City Council - Regular Meeting

for all of us and uh and just be about our daily lives and uh continue to pour grace and mercy into our into our lives each and every day. God, we just ask that you would uh help us with the things that we are going to be discussing tonight that you would uh fill our hearts with love and compassion towards one another and that uh that you would uh that you would just be in the middle of all these conversations that we are about to take place in. We ask these in Jesus name. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Honor the flag. I pledge algiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Okay, I have uh several announcements to make tonight. Um, one is just remember that the city offices will be closed on Monday, May 25th in observance of Memorial Day. Uh, then Saturday morning, please be watchful for the many cyclists coming through Keen with Project Hero. They will stop briefly here at the community center for their breakfast and then continue on their ride. all are welcome to join us in welcoming them by gathering out in the parking lot at 8 o'clock in the morning uh on the anyway at 8 o'clock in the morning. Um several prop pro proclamations were issued on May the 1st to celebrate the city's hardworking employees. We encourage all of you to recognize the bravery of the Keen Fire Department, Fire and Rescue, and International Firefighters Day May 4th. We want to say thank you to the city secretary this week as May 3 through 9ine is recognizing as municipal clerk's week. Thank you, Holly. The week of May 10 through 16th is National Police Week and we encourage all of you to say a prayer for all of our first responders. May 17th through 23rd is National Public Works Week. We definitely want to thank the team that gets down and dirty to keep our city infrastructure working. And then finally on May 13th, I will be giving a proclamation in recognition of Miss Ruth Just who is retiring after more than 35 years of teaching. That's a long time. I hear she's a great teacher. Does council have any other events they wish to announce?

No one has anything to announce? Okay. Any person in attendance who wishes to speak to the city council on an item not posted on the agenda shall speak during this time. A speaker card should have been filled out already and given to the city secretary before the meeting. Each speaker would be allotted three minutes. The Texas Open Meeting Act prohibits the city council from deliberating or taking action on any an item not listed on the agenda. City council may however receive your comments, ask clarifying questions and respond with facts and explain pausy. Anyone who wishes to speak to the city council on an item that is posted on the agenda can speak when the item is discussed. Is anyone wanting to say something without a card?

Okay, Mr. Rory Robinson, former mayor of King. Welcome, old guy.

Um, you're going to be talking about some acreage here in town that's currently zoned for agriculture, uh, requested to be zoned for single family dwelling. I don't really have an objection to that because people who own land ought to have the right to sell it. people who own land want to build on it. If they meet all the parameters, they ought to have the right to build on it. Um, the reason I'm here is because people that that live within 200 feet of that proposed development are supposed to get notification. I didn't get anything and some other people in the area didn't either.

So, you live within 200 feet of it? I do. I'm on the list. Did Nelly's Did y'all get letters? You did. Okay. So, some people did. I didn't. That's all I have to say really. Okay. Well, we appreciate you except for the fact that I' that it was noted to me earlier the the configuration of that property as such that the the lots are going to be very long and very skinny, which seems to be Yes, sir. And that is an agenda that we're going to be discussing. Yeah. It seem seems to be a wasted use of resources. Well, thank you for your comments.

That's really all I have to say. Thank each of you for being where you are. I've been there as well as where you are and and it's it's a thankless job in a lot of respects, but it's it's a very needed and and honorable thing. And more people have got to be involved with our city. That's just the fact. Thank you so much.

We we thank that too. Thank you so much. Okay. Okay. Next, uh there be any anybody else want to say something? Okay. Reports. These are informal reports only and no action is to be taken. First, we receive the quarterly financial investment reports for the months of January 1 through March 31st of 2026 from Maril Lamb, our finance director. Good evening, mayor, council, residents of

Keen. Okay. Um, let's start. I'm always happy when I can bring good news. Mara, your voice is so soft. I can barely hear you. Oh, okay. Can you hear me now? Can all you hear in the back? Can everybody hear me? Much better. Much better. Thank you. I was saying that I'm always happy to bring good news. Oh, good. We're happy to good news.

