above grade at the north property line and the property line slopes significantly There is one deviation being requested, and it is that 4 foot 3 inch deviation, or 21.25%. We'll note that development meets or exceeds all other requirements of the existing planned development zoning. I have a couple of site photos. This is looking east along the property line. So this is the north property line. At the top of your screen is Lock and Green. And you can see the wrought iron fence which is adjacent to the residential property which is on the left. There's a little gap there. There is a retaining wall there. The retaining wall is not part of this case. The retaining wall is in a legal location and will remain regardless of what happens to this case. There are some weep holes at the bottom there. That's to relieve pressure when there's water that drains in behind the wall. And you see the foundation back behind it. The site photo, this is looking the other direction, now looking west along the property line. And you can see the foundation, which has basically been prepared for being poured. I have drawn a line here at approximately the location of the 20-foot setback. It may not be 100% precise, but that's approximately where the 20-foot setback line would be if it were showing how it would impact this building. This is a high aerial photo, so I'm showing the same thing. And you can see where the existing building has been cut in. And a better view of that over here for the north elevation. This is where that building is going to expand out and cut in, be two stories over here. Staff considerations is if the Planning and Zoning Commission is inclined to recommend approval, staff recommends that first an artificial green wall be installed and maintained on the existing retained wall facing the north property line. An example of that is shown here at the bottom of the screen. This is an example outside of City Hall. Second is a xeriscape landscape plan for the area between the retained wall and the north property line be submitted and approved and installed prior to final inspection. and that the applicants engineer consult with the city's engineering staff to see if existing weep hole drains have the opportunity to be angled slightly more towards the ground. It's unclear at this time whether from an engineering perspective that is possible or feasible, but if it was feasible, then to install those. We did mail 12 PONs within 200 feet of the subject property. There were no responses in support. We have 10 responses in opposition from seven different addresses. I showed the wide view here showing where some of these come from significantly further than the 200-foot notification. None of these are actually within 200 feet. As of this time, as of 5.30 this evening, we'll note that the blue that you see on the screen here on this picture to the left, that's just denoting the properties that are within 200 feet. Also note that while this is a private street and private access easement slash fire lane, not an individual lot therefore it was it's not like a condo where there's ownership is no where all the ownership of the subdivision is notified because it's not common ownership it's just an easement only the two properties within 200 feet were notified so just as a summarization here this case is about a four foot three inch variance to the northern side yard setback the PNZ can add additional stipulations regarding the appearance of the retaining wall, regarding landscaping, regarding other things involving the property. The location of the retaining wall, though, is not part of this case. And stress, again, is in a legal location. And the site does comply with all other city codes. The applicant is Ben Armstrong. And I believe he is here to speak, if you don't have any questions for me at this moment.

Thank you very much, sir. I have just asked you to comment. We were upstairs during the work session discussing this case, and I wanted to clarify. You said that upstairs it would be a bad idea to put trees below the retaining wall, and that makes sense, roots. But you're also saying it's a bad idea to put trees on the top of the retaining wall.

Yeah, shrubs are fine because their roots don't go as deep as what trees would. But any sort of rooted woody plant at the base would be a bad idea.

Very good. At this time, are there any other comments or questions by staff of the commissioners of our staff at this time? All right, seeing none, we're going to move on to the public session. I hereby open the public hearing, and I will call the first speaker. I will begin with the applicant first and read through the cards and ask the main applicant to please come forward to the microphone. So who's going to be speaking? Mr. Armstrong? If you will say your name and the city that you live in, we do not need an address.

Good evening. Thank you for having us out. My name is Ben Armstrong. I live in Arlington, Texas. Floor is yours, sir. Thank you. We are Armstrong Forensic Laboratory. Thank you for considering this proposal. We have followed, my father taught me, a set of rules, facts is facts, tell the truth, and I don't know is a good answer. Works in court, works for the rest of life, too. We began in the storefront across the street at 3008 West Division in 1980. We bought this property in 1985 and built the building in 1986 and moved in. We have continued to grow and stay in Arlington. We are seeking this change to complete our building expansion at that address. In the last six years with the change to the laws, we have almost tripled the size of the business and went from 24 employees to a height of 58 employees using four bathrooms. The reason that we want to continue with the expansion and couldn't just remodel the design for less than the five feet is that would remove the purpose of it, which is the bathrooms. We have worked to be good neighbors. We have tried to communicate with folks. We have listened to every neighbor that wanted to come and talk to us, including the one at 400 Lock and Green. And rather than addressing the concerns with us, he brought the concerns to the council and We are here. This change is not contrary to public interest. Zoning the code allows for a 10 foot setback from a roadway such as the permanent fire lane directly to our north. We would not be infringing encroaching on the distance to the next house as that would still be more than 50 feet. This is not a special favor to us as we have been requesting permits at every stage through our process over the last three and a half years. This zoning is needed due to the lack of available space east and west of us, and this height setback restrictions to the south. Our current two-story building wouldn't change in height, and in order to take into consideration the neighborhood, the second floor does not have any windows. We are amenable to any concerns regarding the retaining wall for how we can improve relations with our neighbor and their situation. I think the green space is ugly and it's bad to maintain, but we would be willing to consider all options in order to try and make it more appealing. Maybe a trellis, vines, something along those. We want to make this work. We want to make it a beautiful park. I have grown up in Arlington. I went to Arlington schools. I have worked in Arlington my whole life to try and make this happen. We have maintained a very large greenscape that we find beautiful and appealing to fit in with the neighborhood. We planted the trees that are on the ground. So we want it to look great. We agree with you on that. The expense of the stop order is why we were making a suggestion to not zero scape the front edge and to leave it as a green scape so that we would have that opportunity to use those funds to address whatever concerns you have with the retaining wall. Thank you very much for the opportunity to come speak before you today. Are there any questions that I can answer for any of you?

