City Council Meeting Agendas & Information - Special Meeting

You ready? Yeah, let me help. Okay. Okay. All right. It is to order is 6:35 p.m.

Yes.

Okay. Um so uh we're going to have regular agenda items tonight. Um this is a special meeting called um 2A uh will hold the public hearing and consider the approval of an ordinance granting a variance to section 17.06.009D and 17.06.0105 0105 of the city of Bertie code of ordinances related to it premitigation and tree protection requirements at 2541 2545 and 2549 roadie Texas um we'll also uh to be hold public hearing consider an ordinance city council of the city of Bulbertie Texas amending chapter 3 building regulations city of Bulveri code of ordinance by amending article 3.08.102 permitted sign structures and general regulations to define sizing and a method of area calculation for attached building signs. And then number three, we'll also have an executive session. Um and in this where it's pursuant to section 551.101 of the open meetings active government code, a quorum of the governing body hereby convenes into close session. 3A the city council will meet in executive session to seek the advice of legal counsel of about pending and contemplated litigation to discuss the settlement offer or on matters in which the duty of the attorney to the city council under the Texas rules of professional conduct conflict with the Texas Open Meetings Act to win ethics guidelines for elected officials. 3B resign to Texas government code annexation 551.07474 07474 personnel matters. The city council will deliberate an executive close session to deliberate appointment employment evaluation and duties of the interim city manager. I would like to say that

we do have a quorum for tonight's meeting. Uh Councilman Hawkins is being zoomed in from his location. Um and uh Councilman Watson is asset tonight. Okay. So we will start by uh looking at 2A. Um hold the public hearing and consider the approval of an ordinance granted to variance section 17.06009D and 17061 or 0105 of the city of Albert code of ordinances related to tree mitigation and tree protection requirements at 2541 2545 2549 roadie Texas. All right, mayor and members of council. Um, this item originally been slated for discussion at the regular meeting on July 8th, but we had a uh quum we're able to so we're doing it now. Um, the applicants uh correct me if this has changed. Have you guys um come into alignment with the PNC recommendation now? Uh, or are you all going to propose something different? Okay.

So, the uh original application was considered back uh by PNZ last month. The recommendation from the commission was to allow uh tree removal uh up to 50% of the caliber branches on the site. um without requiring an arborous letter as required in the ordinance and allow a uh uh that that amount would be uh $75,750. And no, we would not require they're recommending not requiring any additional mitigation for um the remaining 50% of the trees that are uh removed from the site and none at all for those in driveways. and um detention areas. They also uh are recommending that for the portion of driveways and parking lots that are construct constructed within the drip line of protected spec majestic historic tree uh that they be allowed to be constructed of impervious materials uh under the second provision. I'm going to ask the applicant to come up and give a more detailed explanation of their project and their request. Sir, there. Thank you all very much for the opportunity to come up today. I'm very excited to get to finally share the kind of complete vision of what we've been working on over there since July 13th of 2021 when we bought the property. Um it occurred to me in the last couple weeks that I hadn't really introduced village Holdings in the multiple times we've been up before both council and vice zoning board of adjustment. Sovery Village Holdings is I guess first and foremost my wife Ashley and I as the general partners we have a 1% interest in this project. Our limited partners are some family from the Corpus Christie area where we are both from and a couple from our church Riverside Wayen Christy

and um I say all that to say we are neighbors. We are part of the community. Um, our partners have been extremely gracious in supporting our vision for the project, which as I'll explain tonight, really aligns basically flawlessly with the downtown Bulvery Village, DVD vision, um, on the city's website and with the, uh, tree preservation coordinates. Uh, as we'll go through that, um, you you'll see as we go through it that, you know, we're saving roughly 88% of the protected trees on the property with this design. Um, most developers, especially coming in from out of town, would not have taken that approach. Um, I think I've also seen personally in some of these council meetings that larger, more well-healed developers from out of town often don't show up themselves. They send their consultants up, uh, their experts up. Every time we've come before PNC council and DOA, it's been us representing ourselves. Um, this is our, this is our community. This is our project and it's been a a passion project for us to date for sure. Uh, as Mr. Bats pointed out, we are um asking to match what planning and zoning uh, recommended in terms of the the financial piece, the cash and loop. I will say um I wasn't allowed to make this provision in the application, but I was told I could bring this up here. I wouldn't necessarily write it the way that PNZ recommended where we distinguish between trees for the driveway and trees for detention. The amount of 75 75,750 as cash in L is equivalent to 252 and a half inches out of an 800 a total of 887 and a half that we have to mitigate for. That's 28% of the cash 28% of the mitigation as cash and move for all trees. The way PNZ broke it down, they

said, "Well, we make build the detention." So, we'll eliminate that. We can do 50% cash and move for the driveway trees. Um, I say that because I know there's concern about precedent. I have some more to say about the idea of precedent um in a bit, but I to me we're exceeding the ordinance basis of the 25%. um it's a substantial amount of money and as we go through everything else we've done to protect the trees I think you'll see that that's I hope you'll see that that's a reasonable request but in the meantime since we came before PNZ I was finally able to get an arborist to come out and do a second tree survey specifically looking for trees between four and six in which the ordinance states are the preferred method of replacement um we've come up with as of reporting that's been provided to staff and staff still reviewing it. So, there's more to be done there. Some updates to drawings and whatnot, but looks like another 168 and a half inches of trees in that 4 to 6 in class, which are designated as replacement trees. They're existing trees. They're obviously far more established than planting brand new 6-in trees could possibly be. Um, so you add that together and there is an ordinance that requires we are having to plant eight canopy trees and those are in the landscape drawings that you have. Eight canopy trees for stream for like road furniture. So most of them go along that dimension on the left side going along the road. Those eight canopy trees represent 48 in of mitigation. So out of the 887 and a half inches, what we're asking for right now covers 53% of the total mitigation at a cost of a check to the city of 75,750. Um the obviously we had to pay for the second survey that 168 and a half inches

at $300 an inch. That's $50,000 with additional mitigation. I have a lot to say. So at this point I want to interrupt by all means. This is a lot of information about trees. I appreciate it.

