City Council - Regular Meeting

We got La Nina El Nino, whatever it is. It's wet out there and it's not supposed to be. So we got to blame it on something. So we'll blame it on the temperature in the Pacific Ocean. Welcome. Yeah, that's my yard. Really appreciated that. We had a fairly large bill came from the utility department the day before the rain. So. Good Lord answered my prayers. So before we start our meeting this evening, we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag led by Councilmember Luke Potts, followed by the Texas Pledge led by City Manager Sam Listie, and then Councilmember Stephanie O'Banion will lead us in our invocation. Please stand.

I pledge allegiance to

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we just come to you this evening and thank you for the rain that you sent our way. Father, I just thank you for that blessing and pray for any families and homes that might be experiencing flooding. Just protect them and guide them. Father, I just thank you for the promises that we continue to live by in your word. Father, we know that your plan is perfect. Your timing is perfect. Father, that you're working on our lives. Father, we know you're close to the brokenhearted, and we just thank you for the promise that you will never leave or forsake us. We thank you for this wonderful community and pray this evening that our deliberations please you, Father, and all with the goodwill and intent to bless the community. Thank you for the employees and staff that serve this community every day with all their heart and soul. Just ask that you bless them and their families and protect them as well. We love you, praise you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. All right. With that, we will call the council meeting July 14th to order at 532. The first item on our agenda are public comments. If anyone wishes to address the council for any issue or item that we have some level of authority over, we are here to listen. So, the floor is open, no 1 wishes to make any public comments. They can reserve the right to do that online on any forum that they wish. So we'll move from public comments and. Go to the proclamation item 3 proclamation, national parks and recreation month sponsored by a bison in. Yellowstone, I think what's what's the good gentleman's name that flew 8 feet in the air. We need that up here on this proclamation. So anyway, so I think. Is it James Grant? Yeah. So I'll read the proclamation. You can sit there, take a nap. It'll take a little while. So a proclamation, Office of the Mayor, whereas Parks and Recreation is an integral part of communities throughout the country, including here in the city of Belton, and whereas Parks and Recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who enjoy our city's growing network. of trails and open spaces, and whereas parks and recreation advocates for time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being while providing an accessible escape from the demands of daily life, and whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking and biking trails like Nolan Creek and bike hike and bike trail grounds and splash pads designed to promote active lifestyles of all ages and whereas parks and recreation programming and education activities such as youth sports and environmental education are critical to childhood development and whereas parks and recreation increases the community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction, and whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors, and whereas the City of Elton recognizes the vital benefits derived from parks and recreation resources and is committed to advancing the 2026 to 2036 Parks, Recreation, Trails, and Open Space Master Plan to build a healthier, more connected future for our rapidly growing community. Now, therefore, I, David Lee, Mayor of the City of Belton, do proclaim the month of July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month. There we go.

Congratulations. It's a short meeting, so we're good. You can see the camera. You can't see me.

Thank you, Mary. Appreciate that very much. As part of Parks and Rec Month, nationally they do Parks and Rec Month in July, and it's obviously typically normally hot in July. It is not right now. It's got rain. It's 75 degrees. This is a great July. But this is the theme they use this year, which is connection, play, community, nature, belonging, and well-being, which is all part of the quality of life. The rec team that's behind me, The two Adams, if you guys raise your hands. Those are the two Adams. Those are the rec team. They have been busy with all these different activities throughout this month. As you can see, three of these we've already passed, the Harris Center Birthday Party, the Connect and Construct. I've never seen so many things at the Harris Center. So there was a lot of like this. The pop-up at Sunset Event was a DJ down at Yeti Poke Park. This coming Saturday is Hike with a Ranger. And then we have a tradition that Matt Bates started years ago with popsicles. We take popsicles off the hair splash pad. That'll be next Tuesday. And then Pop-Up Play in the Park out at Chisholm Trail Park is coming up. Lots of activities going out there, and then the Sounds of Community is coming up. But here is some flyers of those different events. Sounds of Community is the last day of the month, and it's going to be down at Heritage Park, down at the Pecan Grove, right along the Leon River with the Leon River Band. So I hope everybody comes out and enjoys that. And then, of course, we've also been doing the well-being bingo that came, which is going on all month. We've got these bingo cards you fill out. You turn them in. You send them via email or snap with your phone and send it in. And we collect all those. And then on Friday, we'll draw one out. And then that particular person gets a lot of parks and recs. That's what we've been doing all month. So thank you very much for this. I appreciate it, Mayor.