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong. Do the commissioners have questions at this time? Commissioner Black?

I have one. On the back side, you said on the second floor, no windows. But how many windows are going to be on the bottom floor?

I believe it's three in the office section. OK. And they are smaller. sized windows which will then be behind the bush scape and elevated for our property level compared to right the residents would you potentially be amenable to having windows that are either up higher to where they're not normally looked out of or even removing that window and i know you hate to have an office without a window but

You are looking down at someone's house from there.

The windows in the approved plan are smaller and fewer than the number of windows that we have now, which is pretty much the whole side of the building. Okay. Thank you.

Anything else I can answer? Commissioner Chalambas?

Regarding landscaping, I think you heard my comments in the work session. It seems that right now what is existing, and maybe you're not complete with your plans yet, but it does look like some of the landscape, the islands, the parking lot islands just have one little crepe myrtle bush.

We went ahead and put something in so that it's not an empty space. They haven't finalized the landscaping plan.

So you will have the crushed granite per what the existing plan says. Will you be putting in any of the grasses or other type of bushes that are compatible with xeriscaping?

We were seeking to... That is the current plan, yes, sir.

Okay. So all the landscape islands will have at least a tree and bushes to enhance the landscape island. are you talking about with the new parking lot area yes yes there will continue to be more landscaping in those areas including bushes and grasses and stuff like that it's just not depicted on the landscape planet that i could tell that was approved earlier this year

yes i believe they also had filed a duffler aec to try and clarify exactly what they needed because they're currently asking for like 30 inch trees or 30 gallon three inch three inch trees this way 30 gallon maybe yeah yeah okay um and then the the

The only other thing I was asking for of course would be the sidewalk, to continue the sidewalk the entire length of the developed piece of the property from the north side at the gate.

They didn't require it in the previous permits. That is something we are amenable to consider.

Okay. And then landscaping along the island that was adjacent to the driveway on the side of Lockheed Green and that.

You're talking about directly in front of the building?

Yes. Right now it's just a patch of green grass.

Yes, sir. Which we're very proud of maintaining for the last 40 years with that green grass. And... We were requesting to not have it be zero scaping to try and save some of that money to be able to help with whatever you request for the retaining wall.

All right. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Maddox. Yes, Mr. Armstrong. Should this commission and city council decide to decline your request? Yes. How would you be impacted, and what would be your backup plan?

We have put more than a million dollars into this already, trying to fulfill it through the permit and access, the parking lot, the landscaping, and the expansion. I don't know, sir. I don't know what that option choice could be. The first step may be waiting these six months for the ZBA to reconsider our request. This will damage us financially. This will damage the, it hasn't rained since they started the foundation. There is still an opportunity to salvage what they started. That is going to end very soon. It's going to rain in Texas. So by losing that foundation, it adds additional cost and has a massive impact on whether or not to continue that. We have an exposed roof. I no longer have the support for the building. I don't know how that would be replaced or repaired at this point with the damage that's already been done to the roof with the initiated construction based on the approved permit. Following rule three, I don't know, sir.

Commissioner Winkles.

For what I swear, I think all of us would like to thank you for doing business in Arlington and choosing to stay here. Thank you, ma'am. That is ultimately our goal is to find a place for all businesses to be able to succeed and thrive here. But we do have to take into consideration our neighbors. And it sounds like you have attempted to do that. And when we ask, or when the planning team asks you about creating a screen wall along the retaining wall, are you opposed to a natural screen wall? Like the example they shared from City Hall?

Oh, you mean the plastic grass?

Yeah.

Yes, ma'am.

It can be a live grass if you'd like it. It's just a little bit harder to maintain.

I don't know how it could live on the shadow of the north side.

They're straight to that, and I agree.

The plants they suggested along the xeriscaping would be short.

Correct.

So that wouldn't really address any of the concerns. Are we willing to put in the green wall? Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Other questions? Mr. Armstrong, thank you. Thank you very much. I have two other cards in support. I'm going to read the names. They are non-speakers. Michael Armstrong, would you raise your hand? Thank you, sir. Did you want to say anything?

No, sir. Okay.