So um what's our vision for the property? As I mentioned our vision for the property has always been since day one really well aligned with the downtown vision um to maintain the country atmosphere. I'll go through some of them. Objective 5.2 to as stated in the downtown bull village document and a lot of this actually this isn't in the packet this is my presentation is says encourage people to visit visit the village of at our last market I talked to people from hodus bernie blanko brothel cibilo and shs that had come into town spent money in the village as much as 45 minutes away just to come to our My point in going through all this is to show that we've been proceeding in alignment with the vision and this project continues to do so. Uh manage the future growth of the city to preserve the character and uniqueness that is Bveri encouraging land development that enhances an aesthetically pleasing appearance for the city. I think if anybody has driven down Bovery Road over the last five years, I hope that they would agree that we've definitely enhanced the aesthetic of that property while not changing its character at all. Um, one of the things I want to point out is that with this plan, the focal point from Overy Road will always be that farm that's been there since the 90s that now hosts the MC. Um, and I think if you're familiar with the topography and the trees that exist on the property, you won't see what's going on in the back from the road. All you'll see is a new driveway and an um, if you could go missing to the color image and it probably be really easy if you pulled those pages out and compared the two. I those for you, but yeah, this one makes it a little hard to see some of the development part. The other one is clear as far as that goes.

That's a canopy exhibit that our landscape architect put together with RB Gay Aaron Christian showing after cedar removal the estimated current canopy. You can see the density along that first terrace of Ry Road. Like I mentioned, you really won't even see the development back. Um like I said, I think five years from now it won't look any different. It will continue to look like a country part of the village. preserve the natural and rural character of the city as much as possible. I've already spoken to that. Encourage an aesthetically pleasing appearance for the city. I think we're working on that. Encourage caseful development of all kind. Um it's C2 commercial zone and plan design development. So, it's it's zoned for commercial uses. That's what we're asking to be put there. Uh use the relaxed atmosphere of the Hill Country to work its advantage. If you haven't been to the market or been by the maker yet, love for everybody to do that at some point. And I think you'll find it's one of the most relaxed chill places really in the county. It's and it's we're only going to increase that between our project and cenos and etc. promote appropriate economic development. This plan which I'll walk through real quick, but there'll be an improved new driveway where the existing driveway is between the gave house and the barn that goes up to the back property line if you're familiar. I think we talked when we were here for the food truck permitting about that big stone like

sister, right? That will be sort of the focal entrance is staying to where that looping driveway branches. Um the old house up top we do plan to keep and turn into like a cafe um coffee shop bakery type thing. And then there will be locations for 10 new commercial buildings. Um those will be sold on a square foot basis into a condominium concept. So the plan would be and the way we get our money out of the deal would be to sell their 2,000 to like 4500 square feet each. Someone would come along and buy that. That would be the extent of their building allow. And then we would provide through this permitting process the infrastructure, parking and all that. um they could split it and lease half of it to another tenant, but they would own their own building. And we expect between 10 of those and the existing house that could bring 11 to maybe as many as 18 to 20 new businesses into the village. Um a lot of them probably coming up from like Stone Oak or somewhere like that. We've actually we've heard a lot of people who are interested in being able to build their own space. Commercial space is at extraordinary premium in our community. So,

are these retail? Are these more office space, doctor's office space? You know, so the it seems like that's what we have downtown for the most part right now is office.

We certainly want to see another restaurant go up in there. Like I said, for sure there will be this cafe. We plan to keep that building and, you know, probably lease it to somebody who wants to run a shop in there. Um, I have to say that, you know, they will be C2 or if someone wants to go beyond C2 or outside of C2, they could come in for a special use permit. We would work that into, you know, a due diligence period. We wouldn't sell it to somebody till they had approval. Um, but I can't sit up here and say this is exactly what it's going to be. We have to be able to sell those parcels. But we certainly want to see some things that are retail oriented, arts and crafts oriented. A number of our uh vendors from the market have expressed interest. Some have wanted to put in like a commercial bakery where they would bake their own goods few days a week but possibly also then sublet to someone who come in and bake. Um I really believe genuinely it'll be a really cool place that has a little bit.

So they're going to kind of reflect the same tone of like the district on 46 is going to have the same components. It'll I mean I hope it'll have some of some of those same comp. Yeah. I would just generally say yes, but with more control and more planning, you know, right was a little bit sort of thrown together. Um, but yeah, it'll be open to those types of uses. One thing,

actually, I really want to talk with the Zenos about it, but you know, I'm pretty sure that's less than a th00and feet property line to property line from the school. So that somebody wanted to have brewery or something like that, we'd have to get permission from Living Rock to go to something like that. But I I'm also hopeful that as it progresses, we might be able to manage to build a building or two ourselves and those would absolutely be for more artistic, retail, food oriented type stuff. Um, but you know, right now we are a lot of money. So

yeah, you got to get this thing done. And Clint, you've been here for a while. So what is the intent of the tree ordinance? Um I think the biggest thing is to preserve our larger, you know, um to to preserve those and to replace um those that are, you know, those that are taken out because, you know, you see builders come in and you're obviously not doing that, but you'll see builders come in like like or or KB or or any and clearcut and plant a little tree like this. That's what I was 20 years going to be a nice tree, but right now it's not.

