City Council - Regular Meeting

Coming up next on ECN, a regularly scheduled meeting of your Edinburgh City Council. On the Council, Mayor Omar Ochoa. Mayor Pro Tem David Salazar. Council Member Dan Diaz. Council Member Jason DeLeon. And Council Member Jerry Lozano. Sitting in as advisors, City Manager Myra Ayala and City Attorney Ben Alonso. And now live from the Edinburgh City Hall, the Edinburgh City Council.

Time now is 6 p.m. on June 2nd, 2026. And we call this regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council to order. I can see visually that we've got all members of council present, so we do have quorum. If we could start with a prayer, I believe we have Pastor Colin Rotemel from BT Church. Yes.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the distinct privilege it is to serve here in this capacity, Lord. I thank you for these city counselors, Lord. We pray that you would give them wisdom, Lord, give them patience and give them favor in the community lord as they attempt to lead lord we pray that as they are presented with information and discussions today lord i pray that you would grant them wisdom lord i pray on behalf of the city that the citizens would also do the same lord that we would recognize that by your design lord we are better together and that when we can stand in the gap and advocate for each other lord we believe that great things can happen lord we pray that you would bless this time and lord we pray that you would bless this city we ask this in jesus name amen

Council Member Diaz, if you could lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Yes, if I could ask everyone to remove headgear unless you're on duty. Place your right hand over your heart. Let's face the flag and let's say it together.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Next item is certification of public notice. Madam Secretary.

Yes, sir, Mayor. The meeting is posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act on May 27, 2026 at 7.15 p.m., sir. All right.

Next item is disclosure of competitive interests. Mr. City Attorney.

Mr. Mayor, under state law, a local government official is required to disclose a substantial interest for themselves or certain family members and abstain from voting on matters related to such conflict. Are there any conflicts to disclose related to the pending matters on today's agenda? No, sir. No.

All right, next item is the city highlights. And if you can see from the agenda here, there are several events coming over the next two weeks. We've had an exciting summer already with all kinds of different events. And so what we can see here is we've got a couple this week highlighted by our fire department who's putting out a school is out bash. That'll be this Thursday at 6 p.m. at Promenade Park. And not to be outdone, our police department will be having Movies with a Cop the following evening, Friday, June 5th. And this is all leading up to next weekend where the city will be observing Juneteenth. We have a festival and ceremony next Friday. And then there will be a celebration on Saturday evening as well at the Ace Center. So always lots of things going on here in the city of Edinburgh. Check out the agenda for that information. Also follow us on social media because we do pump out that information as well. Next item is the mayor's report. And what I do want to do right now, actually, though, is recognize. We previously presented a proclamation to the 1980 state champion American Legion Post 408 baseball team. We had this really nice ceremony over at the American Legion Post where we had lots of the surviving members of that baseball team come out. It's actually a really cool story, everything that they went through to be able to win the state title that year. If you're okay, we would love to take a picture with you here holding the proclamation, and if the city secretary can read the proclamation while we're taking the photo.

Yes, sir. Edinburgh American Legion Post 408 baseball team, 1980 state champions. Whereas in the summer of 1980, the Edinburgh American Legion post-408 baseball team achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first and only team from South Texas to secure an American Legion baseball state championship. And whereas the city of Edinburgh initially hosted the state tournament at the University of Texas Pan American Jody Ramsey Stadium, the arrival of Hurricane Allen on August 10, 1980, forced a sudden relocation to Texas City, testing the team's resolve under unforeseen and challenging circumstances. And whereas competing in the rigorous double elimination format, the Edinburgh team demonstrated exceptional skill and grit by defeating powerhouse programs from Arlington and Pasadena. And whereas after a temporary setback against Amarillo, the Edinburgh team displayed remarkable perseverance by avenging their loss in the championship final with a decisive and extraordinary 23-4 victory. And whereas entering the tournament was as heavy underdogs, this championship stands as a long-lasting testament to the team's unwavering dedication collective spirit, and leadership of American Legion Post 408. And whereas following their state triumph, the team proudly represented Texas at the Southwest Regional National Tournament in Uteville, California, bringing unprecedented recognition to the Rio Grande Valley. And whereas the historic success of the Edinburgh American Legion Post 408 team was made possible by an outstanding group of individuals, including players Javier Cantu, Fernando de la Garza, Ruben Ayala, Nery Pena, Fred Nario Cantu, Nick Cantu, Eddie Trejo, Rick Villarreal, Pablo Elizondo, Armando Alvarado, Gus Alvarado, Robert Vela, Jaime Ayala, Dr. Fred Guerra, Paulino Morin, and Raul Carrera. Managers, Judge Ruben Ayala, Nick Cantu Sr., and Roy Rogers. And coaches, Joe Vasquez and Gilbert Garza. And whereas the City of Edinburgh and its residents honor and commend the players, coaches, and American Legion leaders whose commitment and excellence made this historic accomplishment possible. And therefore the mayor and council of the city of Edinburgh by the by-law vested in them by law do hereby recognize Edinburgh American Legion Post 408 baseball team 1980 state champions in the city of Edinburgh and recognize their outstanding achievement and extend appreciation for their pride, honor, legacy they have brought to the community.

Yes, wonderful story. We're always happy to honored to be able to highlight these wonderful stories from the past, lest they be forgotten, right? All of the challenges that the team overcame, you know, young high school students who went out and showed the rest of the state what Edinburgh is made of. So thank you so much for bringing this to our attention and allowing us to honor you with this proclamation. Thank you. All right, next item that we've got are public comments. Madam Secretary?

Yes, Your Mayor. Good evening, everyone. The Edinburgh City Council allows for a specific portion of the City Council meeting to be dedicated to public comments. Public comments are limited to three minutes. I will be taking time. Please note the public comment period is not interactive. The Council may not respond to public comments. At this time, Mayor and Council, there are five public comments. The first public comment is Ms. Firma Clarity regarding taxpayers' money.

All down.

All right. I am here to tell you what you understand do not want to hear. It is that the general population does not want a tax increase. Selling $275 million in bond would significantly increase our property taxes. Currently, the city pays $9 million a year as interest on the debt. It sounds like a lot, but multiply that by 30 years, and we are talking about $270 million. Now, that is a significant amount, and no matter how low the interest rate is, the result is that we pay two or three times more than the purchase price. Elected officials sell bonds because, one, it is not their money, and nothing's going to happen if it fails, and finally, they want immediate action right now. A perfect example is Santana. $15 million down the drain. My father once said to me, when you get a job, you can buy anything you want, but you can't buy it on credit because it will cost you twice as much. So how much will a $275 million bond cost? The annual payment on 30-year loan is $15.7 million. Now, this is not including the annual city budget of $160 million. nor does it include the payments for the $9 million bond for landfill equipment or payments for the sports arena, training facility, or a multi-story parking facility. If you think people are not going to complain, wait until you see their taxes increase. Then it will hit the fan. It is important to note that the individuals who decide to initiate the debt on your home and businesses will not be in office for only a maximum of eight years. He will not get to see the full impact of his actions. He will not get to see the number of families that will be impacted because he could not make the payments. It is also important to understand that the state understands the impact of increasing taxes. It is increasing the exemptions for homestead property. This means fewer property will have to be carried a heavier load. It is important that the public understand what taxing bodies are doing because it will impact your ability to keep your home. We need to establish financial limits. Every community does not need an airport, a groundwater filter plant, high-rise parking facility. We need more joint projects like a regional landfill facility, a recycling center, and I mean a facility that really recycles material. Burying stuff does not work and makes a mess that lasts for 100 years. We need to recognize that the population the city represents cannot afford to pay more. More people are submitting property values, and I ask, now I have my three minutes. I have signed up for variance number 11, variance A, B, C, D, E, and the consent agenda 12B and 12D. And my question is, on 11A, the staff recommends denial. Explain not connecting to the sanitary sewer. 11B, staff recommended denial. Minor street and minimum right of way is 50 foot. Please explain what they're wanting. 11C, staff recommended denial. UDC states every lot shall have frontage along right of way lines of a street. Please explain why they want a 40-foot. Common access and utilities are not, they do not want a right-of-way. 11D, staff recommend denial. Developer does not want to connect to the sanitary sewer. UDC section states all developments shall have provisions for sanitary sewer. Again, please explain. 11E, UDC states every lot shall have frontage along the right-of-way lines to a street. Again, please explain why someone doesn't want this. 12b, please explain how this is going to cost the taxpayers. This is talking about the Ebony golf course, and I pulled up the backup, and it showed all the different costs that are going to cost the taxpayers, but I really didn't see where they're talking about... how we're going to pay for it. My main problem here is it shows how much is going out, how much it's going to cost us, how much is it going to bring in. This is talking about ebony. I've lived in Edinburgh for many, many, many years. Very few people use it and very few of anything ever comes to the taxpayers. It's always going out of our pockets. So could you please explain And you do have the backup. I don't see it right now because I have so many papers. But I did pull it up. And we're talking $100,000 here and another $100,000 there. But we just don't have anything that shows what's going to be coming in. So please answer this. I know that you can because I signed up for it. Thank you.

The next public comment is Gregory Vasquez regarding item A to B. Hello, Council.

I was actually going to speak on the item instead of the public comments. Yes. Thank you.

The next public comment is John Neely regarding tennis courts.

Hope you're doing well today. I'd like to apologize to the mayor every time he puts something up on Facebook. I mentioned something about the tennis courts. So I apologize for that. I'm from Edinburgh. I've been here since 1969, more or less. And a quick question. If you go to Harlingen and you want to play tennis, where do you go? The answer is you go to Harlingen. If you go to Mission and you want to play tennis, where do you go? you go to Mission. McAllen actually has two choices. They have the McAllen courts. And of course, they can go to Mission. Now, I'm an old vato here and been around forever. But Edinburgh has not built a tennis court in 70 years. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're going, well, we go by the various schools and their tennis courts there. The tennis courts at the schools are all locked up. Every one of them. The one at UTRGV, they're all locked up. So kids cannot play. Adults cannot play. Old people cannot play. You have to go to Mission to go to the courts. Now, on that day 70 years ago when they built those courts, I believe there's one in Memorial and two at South Park, I would rate them on opening day on a 1 to 10 scale. probably a two. It's more like they poured some concrete and painted it green and then said, here, we have a tennis court. And throughout the years, they have put maintenance on the courts by painting them. It's kind of like a Monet painting. You look at it from a distance, hey, they look pretty good. But you come up close, it's like the Sea of Tranquility. You see cracks and stuff like that. And they're in horrible condition. Now, to the city's benefit over the years, and I'm not blaming you because you guys just got here, but it's been neglected for seven decades. We have built soccer fields, baseball facilities, swimming pools, skate parks, disc golf courts, playgrounds, and a dog park. And by the way, with a dog park, I have nothing against dogs. I have one myself. You could probably put six courts in there. Now, I don't have much time left. I would suggest Memorial Park. And on Memorial Park, it does have one thing. If you put one there, there's a pavilion there that's rarely used, the second one. You'd be the first person, the first place in the valley that have actually, you could put two courts there. So it's a sport that has been neglected. And by the way, congratulations to the baseball. Edinburgh is known for one sport in the 90s and early 2000, and it wasn't baseball. It was tennis. We ruled tennis. But now nobody can play. Kids can't play. Thank you for your time.