And I have Kay Armstrong in support, non-speaker. Did you want to say anything? No, thank you. All right. Thank you very much for being here. Next, I'm going to begin to read the cards of those in opposition of this ordinance. And I'm gonna begin with Rhonda Lake. Rhonda, are you here? Are you here? Falk, yes. You're a non-speaker and you're in opposition, correct? Okay, very good. uh gina tilker you're also in opposition and a non-speaker would you show me where you are thank you i have garcia simpson in opposition marked as a speaker would you like to come forward please remember to please state your name you only have to give the city that you live in not your address publicly

My name is Shirley Garcia Simpson, and I'm going to give you my address. It's 412 Lock and Green Trail. And I feel like I'm within the 200 foot, but I guess maybe inches are lacking. I've lived in my house for 28 years. I love it. In general, I am in support of Armstrong Forensic Laboratory expanding. I think it's wonderful. It's just how. In September, even though you guys gave them a permit for the retaining walls, something happened. They had a backhoe and they hit a gas line. It was very traumatizing because there's a fire truck and a bunch of people out there damaged our alley, our fence, and we couldn't walk our dogs or do anything. We have 75 homeowners that live behind the gates. It was very scary to me, but okay, that happened. But then when it was raining in the spring, then water was rushing over the construction site and I was picking up bags of rusty nails, rusty wires, and empty bottles from their crew trashing our construction site. alley and streets. I don't like that. I drive down that. It's not really a fire lane. That's the only way I can get out of my garage and go anywhere when we drive down the alley. So I don't want a flat tire. I also want to let you know that we are Property Owners Homeowners Association, and our dues pay for the common area. So that common area is ours. If Atmos had not paid to repair that huge hole in our alley due to the ruptured gas line. In fact, I saw the guy jump down into the hole and his head disappeared. I mean, it was a huge, giant hole for several days. We would have had a special assessment and I would have had to pay for it. So I resent the fact that you characterize it as a condo. We are Property Owners Homeowners Association and we're responsible for the common area. We're responsible for the canal. Now the reason why this stuff was in our alley was water washed over the construction site down and then it goes down into a culvert which goes down into our canal. Now all that runoff probably is creating silt, and we probably need a dredge. We probably needed a dredge for a while. But it just added to the problem. And then for the first time this year, we did some water testing. We had high levels of E. coli, and we had duckweed. which we might have a special assessment for that too. So just adding to a problem. And we want a good neighbor. I'm not opposed to Armstrong's addition. I just want them to be good neighbors and to talk to all 75 of our homeowners. Actually, some of them are married, so there's probably more than that. But we want good neighbors that will work with us. So that's all I have to say.

How are you doing?

Oh, I'm kind of tired.

Kind of tired?

No, I'm getting like bloom where I can't talk.

As I was reading through the documents for this case, the gas line incident, the trash, that's really unfortunate. And I hate that you guys had to experience that. But sometimes that happens on a construction site. As was stated before, the retaining wall here is not really the issue. So my question to you is going to be, once the construction is complete, how are you being harmed if the council and its commission decides to grant The Armstrong Company, the ability to construct as they have been permitted, how are you really harmed in that matter?

Well, you know, I was walking down the alley this morning, and there were several wires that were cut on our side. And we've had some problems with the street light flickering and the lights that show where our gates are so they can go in and out. Because those are only one way in and one way out. And there's been a huge, giant dumpster for months by the in and out. And it's very discouraging. to go in and out and see trash overflowing and cut wires and lights flickering. I mean, I just wish it was done in a respectful way or maybe even, maybe even make it better than what we have. It would be nice to have this wonderful neighbor that has this wonderful building do something nice for the community. I mean, I just think it'd be really good. I mean, I have nothing wrong. I don't think there's anything wrong with the building, but I just don't want them damaging anything else because I just cringe. I do walk around when it's cool enough, but I did like about 5 o'clock this morning with a flashlight and I picked up some things.

Yeah, and again, I understand what you're saying.

But that water runs over, and then it goes down my alley, and then my car might run over it and have a flat, or the debris. And I did see a lot of debris. Now, there's a huge pile of dirt that's been in the front of their property, and every time it rains, I'm sure some of that dirt goes on down the canal because it's like dirty water going right past my house, down into the culvert, down into the canal. And I'm thinking, I wish they'd just get rid of that giant mound of dirt. fresh dirt i mean i know they may or may not be doing something but i don't know why it's been there almost a year so again in my uh in my experience those are construction issues they go away once the construction it doesn't go away in our canal though and now we have e coli and i know i'm worried now now maybe we need to spend some money to evaluate how much of that has ended up in our canal

And that's expensive. So what I'm hearing you say is that you feel like the construction problems has or could cause problems in the canal.

Yes. And then what happens to us goes down to Interlochen. What happens to Interlochen goes down to Millbrook. So, you know, it's an effect.

Is that something that you've expressed to the owner? Is that something that if the owner was willing to work with your owner?

I would love to work with the owner. Like I said, I'm not against it. I think it's wonderful that they're building. And I think they could be good neighbors with us. If they would work with our board and our homeowners, I think there could be a compromise.