So, you know, when these trees have been here 100 plus years, now they're beautiful, majestic trees, you know. Exactly. Yeah. That's the way I see it. Who preserves the atmosphere of the Hill Country? Yeah. And and to prevent people from coming in and halfly like clear cutting. Exactly. Okay. So, is this expense going to be a barrier of entry for you and your your business or is it going to take away from your capability to make it uh make it what you want it to be?

Commissioner G, we have sacrificed profit. Our partnership is willingly sacrificed profit in a commercial use property, which the definition of that is for profit, right? especially the law legal definition.

It's own commercial. We've limited the profitability to meet the tree ordinance and I actually have that in the packet and in my statement here. There's 10 provisions in the purpose statement of chapter 17 and I plan to walk through those. I can tell you we check them all. Um to your question as it stands if y'all were to take the mitigation I've already mentioned the 53% which is 28% cash and loo the additional tree survey and the eight trees we have to plant for the buffering the remaining 47% would be like 70 more trees that we have to plant at six inches in diameter and you can imagine first of all where I'm sure I could squeeze them into places but the the holes and the trenching, the disruption of native virgin soil that's never been busted up. Um, it's going to be more harmful than good. It's going to need a lot of water to establish those trees. Despite the rain we recently received, um, and you know, the tragedies that came along with it, we're not out of a water, right?

Um, so to your point, I think, and I've asked around, we're probably looking at a couple hundred thousand dollars for the trees we have to replace. that would put enough of a hardship on the project that it might very likely stall it out, right? I mean, you would you would have to go through predictive roots some of these trees.

Absolutely. Yes. Wherever we're going to put them is going to require going across some big trees. And getting back to the the definitely one of the main purposes is to protect the biggest most beautiful trees. We have 14 majestic trees. Those are 36 inches or greater in diameter. Two of them are 50 inch trees. Not a single one of those 14 If you look at the buildings where the buildings are sitting all the one is basically this permit application doesn't involve the trees the building footprints because those will come later and those will be exempt but we used empty space for those buildings. We saved all 14 majestic trees. One of them sits in a roundabout on that drawing which is obviously an expensive way to make a driveway but it's going to be super cool, right? Giant tree with a roundabout around it. There are 73 um specimen trees. That's the 24 to 36 inch range. Three of those are coming out through this bucket and they're in the driveway. Uh the entire I guess damage so to speak would be in the 6 in to 24 in class of protected and of those 85% of those trees are staying at the end of this. We're only taking out 15% of those smaller. There are more. I mean,

so let me understand the process. So if we don't grant you the variance, then you're still budgeted to pay the mitigation fee and the trees are still going to have to come out and it's going to hurt the project. Is that correct? Well, as I mentioned, we we would like to align with planning and zoning's recommendation, which is not full mitigation. Okay. Okay. What would be left would be either paying $300 an inch for somewhere around 400 something inches. Uh or I mean actually that's not even an ordinance. That would be a variance as well, right? Or planting those additional 70 trees. The ordinance would require planting the additional 70 trees

and that just seems um irresponsible. Okay. Okay. Given a project like this,

if we weren't bringing a project forward like this, I wouldn't be making the same argument. But again, if we go through the 10 reasons this thing exists, you'll see like the project was designed for to meet the purpose of the tree ordinance. And when you read your authority, this concern about precedent, I certainly understand it, but precedent is an apples to apples comparison concept or an apples to orange and oranges contrasting exercise. Right? If someone came before you with say 19 acres and they wanted to remove 85% of the trees actually let me say they wanted to remove 88% of the trees and I'm protecting 88% of the trees and then they said you give the clips the sweet deal y'all can say well let's walk through these 10 reasons this tree ordinance exists and you'll see that these are apples and oranges right so there's no precedent there

I personally I'm personally not as concerned about the president but we have presentations we're all a Okay. I I do have a thought I want to finish. So the in regards to precedents, variances are on a case by case basis and you aren't making your case right now. So I'm not as worried about precedence. Thank you. It came up very fancy. So I thought I need to address it, but I can describe it. But you're right. It's a case by case and that's exactly how your authority is written. That special special circumstances and conditions on the land, right? That that the spirit and the intent the spirit and the state of purpose in the ordinance has been met. And we've done that. So

thank you, sir. Um, see, I'll skip I could go through 10 more statements from the vision statement, but I I think everybody can see if you read the vision statement, we've been meeting it since the day we got there. So, um, some of the ways that we're meeting that as it me specifically mentions the farmers market that we have. There was a farmers market when we got here, we got another bringing in people from around the community. You know, we are beautifying the property, maintaining the exist existing structures. That's something in the vision statement. The barn, as I said, will always be the focal point of this project. The cave house, I want y'all to know we actually have under contract to sell that 4.2 acres to a lady who want she's actually already in the process of a permitted demolition to remodel that old house. We didn't list it and we took less than what fair market value would be because that lady wants to turn that thing into into basically a space for herself. She's a speech therapist and she wants to have a tea room and have it. But she wants to save the bill and we were willing to forgo listing it, driving the price up for somebody who had the guts, I guess, and the capital to fix that place because it's a it's a nightmare. But it's really cool. And if you haven't seen it lately, in the last like two or three weeks, it's been powerwashed and pressure washed and it's like gleaming and immaculate. Um, it's going to be beautiful and like I said, nothing will change along road. Um, let's see. The entire development is less than four acres of imperous cover out of out of 14 and a half acres. If you're just looking at lots two and three to plant the parcels we plan to keep in further develop there will be there's no planned additional development for the lot one gave house. So it's less than 4 acres of imperous cover that you see there out of 14 and a half. It's like 26% of the land for lots two and three that