The next public comment is Clara Rodriguez regarding item 10A.

Good afternoon. My name is Clara Rodriguez. I'm a parishioner for Sacred Heart. I'd like to thank you for this moment of speaking. We are asking for a U.S. permit for the Feast of Corpus Christi coming up on Sunday, June 7th at 6.30 p.m. But we would like to extend an invitation for the council and for the public to join us for this beautiful festivities that we are going to have at our church. It starts with June 3rd with Mass in Lovina along with... the festivities coming up for the Corpus Christi, where we will process our Blessed Sacrament through the streets around our church. And it will end on June 12th with a festivity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The U.S. bishops have decided to consecrate the whole United States for the 250th anniversary to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. So we would like to invite the council and the public as well. Thank you for your time.

The next public comment is Obed Montoya regarding pay raise.

I heard a rumor tonight that we're going out to the fifth all-American city. Are we? Yes, we are. The fifth all-American city tonight. I don't want to waste your time. I have one complaint, Omar. Some of you guys are taking money from Victor Daniek. I know the guy. He's on the Planning and Zoning Committee. On Thursday, he's going to sit right there on that chair where Jason's sitting at. He's going to say, Well, I control this. Paying is on to me. We'll see about that. This is unacceptable. You know, Jared, Dandius, Omar, Choa, their results are just a little. That's not right. For someone to cite David Daniek Someone needs to tell him on the board to say, you've got to resign. All right? See you about that, okay? I care a lot about you, Omar. All right? Have a good night.

There are no further comments, Mayor.

With no further comments, we'll move on to the next item, 7A. If the Secretary could read the caption.

Yes, Your Mayor. Presentation of the 2025 Edinburgh Police Department Annual Report.

I believe our Chief of Police will be giving the presentation.

Password.

Thank you, sir.

I'm Ayala with the Police Department. Today, Mayor, Council, I just want to give a real high overview of the document that you have in front of you, which is our very comprehensive annual report. It goes into very great detail on what the department has done with the funds allocated to policing this community. I want to also thank you for your support in providing technology and training and the equipment that we have, Ms. Ayala and Mr. Saenz for their support as well. And before I start, I do want to recognize We have several personnel here, Chief Duffner's here, our management services administrator by the S here, some other members of our command staff and of our department. Appreciate them being here. So this is a very high overview. So we go back and we look the last five years and you look at all crimes and you see a 22% reduction. Year to year from 24 to 25, we have a 12% reduction. And one of the things we really pay particular attention to is violent crime. Over the last five years, you can see the graph, we've reduced violent crime by 37% with the year-to-year being at 23%. And yes, to your comment at the State of the City, we still enjoy zero homicides last year and this year to date as well. So we're really happy about that. Our crimes against property, which is something I would call a nuisance crime when you have your car broken into. Again, over the last five years, a 34% decrease and a 14% decrease from 24 to 25. Our crimes against persons, 30% decrease over the last five years and a 15% decrease from year to year as well. Now, DWI has been a big topic in our community for a few years now. You can see in 2024, we had a very high number of DWI arrests and a 31% decrease going into 2025. One would ask, what's happening? Why aren't we making the same number of arrests? And I truly believe our community has responded to our pleas to make a plan and are making better decisions when they go out and celebrate. Our DWI unit is still out there in force. Our officers are still out there in force. But I think we're just coming across fewer DWIs. Celebrating our National Night Out, that's the big night of the year for us. ranked ninth in the nation for the second year in a row just a shout out to our community-oriented policing unit led by lieutenant ozuna and sergeant gaitan those guys are upbeat all the time they are on it planning getting to do summer events with our teen academy coming up two weeks of it and just all the other events that they have there's so many that they do and with the support of the city we continue to be very very visible in the community For the third year in a row, we were selected as the favorite law enforcement agency, which it is what it is, right? We'll take it. If the community is responding to a survey and choosing us for three years, then I think our people are doing something right when they engage members of the community and provide services that they do to get that type of recognition. Thanks to you all. We rolled out our new patrol unit last year. I've got nothing but very positive feedback on the presence of the units, on more units being visible in our police beats, which we rolled out this past year as well. They're highly visible. They're higher profile. The officers have more room in the vehicle. Just from the officer's perspective and the community's perspective, this has been a great, great investment that we're going to continue with your all support. We did have several recognitions last year. Lieutenant Gabriel Velarena was 40 under 40 at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which is an international recognition. Really proud of him. Lieutenant Sandra Tapia was our first female lieutenant. ever promoted in the city. We went to Austin, and two of our officers, Jose Ramos and Robert Garcia, were recognized with State Achievement Awards for Valor, and Elias Martinez, our Communications Manager, for an Achievement Award, all done at the State Capitol. And we will be going back this month for another one of our employees being recognized by one of these, with these awards. Felicia Balagan was Mentoring Uniform Award, and our Crime Victim Liaison, Mariana, Lopez had an excellent advocacy award. So we really believe in highlighting the excellent performance by our employees, and this is just some examples of what we accomplished last year. We did switch honor guard uniforms. I've gotten very strong positive feedback on the presence of the honor guard uniform. The honor guard members themselves voted and created what they wanted to look like, but the honor guard represents us day in and day out. from celebratory events to sad events. You know, when we lose an officer, we have a retirement where they pass, you know, years later. And we had a couple last year that we had to represent. But thank you for those uniforms because they've gotten a lot of feedback, positive feedback. We did get licensed to have our own police academy. As you all know, class one consisted of eight officers. They are in the FTO program. Class two consisted of four officers, and they will graduate in June. And we have class three that has already started this year that has 14 in the academy with a couple of others, a total of 16 that we're able to bring on board. The academy was licensed to be its own academy as well, and so we're excited about that, leading to the academies I just talked about. This is the big one for me. This is a piece of technology that is cutting through law enforcement, our drone first responder program. We started flying autonomously last May. We now have pilots in the field, but about seven of our dispatchers are now also pilots. And you ask, you've seen some of the videos. I didn't bring a video tonight. I wanted to make this short. But you ask what the benefits have been. And this past year, since May to December, just in the year to date of 25, DFR has located 149 persons They've cleared 52 calls for service without patrol response. They've been able to do it on their own. And they're on scene first 46% of the time, which is a huge asset to the officers on the ground. It's known as RAVEN. And if RAVEN is not operating, our officers let us know because they're used to having it in the air and they want that overwatch, their oversight. And that's the presentation for tonight. Like I said, it's much more comprehensive in the books that we gave you. And I'll be more than happy to entertain any questions.

Any questions, comments from the council?

Chief, first of all, great work. I love the numbers. I see that there's a number of traffic stops. Is that up? Is that a direct relation to the DWI stops?

I THINK OVERALL TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT HAS INCREASED. I DIDN'T PROVIDE THAT NUMBER IN THE ACTUAL PRESENTATION. BUT WE'RE ADDING MORE OFFICERS AS WE ADD MORE OFFICERS AND WE HAVE MORE ACTIVITY. BUT THAT IS AN EMPHASIS IN NEIGHBORHOODS BECAUSE THE BIGGEST THING HAPPENING IN NEIGHBORHOODS IS SPEEDING. THAT'S THE NUMBER ONE COMPLAINT WE GET IN NEIGHBORHOODS. SO WE CONTINUE TO TRY TO HAVE THAT HIGH VISIBLE PRESENCE. TWO OF OUR MOTOR OFFICERS ARE HERE. THEY'RE VERY POPULAR IN THE COMMUNITY. of the four that we have.

Very popular.

Yeah, and they're very, very active as well. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Anything else from the council? Well, I just want to say, Chief, I know this is just scratching the surface on the productivity, on the results that the police department drives. I mean, just seeing the crime rate numbers and the decrease in those over the years, I mean, this is lives being saved. These are families not being torn apart. These are real impacts on real people. And so I, for one, am very grateful for everything that the police department has done. And it's not just the statistics, it's the involvement in the community. I mean, you touched a little bit on the National Night Out, but I know there's just so many events that you and the COP community does in our city and all and all of it makes a huge difference. And so just you know me personally on behalf of the city council really want to thank you as the leader of the department and all of your staff for really leading the charge on keeping our community safe. We really appreciate you.

Thank you very much. And you know you can't do it without the staff and the officers in the field and the support staff in records and jail and everywhere else in the department. This whole presentation, all these numbers, the book that you're looking at primarily was put together by our crime and intelligence analyst, Karla Marín-Turiz, who's also here, seeing her work product. And so just thank you to the entire department. This is the report card to you, and we appreciate your support. Thank you, Chief. Thank you.

Good job, Karla.

All right, next item on the agenda are public hearings. We will start with item 8A, public hearing is now open on this item. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item may come forward.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Marlon Garza with Mountain and Hunt for the Record representing the developer on this item. So we wanted to change the zoning on this property initially If you all know a little bit of the history on this one, the entirety of that site being the walk-ons, the true hotel, the home two suites, and the commercial plaza along the front were originally developed by Mr. Vic Hassan, one of the developers in the area. His intention at the beginning was to build a third hotel in the rear. Since that time, he's gone ahead and changed the location. As some of you might know, the courtyard has moved over to Wisconsin where the Trenton shops are at. And that was after he conducted his own market study for what was the need in that immediate area. So he went ahead and shifted the site. So he has this green space left in the rear of his two hotels here. His idea, his intention is to build townhomes in the rear. He doesn't believe that leaving it as commercial for like a commercial strip plaza or anything is very feasible for this area. Being that the hotels are there blocks off the view to be to leave any plaza for viable for any tenants or anything. It's a very low visibility. That's really the reason for this such request. We've submitted a preliminary plot over to city staff as a preliminary submittal. There is changes that we need to do. But for now as far as the zoning and the intentions is really that behind it. If y'all have any other questions or concerns I'd be glad to clear those up. DIRECTOR HERSEY. Questions.

Council. I believe there's also a variance request tied to this, correct? Yes, sir.