Compromise is what we're after here.

I love it.

Thank you.

Commissioner Sumpter. Yes, ma'am. To your right.

She's waving. I'm sorry.

There was mention earlier of a sidewalk extension along Lock and Green. Does your subdivision, do you all have internal sidewalks? No. So when you say you walk, you walk on the street or the alley?

I walk in the alley.

In the alley, OK. If there was a sidewalk built along Lock and Green, would you use that sidewalk?

I don't think so. I mean, I have a garden home, and then we also have town homes. So there might be some logistics problems with that. I don't know if that would.

No, I'm talking about the sidewalk adjacent to the Armstrong Forensics Building outside the subdivision. Outside. Yeah, if there was a sidewalk there that goes to division, which doesn't have a sidewalk, would you or your community use that?

I wouldn't personally, but maybe some people would. I mean, there's not any place to walk to once you get to Division.

OK, that was my point. OK, thank you. Yeah, there isn't anywhere to go.

Commissioner Blake. Should I put that on the record? There will be a place to walk one day. Really? Eventually.

On Division? You never know. OK. Any other? Commissioner Finley.

Thank you. So let me try and wrap my head around this. Has the HOA not met with Mr. Armstrong and his team at all?

I haven't. Two years ago, I was the president of the HOA for one year. And during that time, I wasn't contacted. But I would suggest, and it'd probably be very receptive at this point, if they reached out to the board and communicated that, or maybe even attended one of our meetings. Because what we have there, our homeowners are retired nurses, a bunch of retirees. We're pretty easy going. I don't think we're high energy, demanding people. So I think that it would be wonderful if maybe they reached out and said, we want to communicate with you and be part of the community.

Right. So when the gas leak happened, was the fence damaged there? I read someplace that the fence was damaged. Was the fence damaged? Yes. And who paid to repair the fence?

You know, that's really confusing to me because I called Atmos. I called a lot of people because I was scared. And I was told that they would be billed for it. Okay. But I thought we were going to blow up. I really did.

So you don't know who paid to have the fence repaired?

I was told that they would come out and repair the fence and that the bill would be given to Armstrong. Okay.

Okay, so the HOA didn't have to pay for the repair?

No, but there's still some damage, though, but you'll find out.

Okay, so I guess what I'm hearing is we've got a communication problem, okay? I think the best way to compromise on all of this is to get Mr. Armstrong and his team and your HOA board together and talk this out so that you all can explain what you want as far as property owners and how you can work together to all be a win-win, hopefully. Because you've got to live together over there. And from what I'm reading is that some people feel that he hasn't been a good neighbor. And he feels he has. So I think that maybe there's some communication issues. And I think if you guys get together that you can kind of iron that out.

I think so. I think the current board is very, very friendly and will have no problem talking.

But I do think that if there is damages made to the HOA property that And it came from the construction that the HOA and the homeowners should not be having to pay for that. That should come from insurance or whatever from the construction. And they definitely should be cleaning up after themselves and not letting things. Yes. Yes. That's dangerous. And it's costly for people to have flat tires. It's rusted.

And our homeowners walk the community. Right.

And that's a health hazard, too. All right. Well, thank you.

We'll start with Commissioner Winkles.

So just out of curiosity, to open the lines of communication, you want the trash that overflows into your property picked up. Do you give them access to come into your property to do that?

They already have. In fact, they took down the fence and put it back up without letting us know.

Well, they had to do that. And that was Atmos. I mean, everybody had done it. That was Atmos. Yeah, that was Atmos. And that was part of the project. I mean, that's general. in construction accidents happen i would love to say they never do but they do and nine times out of ten the bill goes straight to my insurance company i your construction company's insurance they see it it gets paid the consumer armstrong probably never saw the bill from atma so it went straight to the insurance company regarding the accident of the construction company that's doing the work armstrong is a third party there And the reality is if you have a gated community that stays locked, limited access, there does need to be an open line of communication for whether it be the construction company's cleanup crew to come through and clean that up, or Mr. Armstrong to be notified. And it sounds to me, from what I gather from hearing, there may not be an open line of communication between you or HOA just as much. You haven't welcomed him. You haven't invited him, from what we've seen. Has there been an invitation to Armstrong to attend an HOA meeting to share what he's doing? Or would he like to be a part of the community and share what y'all are wanting to do? Those are all open lines. Just like Commissioner Finley said, communication has to happen in order for this to be an amicable resolution.

Wonderful.

And we are six months, if not longer, behind that. And your project is going to take even longer now, because we're probably still looking at another six weeks before they can even get to where they need to be. And then they've got to start re-establishing footings and things like that. And you're probably extending that. And it's a very costly process. I wish that. I wish that the lines of communication would have been open sooner. Now, as far as the dumpster being on the backside where you see it more, there's some code of compliance of where those dumpsters can be put, according to Republic and the people who hauled them off. And that has to be taken into consideration, too. If the trash is overflowing, probably a phone call to Mr. Armstrong's office to say, hey, your dumpster's full. Can you have it emptied? He probably would have it emptied. It does cost to have that done, and he can notify the construction company of that. But you've got to open that line of communication. Somebody's got to cross the line first.