All right, moving on. Items 4 through 9 are our consent agenda. These can be enacted by a single motion of the council. I will read these into the record, and if the council wishes to approve them, they can make the motion or they can remove them for separate consideration. Item 4 is adopting the minutes of the June 8th Council Strategic Planning Workshop. Also, the minutes of the June 23rd city council meeting item 5 is authorizing the submission of an application for the HB 500 water supply and infrastructure grant for the wheat road water capacity and redundancy improvement project. Item 10 is adopting a resolution authorizing the release of the city of Belton's of approximately 13. owned by Todd and Narita Winterman, and situated in Abstract 861 of the Young's Williams Survey, located at 1300 West Amity Road. Item 7 is approving a building life safety grant for structure truss repair and fire safety improvements for Miller's Smokehouse at 300 East Central Avenue. Item 8 is approving... A resolution authorizing the city manager to apply for Texas parks and wildlife recreation, local park grant program for outdoor recreation grant for phase 2 of the heritage park expansion and item 9 is confirming the city managers of interim fire chief in accordance with chapter 143.013 a 1. of the Texas local government code, and the interim fire chief will be Fire Chief Ray Cooper.

One thing there, Mayor, it was 3,000 West Amity Road on number six, not 1,300. Okay, 3,000, sorry. And I would move to approve items four through nine. Unless you want to pull.

Yeah, I was going to make a motion to remove seven from the consent agenda.

So I move to approve items four through six and eight and nine. Second.

Right. We have a motion to approve items four, five, six, eight and nine. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Right. Item seven. Right. Planner Kofi.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So item 7 is to consider a request for a building life safety grant for structural trash repair and fire safety improvement for Miller Smokehouse, which is located at Central Avenue. The property is within the central downtown district and is currently used as a restaurant. And just to give a little bit background by the need for this grant, on February 28th this year, Miller Smokehouse sustained a significant fire that damaged the roof structure and the supporting trusses. Because of the extent of the damage, the building cannot safely reopen until these structural components are repaired. Although the property is located within the central downtown, It is not considered a contributing historic structure. And so historic preservation review is not required for this grant. And with this scope, the applicant have already received proposals from target restoration. And Republic protection to evaluate the structural integrity of the life safety improvement of the building. The requested grant will assist the structural and the life safety improvement that are necessary to restore them after the fire. So these improvement includes removing and replacing the fire damaged roof trusses and I mean, and also installing a new compliant commercial. Fire sprinkler system throughout the restaurant. And also install a new underground fire service line, connecting the building to the municipal water system. Not forgetting completing all the testing inspection and also. Um, any quick start needs to be done for, I mean, before occupancy. The total estimate cost of the proposed improvement is approximately 153,402.05. The applicant, I mean, with a matching grant of 50K, $50,000. Staff determined that the project is eligible to be funded by the Belton Economic Development Corporation due to the anticipated proposed jobs retained, which is approximately 100 jobs retained. And therefore, staff recommends approval for this building life safety grant. Thank you. The applicant is here. Should you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have.

All right. I just think this is a wonderful program. wanted to make sure and take it off so we could hear it all because this is, I really enjoy seeing what these life safety grants have done for our downtown community, especially in a situation like this where, you know, they had the fire and need to rebuild and just to get back open. And so one of my favorite, favorite programs, the city does.

I really appreciate the EDC being willing to be a good partner with the city and money for this. That's huge. And that keeps it off the property tax. You know, it's not a property tax burden because it comes from the EDC sales tax. And so appreciate them being a partner on this.

And EDC is excited to help. I guess the only drawback is we're disappointed that the completion date may not be until December. And so Miller has really gone through huge turmoil with this fire. And we want to get them back as quickly, get them back to 100 jobs, full staff, full service. Sales tax facility is incredible. And any little thing we can do to help, I think we do. They applied. And so I'm excited about being able to help from an EDC standpoint.

Agreed. Our sales tax generators are partners with us, and any way we can be a partner to them is definitely worthwhile. And, you know, I would love to see 30 to 40 employees bustling around again instead of the four to five that have at a time right now. So I know we're trying to get it moving.

You know, they do huge business during football season with Mary Hart and Baylor and a ton of stuff that they're going to miss out on. So my heart really goes out to Miller's. I think we responded as quickly as we could. But anything to assist them, and EDC especially, I think is well worth the dollar spent.

I'll make a motion to approve agenda item as presented. I second.

We have a motion and a second to approve the life safety grant for Miller's for the sprinkler system and the trusses and the repairs. Again, our hearts and prayers are with them as they continue to rebuild. It's been a good 10 years that Miller's has been with us. It's been a hard 10% of their time that's going to be down. And so we continue to And I hope that that will happen sooner rather than later. I did have a conversation with somebody earlier this week talking about downtown Belton used to be nothing but bail bonds and are really excited to see all the effort that's happening in our downtown area. So it's nice to see the hustle and the bustle. Any other comments before we vote? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed? All right. Passes unanimously. Moving from the consent agenda, item 10 is consider an appeal to the 500 separation requirement for short-term rentals located at 128 East 12th Avenue and 215 East 10th Avenue. Mr. Van Til.