There's a variance request regarding the lot frontages of the properties, the townhomes. By your UDC, it is mentioned that the lots need a front public right-of-way. The problem with that, though, is that the way that this property was planted in the past is that the narrow strip that you see, the roadway between the walk-ons, between the plaza and, I guess, in the middle of the two hotels, is a private access drive. It's not gated, but it is private because it's all commercial and it's all owned by the developer. I've spoken with the city engineer, with Mr. Hinojosa. We've sat down with staff, including with my superiors at, you know, with Melden and Hunt and with the developer. They wish to keep it as is. From the city standpoint, it doesn't make a lot of sense, at least from our point of view. You could ask Mr. Hinojosa himself. But from our point of view, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense that this entire time it's been maintained privately. to now be transferred publicly just to comply with the fact that the UDC calls for it to be public right away instead of a private access going to reach the townhomes in the rear. So that's the nature of that variance at this moment.

Okay. Any other variance requests that you're aware of that will be needed if the City Council were to approve this?

Not at the moment. One of the changes that I mentioned from the preliminary plat or like the lot widths to try to be able to comply with the 40 foot wide to be deattached townhomes. Setbacks, we don't foresee any issue with setbacks. The only other thing that we're working out is just the access, the actual width of the roadway that's going to go along the townhomes. I believe right now on the plat we have it as exactly 32 right away for the 32 back to back. That's something that we're still playing with the measurements on.

Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

This public hearing is still open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item can come forward.

I have a question for staff on this one. Just real quick, what were some of the reasons why the planning and zoning and staff recommend denial on this one if it's close to residential and townhomes are, I guess, considered? You know, they are considered single-family residents. So what are some of the concerns of the staff's point of view?

Yes. Good evening. Jaime Sevilla, Planning and Zoning Director. Some of the concerns that we had was the depth of the lot. As Martin said, they're still working on the design because as it stands today, it would require a lot of work. It requires a lot of variances. He mentioned the street width. That's a variance that's going to be needed. The lot frontage. There's also the square footage of each particular lot that wasn't mentioned. But this particular lot is plagued with easements. There's a big old gas easement in the back. There's an easement in the front. So it's kind of hard to do something or support something that's going to require all these variances if it is approved.

You said there's a line there?

There's a gas line easement.

So with that gas line being there, how would that work with even a hotel that was going to be there? How would that work?

It could be used for a parking area. They could use it as a parking area. But to put I mean, all the houses would have to be shifted to the front. So there's likely going to be front setback variances to be granted to make it work. So also the preliminary plan that was submitted or plot that was submitted is not very favorable for the fire department either. There's some there's some issues there.

Were there so what I did see was that the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial and the staff is also recommending denial. You mentioned already the lot depth being one issue, but I believe access is another issue. Can you just kind of make sure that you go through what your concerns are?

The plot that was submitted shows no access easement for the fire department, so a life safety issue, that's a big concern for us. So that was another reason why it was denied at the P&C.

Life safety issue and then the depth, right, of these. It's going to require a lot of variances, and we're still not sure what all that's going to entail.

That's correct.

Okay.

Other questions for staff from council? So you did have a chance to speak. Let me just poll. Council, are you okay? Yes. For it to come back up? Okay, please, go ahead.

So I guess just to clear up, I guess, on the question that I know Jason was mentioning with the gas line and so forth. So the gas line was originally rerouted whenever the hotels were built. Previously, the gas line went at an angle across the property. Since whenever the tract was originally developed, there's a 30-foot gas easement where the line was relocated along the backyards of the existing homes to the north. So as far as setback, I know that had been something that was mentioned by fire departments since they are townhomes, but we're keeping them de-attached was the rear setback in the proximity. So there's a 30 foot gas easement there existing that we're not planning to relocate again. And then there's the additional 10 foot utility easement that would need to be granted through the subdivision process. So you have a 40 foot rear setback that's getting proposed automatically just by easements for the townhomes. As far as like the lot square footages and the lot widths, we're still playing with the numbers to be able to comply with what's required. without having to ask for variances on that aspect. So we are still managing that. The point for the fire safety and traffic and for even solid waste on both ends, on the east and on the west end of the property, from the hotels and then going towards the proposed townhomes, there's already stub outs left out from where there's existing solid waste containers for the hotels. So we're able to provide 20 foot access whether that's emergency access only or whether we keep it open, there is that possibility on both the east and the west for them to be able to loop around the site. So the intention is to have a main gate centered through where the main drive is, but then if fire or solid waste need to go around the property, they're able to use either the east or the west to be able to get out.

So I see the main line, so in order for it to get into that For a townhome, I guess, design, they're going to have to go through a walk on that little street there. They're going to have to go through there, correct?

The main centered road, yes, sir.

Okay. And then there's no other exit out? It's just that main gate? Will it be a gated community?

The intention for now is for it to be gated, just to be able to provide some privacy from the hotels to the townhomes. That's still something that can be negotiated with staff or with the developer, depending how the site ends up working out and that we are able to comply with everything else. But for now, the intention is to keep it gated and separate.

So on traffic flow, do you perceive traffic flow being an issue and all that going towards the townhome?

Not necessarily, just from the fact that we are able to provide the 20 feet on both sides. So if a fire truck needs to turn left in the subdivision to access one of the residential homes on the left side of the development, they're able to just turn out through that emergency entrance exit. Same thing to the right. It'd be all the way to the far end of the property. And so to staff's defense, we have not provided that necessarily to them yet. That's still something that we've been revising on our own. But on record, I can state that we do have that proposed already.

Well, that begs another question that I was going to ask, which is, I mean, how final are your plans on what it is that you want to do out there? You're still working on them? You're still not sure?

Well, because we've been working on the rezoning, the rezoning and then the variance for the public frontage issue. So it's kind of difficult for us to provide you final plans to present tonight. when we still have the pending issue of the public right of way facing and the rezoning?

I mean, I get it, but I think it's also difficult for us to allow for the rezoning if we're not even really sure what's going to go there in the first place. And if what we're hearing from staff is this is probably going to require several variances, I personally want to know what those are before I even allow the rezoning in the first place. And so just for me, full transparency, I'm not sure this is ready yet to be presented, to be considered by city council.

Especially given the uniqueness of this, because this is very different.

This is not a piece of raw land out somewhere with a lot of access, pretty straightforward, easy to develop. I think given the constraints, given the life safety potential issues here, this one is very difficult, for me at least, to be able to move forward at this point without more detail.

Okay.

Staff, I mean, so I see there's a subdivision right behind this lot. So it kind of already has a single family in that area right there going towards Tilker?

Tilker Avenue?

But that's over there on Klausner, right? So the main entrance would be right there on Trenton going towards Walk-Ons and all that. What do you, as far as C4C, future issues that can cause if this gets approved or not, like what are some of your biggest concerns as far as the entry way to get in there if it's a gated or non-gated community?

It's the traffic issue and then also the access for the fire department to be able to safely go on there and save lives.

So would a fire truck be able to get in to that area? So if they were to go to the hotel, would they be able to get in? to the hotel?

Currently, they could because there's driveways all around the hotels, both of them. So right now, as far as the hotels, yes, they can safely go in there and do what they got to do. But on the preliminary plots that we saw for the residential subdivision, it was very tight.

So on the concern of the UDC code, I understand commercial side. I can see their point, too, of them relocating the hotel over there on Trenton towards the academy. I can see that point. What do you foresee, like, what else could be in that area as far as commercial-wise? And if single-family homes are already right behind it, what other things could you foresee it being? Because you've still got to go further in, right, passing the two hotels that are there.

I mean, another hotel would have been good in that area.

But if there was another hotel, would there be any issues with the fire department coming in there with another hotel?

It's all going to depend on how they do their site plan.

So right now, this is just a rezoning. This does not mean they don't have to meet any qualifications right now or anything like that. It's just strictly rezoning. And then from there, they would have to come back to you again, and then they would have to meet all the qualifications, variances, all the things that would be hashed out at that particular point. So right now, it's just the particular zoning request, correct?

That is correct.

So they still got to meet any qualifications, any type of qualifications from staff and from the city and following the code as far as that's concerned.

That's true. Yes, that's correct.

Yeah. And, Jaime, so a few questions for me. First of all, I love it when somebody wants to invest in the city and they didn't cancel the project. They actually moved it to another area where we could use that project. But I'm looking at this at a different way. You see those homes right there? nobody in the city of edinburgh wants a business in their backyard so here we have a developer that's willing to put more homes to the backyard of other backyards right i know there's issues i know there's possibility of variances but is there a way that we can give them time not kill the project maybe come back like the mayor said where i know there's there's stuff to work out but i do see access points to be able through the through the hotel but it's also going to be a private subdivision right so that kind of changes things and the other question i have is are any of these variances going to be taken care of when we change our udc is there going to is there going to be less variances on some of the sizes and the widths i haven't seen their latest you mentioned that there's a latest proposal i haven't seen that one so i can't really comment as to if that one's going to need any variances the one that we have seen

will require variances. But I haven't seen the latest.

I think that all the residents there would love to have other homes behind them and not just more commercial. So I would love to be able to try and work something out.

You know what, Council Member, going back to that idea, actually I didn't think of it that way, but that actually makes a lot of sense because if there were townhomes there and whoever buys those townhomes, they will already know there's a hotel right in front. So they're already under the assumption that they know what they're buying, right, as far as that's concerned. So actually I did not think of it that way, but that's a good angle that I did not take into consideration.

Any recommendations so that it doesn't go one way or the other and kind of give time to work it out?

We can table the item and bring it forward once we get a more defined plan.

Okay.

But as far as that, is it a common, like from seeing a bunch of developments and all that, I don't think it's as common to, they're not going to spend more money to come up with a design without, first getting the qualifications of a zoning correct. That's correct. This is the first step. Because they're not going to go all the way to Z when they still haven't gotten to C. So in that sense, I can understand. For a what-if to spend that kind of money, I don't think any developer or any development would do something like that either. But I do like that angle, though. I did not think of it that way, but it does make a lot of sense.

Other comments, questions?

Just the one thing that I'll say, right, so this, the future land use for this area is commercial, right? So, I mean, the decision to go against our future land use, we've done it before, right, if it makes sense with what's being developed. But to me, that gives me pause to just do it and then see what happens later. If the future land use right now is commercial, it's zone commercial, I would like to have a good reason to flip it to a different zoning first. And I'm not against the project. And like I said, I agree. I think moving the hotel that was planned here to a better location services everybody much better. But at the same time, we need to be careful about the housing developments that are being made in the city of Edinburgh. And if there's true life safety issues, if there's potential variance requests that are going to be necessitated by the layout of the project, Me personally, I'd like to know what those are before we even grant the rezoning and go against our future land use map. Any other comments? Okay. Public hearing is still open. If anybody else wishes to come speak for or against this item.

All right.

Okay, seeing no more, the public hearing on this item is now closed. Is there a motion from council?

I'd like to make a motion to table.

Motion to table?

Second.

Motion to table and a second. Any discussion?

And for me, I think the neighbors would love to have other residents there. It just gives everyone time to try and figure it out.