I'll tell the board that. I'm no longer on the board, but.

Commissioner Maddox.

has been said a couple, three times now. The way through this is through communication. And so I have a question. I guess it's for staff. Was the appropriate outreach, was that done?

That would be a question for the applicant.

Okay. Back when? 2005, back then?

Was that your question?

Yes. Okay, staff would have to answer that.

That's a question for the applicant. I just wrote down dumpster. I actually had our building official look at the dumpster location. He said that based on their ability to access it during construction, it's basically more, it's basically where it needs to be during construction. Now as far as the overflowing, that's a totally different issue, but in terms of location, I asked him about this earlier in the week, and he said that it's basically where it needs to be in terms of, so trucks can access it, et cetera, et cetera. So I just want to clarify that.

In my mind, we're looking at a couple of different issues. We got one set of conditions that occurred during construction, and then another set after construction is completed. And in my mind, we need to separate the two because things happen on a construction site that's not going to happen after the construction is completed. And so this line of communication that we keep talking about is going to be critical so that They understand what issues you may have during construction and after construction is completed, and you guys need to understand where they are in the process. And so you've got to talk. You've got to talk.

Commissioner Finley?

I just want to say, okay, that the person that's asking for this variance should be the person approaching the board. You guys are already established. He's wanting to do something that has put a stop work order in place and he's asking for a variance. It's not your responsibility to go to him. It should be his responsibility to come to you with the plans. I don't want you to feel bad because you haven't taken a step. And if there's trash blowing all over the place, It's his responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen. You shouldn't have to be calling on a daily basis. The construction that he's paying for, he's paying for. And he's paying those people to clean up. It shouldn't be your responsibility to call in every day and say there's stuff blowing all over my yard or in the alley or in the canal or whatever. That's the responsibility of the person that's paying the contractors. And so I just want you to know that I think that all of the responsibility to call a meeting and to take care of the trash, those things are all on the person asking for this variance. And yes, it is important that you communicate, but it's not all on you. I just want you to know that.

There was a city official. I call her official. I think her name was Carol Lewis or something like that. She contacted me. She said, I know you used to be the president of the HOA. Are you still? And I said, no. And I gave who the current president was. But we just recently had an election. But I also reminded her that we have a management company. And the management certificate is with the Tarrant County website. And we have a really good management company. And they could be a point of contact. It's there for everybody to see. And our current president is sitting next to me. And she's very receptive with our brand new board to have a discussion and maybe compromise and communicate better. So we want to work with our really good neighbor, the Armstrongs.

Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Ms. Garcia-Simpson. I have one other speaker that wishes to come forward and speak, and that would be Craig Smith. Mr. Smith, remember to state your full name and the city only of where you live.

Yes, my name is Craig Smith, Arlington, Texas, and .

Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Right back at you.

Right back at you. Oh, how can I begin?

Yeah, five minutes.

The crushing that you're talking about, well, I apologize. I'm the son of the mother, the 91-year-old mother, that looks at that wall every single day. No problem with the Armstrongs. My mother has lived there for, I want to say, 25 years, and this is her third home. This is the one that she was going to retire in. And so let me real quick off the top of my head is that when that gas line broke, that was big news.

Mr. Armstrong, please address us. Okay, I'm sorry. Mr. Armstrong. But do not address the audience.

Knocked on my mother's door and said, you have to leave right now. I don't know if he said the house could blow, but it was that serious. She calls me, and I come out, but the fire department wouldn't let me through the gate. Armstrong's employees are outside, and I was out there just standing around, and I met Mrs. Armstrong. And I asked her, I says, oh, are you building something back there? And she says, yes. And I says, I hope it looks nice. And she says, we hope it does also. Now that was, I got the open records request from the fire department September 29, 2025. We were not only good neighbors, we were probably perfect neighbors. You never heard a peep out of us being right on that construction site. Not a peep. On June 2nd, they moved the debris, and I could see that retaining wall, and I could see what it looked like. Let me back up. We thought that the Armstrongs would do the right thing, that they would make it look nice. We just had that... Blind faith, and that was a mistake. On June 2nd, when I saw the retaining wand, I walked over there and I spoke with Mrs. Armstrong and Mike and Ben. And then, let me back up. On April 28th, I went to the city and I asked, is there a minimum distance between a home and a business? And the person told me 20 feet, but she says something about ordinances and something about open records requests, and I didn't understand. On June 2nd, after I spoke with the Armstrongs, I went back to the city a little more assertive, And I asked the question about the setback, and it was given to me as 20 feet, but you need to make an open records request. And so, June 3rd, I went back again, this time a little bit more forceful, waiting for the open records request, thinking that that was just due diligence on our part, what is a minimum distance? Now, that following Monday, we go to the Homeowners Association meeting, and I would say with a HOA like this, who needs enemies? They crushed us along with the city staff. Unbeknownst to me, when I talked with the Armstrongs, we were open communication, lines of communication. And that's the way we ended it. Now I'm waiting for the setback just to gather information. I like you, Ben, facts is facts, tell the truth. But if I don't know, I'm going to find out. Unbeknownst, so we go to the homeowners association, they haven't done anything. Nothing. And that's okay. We can do our best to handle it. Now, Shirley, unbeknownst to me, when I asked the construction supervisor a question, he says, I don't have to talk to you. And I says, what do you mean? He pulls out an email and it says, it has come to my attention from Shirley Garcia Simpson that the homeowner's relative may be in some type of negotiation with Armstrong, for example, regarding some issues related with the construction of Armstrong's Labs building addition. These issues may concern the homeowner's property and HOA common area. What? To avoid any misunderstandings, can you relay, has the city acted as an agent, Can you relay our HOA management information to Armstrong Foreign Labs? I'm attaching a copy of the official HOA management certificate filed with the Tarrant County Clerk's Office showing that PMI Metroplex is the HOA point of contact. I'm out of the loop. Arlington hand delivering this? Hand delivered by City of Arlington.