would ultimately be under impervious cover. And as you can see the rest of it would be canopy basically. Uh let's see. Talked a little bit about the commercial suites being part of an architecturally controlled condominium uh association. They'll obviously our our condominium contracts will have, you know, these restrictions that match the city's ordinances, front porches, metal, stone, etc. It'll probably be go a little beyond that to try to maintain like a cohesive environment up there that'll look more like houses than office buildings. That's the goal is it'll look, you know, like a more of a park up there. Let's see about that. We bought this property because of the trees and as you can see, we're saving as many as we can while still actually getting a commercial development out of it. Um, so on the state purpose of the tree preservation ordinance, subsection one of chapter 17.06.0 01 which is the purpose section of the tree ordinance says establish rules and regulations governing protection and preservation of native or established trees within the city and TPJ. This is really more for councils, you know, the development of the ordinance, but we've done that in spades. Again, 14 majestic trees, all of which are staying. 70 out of 73 of the specimen trees are stand encourage the protection of healthy trees and provide for the replacement or replanting of trees that are necessarily removed during construction, development, or redevelopment. Again, there will be over 570 571 protected trees remaining on this property out of 654 when it's all said and done. That includes the trees for the future trees being taken up for the building. So, we've absolutely checked off the idea of protecting healthy and established trees. The only there's only two places

out of all trinities where we're asking for variance and that's the planting the new tree. Get to that in a second. Um, we're absolutely protecting those trees. And if you look at the property, most of those have never been groomed since they've been grown. So, kind of getting back to the economics part, right? Every dollar I have to spend to trench a new tree and irrigated is a dollar I don't have to get a cherry picker crew up there to clean up those existing trees. This exhibit, according to our architect, shows that we are only impacting 5% of the existing camp. three years after we're done with this with the cedar gone and again thank God the rings we've had if I get in there in there and clean up those existing trees all of y'all probably have oaks at your property that 5% will fill in in a three to five years tops where a bunch of 6 in baby trees will take 15 years 20 years to provide any can so I think that's you know certainly something to consider is that there are so many existing trees there I think the canopy will fill itself back in by putting some love into the trees that we have. So that's the point of number two, right? Provide for the preservation and protection of larger native or established trees which provide a valuable amenity to urban environment and which once destroyed can only be replaced after generations if at all. Again, there's 14 specimen trees there and I I will literally move them out to make sure not a single one of those get 70 out of 73 specimen being protected. I find this one pretty interesting. Provide for shade, windbreaks, and the cooling of air, thereby reducing the requirements for air conditioning, heating, and the unnecessary use of scarce energy resourcing. So, I think we met that one. But it's the scarce use of energy resources I find interesting because planting 70 new trees will use our scarcest and most important resource which is all. Um

somehow this doesn't speak to that but to me the idea that we would need to plant 70 more trees with extent the extensive levels that we've gone to to save trees is actually flying in the face of that ordinance because it's using our most resource when it's supposed to be. So provide for open space and more efficient drainage of land thereby reducing the effects of soil erosion and the need for additional drainage facilities. So by clearing the cedar if you look at the hillside now you see this open arc with big old trees providing shade and you can see up the hill when you know you're out there on it not so much from the roads because of the nature of that first terrace but um we definitely have created more open space. Um, we've limited the overall impervious cover which limits the drainage and limits the necessary detention. And I mentioned soil erosion. Well, again, there will be 571 protected trees remaining, not counting all the trees smaller than that. Since clearing the cedar, that hillside is covered in wild flowers and native grasses. I mean, it's absolutely just exploded in it. That's helping prevent soil erosion. As I mentioned earlier, it's virgin hill country rock and soil. So, if I go in there with rock saws and I dig trenches and dig holes, I'm actually creating an erosion problem and a soil soil runoff problem, not helping. I'll destroy the new grasses in the meantime. To Commissioner Graves's point, threading the needles to get those irrigation ditches in there is likely going to create a problem for preventing the clear cutting of the land. Don't need to say anything more about that one. preserve the country atmosphere and natural environment. Define the community character of the city and make it unique and desirable as described in the comprehensive plan. Again, you won't know this was here 5 years down the road or 10 years or however long it takes us to finish the whole thing, right? It will still look like it does right now. The barn will always be the center point. The hill

will be covered in trees. It will feel like the country and that's absolutely uh mitigate the ill effects of rapid and intense urbanization. As I mentioned, less than four total acres out of 14 and a half are being developed. So there's I mean clearly this this is not what you would see in an urban environment. In an urban environment, they build it all the way to the buffer setbacks, right? Prevent the unwarranted removal of protected specimen majestic or historic trees within the city or ETJ. Again, that's really the heavy focus of this is on big trees. And then this last one, the only other place where we need a little bit of variance because it's the only place in two that mentions new trees. Preserve existing trees and encourage planting of new trees to provide environmental elements necessary to protect and preserve waterheds in the city limits and the ETJ by reducing the amount of pollutants, runoff, and sediment entering the streams. As I mentioned, the trenching is counterproductive in this case because of how many trees we're maintaining. I'm going to have to fertilize brand new trees. So the runoff will from future storms will not only be carrying soil, but it'll be carrying fertilizer with it as well. If we were stripping this thing bare, that'd be a different story. We're not doing that. So um that one seems again to me to be one of the two places where we're actually asking for a variance where in the stated purpose itself, it's counterproductive to dig and plant trees. Um I was going to talk about president, but you don't have to do that. I think you all are familiar with variance authority. Um I'm happy to walk through my points on all that or I can open it up for questions. They're mostly I guess I'll reiterate that we are aligned with the planning and zoning recommendation of 75,750 which is 28% of the total mitigation plus another 48 in for the screening