And I don't want to miss out. Lord Jesus, if you don't praise, the rock will cry out. I'm going to praise right now because he is good. Okay, let's start. Um, year to date. That would be the second one, two, three, three. The third column from the left. I never point at this, Holly. Anyway, the third column from the left down where it says 4,900,49.13, that's where we are with our revenue, which is 11% over our budget. And if you ask me why is that, Mera? Okay, so we're going to go through that. Uh, so I noted here uh that it is 11% over our budget. It is also 16% more if you compare it to the same fiscal period last year. So it's we're doing really good. Uh the contributing factors to this is if you see the first line no the first line where it says general revenue. That's the bucket where our property tax lives and our sales tax live, our franchise tax, our franchise fees, our all that good stuff. So, it looks like, well, it's not looks like, it's looking like we are collecting 7% more of our property tax than last year. You'll see it like in the in the slides to come. And if we compare it to the 2023 2024, we're actually collecting 10% more. And this is why we all know why the value went up and all that good stuff. And so that's that's the good news. That's what's driving the revenue up. Also, the fire department revenue is the same trend as last quarter. If you remember, they're up by 48% compared to last year. Uh overall, this ambulance

services and the county emergency district are up by 31% and 66% respectively. And I think it's because of a increase of costs. Correct. Um Okay. And uh last but not least, down the bottom, the line where it says 130, development services department, uh their revenue is up by 116% and that's $142,000 more compared to last year. Though year to date, they're still six uh% under budget. Um, I do I do work with Maggie. We have Maggie here today and with Amber, I do have their reports. So, I just I'm just going to share just because I think it's good um information to have. Um, in the month of January and to March, we processed 74 permits, which 58 uh of which is a new residential building permits. So you will see more houses coming. Ain't that good news? Okay. Next, uh this is just to show you um the trend of the property the property tax. Uh uh as you can see the yellow is uh current year. The green is previous year I mean last year and the blue is 2023 2024. You can see there was a remember there was a different um pattern if you would uh we were expecting all the money to come in December and it didn't but look what happened in January just went completely up and by now like I said compared to last year 7% we collected 7% more and compared to 2324 we collected 10% more same uh same pattern just later on Okay,

any questions? Okay, moving on. Uh oh, there it is. That's that's you don't have that. I'm sorry, but I just wanted to show. So, basically the the space between the orange line and the blue line and the purple line. That's where I was saying the 7% and 10%. You can see it better if you look at it this way. And this is next sales tax. Um, we're actually doing really good with our sales tax, too. Um, I don't have it ready there because I just pulled the numbers today. If you see, so sales tax is always going to be two months behind. As you can see, I only have February, but today I got the March numbers. So, how it see the orange one is our current year. You see how it's like it went down, but I'm happy to report it goes back up. Yeah, it was 95,000 in the month of February and in March it was it is 119,000. Um, just to share this is really amazing you guys. Um, the two new businesses that came in last year, remember them? We can't talk about them but you know who they are. And um, they are currently the top third and fourth taxpayer. Ain't that neat? And um, the number one taxpayer is a manufacturing company. Look out. Someone else is coming.

Yes. Good. Great. Sorry, that was Yeah, no pressure. And uh number two is actually a remote taxpayer. So these are like online. If you get delivery, we get the tax. This is who this is where we are. So number one is a manufacturing. Number two is an online remote taxpayer. Number three and four are the new businesses that remain nameless that came last year. We're doing pretty good. Yes, sir. So, is the green line our budget? So, we're running low.

Not yet. Yes. That's that's just where that is where Sorry, that's a year to date. Um, so I actually have a note here. I need to update this slide to show your today. I'm sorry. I'll be better next month. Um, next quarter. So, I'll show I think the I think the better way to show this is to show your today in comparison to the budget. And I'll do that next quarter, sir. Yes. Thank you for noticing. Okay. Next, um, we have our expense. Uh, the good news is, uh, we are 3% under budget. Sorry, Councilman Easy, did you put your hand up? Oh, okay. Scratch.

Okay. So, we're actually 3% under budget. Um by the end of March 31st I think we're all trying to prudently managing um our expenses. At the end of March we are or we ended at what is it 1.5 our revenue was 1.5 million more than our expenses. So we're doing pretty good you guys. And that is 4% more than that what was budgeted. And we compare it to last year it was 100. It's $16,137 more than than last year. Any questions? Okay, moving on. That's great.