You've got 10 seconds. You really need to make your point, sir.

I look forward to answering any and all questions the good Lord inspires you to ask.

Were you here to hear the staff's presentation earlier? Yes.

OK, good.

Commissioner Blake.

I didn't see anything.

So there's a lot of different things in there that you talked about that I don't want to try to rehash. But you're actually the one that I want to talk to tonight. Good. There's a lot of things put into this. I'm actually ready to make a motion at some point here. And I'll just tell you up front, I'm going to be voting yes to approve this. But there's going to be some stipulations. And the reason why I want you to be able to answer this, or your mother, what do you want to see I think it's really the retaining wall. I think if we make that pretty is what it sounds like if we do something.

That was it from the get go.

So we on this board have the power to make that happen. And if it doesn't happen, code enforcement can come do stuff about that. So you're able to call the city and say they're not living up to their part of the bargain. So we have a couple of choices. And there's a whole lot of them. But just to break it down shortly, do you want to see green plastic stuff? And you can look at some similar right outside the door this direction. Would you like to see some green space there, like Chinese jasmine is what I have on mine, and the stuff will not die? You know, something along those lines. But they're going to have a landscaper come in and do it, but try to make it look better. I sit upstairs and I fully agree with this. I wish we hadn't have approved a plain cement wall. And I hope we never do again if it's facing the community. But it's here and it's a whole lot of money. I'm looking at one for my house that's over $200,000. It's not really amenable to just change it out. But what would make you, or more importantly, what would make your mom happy?

My mom is 91 years old, 55-year resident, 25-year AISD special ed four through six, and also a real estate professional. So she understands. She had 10 houses that she bought, sold, and managed, and that was able to get her out of a teacher's salary lifestyle. She's worried sick. that this construction will destroy her property value and that she won't be able to sell her home. So it is to make that retaining wall look as nice as possible. I didn't have any pictures on June 2nd, but since June 2nd, I probably have a thousand. Taking pictures of walls, because there's a lot of great ideas around that could do the trick. My mother's concern and mine is I want a professional to look at it. a professional that knows about that stuff, landscape architect that could make the suggestions and not an owner of a forensic lab or a planning director of a department. I want someone that knows what they're doing.

Okay.

And we have suggestions. But as it stands, it's just heartbreaking. And those little weep holes are four inch fire hydrants, seven of them aimed directly at my mother's house, six feet off of her property line, 30 to 45 inch slope. You don't see that on these pictures. But it is intimidating. And we've been trying to get someone to come out and look at it. But there's a million. I wouldn't say a million, but there's a ton of things to do. I would say the answer of I don't know and do nothing, that wouldn't work.

I will tell you that I will try to word it in the amendment.

It's an amendment to the development plan.

Thank you. I will try to word that in such a way that we have you covered because that is going to be my intention. Thank you.

Any other comments, questions at this time? Sir, thank you. At this time, the applicant has an opportunity to speak again. Mr. Van Armstrong, do you have another opportunity to make any final comments or to rebut any comments that have been made? This is your opportunity, sir.

Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I absolutely agree with a lot of the comments. The gas line leak was absolutely scary. The construction company didn't even tell us, and we were inside the building. We had to observe it. We called 911. We went out, contacted the houses that were closest by, and tried to get people to a safe distance before even the fire trucks got there. We evacuated all of our people to the south end of the building. The construction event damaged the fence. We had our construction team build a new fence at no cost to the HOA. We have worked with previous iterations of the HOA board. We have agreements in place for over 30 years regarding maintaining the entranceway, regarding their lighting, which is on our side of the gated area. We've been glad to work with them. Previously, the HOA had said they have no objections to the expansion. I don't know if that was a different iteration of their current team. The retaining wall that was there previously was a railroad tie wall, which are no longer allowed and aren't that pretty anyway. So the current retaining wall meets all of the specifications that we were given. We're on board with trying to improve it. Are there any other questions or anything that I didn't address that you have concerns about?