trees plus 168 and a half at a minimum for the existing 4 to 6 in trees were at 53%. Um that's basically what we're asking for is the variance for the remaining 47%. Um do you have any public comment? We have Mr. Brandon your last name excuse me is his name Brandon

Milan. Sorry. Nice to be here tonight. Uh I last time I was here I was here for the self storage facility. Um so I promised myself I would do a better job but nice to be here. Uh yeah I guess you consider me local. Um I have a habit of going through y'all's agendas and this is a really nice development. Um really they've done a really great job. Definitely. Um I work for other cities so I'm used to seeing some of the things that come in. So this is really nice. Only reason I wanted to come to Knives because I if I were in Y's position I feel like a little bit of a pickle. Um because you know my my opinion look at this you're not just making a decision about this development you're kind of making a decision about all developments. Um and so you know he uh Mr. uh Mr. Cook made the point about the well developers. Yeah he's absolutely right. You know uh you know a lot of well developers may not come in and propose something as nice but I'll tell you in my experience they have the resources to pay the fees inl that we're talking about tonight. A lot of times they do. And I will also tell you those I work for those well developers now sometimes and they're they're watching this meeting tonight. I promise you they're watching and they're going to see what you guys decide. And so I understand each variance, you know, take it on a case by case basis, but they're going to come in in a couple months and say, "Hey, you gave it to him." And they're going to wonder and you can't say, "Well, you don't get it because you're well healed from the Alaska wasn't." So I just want and having been in y'all's position, I really empathize with that. So definitely encourage you all to take that into consideration. People are watching. It could be said that whatever decision you all make tonight is going to really kind of change the law of events. Um the other thing, and so this is where that's just my kind of observation, but in terms of trying to offer solutions to y'all, there was one thing that really stuck out to me and I did hear it in the DNC

uh meeting. One of the variances for the drip line requirements, right? Do

Yeah, absolutely. So that was that was a biggie. So that's one, you know, having spent a little time writing tree preservation requirements you guys were looking at tonight and looking at these for different cities too. That one just kind of concerns me. I'm not, you know, I listen to the B&Z and, you know, there was some discussion about trees not making sense in parking lots and um I I think there's a difference with trees that already existing when you go put impervious coverage down versus trees that are planted with impervious coverage. Um, so I would, you know, I think in my opinion, if I were in y'all's position, I'd ask for some sort of arborist letter to say, "Hey, I'm an arborist and I have no problem putting pavement within 5t of the truck zone of a 24 inch oak of the tree." Like, if that's something y'all going to do, I if I were in y'all's position, I'd want an arborist to say, "Hey, you know what? That code requirement doesn't doesn't apply." And the last thing alongside last thing, um, there was discussion about pvious coverage. So if you guys thought about doing pvious like permagrid which comes right up that drains completely I've seen projects where permagrid actually removes the need for detention zones completely and if you guys do permagrid you can have consistent paving and then maybe get rid of some of the detention ponds and you can save some trees and that would be less fear. So anyways Mr. Campbell.

Madame Mayor, Council Clint. My name is Ryan Campbell. I've been in the Hill Country since 2015. I've been in the city limits since 2018. I am one of Council Goth's neighbors. I am a father and I am a consumer and I'm a resident. Uh, in terms of being a father, I have three children. My two youngest, Zelda and Dagy, love going to market days. And the sad part is when we go to market days, we're at the market and then there's right now not a whole lot else to do. We pack up and go home or we leave Bulvery and go somewhere else. We need projects like this. As a resident, I love Bulverie. I mean, I've had a chance to right now I work in Congress. I could move out to Congress and have a much shorter commute. I'm general counsel for HP foundation company. Uh I get at 5:00 in the morning just to beat traffic. And at 5:' in the afternoon when I come out of the office coming from Converse all the way across 164 to 281. That is a long commitment. And I still want to live in Bullberg. I like these projects because these projects help me enjoy my town a little bit more. I don't want to live in a giant HOA, but I also don't want to live anymore. That being said, when someone does the paperwork to try to get as much of the project to look like the existing culture that matters, that matters a lot. And it's not just other developers that are watching this. It's your neighbors. It's your voters. It's your dad and moms, your consumers. If you want us to be able to stay in the town and you know spend some dollars but more importantly spend some time some time being with our fellow townies if you want to build a culture it's projects like this.

Thank you. Thank you

question. Um, yes.