The only comments I have to say is I think it's a great project. I think it's what it's supposed to be. I don't see a retail center or a commercial center coming in there. But I do like to see a plan so that we avoid the problems or the variances in the future so that we could have one smooth transition into what needs to happen there. So you can at least have some kind of a preliminary plan for maybe the next meeting or whatever it is.

Any other comments?

All right.

Okay, there is a motion and a second to table. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All opposed? Motion passes. Council, if you don't mind, I'm going to take an item out of order because we do have guests here, I believe, waiting on the result of one particular item. If we can move ahead to item 10A. Is everybody, council, you okay with that? Pretty good. Okay. We'll move forward to Item 10A, if the Secretary could read the caption.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Consider ordinance providing for a temporary special use permit for Feast of Corpus Christi procession to be held Sunday, June 7, 2026, located at 216 North 16th Street at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, as requested by Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

So moved. Second. Motion to second. Any discussion?

All right. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right. Motion passes.

Thank you.

And while we're on it, we'll just do 10B. Secretary, if you could read the caption.

Yes, sir, Mayor. Consider ordinance providing for a temporary special use permit for the World Elder Abuse Awareness Parade to be held on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. The parade will begin and end at Bird Ogden Arena. As described, located at 4900 South I-69C, as requested by Daniel Gonzalez, Victims Unit Director, Hidalgo County Criminal District's Attorney's Office. So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of the motion to approve, raise your right hand. All those opposed? Same sign? Okay. Motion is approved. Thank you. All right. Back to our regularly scheduled program. We will return to Section 8. Next item is B. Secretary, you can read the caption.

Yes, Your Mayor. Whole public hearing consider the ordinances providing for the comprehensive plan amendment from general commercial uses to auto urban uses and the rezoning request from commercial general district to residential urban and townhome district. As described, located at 3008 North Business Highway 281, as requested by Saints.

All right. Public hearing is now open on this item, 8B. Anybody wishing to speak on this item for or against can come up to the podium.

Good evening, Council and Mayor.

My name is Gregory Vasquez, and I am the project manager for this development.

Can I stop you for just a second, just to make clear for the record, you are a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission?

That is correct, yes, sir.

This item was considered by the Planning and Zoning Commission?

Yes, it was denied, yes, sir.

Yes. Did you participate in that?

No, I did not.

Did you vote on that?

No, I did not.

Okay. All right. Just wanted to make that clear for the record. Please continue. No problem, sir. Thank you.

We are requesting a rezoning for the commercial general use to residential, urban, and townhome for a 106-slot residential subdivision. Having developed more than 800 lots in the city of Edinburgh and working closely with the local real estate market trends, I believe this property is better suited for residential uses than commercial uses, especially given that it's located right across from Edinburgh North High School. When we look at successful planning and development, compatibility matters. Residential neighborhood next to schools create a natural fit. They provide a safer environment for students, reduce conflict between land uses, and create a stable long-term investment for the surrounding area. Commercial general zoning allows for a wide range of uses that can increase traffic, noise, and activity levels that may not be best fit directly across from a high school. Our proposed development would include private streets, a dog park, gathering areas, and EV ready infrastructure. The goal is to create a quality neighborhood that families will be proud to call home. I would also like to point out that we're not requesting any variances as part of this project. The subdivision has been designed to meet the city development requirements and we are moving forward within the standards already established by the city of Edinburgh. From a market standpoint, housing continues to be one of the strongest needs in Edinburgh. Families are looking for quality housing options and this development helps meet that need. It also helps strengthen the local economy because every new home adds residents who support nearby businesses, restaurants, and services. Commercial growth is important. But commercial growth follows population growth. Businesses invest where there are customers. More rooftops create more demand, which in turn supports future commercial development throughout the city. There is plenty of undeveloped commercial and industrial land surrounding this area. This zoning doesn't take away future commercial opportunities. It simply places housing where it makes the most sense. This rezoning is not about limiting growth. It's about putting the right use in the right location. We believe a residential community across the Edinburgh North High School is a better fit for better long-term for this property, for the surrounding neighborhoods, and for the continued growth of Edinburgh. We respectfully ask for your support and approval of this zoning request. Thank you for your time and your consideration. I also brought some of the renderings that we're planning to do for that subdivision. We did update the actual plat, and I have here Luis Mendez. He is our civil engineer. And from the original plat that we had, visually and basically the way we proposed it didn't really make sense for some of the lot sizes that we're looking at as far as townhomes. So we decided to move it and we actually updated the plat. That's why if you can see, I don't know if you can put the other, the original plat that we had. that's okay yeah yeah so so basically we updated and these are some of the renderings uh it's going to be a private neighborhood we we really really consider obviously the commercial but you know in our experience there's been a lot of issues with parking a lot of times you know when you put a commercial plaza or space or parking spaces in front of the school that's that's a big mess that happens right when there's schools uh there's events for school there's uh parking issues and you know, people start complaining about those type of issues. But also have here Luis Mendez, so if you guys have any questions or anything like that, we're here to answer them.

Mr. Questions? Go ahead. Sorry.

Mr. Good evening. Just wanted to add something onto it. I know you spoke and said about investment. This particular investor for this development, we actually consider recommendation for him to add additional track of land north of this property. So he said yes to better fit a better townhome lots because we recommended him that they were going to be not too long. They were going to be around 72 feet or something, and now they're 80 feet. Some of them, they're a bit longer. So he's willing to invest on this property because his vision is doing more residential in this area. So doing that and making him to invest more rather than just a 9.34 acres. Now we made it 11.23 acres, more or less. We actually already submitted the preliminary plat, so we can start processing everything and as well get feedback from the City of Vandenberg's departments on all aspects, engineering, planning, fire, and all that. So I'm here to assist if any questions you have in case regarding any engineering or planning.

questions from the council I guess I have a question for staff so I see that planning and zoning denied it and so does staff why is that what was the reasons because of that our main reason is because everything north on Rogers with the exception of the school along business 281 is commercial if you look at the zoning map it's all either commercial or industrial just north of Rogers We weren't opposed to the residential project, but what we wanted to see was commercial in the front and then residential in the back.

Okay. So if the front was commercial, it probably would have gone through P&Z? Correct. Is that a rendering of the front, what would be considered commercial if it was to stay that way? Yeah, I was trying to find it in the packet, but I didn't see that. This is new, right?

Yeah. Yes, this was new from the original plot that we have proposed. Yes, sir.

And so instead of a commercial building, just for staff, was PNZ able to see that beautiful entrance there? Or that wasn't?

No, this was not the plot that was presented to PNZ.

Okay, I understand.

They just made some comments that the plot might be 11 acres. That's not what's on the agenda tonight. So they might have purchased more land, making it bigger.

So would that go back to PNZ again, or what happens?

That is an issue, though. So was more land purchased?

No, not yet. No, sir. we are considering the top part for it but everything in the back part is with the future use of of the the zoning district so the the top part it's it's it's going to be separate but once we get the bottom part then we can we can it's not needed for that project to work what is needed is the rezoning for us to be able to accomplish that and in the front we consider the commercial but the commercial It's not a very wide lot, so whenever you do a street in the middle, you're going to do two commercials, and the plazas are going to be very small. There's not going to be a lot of space. So when we put the commercial in the front, you'll be able to see the back, but there's no size. The size of the lot wouldn't allow for a big commercial plaza.

And it would be private gated?

Everything is going to be gated regardless, yes, sir. For the same purpose of the school being across the street, You know, I've had some developments where we don't private the subdivision and people park in the neighborhoods and, you know, they're obstructing the driveways and stuff like that. So we're considering all that so we can be able to make sure that we provide the perfect product for that location. Commercial, it's good. I mean, but we, there's still, I did a market myself and there's almost 1,000 acres of commercial that still needs to be developed before we can even start doing any kind of single family. And if you look at the map, everything around it is vacant land. So we're trying to bring some more homes for that specific area, just being across. If it wasn't across the school, we wouldn't even be here today. But I think that's the main point for us to be able to provide something for the students to be able to be comfortable in the traffic. There was no extra traffic when you have a commercial plaza right in the front.

Okay. So then the issue on, because I'm looking at the future land use and this is in line, right, with what the staff has recommended and what the P&Z ultimately ended up recommending is that the front portion of it be zoned for commercial and then the back portion of it looks like 25%, 75% if I'm just eyeballing it. That's correct. But you're saying that that's not feasible because of the peculiarities of this particular law?

That's correct. Yes, sir. Yeah, it's a 330 wide dimension. So when you put a street in the middle and put plazas, and really the plaza is not going to be front heavy. It's going to be just a long plaza that's going to go back towards the entrance of the subdivision, which will go east and west versus having a nice big plaza from north to south, which I would personally probably recommend in It really makes more sense for the commercial, but not in front of a school as the traffic is very heavy and throughout the day. How many lots is planned? It's 106 townhome lots, and they're going to be detached as well, so they're not going to be attached. We've spoken to the fire marshal as well to take that into consideration since there's There's not going to be access to the back in most of the townhomes that they do because they attach them. We're still following all the requirements. There's still going to be firewalls, but they're not going to be attached. They're going to be detached. So there will be access for the fire department to access the back if they need to.

And you're saying that the project will not require any variances?

No, no variances. We're just doing the townhome zoning.

Okay.

Jaime, so I'm looking at the map. Just south of that, I see that obviously off of business is commercial, but behind that property, that's residential or auto urban, I should say? Right. And there's homes right next to that? Right.

On the south side, there's a big older neighborhood on the south side of that project. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, this is a really nice corridor. There's a lot, there's a lot in this corridor future, right? I mean, this Monte Cristo, Klausner, it really is going to be a commercial center. I see kind of going into the future. You got that Murphy's, you got a Whataburger, McDonald's, Starbucks right now is in that area. From ICSC, we have some other franchises that are specifically interested, right? In that, in that corridor. The EDC made a significant investment, thank you, on the water tower there on that north side of that intersection. So I see where staff is coming from when they're talking about they want this Klausner corridor to have commercial that abuts it right off of the street and residential to continue in its character that you see right now, which is behind the commercial. But I guess what I'm really hearing from you is that your opinion is that that's just not feasible on this particular piece of property?

Yeah, because even if we attract a out-of-state franchise, it's really, there's not a lot of space to do a lot, right? Now, I would understand maybe it was an acre of land in the front for each lot. It would be a different story. What's the square footage that we're talking about or size on the commercial if we do put based on the map?

I would say it would be around an acre more or less. Total? Total.

Total, so it would be a half an acre if we split it into two. So it's not going to be a big, big, big commercial area. You know, so I felt that it was a little bit, you know, more make it a little bit more sense for the for the school to have something a little bit more more fitting to their needs. Traffic gets pretty, pretty tight there. I mean, you know, we've seen it and, you know, that's what we took into consideration everything when it came to being across the street from the school.