Commissioner Maddox and then Commissioner Talumbas.

Maybe I missed it, but how long has the current retaining wall been in place?

June. Of this year? Yes, sir. It was the construction of the retaining wall when they damaged the gas line. Okay.

Okay. Because in my mind, the retaining wall is important, but it's not really the primary issue that we're here to talk about today. No, sir. It's not.

But that is the... item of concern that people have brought up and initiated the questions which led to the investigation into the setback requirements, which is why we're having to ask for those. We have had previous communications with the HOA where they said individual homeowners do not speak for the HOA. So we're trying to balance everybody's feelings.

So if you're amenable to working with the homeowners and homeowners association, since it seems like the retaining wall is a big issue, to resolve that in order to get to a resolution, is that something that you're willing to go forward with?

Absolutely. However, I don't believe the homeowners and the homeowners association agree with what they would like to request.

And I picked that up. I did. And I'm not sure that that's something that you can fix. But my question to you is, if the retaining wall is something that helps you get to a yes, you're willing to do that, even though that's not the primary issue that we're here to discuss.

Yes, sir, up to a certain amount, as you said, upstairs. All it takes is money. There's a finite amount of that. Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you. But we are more than willing.

Commissioner Telemus?

And Mr. Armstrong, one of the concerns I heard from previous speaker was that big pile of dirt in your front yard. Yes, sir. That was there from the construction of the parking lot. Can you elaborate what the intent of that is? Are you going to spread it out, sell it, dispose of it, or leave it there?

It is from the parking lot and digging the foundation for the expansion. Yes. It is supposed to go away when the construction is completed or before.

And just grade to graph?

Right now, we don't know what or how much dirt they would need in order to mix the concrete, do the construction, put all the things together. So they didn't want to get rid of it yet.

Or there are barriers around that pile of dirt, like the other barriers around the construction area? Yes, sir. To keep the silt from going downstream?

Yes, sir. And it's been inspected by the city.

All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Commissioner Blake.

I have a question before I do want to go over some of the things that I'd like to put in this motion. But I think I heard you say you're maintaining the entryway into Lockerberry?

We allow the HOA to maintain the entryway. It is actually our property. OK. Really? Yeah. OK. Good to know. So they moved in after? And they wanted it nice, and we said OK. So we've agreed with them and worked with them over the years for keeping it trimmed up.

So before I run over these motions, if there's another commissioner that has any other questions, I'd like you to go first.

Commissioner, please go ahead. Commissioner Paul Johnson.

First of all, thanks for being here, and everybody. We appreciate this. I just have something short. Are you willing to commit as part of this to monthly meetings? And I'm going to suggest the third Wednesday of the month with the board. Don't know if I really think it's the best idea to meet with all homeowners. But are you willing to commit to regular meetings and with regular meeting with the homeowner to talk about construction issues, basically?

During the construction?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

All right. That's all I have.

For updates, yeah.

That would be great. I want to make a couple of comments before the motion is made. Just a little fun fact. One of the reasons that no one is allowed to swim in Lake Arlington is because it's loaded with E. coli. why is it loaded with e coli because we don't pick our dog poop up and uh and so all all those neighbors and all the drainage that comes off a division uh even within your own neighborhood if you have dogs that you're walking that's why your coliform is so high and the other problem too is it's hot And the hotter that it is, man, bacteria love warm, wet environment. I would hate to fall in any of the canals down there right now in the city of Arlington. The second thing is, I believe that the city council representative that represents your area, I believe, is Mr. Tom Ware, who all of us here know very well because he's been a commissioner here before. And he's moved up to city council. He is aware of this issue and this case. And I've had conversations with him. And so please reach out to Mr. Ware. If there ever is a lack of communication, and hopefully that will not happen, but if there is a lack of communication, you have, your city council representative is supposed to help you. and you can call him directly and he will respond because that's the kind of city council person that he is, okay? And that applies to you as well. He's there to help everybody achieve everything. And I think what you're hearing is, this motion tonight is probably gonna pass, The applicant is being, I believe, in my opinion, is bending over backwards to try and help. But when you take 70 homeowners and spouses, there will always be those people who will not agree to anything. And that's just human nature. So I think your suggestion, Mr. Johnson, of meeting with the president of the HOA on a regular basis so that they can communicate back to the homeowners what's going on is a wonderful idea. So with that, the floor is yours, Mr. Max. Mr. Armstrong, you can sit down. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Thank you. A little minor technicality. With that, I'm going to close the public session unless any of the commissioners have any other questions that they want to ask of staff or anybody else. Sure.

Mr. Chair, Commission, I just want to remind the Commission that the item before you is a revised development plan. And I believe, as Commissioner Maddox referred to earlier, the issue in front of you is the five-foot setback for this structure. Yeah, whatever. But I just want to stress, if there are any conditions placed on this approval, that they be reasonable requirements attached to the construction of the building itself. And I know there were a lot of other comments that were made on the work session that have been made down tonight. But if we could please be tied to the construction of this building. not tied to other requirements that may be tied to, for instance, extra things that perhaps the commission would have preferred if this had come through as a original plan development instead of what staff already approved. So for instance, I know staff already approved some conditions regarding landscaping. I know there was some discussion regarding sidewalks. But really the issue today, in front of you tonight, is whether to approve this to allow the structure to go where it is. Thank you.