Um, can you go to those last couple of images that have the orange uh orange circles on them? So, we did cover all this in planning and zoning. Um, there's two of these. They're in the back. Um the stable remedies ordinance says you cannot put in cover under the trim line which I understand to be the furthest out point of the canopy of the tree. And when you look around the hill country see lots of trees lots of trees that hang well over roads well out over houses. There are developments that have been buil built that have been built with those trees already existing. Um, if you look at this map and the next one, you'll see that the vast majority of the impacts are just on the edge. Like that line of beautiful trees between the detention and the barn, all the stuff over there by the farmers market, they're barely encroaching on those. The biggies, in fact, I think all of the biggies are where the existing driveway is, and they're right up against the house. That big between the house and the driveway already, it's already well within well within line. Isn't that a dirt? Uh, no. It's a busted up busted up. It might No, I think I think it Yeah, it's got big puddles in it. I think

it wasn't just because there are big chunks of solid material holes or gigantic. Um, so there's only a few of them that would be, I would say, heavily impacted. What we have proposed is the city of Austin uses a rule of thumb, not a rule of thumb, but has an ordinance that requires protection, no impervious cover inside the half critical root zone. And so between our landscape architect and our engineer, this plan is intended to protect the half critical root zone. We will have an arborist on site every day of construction making sure and if we have to Mr. Bat's par wrong, but I believe I know the ordinance says we can't nothing of within five feet, right? That would certainly not be the case with this plan. But would we need any kind of variance to use a product like um Mr. Land suggested if if I hadn't on site you said this one it's not going to work right here?

No you the ordinance requires uh pvious pavement. Uh so all we would do is have our engineers verify that your product is indeed pvious and then you could use it without

right. So I can assure y'all that if we come across that I don't want to take a single one of those trees off but I got to build a road to access the property. Um we will have an arborist on site for every day that we're close to those trees and if he calls it and says hey we need to go with impervious cover will have that in the plan. We're just asking permission for the variance so that we can make those determinations as we go. I all I can say is I'm not going to lose one of those trees for pavement over impervious cover. In the long term, if the tree can be protected with pvious with impervious cover, it will be a more efficient and cost effective way to construct the project and you know overall better service for people that drive along. Can we go to the second one please? The next one of these. Yeah, there you can see again the vast majority of those impacts are well outside five foot from the trunk just barely underneath extension of the limbs. Um, and like I mentioned, we have that big tree with a roundabout,

which um, that one may very well end up having to be those papers or some kind of, you know, pvious cover, but um, staff wrote the recommendation to have it, you know, sitewide so that we can, as I understand it, work through that during construction. Again, I think if you look around town, you know, just down 46 um out in front of like the Goodwill area in front of the puppy shop there, there's a retaining wall that's like three feet from a row of street.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks for letting me jump in. Do we have any more speakers?

No, we're done with it. Um I have something I want to say. Okay. Thank you. Um Mr. and Mrs. Cook, um I I I like your plan. However, I do have some concerns that I want to share. Okay. Um let me say the following for God. Okay. I'm asking that we take falling into account when making this decision tonight. The city's ordinances should be equally applied and the decision the body makes today will greatly affect the city for a long time to come. We have all criticized and questioned decisions that have been made before today. We as a body need to enforce the rules equally or we will face legal battles in the future which will be more costly than the development we could award in this variant. We need to be very prudent and conservative how we handle it. We can't just neutral. I also want to add that financial hardship is not ground for approval or guarantee. There is no subjectivity or legit hardship in this proposal. And if we approve this without a legit hardship, we might as well change the code in the city will greatly suffer consequences. I like this. I want to reiterate that. Okay. Um, so let's look at the future of what you're asking and where the city's going to be, right? You're going to make your money and move on. the city will be forgotten and left, you know, with major features as regards. There should be a need to pay or do something quantifiable that would match what variance requires. The city should not be financing a path for development. Okay. Um this has to be something analytical which can be applied to all developments from here on out. Okay.

I also want to ask what is your rush? Please get us an arborist that would supply a letter that building inside the drip line would be okay. I'd like to see a letter from and have them say that that would be okay. Um I like the idea of the permag grid. Um and there's ways that we can do this. Um, you know, my thoughts are if we could, you know, maybe consider payments in in in phases, we get an arborist. Um, the drip line, it's not good for the trees. We know that. Okay. And by no means, Mr. Cook, we are not driving the applicant of reasonable use on the land as dictated by zoning. We are standing up for the Bulbertie residents. Wver has been bearing the burden of living with consequences of decisions made by developers whose only goal is making as much money as possible. You say you care about the city and I really do think that you all do but have we thought about the long-term issues this will cause improve the vision for downtown is places to go family venues walking enjoying retail and restaurants. Nowhere until we talk about office space in our vision for tomorrow. We need to apply our guidelines equally and um we need to figure out how that will work and how we can work together to make that happen. We just don't want it to be that at the end of the day we have no fees and we have no trees. I'm willing to listen to everything that everybody has to say and add that to

I would like to ask you're our attorney tonight. So in regards to a variance, if we would allow and approve this variance and the argument is setting a precedence for future variance requests and if we reject those, would they have some legal footing to sue the city?

So each varian is specific to the land use they're affect specific for each. So I could sit right here, approve this variance, the next variance that comes through and I reject it even though they're similar. There's no legal repercussions from that decision in terms of if it was generally speaking there's no Right. Right. Right. But would there be enough of an argument for it to be a risk to the city? I think you take that executive. Okay. Yes.