Okay. Other questions? Staff. Hi, Matt. Do you have any comments on the size of the lot, the ability to have commercial in the front, given its characteristics?

I was looking at the lots here. 35 by 80, those would require a variance if they're going to be detached. If they're going to be attached, you can have them that size. But for detached, we require a 40-foot width and 4,000 square feet total per lot. So it might need a little bit of work. But, yeah, I guess if the lot's 300 feet wide and you cut a street through the middle, it leaves you about 125 on each side. It would I guess the plaza wouldn't be able to front Closner it would have to front that interior street for it to kind of work Okay, unless they puts unless they push the street to the side, but that's up to them We don't we don't need very insistent even if we have to attach the townhomes we just trying to make sure

more into what the market is asking right now, you know, because it feels more multifamily when you attach it versus being detached a little bit. And that's what we're trying to shy away from multifamily. So I think this would have been a perfect fit for what we're trying to do in that location. But it does not have to be detached. That way we don't have to ask for a variance.

Yeah, and for me, I like it that you're trying to do something nice, not just multifamily, more bang for your buck. Multifamily, we know that that should be in certain areas. This is nice, gated front entrance. I know it should be commercial, but if it's beautiful and private, I think that's really nice. Thank you for not wanting to do multifamily, several-story right there.

Yeah, and it's going to be all block fans throughout, you know, all the perimeter and the front and about maybe 150 feet on the site for the commercial site. So it will be all block fans on the outside. So you have a big view of block fans. So it's going to. have a nice view where we're not using cedar fence in the front or anything like that for the commercial side.

I kind of agree with Councilman Diaz. I think that's what I'm seeing from the rendering and what you guys are trying to do. I can understand too commercial. If you're going to have a side of a building facing the street, I think that's more of an eyesore. So you can't do anything on the front end. I think it's important to have more rooftops in that area to support the businesses that are there and bring in a different clientele and, you know, just re-amp that area. We're always talking about east side and north side and bringing opportunities, and I think this is, I like it, to be honest with you.

One of my main concerns, though, is I see that there's a two-story. Will there be any type of two-stories that are going to be on the side where, I guess this is Glasgow Street, will there be any...

So the south side... in the bottom part there's residential so we're doing a restriction where you cannot build two-story homes in that in those so they'll all be one story and then you know up here up here is commercial this is vacant land as well so we're taking into consideration the neighbors are on the south side to making sure that we don't put a two-story uh you know town home there that's gonna you know take away their privacy and we're taking that into consideration as well

Have we received any feedback from any of the residents on that Glasscock Street?

Not on today's meeting. Thank you.

All right. Anything else? Thank you for your commitment to no variances. Looking forward to that.

But I will say that I do like the detached idea, though, more than the attached. So I think that's a great idea.

I mean, there's plenty of time for us to be able to do it. It's just the rezoning right now that we're requesting so we can start working hard to make it.

Thank you for not bringing more multifamily. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions?

Council? No.

All right. Public hearing is still open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item may come forward. All right. Seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion on this item?

Motion to approve. Motion to approve.

Did I hear a second?

Motion to approve and a second. Any discussion?

Okay. All those in favor of the item, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item, C. Secretary, you can read the caption.

Yes, sir, Mayor. Hold public hearing. Consider the ordinance providing for the resounding request from residential primary district to commercial general district, as described, located at 1005 East Alberta Road, as requested by Mario Serna.

All right, public hearing on this item is now open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this item, C, can come to the podium. Seeing none, this item is now closed. Is there a motion from counsel? I'm sorry?

Go ahead, sir.

All right. I'm going to reopen the public hearing in the future. When I call for a public hearing, you've got to come forward, okay? I was waiting for someone else to talk. Nope. You just got to come up, all right? Otherwise, you're going to lose your turn. Luckily, Council Member Diaz here is very nice and was okay with withdrawing his motion so that you can come up and speak. All right, go ahead, introduce yourself.

Hi. No, thank you for your time, and I apologize for that. No, this is just trying to, the rezoning, as we mentioned, the future land use is to become commercial, so we're trying to, hoping that, you know, to change it from residential to commercial, and so thank you for your time.

So you're the developer? Yeah. What are you going to do out there?

So the goal is to, They talked about tennis earlier. So we're hoping to do like a pickleball paddle court in the back and in the front doing some food trucks. And so sort of like a commercial sort of like a dining walkable area that people can sort of enjoy some food. But there's also like this athletic field in the back that you know it's an enclosed area that people can work with. You came here a while back, though, didn't you? Yeah, it's been a journey. Yeah, we've been trying to get this project going. And so we've sort of gotten a bit more, I guess, we went back and really developed the idea and really went back and really tried to see what was the plan. So the original idea was just to see if it could be turned into commercial. But then the feedback was like, okay, can you go back and really develop this? And so we went back, and we really sat back, and we talked to the investors and everything. So now we're really a lot closer to, you know, the true vision of what we are.

I know originally the design you had was actually really nice, too. I do know the property across the Burdock Arena, they just purchased that, so I know that's going to be residential and commercial there, too. So I can see now that. It does call for more commercial in that area just because of the fact that I know there's going to be more commercial now. Officially going to be coming up soon. So this just happened the last like three weeks. So I think it's a great idea actually. Here we go.

Thank you.

How far along are you? Do you have an engineer or general contractor?

So not yet. But we mostly the master plan, the site plan, and trying to start getting all of that rolling.

Do you have a timeline in mind as to when you'll break ground?

Hopefully, I mean, this year. We're hoping to be able to do it this year. Again, we'll probably start rolling out with, you know, trying to get everyone else involved with engineers and everything. But we do hope that it'll be closer to this year.

One of the other items of concern from the last time that you were here, have you had a chance to speak to any of the neighbors, any of the neighborhood?

So... The last time we spoke, the main concern was sort of, I guess, the person who had developed the actual land. And the last conversation we had, he mentioned he saw that it was going to become commercial. So that was his last comment to me. He was like, if it's going to become commercial, that's something I can't stop in the long run kind of thing. So it was like, if that's going to happen, just, you know, that's sort of what's coming. And so he was sort of more leaning towards that he knew that was the eventual sort of result of that stream.

That was Mr. Villanueva? Correct. And it is. He's absolutely right. It actually is going to be going commercial in that whole little areas.

All right. And I'll just repeat kind of what I had said before, right, which is, I think the idea is good. I think it's a good project. I agree that this is a commercial corridor, and so I think that's what it's going to grow into. But at the same time, we as the council have the ability to put some foresight into what's actually going to go out there. If you get this commercial zoning and you're telling us what you intend for it to be, it doesn't actually have to be that. You could sell it tomorrow. Someone could go up there and put a gas station in there, which would be very disappointing for us. So in some measure, we are proceeding on this, however it ends up going, based off of your word on what it is that you intend to develop out there. I hope you understand that.

Yeah, I understand.

Thank you for that. Any other questions, comments? All right. Okay. Thank you. Public hearing is still open on this item. Anybody else wishing to speak for or against can come forward. right seeing none the public hearing is now closed is there a motion motion to mayor if i may this item was tabled by the council back on april 7th 2026 so for official action to be had on this item i believe it should be untabled at this time uh i disagree i think it being placed on the agenda is is taking it off the table it's a little bit different than robert's rules where we're trying to untable from the same meeting If it appears on the agenda, it's ripe for action. What do you think?

With that interpretation, I do agree, Mayor. It was, proper notice was given for this item, so with it properly being on the agenda, that can serve as notice and the action can move forward.

On that note, staff, could you, I was going to say that there's some missing information because I remember this item It was tabled. There was direction. I think that needs to be part of the packet also. I was, in just overview, I thought it was the neighbor trying to go commercial because I thought, I remember we were working on this, but I couldn't see the notes. But thank you for that.

Okay. All right. One more time. Is there a motion from council?

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion to approve and a second. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All opposed? All right. Motion passes. Next item is item D. Secretary, read the caption.

Yes, sir, Mayor.

Hold public hearing. Consider the ordinance providing for the special use permit for on-premise consumption of alcoholic beverages as described located at 310 West McIntyre Street as requested by Jace Hughes on behalf of J.M. Mejia Properties, LLC.

Motion approved.

Hold on. We have a public hearing. Yes. So public hearing on this item is now open. Anybody wishing to speak for or against can come up to the podium. All right. Seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion?

Motion approved. Second.

Motion approved and a second. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All opposed? Motion passes. Moving on to section C, our public hearing routine items. As a reminder, These are items in which the recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission aligns with the recommendation of city staff. The P&Z acted unanimously. The city has not received any written comment in opposition to the recommendation by the Planning and Zoning Commission and the city. So these are routine items in the sense that everything in front of us indicates that the recommendation by city staff should be adopted that being said I will go ahead and open up public hearing for items a B and C anybody wishing to speak may come forward but I urge only if you are against the item to come up and speak if you're for it staffs already recommended it all right seeing none public hearing is now closed can I get a motion to approve items a B and C all right motion in a second any discussion all right all those in favor raise your right hand all opposed motion passes we already addressed items 10 a and B we'll go into item 11 a the secretary could read the caption yes sir mayor consider variance request to the city's Unified Development Code article 5 section 5.2 1 0 utilities and

e-sanitary sewers, requirements for sanitary sewer for the proposed SpaceX storage subdivision. As described, located at 4909 West SH 107, as requested by Melton and Hunt, on behalf of SpaceX Properties.

All right. Is there a motion on Item 11A? I'll note that both staff and Planning and Zoning recommended denial.

I guess I'll make a motion to deny, but with discussion.

Okay. Motion? Is there a second?

Second.

All right. Motion and a second.

Ms. Trestle, I guess what was the reason why both planning on zoning and staff recommended to no?

Because there was already a line in the area that they could connect to. They just didn't think it was feasible to do it. But being that there was a service in the area, our recommendation was for them to connect.

So they're asking not to connect to the sewer line?

To be on a septic tank because it's going to be for a storage unit facility that's only going to have like one or two restrooms. So they thought it was going to be too much of an expense to connect to the sewer line. And they opted to go the variance route to be on a septic tank. Kind of makes sense.

Let me ask the question. So that kind of makes sense, right? And your recommendation has to go just based on what our code is that would require variance. But storage units only have like one bathroom?

That's correct.

And so what can we do to make it make sense whenever it's something like this?

Well, we don't want to start a presidency either because there's been others that have been connecting to our city sewer services. So allowing one to not connect is gonna set a precedent because others are gonna wanna do the same.

By not connecting, is that gonna cut the pipe flow or, you know, get other areas that can't connect if we don't require the connection? You know what I mean?