Does that mean I have to scratch the sidewalk?

Personally, I'm not in favor of the sidewalk. But that's for us to decide. Because we haven't closed the public session. We're still communicating. So Commissioner Finley.

OK. With that being said, now I have a question. So we're basically just talking about the setback. So the setback doesn't align with the UDC, correct?

The setback, it would be a deviation. And through the design plan in front of you today, you would be approving a deviation. And that's totally fine. But I just want to make clear to the group, I think there were some comments made upstairs about, well, we wish this had come through. And believe me, at this point, as much time as you guys have spent talking about this, I wish that had happened. But staff has already looked at some of the other things and has already signed off on those other things. So really today, you're just signing off on the development plan. I think what's in front of you is the question to the point of, I believe, helping communication between the parties and references regarding what type of landscaping on the side with the retaining wall and the structure. And I totally think all of that is fair game to discuss. I'm just saying when you go out and you start talking about landscaping on other parts of the building or sidewalks to nowhere, things like that, I think you're probably going beyond what's really in front of you.

So it's OK then to go with staff recommendations then?

What are the staff recommendations?

Well, what was in the report? Sorry.

Can we pull that slide up? There's no cyclone.

It's not cyclone. It's not cyclone. The stipulations were for memory here. So the green wall was one of them. Oh, okay, here we go. Okay, she's got me. There we go. So the green wall facing the property, so facing the north wall, north property line, is the Earthscape Landscape Plan at the base of the wall and working with their engineer and our engineering staff working together to see if there's anything to be done with the weep drains. There may or may not be. If there is, then to do that, but otherwise not. But something that can be reasonably done with the condition.

So a couple of comments I'll make, only because of those of us who've lived in North Texas for a long time and work in our yards and all that stuff and know a little bit about plant biology. That's a north-facing wall, and you try and put any kind of greenery down there, you run the risk, because it's going to be in the shadow most of the time, that it's going to die. And even if you plant... your traditional idea of xeriscape, cactus, some of these drought-tolerant things in that area, the problem is you're going to be in the shade a lot. And cactus need a lot of light. And so even that's a problem. Now, what was talked about upstairs during the work session was the big river rock. And river rock is perfect for that kind of an area. And looking at river rock is great. I think that the engineer looking at those four inch weep pipes for that particular wall, I think it's reasonable and part of the construction when they put a green wall up is to look at how they might be able to angle or to give some direction to the water coming out of those pipes and that might have to be incorporated with the green wall or maybe the engineers will look at that not only the construction engineer but the city engineer and come up with an even better idea that might look nice i think it's reasonable to add that particular motion because it's actually in my in my mind it's part of the uh part of the total construction plan make this thing look nice and because if you're doing landscaping what are you doing you're making something look nice and i think that's i think that that's reasonable at this point in time as long as we don't go overboard so with that okay commissioner in my opinion these three

recommendations are one, make the retaining wall look better. That's essentially it. You don't need to state all three of them. That's the intent of all three of these, is to make it a better view for the neighbor. That's essentially what it is.

Any other? All right, sir. Let's see what you come up with. Oh, wait a minute. Ready to close it?

Let's close the public session then. We're not closed. Thank you. See if I can do this and make it sound good. I'd like to make a motion to approve PD 91-09R1, 300 and 330, lock and green. And with the following considerations of the staff recommendations, and I'd like to reword it a bit, basically to work with staff to provide screening of some type to make it more enhanced visually. And I very specifically would like them to work with the resident to make sure that they're somewhat acceptable on that. In addition, I wanted to also add that we open up a line of communication with the HOA to at least have a monthly correspondence back and forth and make sure that they have contact information for the construction site manager so that they can tell them if there is a problem. I do suggest both of y'all are copied on that email.

And that communication would be in place until the construction is finished? Yes, sir. Okay, very good. All right. So that motion has now been made by Commissioner Blake. I have a second by Commissioner Semptor. Any other discussion before we cast our vote? Please, let's cast our votes in.

And for the record, I'm a yay. I sat idle too long, and it locked me out. So can't vote. Taking longer than normal.

Motion passes 9 to nothing. Mr. Armstrong, thank you for continuing to keep your business here. And neighbors, those of you who showed up tonight, thank you for being here. Your voice has been heard, and it's very important that everybody who is a part of this is present here tonight. So thank you very much for attending. With that, do we have any other reports from staff or any other bodies or commissions?

No, sir.

Very good. Let's see. Are there any other announcements or any other reports from staff?

At your next meeting, we have four zoning cases scheduled.

Very good. With that, I want to remind everyone that the next regular session meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission will be Wednesday, September the 19th, 2026 at 5.30 PM. With that, we are adjourned. Thank you very much for being here.