Cash in investment reporting. Um, it's just something that I feel like I need to report just the big account. um the pool cash account at the end of March we are at approximately 1 point sorry 3.5 and uh we have collected um interest 31,000 by March and the average year-to- date interest rate is 3.78 now it is 0.09% 09% less than what it was last year. And this is our reserve um money market account. Uh we ended at $2,89,84.74. We have the same uh u interest rate and we collected $18,000 $18,434.92 in interest. This is everything that we have. Uh the first line I've already mentioned pool cash. The second line is the city of Keen money market that I just also um mentioned. This is so neat. Metal plate. Look at that. The third one that number 1.3 million. The addition was y'all. So you could see this is the difference that they made like to our bank account. Thank you so much. and EDCB uh was at $682,15129. Our flexible spending account, that's where we put all our money and when we use our FSA card, we we swipe, it's where that's where it's taken out. Uh street rehab is still at 80,000. We have not uh we have not made the decision whether, you know, to move the 100,000 at the end of the year yet. So at the end of the at the end of March, a total cash was at 77.709824.

Any question? It does look good. Sorry, I said it does look good. It does look good. Thank you. Thank you. So where's that 100K sitting then for the street fund? Um pull cash. Pull. Thank you. Yes, it's still on the books. It just hasn't been transferred. Yeah, it just hasn't been changed. We're very aware. Does that Does that have to be done by way of us by making a motion? No, we're just still cleaning up. Yeah, it's Yeah, it's it it will get transitioned. We're just waiting until we, you know, Okay.

get some other things cleared up. Yes.

Okay. So um oh this is this is water sewer the fun part. Okay. So again, if we look at Jonathan's science third from the left, if you go down and you see parentheses 48,6165.74 um that is that means that we're in the red um year to date for our water sewer. And um I I have explained there why uh we're generally generating a lot more revenue. We are monitoring the water swap the water swaps the blank meters every month. As of where are my notes? At the end of March, we had 338 um blank meters still. And as of a couple of days ago, it's at 267. And we have people uh Derek and his team, public works, are going out every month and every No, I mean, don't get people in trouble. They go out every week uh to get the meter swap. But I think what well, what I'm seeing the problem is the revenue is not where we want it. and our expenses are continuing to go up because now we're purchasing more water from Jed.

Well, and and just to kind of speak on this a little bit more, so this morning I was out driving around and saw a bunch of our public works guys and I was stopping by to say hi. And so we had five, six people today that they were putting in anywhere from seven to 10 an hour. Um they're really making a push to get all these current. So I do appreciate Derek and his team for doing this. The other thing you have to remember is that we do we do have that pump down that we're also having to so when you have I think we have two pumps down right we have two pumps down right now that we're working on and so anytime you have that you're going to have to buy more from JSA to compensate for that. So instead of using our water we're having to use others but we are addressing it. We are you know as you all are aware we're getting these things fixed. Um it just takes time. Right now, our holdup has been that the the part bought just doesn't,

you know, fit right there. So, they're having to get a custom piece made that we're waiting on that should be here in about a week. And so, once that's done, it'll be up and running again. So, what about the other one? The second it's um that's same thing like we have the part to fix it but you have to you know the problem is these things go out every 10 years or when these parts go out every 10 years things have changed and so of course they're not engineered to just like I said screw right back on. So we have all the pieces to fix it we just don't have the part to marry it to the system.

Correct. So that's what we're waiting on right now. Once that's back in place and with ease, we should be back back to normal. Any questions for me? Well, just a big concern and that is that we we $48,000 in the hole for the year, but we're 98,000 down just for a month. Can we recover from that? Oh, yeah. I think we can. I mean, our our normal spend with Jay said 30 around 30,000 and right now we're doing 60,000. Wow. So, I mean, that's that's a pretty big jump, right? It is.

We we'll have a better feel once we have these things, you know, we're back on top of them, but at at the end of the day, we're we're still in a good place. It's not I'm not losing any sleep over it right now. So, it's not time to do a water survey. No, please. No. I have a I have a question. based on based on the grant money with the pumps that are going down purchasing water. Can that be used towards that because that's a viable need that I'm I'm just asking.

No, it really has to go to towards your systems, your water mitigation, you know, those types of things. So, okay. Um, but I'm thankful for that TWWDB grant because, you know, some of these fixes we are able to use for. So, yeah, I just didn't know if we could purchase the water as well because that's kind of a a necessity and you wouldn't want to do that anyway because I mean, you want to invest in your infrastructure, not, you know, it's kind of it's a onetime expense right now. So, okay, that's all I've got.