All right. We talk about Well, um I've got a couple things. So, um much like the mayor mentioned, um I don't I don't think there's a timeline on this, right? Not like it's not a timeline critical like deal breaker. Is it that I that I understand? Or is there a timeline other than you trying to make get the business open? Right. I mean, but there's not like a a sale of a property or something that you're waiting on for

Actually, we are under contract to sell a property next door. and we have bills to pay and we don't have the money right now. So there is there is a substantial um substantial sale that we're holding until Okay. So that leads me into my next question. What's why did it start with a treat variance like is this this is the first time this this project's come to the city, right? Right. So for my information, why didn't it come to the tree? Just so I'm understanding that that's the only these are the only two variances. Okay. Cut and fill and everything else. Well, and

cut and we've complied with by the design and layout. This is all we need that and the CBA we got earlier to not put a to put up a piping instead of a wall which the residents all. Yeah. And you're uh you're saying you're going to sell these. Are you going to replant these as you sell them or are you going to replant this these into little lots? No sir. I don't believe that's necessary to I believe you said you were going to have condominium one lot in Yeah. Right. It's only it's already been platted and then you don't have to replatt it if you use a condominium ownership structure if that makes Okay. So there's no intent replatting.

Okay. Um, do you have is this currently on a a septic system? No, sir. Each building will be responsible for their own septic. So, it will be on a septic system for each building. There may be, you know, a few of them that can share one, but yes, sir. I mean, there's no Has that been calculated into this plan? Yes, this has been calculated like leech bills potentially. No idea. Everything has been taken into account. I guess so. You've done good things here. I'm not saying you haven't. We appreciate you. I think this is a good idea. I just I feel I mean I don't know about the rest of the council mayor, but

feel like we're losing an opportunity here to work something with the city. Maybe like I wish we would had maybe a little bit more of a a workshop per se and see if we could have worked something out. What I mean by that is that if it's trees that are a variance, maybe we could have done something out, you know, work something out with a regional storm water detention or something like that because this downtown area is all we have left, right? So getting that to a shape that makes the downtown area what it is just, you know, one of those things that I keep looking at, right? And and if we go with this plan, well, it's only this plan. It doesn't look at everything else. So if we were to work together with like with a city and maybe come to a conclusion something maybe we have more to to say okay you know what we can get an interlocal agreement with you to do this development in L of doing the you know the cash forward what if we work something out in a different aspect to make this something for the whole downtown area to start that downtown you know rehabilitation I guess or this downtown life that we're looking for, you know, I think at that point it could have, you know, this is just me talking and I know that, you know, we all have this property rights and we all want we have an idea, but I just feel like we could have worked potentially of doing something different and instead of saying, hey, you know, we're just talking about trees today, but we missed the fact of maybe we could have worked something else out. Instead of the tree only being the issue, we'll let you, you know, we'll let you make your development with the trees if we can do something different with a regional detention or, you know, some type of improvement in the downtown frontage to to start that process of making that downtown area something that everything can come together, you know, much as much as your as your market days, you know, where we start that downtown vibe and get that moving. But, you know,

come in for a tree ordinance, it's it's it's just like this is all this is a big plan, you know? I mean, there's a lot going on with it that if I look at it as a tree tree thing, it's one thing, right? But when you look at as a whole, it's a whole another like I'm looking at it in a whole different angle. So, um that's just some of my comments as far as that goes. Um the the buildings itself too you you have these parking in here but we don't know necessarily what they're going to be. So how'd you do the parking based off of what just a square footage? Okay.

Okay. So what are they what are they you're going to location that heard restaurants. So they have different occupancy uses and different loads. I think we assume the whatever the highest under that C2 use is the highest per square foot that's what's built into it with extra I don't remember how many spaces but more more than what the max code requirement can a condominium structure be used for something like a restaurant I hadn't seen that I mean I'm not saying it before I haven't seen it I have not here I'm just curious

yeah I think I think the way that this would present to us. It's very obvious to me that Mr. Cook has bent over backwards to satisfy the idealistic the fundamental ideals of our tree ordinance. If you look at the at the site map, these buildings are specifically sized to avoid removal of trees which they're writed to without an or bearing under C2. So you look at the roads, you look at the drainage, it's all been carefully mapped at the expense of the developer to protect the trees and it's just, you know, the drip lines and everything, but um yeah, I think the mitigation you originally have cash in your original and now you you've raised the cash up to 75,000. I think that's great. I mean, we talked about watering these trees, trenching for irrigation, stuff like that. And I realize it's going to be hard to plant these trees in such a densely wooded property. So, I mean, I'm glad to see the $75,000 in there or whatever the cash amount was. We could even use that money to plant trees at the 10acre park across from your property. I mean, then you wouldn't have a empty lot to look at. I mean, your trees would be over there. So, it's very obvious to me that they've they've thought very hard about our tree preservation and our requirements and this it's very obvious in the plans.

I concur. Thanks. Do do we have a I thought we had done away with the tree fund. No, we spent all of it and part of that has to be dedicated to tree preservation space. Uh I don't think we've had any significant new deposits in it until since then. I think it has about 75,000 in it.

Right. And the the cash and amount of this variance is a pretty significant amount. I mean that there's there's a few things can address from this conversation. Um, as far as the vision and whether or not a project like this meets with the vision, a few things I hadn't get around reading. Diversify and expand the tax and economic based business and activities. Promote poverty is an attractive center for retailing services, healthare. I would imagine I know basically all of that falls in NC2 and those are the sorts of things that we market into. Um this one so they the the consultants who conducted the the vision statement they did a number of like town halls where they asked for community feedback and one of the quotes that they received during that feedback it's on page 39 bullet number two of the DB vision is that do we need a business park in the area between the existing village and highway 21 that's what we're proposing business part