Very good. Thank you very much. That is, in essence, my presentation right there. All favors have. I'll entertain a motion if it's okay with you. No, let me give you the background. It's owned by Casey Realty. On this picture, you can see that where it's located on East 12th. It was identified through the Granica software. And of course, it's within that 500 foot separation requirements. And I do have to say that after talking with the police department, there've been no calls there within the last two years. So here's a picture of the front of the home. Here's a neighborhood picture. You can see it in the middle of about six of them there on the north side of the tracks and about four on the south side. And then it's proximity to UMHB. Our recommendation is approval of this request primarily because it kind of based on the conversations that we've had in the past facing a different direction, kind of oriented to a different neighborhood. and so i believe we may have a representative up there you go thank you sir appreciate that here if you have any questions of the owner thank you questions on this one we'll take them i don't i think it's reasonable and i make a motion to approve it as presented second

And this is for 128 East 12th? So we have a motion and a second to approve the appeal for the separation at 128 East 12th Avenue.

Any comments?

All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. B, 215 East 10th. Yes.

The owner of this piece of property, and you can see on the map it's on the south side of East 10th, ran them renovations. And it was also identified with Granica Software. It's within the 500-foot separation of 114 East 10th. Again, it's a new STR, so we really haven't had any calls either location in the last two years. Here's a picture of the front of the location. Here's the neighborhood picture. As you can see, the location, I show this primarily because in the past we've had some conversations about proximity to UMHB and the The preference given to that particular kind of criteria, but in this case, we haven't had one just directly across the street. So based on that, we recommend denial of this one, primarily because of the proximity to the other. But y'all may consider, you know, the location to UMHB and the criteria that you may think of. I believe the owner is not with us, but she is online if you have any questions of her. That's the extent of my presentation. Thank you, sir.

Was this one on your, I get called a heat map that you had on the previous one?

No, it's not.

This wasn't on that map? Yeah, this is south of there, yeah. Oh, okay.

So is this an existing short-term rental that is coming into compliance, or is this a new application? This is a new application. New applications.

Yeah, yeah. The existing SDR on the north side, that's been there a while. And I think there was a question beforehand. That's been off and on over the last couple of years. So we're not, you know, it's active, inactive, that kind of thing.

Is it 114 or 116? 114.

Okay.

You said it was ID'd by Granicus though. If it was ID'd by Granicus, then it's in compliance?

Yeah. No, it's just, are you talking about 114?

I'm pretty sure the first slide said it was ID'd by Granicus. Yeah, it was. It was. It was.

And we picked it up through Granicus.

Yeah.

Oh. So it's new in that regard. 215 was identified by Granicus? Yes, sir.

I believe so. Yeah. So it's not new. It is. Okay. It's not new, but it's recently been picked up by Granicus. So I guess it's that timeframe issue.

Okay. It's not one of the previously non-compliant ones that we talked about in previous. Okay. Yeah. This one has recently come onto our radar.

Got it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. I misunderstood. I will tell you that 10th is a pretty narrow street and, uh, we had to cut through somebody's yard to get through the parade. Uh, and I don't know what the parking situation is there, but that's kind of been my concern throughout. It's a multiple. short-term rentals across from each other to present a pretty big bargaining problem. Your recommendation, Bob?

To deny.

Is that strictly on the way it reads and that it's new, or is that because this is different than previous? Yes.

It is very close to the other STR. It's not facing in any other direction. And yeah, it's based on that 500-foot separation. It's very close to that.

Have there been any complaints in that region?

None.

And is the other STR, the pre-existing, if you will, STR at 114, is it in compliance? Is it paying taxes?

I don't know about the taxes part. Did you look that up?

It was actually one of the ones that was paying the hotel occupancy taxes for a very long time when nobody else was.

Okay. The one in red? Yes.

It's close to UMHB. I can imagine all of their neighbors are probably students at some point. I don't know what's the worst parking problem students are

I will add that we do have a fire curb on the south side of the street there. And so it's because it's a very narrow street. So it potentially the way you look at that either compounds the issue that more vehicles are on one side, but because of the narrowness of the street, we do have a fire curb on the south side of the street.

And so 215 would have no street parking. Do they have any parking?

on the property itself oh um you'd go back to that's why alex this one you see the street the there's a driveway on the side um oh here we go there we go so it's mostly along the side of the house

You all know how I feel about this, and I'm not going to belabor the issue, but I intend to support the approval of the variance.

The chair would entertain a motion to support or deny the request for a variance.

I'll move to approve the variance. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve the variance.

Any comments before we vote?

All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed?

Aye.

All right. Passes six to one.

Thank you all very much.

All right. That concludes this edition of the Belton City Council meeting. We will be moving into executive session. There will be no action taken at executive session. And so if you want to take a pause for the cause, I will read items 11 through 13 into the record before we... reconvene item 11 executive session pursuant to the provision of the open meetings laws chapter 551 government code burning texas codes annotated in accordance with authority contained in section 551.074 personnel the 12 is section 551.071 consultation with the attorney and item 13 is section 551.072 deliberation regarding real property

Don't you know?