Well, are are other wells in good condition? Yeah. And if you the when that other one went down, I asked him, "Are we going to have this other problem?" He says, "The other wells have all been, you know, replaced in the last the next one shouldn't go down if it sticks to typical life cycle. Shouldn't be six or six or seven years before we have another problem like this." So, okay, that's good to know. Thank you. Thank you. Did anyone else have any questions for Meera? Okay. Um, we'll have the city manager's comments now.

Okay. Well, just again I want to say thank you again to Mirror and her team because um they really are they're doing a lot of work right now um to get things the house in order. So, um thank you very much Meera and your team. Um all right. So, I'm going to try to do this quick because I know we have a lot a lot on on here. So, um I did want to point out uh that the S SW uh duck, better known as the duck pond in Keen, they're actually doing the uh sidewalk dedication. If you notice there, the university paid to have a sidewalk put around it. Um which was large in part because of Ann and her husband as well as well as the graduating class from this year. Um they're dedicating it to um uh Whiz Anne Sabul Buru, which he goes by Whiz. um he he died during fall break in October. So, um we they had invited us, but because we had public hearings and things, I I didn't feel like we could well, we can't legally move things around. So, I just wanted to uh publicly let them know that our hearts are with them. Um you know, it's an exciting but also a sad a sad moment to for for him. He was a great kid and really up and coming. So,

um I also you mentioned Project Hero already, but I just wanted to add a couple things here. Um, I would love for again the community to come and support this. Uh, but this is our 15th year supporting this event. Um, and and if if you haven't attended, it is a really neat thing to to witness and be a part of. Um, I wanted to give a big thank you to Allison and our police department. She every year organizes this. Um, as well as the Pathfinders. They come in and they actually cook for the riders. Um, they don't provide food for everybody, but they do provide for the riders before they head on to their final stop. Um up up update on the downtown revitalization uh grant. Um we are still currently ranked five in stage one. We are moving into stage two. Uh the top eight will receive the $1 million grant with a 50,000 um uh what's it called? Um matching. Thank you. Thank you. Uh $50,000 match. Um but again only eight cities out of the you know hundreds and hundreds that have applied for this. It's looking good for us. So, we're still working hard to get that uh for our community that will add money to for the park, trying to get a a road for congestion put in and then also look at lighting and those types of things. So, okay. To clean up the downtown comprehensive plan grant that you all are aware of the 250. Uh the field work data is done for housing existing land use and drainage. Um they're compiling that and then they're just now wrapping up the street assessment. um they've been in our our um city for the last couple weeks. Soon as they get the 25% complete, they will hold a uh a town hall to give every us an update. So that should be coming here pretty soon. Uh another update, the Larazzo Park, that's the new little pocket park over on fourth. Uh all items presented to BB board by Carrie Warwick. Thank you, Carrie, for continuing to kind of lead this charge. uh were approved which

include perimeter fence, lighting, picnic bench, trash can, swing set um with safety underground cover that will safely entertain up to seven children at a time. So, u making some strides there. Um subdivision uh Stonehurst subdivision, the one behind us here is officially um underway. They have three um uh three foundations that are already ready to be poured with three more in permitting. Um, and so, uh, Lenar is the home builder, same as Ashton, right? Yep. Okay. And three of the four, that means three of the four of our communities are still are are going to be going. And so far, uh, the other, uh, Canyons and, um, Ashton, what are they? They're going into like about to go into phase two, correct? Yeah. So, the phase one is almost full. So, houses are still selling in our community. Um, which is good for us uh, for growth. Um, two things that weren't on. Um, Paul not asked me to read something since he could not be here tonight. So, um, I will read that real quick. Um, at the last city council meeting, it was requested that those interested in planning the Memorial Day ceremony meet April 6th at city hall to discuss the ceremony. 10 people attended the meeting, including seven military veterans. It was decided to reschedule the Memorial Day ceremony to Veterans Day for these reasons. Number one, the extreme heat on May 25 makes the outdoor ceremony uncomfortable and is dangerous. Number two, the number of veterans um interred in Key Memorial Park who died in service is limited and each has already been recognized and honored in previous year previous years. Memorial Day, May 25th, is a three-day weekend and traditionally the start of the vacation season. Many potential attendees are out of town. The committee decided to move the ceremony to Veterans Day because the weather will be cooler. Veterans Day is a Wednesday in 2026 midweek um when people are not away. Keen schools and universities will be in