Is there... Is there a domino effect, essentially, right? It's gonna hinder further development of people being able to connect into the sewer.

There's already another development right next door that's gonna be extending the line, so... I mean, there's a viable option there for them to connect.

I guess I can make a comment. We had a project not too long ago that was similar, right, and wanted to do their own septic tank, similar kind of property, but they did do it. It connected to our sewer lines.

That's correct.

So I kind of feel like if we're going to do this, you know, and allow them to do it, it's kind of domino effect, and if we're going to set the presence, we need to stay up to code as far as what we're requiring.

I think it's a pretty good rule to require sanitary measures in buildings in our city.

Other comments, questions?

Okay. Hearing none, there is a motion to deny. All those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Item's denied. Next item B, if the Secretary could read the caption.

Yes, Mayor. Consider variance request to the City's Unified Development Code, Article 5, Section 5.203, Street Crossing Sections, Table 5.203-1, Right-of-Way Widths and Sidewalks for Morning Star Gardening Subdivision, as described, located at 3420 South Business Highway 281, as requested by Meldon and Hunt, on behalf of Shalom Media, USA.

Is there a motion on this item, B?

Motion to go with the City recommendation. I mean staff recommendation to deny.

To deny or is it?

Yeah, this is a motion to go with the staff recommendation to deny. Is there a second?

No second. Okay.

Is there another motion? Is there a motion to suspend the rules so that we can discuss before taking a motion? I take a motion to suspend the rules. Okay. Motion to suspend? Second. Second. All those in favor of the motion to suspend so we can discuss before taking a motion, raise your right hand. Okay. Motion passes. Okay. Jaime, if you could help orient us on this, please, and questions that come up on this also so we can just address it.

So this is a property that's actually been here before. This was brought back, I want to say, in the fall of last year. And at the time, they were requesting for a 40-foot right-of-way width. And it's a property that is only going to have homes on one side. There's going to be a street on the south side. And then the lots that are in Wisconsin are going to have that street kind of as their backyard. So the not having sidewalks on one side of the road kind of makes sense because those are double frontage lots, and they're already supposed to have sidewalks along Wisconsin. On the street right-of-way width, At the time that this item was previously discussed, there was an option to go 45 feet, actually. I think Councilman Dendy, as he recommended, that they go 45 feet, but they didn't take the offer. So now it's back, and now they're asking for 45 feet.

But on this one, they are, y'all are recommending to approve, right?

Recommending denial. P&Z did approve it, though.

Okay, so P&Z approved it, and the staff's recommending denial. That's correct.

See, I didn't remember that. I remember to not kill it, we gave them kind of a compromise, right? And so is that anywhere in our packet? Or are we going to have the background on that?

No, I don't believe the background was on it. You're right.

Yeah, and so I think we really need so we don't just start over the entire conversation. We know where we're at, especially when we ask them to kind of do something and they come back to us. With some kind of resolution? Yeah. Okay, got it.

Are you able to put up the plaque? proposed plat. We can all take a look at this.

It's not in my presentation, but media might be able to from back there.

Do you have it? Okay. Okay. That's fine. We'll give you some time in a second. All right. Any other questions for staff? Okay, so just so I can understand the background, the requirement... The requirement is that there be sidewalks on both sides of the development, is that right? That's right. But in this instance, there is no both sides, right? There's only one side. On the north, there's a strip of homes, and there are no homes on the south side. That's correct. Right, it's just a strip of homes and a road.

A road.

Okay.

And so because of that, they want to put, they are okay to put sidewalks in the front of the homes, right? Typical sidewalks flowing along the homes, correct? That's correct. Okay. But they're asking for a variance not to put a second set?

On the south side of the road.

Okay, gotcha. On the south side of the road where there's no homes?

Where it's fronting someone's backyard.

Correct, gotcha. Okay. So the sidewalk one, I think that's straightforward enough at least to understand The roadway one, if you could help me understand that. So our requirement is 50 feet on the roadway, correct?

50 feet right away, pavement section to be 32 feet back-to-back. I believe they're keeping the roadway width at 32 feet back-to-back.

The roadway width being the asphalt section? Blacktop, yes, the asphalt. So that, our requirement is 32 feet. They're going to keep it 32 feet. They're going to keep it at 32 feet. So cars being able to pass to, right, one going east, one going west, that's not hindered?

Correct.

life safety issues on our emergency responders? Any issues?

Nope. We've even talked about the possibility of maybe doing a fire lane on the south side so nobody could park along that south side. Those are all things that we're considering.

Okay. And then, so then why the 45 feet and not the 50?

What's the, where does that come from? It gives them more land. It makes their lots five feet deeper. But that's really all that it accomplishes. Five more feet of sidewalk. Okay.

Yeah, something. We'll get to it in a second. I want to understand the staff's perspective on this, right? So, you know, blacktop roadway, no problem, right? Sidewalk along the homes, pretty straightforward. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the five-foot reduction. If there were homes on both sides, right, on the north side and the south side of the road, to me at least, no-brainer. You've got to have the heft of 50 foot. You have to have a 50 foot. but them not having the 50 foot on the south side, why is 45 feet okay? Or why would it be okay? Maybe you can't answer. Maybe the developer will have to answer. Sure. Because that's the part, the sidewalks I get conceptually, it's the roadway that I don't get yet.

So I hope you can- Right, so it kind of goes hand in hand, right? So within your 50 foot right away, you have both five foot sidewalks on both sides. By us eliminating the five foot sidewalk on the south side, it only seems reasonable to reduce those five feet on the 50 foot right away to 45, giving those five feet over to the residential lots. Right. Um, from one side, it might seem like, or I guess from maybe the city side, it might seem like we're just trying to get bigger lots. But the other side of that coin is if we were to provide the 50 foot right away, those lots would only be, uh, 47 and a half by 82. which is just short of the 4,000 square feet that's required for de-attached townhomes. It would require more variance.

That's right. Yes, exactly.

So whenever we come and present to you all that, we're really not trying to present variances. We are trying to, you know, work with SLAP and so forth. So that's really the point on this one.

Yeah.

We got the townhome zoning because it is less than 50, but we are over the 40 foot. Yeah, I remember now.

I remember. I wish that would have been there. So We didn't want to kill the project. We were trying to get a compromise. We said, why don't you just take the sidewalk and not get all these variances on your lots? Correct. You came back.

So with the 50 foot right away, your square footage on the lots is just shy three thousand nine hundred and fifteen. So just shy of the four thousand being that with those extra five feet at eighty seven instead of eighty two. you're able to be at 4,132.5 square feet on average throughout.

So that's really the reasoning behind that. So thank you for answering that. I think I get it now, right? So on the south side of the road, there's no homes. So you don't need a sidewalk because there's not people walking on the non-home side.

People walk to nowhere.

People are going to be walking on the home side. Correct. So now because we're not going to have that home, the sidewalk on the south side, you can reduce the five feet that that sidewalk would have taken out. And it doesn't affect the size of the road, doesn't affect the size of the sidewalk on the north side, doesn't affect easements, utility easements, all of that's still intact too.

We're providing the 15 feet and so forth that's required. The only thing is just the reduction to be able to comply with the square footage while still complying with the 32 back-to-back of the roadway.

Okay.

Cool.

Jaime, what am I missing? Because this variance actually sounds okay. it sounds doable Mir yes all right thank you okay um and thanks for the explanation uh you know I I am I I am typically not in favor of variances right you'll hear me kind of rail on them all the time but you know this particular the characteristics of this of this development actually I think warrant the variance right given given that there's a there's a row of homes only on the north side not on the south side, right? You don't need that sidewalk. It's not practical to have it there. And it doesn't enhance quality of life because the homes are still going to have their sidewalk that they can walk up and down right along their homes. So, yeah, I think overall this actually works. So thank you for that.

I'm so glad because I was the only one that made a motion to deny it. But if I would have known this was the one that I asked for the compromise and they're back with the compromise, I would have never made that motion.

Any other questions, comments? Okay, so we had suspended the rules. We do not have a motion for action at this time. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion to approve and a second. Any discussion? All right, all those in favor of the motion, raise your right hand. All those opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item, C, if the Secretary could read the caption.

Yes, sir, Mayor. Consider variance request to the City's Unified Development Code, Article 5, Section 5.206, Lot B required frontage for replat of Lot 1, true subdivision, as described, located at 409 West Trenton Road, as requested by Melvin and Hunt.

I'll note on this one, staff and P&Z recommended denial unanimously. Is there a motion on this item?

I guess motion to table.

There's a motion to table?

More discussion.

Second. Motion to table and a second. All right.

I guess this goes with the rezoning, right?

Correct.

So I guess I would say like let's table it until they come up with a plan like we've asked them to kind of present us some kind of a preliminary before we do anything like that.

Is it the same property? Yeah.

yeah i understand i will say again in the interest of transparency this is going to be a hard pill to swallow even if you come back and still want this right i think allowing an access easement rather than an actual road is going to be is going to be really difficult um so i don't know how you're going to make it work but like i said i wanted to make my thoughts known sure I mean it's all like theoretical at this point right because there's nothing hard and fast but.

Right and so not to like solar.

Very quickly very quickly and efficiently please go ahead.

So just to point out right what's existing is as an access easement right regardless of whether we propose it to the rear as public right of way the comment from staff was that the entire strip the existing roadway needs to be converted to public right of way as well in order for it to be public right of way facing off of Trenton. That's really what the discussion on this item is, if I'm not mistaken. Jaime could clear it up if I am mistaken. And so that's why on this item, I could see where it perhaps could get voted on or discussed. As I mentioned, I did have the discussion on this one with Mr. Hinojosa, the city engineer, where they were not favorable for this strip of property or roadway to be dedicated public. As it stands right now, it's in good condition and it's maintained privately and it's landscaped nicely. So if you have any

questions you know yeah thank you all right yeah i saw you come up tom but i i don't think we're there yet where we need to really get into it okay any other questions all right there's a motion and a second to table the item all those in favor of the motion raise your hand all opposed all right motion passes items tabled uh next item item d so the secretary can read the caption yes sir consider variance request to the city's unified development code article 5 subdivision standard section 5.102

Applicability in Article 5, Section 5.210, Utilities. E, Sanitary Sewer. Two requirements for sanitary sewer, bringing four acre, four tracts of land. As described, located at 1008 Monte Cristo Heights Road, as requested by Erica D. Nava on behalf of RG Valley Properties.

All right. Is there a motion on this item?

Motion approved with discussion.

The motion to approve, is there a second? Second. All right, motion to approve and a second.

Again, this goes back to staff. I kind of wish that we kind of know why Planning and Zoning approved it unanimously and then we're denying it. I would like to get maybe some of that into our agenda because we're kind of running without an idea what their thoughts were.