so this is the blank canvas for small business

yes sir 100% that's that's a great Wait a second. It's a blank canvas for small business people who want to have their shop in the village, whatever shop that might be. Um, if you read the vision, the types Well, and let me go back to the zoning zone C the base zoning is C2. So, at some point, the city thought that list of items is what we want here. And that means that that's all I'm allowed to do with my right. My only property right is to develop this thing for that commercial purpose. And again, I I would I would like to know if there's an ordinance or something in the charter that says council is not allowed to consider consider economic gain specifically with commercial property because the definition of commercial use according to blaw dictionary

is to develop for profit. So the idea that the city can zone it commercial, limit my everything I can do to it to just commercial purposes, but then tell me we don't do the damage to make a dollar. That's fine. We don't care if you make a dollar. I think the only reason that comes into play and the reason it was talked about is because um financial cost and is not considered a hardship when it comes to a varian specifically for a variance. If you were not asking for a varian if you were just coming following all of our ordinance uh building under your C2 your C2 designation or whatever it is C1 C2

building under C2 uh none of that would come into play is you'd buy right be just right do whatever you want as long as it was in those uses the only time that the monetary came in is because we're looking at basis for a variance And we have lists of what's a basis for a variant and financial hardship is not one of where um so this is a public hearing non law school uh that's covered not just in the ordinances not just in state law but also court rulings over the years financial hardships are considered a self-imposed hardship you're not allowed to justify variance with self-imposed hardship even when the whole purpose of the the Celtic

again underpinnings here position was to to meet the stated purpose of the you put less buildings on the property that's a financial decision you've made for a certain return on investment

also there there is things like quiet use and enjoyment um there are other property rights that we have that are somewhat limited in a partial concept But looking at our property and seeing the wild flowers that have been blooming this year is absolutely something we want to be able to do. And digging the trenches to plant the additional trees would impair that as well. Developing it for commercial use is a property right we have and there is definitely the possibility because of how we limited the project that we won't be able to do that if this this was strictly enforced. That's that's a reality.

Well, yeah. It's obvious to me that you also your profitability by trying to work towards a tree preservation order. I mean, this could have looks completely different as you're a C2 on it. And um I think you're you're doing good by working in the right way to preserve the Hill Country atmosphere, the village, retreat preservation or so. So, I I think it there was something said about us making our money and I guess leaving town, but as I started with, we live here. We live in 411 run. We absolutely intend unless God tells us we have to leave that we love it. We're not going in. And Councilman Alexander to your point about like a meeting that's not something that's ever been broached as an option. We thought if we were following the vision and following the stated purpose of the ordinance that we were aligned with with the city. I would love to see going forward. that's something that is promoted as an option that like hey come come in tell us your idea and let's see how it fits with everything else that's going on and see if we can come up with something but even you know even on that we've looked at the old map I don't know if that's still valid but you know the development vision for the future we were taking that into account design too right so it would have been great to know that we could have called that I don't know if that's something that would be allowed to actually meet with the council members and the mayor on or that would be just something with the staff We could have probably done just a a like a workshop, you know, it had to be a public meeting, but it could have been presented. U I think it's still an option. I mean, that's I mean, it would delay it, but I mean, we might still be an option where we could I don't know, but

times we've done that in the past, we're under different statutory mechanisms. This property is not eligible for like the development agreements and things like that. So, I can't give you an answer tonight on what process that would fit in. uh the legal constraints we have with this specific project. My personal thoughts on where I'm falling on it.

Um I wish we had the arborist letter. Um I don't know why that's a big issue considering we've had arborists out there multiple times. You know, you had them go to another tree site. I don't know why a letter would have, you know, it would give us a little more feeling about. My biggest concern on all this is the journal line. Okay. I personally don't think that the site would lend itself to the remediation by planting addition different additional trees. I agree with you on that.

Okay. for that in my mind I would be okay going past the 25% in the ordinance to the 50% by just common sense looking at the site knowing how it is. Okay. So for me the biggest concern is that money because I'm afraid that we would lose some of these trees that you've done so much to try and save. Um that's I don't know that's just I don't know what the septic like I don't know what that looks like either. I don't know if any were upset but you got the spring fields

I mean I mean done well yeah I was going to say the effent from all the little septic tanks are going to be distributed throughout various rain fields. Yeah, there there's experts that can define this to complement the trees.

I'm not I'm not as concerned about that. Um, as far as getting an arous letter, it took me better part of two months to get an arborist to come back out to do a tree count and it I guess slipped my mind to ask him while he was out there to try to he they went out there on Thursday last after I've been trying to get our out there for a while. Our original survey was in 20 I think the fall of 21 might have been 2022 before we really had developed any plans. So um like I said I know what the city of Austin requires and it's the you know most environmentally um conscious city in the state. Um and it's a much less restrictive ordinance than this one

and we pride ourselves in that. Absolutely. And I I I hope y'all see that I support the tree or I would love to if someone came in and tried to claim that they have a claim to precedent based on this project and I I would take three minutes to get up there and say, "How did you meet these 10 require 10 purposes for this?" I can I can see by your design that you have been Oh, yeah. You could have made this a lot more. Yeah. This is like Lorax proof way. is quite extensive.

So Danny, let me ask what are our options here? I mean, I don't think we want to kill what we're doing here, right? But we also want to figure out how we can work together and figure out what we can do. We would like to see the letter from the artist that Councilman Hay mentioned. I'd like to hear what our attorney was going to tell us. And then I would like to have that also the attorney's council um in executive session. But before we go there,

can you give me an idea of sure what happened here?

You give me an idea. Stop the video. Mhm. I might have to come back in here. Okay. Yeah. You keeping up with all of us? I was. I was getting ready to make some comments.

Um that you missed that last part. could be crucial. I don't know. [Music] All right. How did I kill this session?