Okay, we could provide more details in the packets going forward. But P&Z did approve it. Staff is recommending denial. We would have wanted them to hook up to the sewer system. However I think after the assessment was made the elevation of the line wasn't there yet. So they granted them the ability to connect to a septic tank. For one mobile home. That's it.

Just for one mobile home?

Yeah.

So, I mean, the septic is just one of the requests, right? The other is not to plat. They have to plat.

Yeah, correct.

And staff has recommended an aisle on both?

Yes.

And P&Z recommended approval on both?

Correct.

Good evening. Tom Rainer, city manager. Yes, sir. Please, gentlemen, keep in mind that the reason we always ask to deny, because it is against our Unified Development Code and our engineering standards, so we are the defenders of the code. So anytime that we're really going to deny 99.8 of variances, because it is against the code unless there's an actual main issue that we can see. So that is why we always recommend to deny that 99.8.

Understood. Thank you, Tom. Would you all like to come forward? Is the council okay? We'll recognize you to come up and speak. If you could just give us your name for the record, please.

Yes, I'm Erica Nava, and this is my husband, Noe Nava. And, yes, the reason that we had asked for that variance on the sewage was because our property is lower than what the street level is. And we did get an engineer, and he did say that it's pretty unleveled.

And we did exactly what Jaime told us to do to get it approved. We spent money. We've been doing this for a year. And the last time we spoke to him, he told us we had a higher survey. He told us, go check to see if we can hook up. Because anyways, you're twice as far where you want to put your home to where you're going to be connecting. So automatically, you're too far. But at the same time, the drainage isn't connectable.

Yes. And the last meeting, the reason they gave me that they were denying was because my tracks are divided into four. They were saying that I might sell my two lots at the end, and then those people wouldn't have an access to their properties. And I can come and say that I'm not going to sell them because my irrigation pipe is there.

We invested over $30,000 on an 8-foot fence, ranch fence.

This is a farm, like we had said before.

We invested money to connect to the irrigation so we can flood the $30,000 of horseshoe I planted in there already. I mean, we're going to make it our homestead. We're going to live there. We're going to raise our kids there. We're not planning to, you know, go anywhere. I sell cars, you know. But my family likes the farm. They want to have a couple of cows. They want my daughters to ride a horse. And that's what we want to do. We just want to live our life. We wanted to be more or less in the edge where we're like inside the city, outside the city, where easy access because we own our business on 281 also. The hospital's there. Something happens. The schools are right there. So we wanted to stay not so far away where you're out in the boonies, right? But, I mean, it's a little frustrating that, We have been doing everything that the planning zone has been telling us to do. Hired, wasting money, and it's fine. I understand there's a process to it, but this is the last time we spoke. We did everything. We hired somebody to go look and do the study. I don't know what it's called, bruh. And to be here, it's like it was the complete opposite. It was like, I was stunned. I was like, wait a minute. You told us it was approved if we did this. I mean, we're ready. My rental home, I got to get out in August. I need to do something. And like I said, I wanted to put a mobile home as a temporary thing because they've always insisted on something. I said, well, you know what? Let me get in there first. And I've been trying to sell my property for the past year and a half because they were trying not to let me in. And you can see Zillow. I've been trying to sell it. And I've gotten some offers, but it's less than what I invested because I already did everything. I did a lot because I wanted to have it easy, right? But all we want a chance is to live.

But why not plant?

Because it's all one property.

It is because the entrance, I'm not sure if you have a picture of where they're separated into four tracks. Where the street goes in, that's one track itself. It goes all the way to the back, and they wanted me to plant. But then you would have... One acre in the front and then three planted acres in the back. It just didn't make sense. That's all it was.

Are you ever going to plant?

No, because we're actually, we want to sell.

Yeah, we want to sell. This is our farm. Either it's our farm or we sell.

So if we're going to be pushed up, we're going to be pushed down. But it's better to have a home. And I'm buying a brand new mobile home. It's a $120,000 home. I'm just going to use it as a car payment. So if we sell it in three years, then we move out. I mean, we'll move a little farther out if that's what we're going to do. But we want to have our homestead. And everybody around my area, they're all little ranches, three acres, two acres. It's just I planted a hay field. I planted a horse hay.

Do you have other utilities out there that you're going to be able to hook up into?

Well, I mean, we're. The utilities are able to be connected, and it's not cheap.

There's a water hydrant right next to our property. And then I did contact the light company, and our neighbor is the closest one. He's like an acre away.

Yeah, everything's able to .

Yes.

I mean, I don't want you to be offended by any of this, right? I mean, staff was trying to guide you as best as they could, but nobody could guarantee whether something's going to pass or not, right? I mean, there's no way that they could because they're not the ones who decide. But the reality is, you know, these requirements that the city has is for safety and health purposes, right? I mean, we don't want people to set up a mobile home anywhere that they want and live however they want because that might not be safe and sanitary. So in this particular instance, that's why there's this requirement. It sounds like you want to build your house out there.

We actually have plans to do that, but with all the hassles and all the, I mean, like I said, it's been a long journey too. We've been trying to do this for a year and a half already.

Yeah, it just wasn't economically feasible to...

I just wanted to move in something temporary. I mean, you're talking about a $600,000, $700,000 property. It's not easy just to sell it like a regular property. Hence, that's why I wanted something temporary, move in a mobile home, and once it sells, I move my mobile home and take it out. If I build something with block or something, well, you just... Kind of limit it a little bit, you know? Because it's not our plan to sell anything. If you see it in the picture, I planted horse hay. I mean, I don't want to be dependent on anybody. I wanted to do my own. And like I said, I cleaned all the brush area all around, all the hair. I put an eight-foot fence to maybe guarantee my birds don't fly out or anything. It's a home.

I mean, I can show you guys pictures of what it looks like right now. I mean, because that picture right there does not show justice of what it's.

And I want to thank you for going through the process. And the mayor's right. We have a lot of rules and we have a lot of reasons. But I think for me it's case by case. And you want to hear what your plans are, what you want to do, your dreams. You want to have a farm. You want to plant hay. And so thank you for going through the process and not just doing things.

And we have animals. We have livestock. We have cows. We have sheep and goats and birds and probably not a lot.

Right.

I mean, it's something that we want to do.

Yeah, and I think if you want to build something later, well, that'll spark a whole other process, and we'll worry about that later.

If for some reason we do sell, we understand that there's going to be guidelines that we need to do to do whatever we're supposed to do. We're asking, I'm saying. But, I mean, we're doing everything. I mean, we're not going to do anything. I'm not going to do anything cheap. I mean, I'm not buying a used home. Like I said, it's a brand-new home. It's a truck payment, you know what I'm saying? And that's the way I'm seeing it. And if we have to relocate, it's easy to just relocate. And I have it on Zillow. You can see it. I've been trying to sell it.

If someone can offer me... You're trying to sell the land?

Yes, if I can.

This land that we're talking about?

And the only reason that I'm selling it is because I'm just having a hard time to move in. I mean, I bought it for my forever home.

Yes. But in retrospect, back when we initially bought it, We decided we're going to move out there. We're going to have a farm. And everything just started exploding. So we're going to end up being stuck like a farm, and then you have houses all over. And we don't want to be a nuisance.

We want to be away from everybody. We just want to close up our fans and be in there. I don't want a neighbor. That's why we purchased a big property.

So just so I can understand, I guess what the mayor is asking, do you want to sell? But I think you put it up for sale because of the problems you've been going through the last year and a half.

The process makes it.

The process. Okay. But if things go your way, I can't tell you if it's going to or not, then you're going to pull it off the market, right? And you're going to do what you.

Yes. If I stay, I'll stay. You don't tell me to do.

Yes.

Okay. I really wish I didn't have to sell it. I mean, I think it's an extra location. hospital for my kids the schools are right there my business is down the road on the expressway uh we have our own business it's a little car lot but we're right off of the expressway it's easy access for everything and we really liked it we invested a lot of money if you can see five years prior to now you'll see all the everything that i've done i mean i that picture doesn't make it look right if you see it now you i mean i'm investing money into it that's great i'm just

I'm still just trying to understand the situation. So what I had imagined when I read through all of this is that you intend to build your dream home on this. You want to have a mobile home on there. You want to put a mobile home on there to live. You're a little roughing it for a little while, while it's getting built, and then you'll take the mobile home off. Your home will have all the connections it needs.

We don't intend to stay in that mobile home for more than five years.

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with it, but. And we do have a floor plan already made with Noma. I don't know if you know him over there on Nolana. We invested quite a bit. We have like an 8,000, 9,000 square foot each home that we wanted to build. But it's just, we're being, it's like, it's kind of hard to invest something in, I don't know. I just try and do what they're telling me to do, and I'm doing it. And I do have a floor plan.

Well, no one's going to tell you what to do with your property, right, is the thing. But there are rules to follow. And like I said, for me, and this is the key, and again, I'm all about transparency. This is going to be a hard situation for you all to live in a mobile home on this 17-acre property. I mean, like, I don't know what the road condition is like out there. I don't know what the response time is going to be for our first responders. I don't know what other utilities you have out there, how hard it is for you to have electricity. I don't know any of that, but this seems like a really hard situation that I don't know what's best for you all. But if you're doing it temporarily so that you can build your forever home, then I get it. But that's not what I'm hearing, or at least I'm not understanding.

We're confused, like I said. We wanted to build our forever home there. With all these little hassles, complications, we were resorted to a mobile home because I don't want to invest... $400,000 or $500,000 on a home, and it just didn't make sense. But all your utilities are right there at the doorstep. There's nothing that we're going to have to redo anything. The only thing with the sewer, the sewer is a little too low compared to where our property level is, because it is a little bit of a flood zone. It won't work. You all are renting a home right now, right? Yes, we're renting down the street.

Yes, but this whole thing is just temporary. If we're offered, if somebody wants to buy a property the day after tomorrow, We're gone.

Or if you let me stay and live in Edinburgh, I'll be more than glad to build a home.

With that being said, I have a question for Steph. Jaime, is there any concern as far as utilities or anything in this particular area that they're going to have any trouble with by having a mobile home or anything that we need to be concerned about?

No, whether it's a mobile home or a regular home, I think. the situation is the same. I mean, the utilities are there, water and sewer are there. They're opting to connect to have their own septic tank instead of connecting to the sewer because they got... Elevation. Elevation is right. We got a letter from Alfonso Quintanilla claiming that there's an elevation issue, so that's why they're here. Not having to hire an engineer to plot a piece of land so that they can put their mobile home, but they could also build a home there if...

So by approving this, would they have the option to be able to put the mobile home there and down the road build as well? But in that case, would they only be able to connect through the septic tank if they were to build?

If you give them the approval here today, they don't have to subdivide and they can be on septic.

Even if they were to build their own home?

Even if they were to build their own home, yeah.

We have a big family, sir. We wouldn't live off it completely.

So do you foresee any issues safety-wise or anything that, as far as council, we need to be aware about? Any neighbors that we might be? Any complaints or anything that you can see?

No, just like Mayor Ochoa was saying, it is kind of far out there. So the response times might not be the best because it is kind of far, but it is within our city limits.

But compare, I guess they're talking about it being a ranch. So most ranches, their mobile homes or homes are far inside when it comes to the ranch. Okay. Well, with that being said, Mayor, with your permission, I'd like to go ahead and call for the vote.

Sure. Let me ask those. Are there any additional questions, comments from anybody? No? Okay. Okay.

We are placing it right at the entrance of the property off the street, which we're like maybe a mile from the expressway. It's not something that is.

And there are homes.

There's little ranches all around us.

There's houses down the street.

With water and light and cable.

Actually, one last question for staff. If they do move forward and put the mobile home on there, are there any additional inspections that the city would have to do?

Yes, the city staff would have to make sure that the mobile home is adequate to be moved into the city of Edinburgh. We just don't allow it. But he did say it was going to be a new home, so it should pass.

It's a double-wide 28 by 76. It's 22, 2300, but it's just not a used one. Okay. All right. It's attractive.

Okay. Well, good luck with the situation. It's a little odd to me. Sorry for all the questions or whatever, right? But it's just, you know,

take it we take health safety very seriously but but not PNZ they understood it because they they voted to approve your variances after a long discussion and we want you here so I think we're ready to vote

All right, okay, all those in favor of the, we took a motion, right? Yeah, all those in favor of the motion to approve the variance requests, both of them, raise your right hand. All opposed? All right, motion passes. Thank you. Next item is item E. Secretary, can you read the caption?

Yes, sir, Mayor. Consider variance request to the City's Unified Development Code, Article 5, Section 5.206, Lots B, required lot frontage for the proposed Montemayor Estates, as described, located 3220 West Chapin Road, as requested by Quintanilla, Headlee, and Associates.

Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Second. There's a motion to approve and a second. Jaime, could you explain this one?

Yes, Mayor. This is a tract of land. four acres that is a family tract. It was established in the mid 80s and it was gifted to each one of the siblings by the mother. And we have six lots being proposed by this plat, but it doesn't have right of way. So this is probably that 0.1% where we're supporting something only because it's probably the best way to get six legal lots of records by recording a plat so um these uh six siblings that receive these what these tracts of lands would want to own their own piece of property a legal lot so if they decide to sell it in the future they can do so so that's why they're they're here today uh i see that staff and pnz both recommended approval of these variants unanimously that's correct

And so it seems to me this situation, it's grown up over time, right? You've got this piece of property out there. You've got these family homes through the family partition exception, being able to build homes and then having basically a road, right, that connects them.

They have a paved road down the middle. It's actually labeled Monte Mayor Road, but it's not an official road. It's paved. It's got a stop sign and everything, but it's a family track. gifted it out to their children by means of balance.

Right. And so it sounds like then at this point, 20 plus years later, 40 plus years later that the family has been doing this, the whole point now is to plat so that all of these lots are legally recognized in the city and they're not just under exceptions from decades ago. That's correct. Okay. And the road already exists. Yes.

There's a paved, it's not a typical road with curb and gutter. It's just like an old county road. It's probably 16 feet wide, like an alley, like a paved alley.

All right. And so typically what the city requires is a right-of-way, this is an access. Right. Right? And that is what is requiring the variance. That's correct. For it to be platted in a way that meets reality. what actually exists out there for the last four decades, the only way to do that is by granting the variance because it recognizes the road that already exists out there?

That's correct, because the only lots that have frontage are the two in the front. All the interior lots won't have frontage to a public road.

So just because we're not creating some new situation, we're not allowing some developer to do something different that other developers are able to do, This is a legal recognition of what already exists.

And has existed for 45 years or 40 years.

And that was the basis for why staff recommended approval. That's correct. Okay.

Yeah, it's very common in that area where family members own six acres, ten acres, and they give it up to families. And now this is just a way of recording each one in case they want to sell or siblings want to, you know. Yes. Okay.

All right. Questions, comments from the council? All right, all those in favor of the motion to approve, raise your right hand. All opposed? All right, motion passes. Getting soft on variances. No, we're trying to be transparent on the explanation at least, right, making it important for everybody to know why we approve the ones that we do, so at least it's known. Okay, next item is consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve items A through E? So moved.

Second.

All right, motion and a second to approve items A through E. There was a question on item B, which is relating to our golf courses, Los Lagos and Ebony. I personally am actually very excited about this item, so I would like a little bit of explanation.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Tom Rader, Assistant City Manager. Yes, sir, this was, we went out for our P2P, TO LOOK FOR VENDORS THAT WILL DO ANY GOLF MANAGEMENT AT BOTH GOLF COURSES, AS LOS LAGOS AND EBONY. WE ACTUALLY RANKED THE PROPOSALS. WE RECEIVED SEVEN PROPOSALS THAT CAME IN, SEVEN COMPANIES THAT WERE INTERESTED IN THE MANAGEMENT COMPANY. WE SHORT-LISTED THE TOP THREE, BUT THERE WAS A TIE, SO WE SHORT-LISTED THE FOUR. SO WE INTERVIEWED FOUR OF THE ORIGINAL. are recommending the highest ranked out of the four, which is a Troon Golf. They are a national company that operates and manages all the golf courses. So we're requesting for you all to select us to start negotiations with Troon. That way we can negotiate and see what services that we would like to, what they are proposing and what we would like to entertain for the golf courses.

But it doesn't have to necessarily just be Troon. We can say one and two, right?

Or... At this point, we're just asking for the highest rank one, but it's... Yeah, no, for the sake of time, I get it.

For the sake of time, we need to move forward on this quickly and efficiently, so...

Excellent. I do have a representative from Troon that is here, if y'all would like to hear any additional information about Troon Golf. Mr. Jeff, and I'm going to probably butcher his last name, Tomlinson... Thompson, there you go. So if he is here, if y'all would like to ask him a question.

I actually would briefly, very briefly like to hear, but before you do, I just kind of want to wrap up or give a very quick summation of how we got to this point, right? So we have two golf courses, Ebony, Los Lagos, both great, great, great courses. We have been without a golf director for some time, correct? Correct. And in the process of trying to determine how to move these golf courses forward, we're kind of left with either continuing on as we have, which is having internal staff that manages the grounds, the food and beverage, the daily operations, all those kinds of things. Or to hire an actual golf management company that has some level of expertise, that is well versed in courses, not just here, but throughout the country and actually throughout the world. that brings that kind of higher level of professionalism to running a golf course. Ground management, food and beverage, customer service, facilities management, on down the line. I think it's, for me at least, pretty clear that our golf courses are gems, but that they need some real professionalism. And I personally am very excited about this transition to having a golf management company.

Yes, sir. And the ultimate goal is here is to increase our revenues at the golf course. and help our cost of operations come down with the expertise that this company would come to it. So the ultimate goal would be to lower our operation costs for the golf courses and invest into the management company so they give us an actual, the way I always look at it, is an actual capital improvement list that we need to follow. And since they are a national company, they have options for favorable costs, construction, they have their own types of equipment that could come in and help us with that. So that's the ultimate goal is to decrease our operation expenses. Yeah, the goal is to make our golf courses profitable.

So we're not having to use general revenue money, right? That the revenues generated by these, either through, you know, use of the golf course, through food and beverage, through other revenue streams, the pro shop, right? Selling merchandise, that all of that will cover all of our costs. That is the ultimate goal. And that is what we hope to be able to achieve with a professional golf management company. I mean, like one of the courses, for example, La Cantera in San Antonio is one of my favorites, and I know Troon is the golf manager for that golf course.

That is correct.

Okay, great. Well, very glad that you would come in to be with us this evening. If you could just come up briefly, introduce yourself.

Hi, my name is Jeff Thomason. I'm the regional vice president of operations for Troon. I'm based here in Texas. You're right, Trune is an international company. We have over 780 client engagements worldwide. We've got 16 facilities in Texas. I'm based here in Texas. We've got between 80 and 100 municipal engagements, as well as university and other quasi-government facilities that we manage. And so we're terribly excited to be here. This has been a little bit of a process, but we are humbled. and very appreciative of your selecting Troon and putting your trust in us to manage what is, in any municipality, a very important asset for the quality of life of the residents and for the betterment of the business unit. So we're excited to be here. We're excited to get moving. Time's wasting. We're in the middle of the season. So excited to work with you, Mayor, and the council and the team, and Tom and the team to move this forward. Excellent. Thank you for joining us.

We really appreciate you being here tonight.

The last point also, Mayor, that I would like to make, if possible, is this is just your approval for us to start negotiating the agreement. I will still need to bring back the agreement for your approval once everything is set.

Right. This is just to kind of start that negotiation process. After going through the RFP, the review, the interviews, the rubric, the whole arduous process that we've gone through, Troon is the number one pick. based off of all of that. And so this is just authorizing you now to start negotiating a contract that will still have to come back to city council for final approval.

That is correct, Mayor.

Okay.

And one last thing. This is not turning over the golf course to a golf management company. The city still is the owner, still in the driver's seat, still has to approve operations. Troon is coming in to help us manage these courses and bringing their expertise to bear.

That is correct. We still have the golf development board or the golf board respect at that portion where we will still bring things item and then ultimately city council makes the final decision on any of the operational changes.

All right, excellent. Comments, questions? Okay, all right. We have a motion to approve items A through E. All those in favor of the motion raise your right hand. All opposed? All right, motion passes. Next item is other business. Any future items requested by the council? All right, hearing none, we'll move on to executive session. Can I get a motion to enter executive session? Second. Motion and a second. Any objection? Hearing none, motion passes. Time now is 8.03. We are entering executive session.

Item A, consultation with city attorney. Item B, consultation with city attorney regarding personal matters. Item C, discussion of possible action regarding the commands exchange or release of real property. Number one, project 1780. Item D, discussion of possible action regarding the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property. Number 1, 1101 North Doolittle Road.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

all right time is 8 47 we are coming out of executive session can i get a motion to get into the open so move second motion is second any objection hearing none motions approved uh we're back in open session uh mr city attorney based on the discussion is there any action items required mr mayor there are two action items that are needing action at this time the first would be item 14 c on the agenda for that

item i am recommending a motion authorizing the city manager to negotiate for the acquisition of the real property as discussed in executive session so move second motion is second any objection hearing none motion passes the last item mr mayor is item 14d for that i am recommending a motion to approve the real property purchase agreement and to have city manager move forward with effectuating that agreement as discussed in executive session so move

motion in the second and the objection to the motion hearing none motion passes any other action required there are no further action items required at this time all right no other business to discuss this meeting is adjourned