in session providing additional assistance honoring veterans including includes all military service personnel those who served and returned and those who gave their lives. Holding the ceremony at the 11th hour of the 11th day on the 11th month allows the planning committee time to secure the necessary funds to pay expenses. Previously, they the event was self-funded and there currently there's currently no money or budget for the ceremony. While you are encouraged to honor on Memorial Memorial Day those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country, the organized ceremony honoring all military veterans will be at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, November 11th at Keen Memorial Park. And then lastly, um, one more kind of house cleaning item. Um, Republic, uh, services, uh, you know, we have that contract with them and it's based and it's tied to the consumer price, water, um, sewer trash index. It came in. So, they are going to be increasing their rates by 4.9%. And to put that in perspective, for a household, that's uh, 72 cents per month. So, um, they're anyway, just wanted to make the community aware of that. Um, oh, Derek, I guess he's watching at home, our public works director, he text me to let her know that 97 meters were changed today.

Wow. So, yeah, really. So, good job. Anyway, great things are continuing to happen as we're looking forward to Metal Plate presenting here tonight. Um, we've got more businesses that are coming. So, just stay tuned and um we've we're blessed. The Lord is blessing and in our community and I'm excited for for the things that uh will be happening here. So, any questions for me? I have I have one. Yeah. And it's only because I'm not on social media enough to know, but uh I know a couple weeks ago with that storm that just came in that the trash truck that we typically have wasn't able to wasn't able to be used. Were they able to get that one fixed yet or are we still in that

uh that mode? I No, from what I understand, they've been fixed. And so, just so you all are aware, I got a call from Republic at 7:30 the morning after, and those new trucks are actually parked where the commercial trucks are. and that lot where they're all parked was hit so bad that hail took out all the windshields mirrors and and so you know they called the 7:30 and and then she's like I'm going to call you again and I got another call at 8:45. So they were very communicative

um and uh um and the funny thing is is I'm getting a follow-up call that afternoon and as she's telling me, "Well, we think we have people in place. I'm watching a Republic truck go past my office window." I said, "Well, the good news is they're here." So they they kind of borrowed trucks from other places. They were pretty much back on schedule the next day and from what I understand they had all everything repaired in their trucks in less than 48 hours. Wow. So yeah. Yeah. They have good partners somewhere. So anyway, well they're great. They're great. I think they've done a really good job for us. So any other questions of Mr. Sites?

I've got one in regards to water. Are we looking or should we be concerned about putting on our radar additional sources of water? Are you drilling another well, buying one?

That's actually in our TWWDB grant that was in our proposal. So, we kind of have this one place where there's a well but no holding tank and we have another place that there's a holding tank but no well. Normally, you have to kind of buy an area of land and put both of those things in one place. So what we're hoping and what we're trying to do is use that same amount of money that it would take but put a holding tank and a well and that would actually kind of almost get two for the price of one. Um there's not a real concern as far as capacity right now. Um but with the growth we are trying to get out in front of it. So it is built into the TD TWWDB grant that we received.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Uh, we're going to go to consent agenda. All items listed below have been previously discussed, require no deliberation, or are routine by the city council. I may be enacted with one motion. Uh, consider approval of the minutes of the regular Keen City Council meeting held on April the 2nd of 2026. Council, do you wish to remove this one item for discussion or is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda item 5A. I have a motion to approve the agenda item.

I'll second. Okay. And I have a second. All those opposed or all those for it? Okay. Those opposed. Okay. It is carried. I abstain. Well, I wasn't here. Oh, you weren't here. Okay.

Wasn't looking back. Okay. And then, uh, we have public hearing items. Uh, we're hold a public hearing to hear citizens comments and hold a discussion on a zoning change request from Agriculture AG to signal single family residential SF2 submitted by Nathan Bowers and Ambition Group LLC for the following property. It's a 9.270 acre tract of land located in the Jeremiah Williams survey abstract number 890 within the city of King Johnson County, Texas. gonna get to hear from Don Martin.

Did you open the public hearing and make a note time give the background on it real quick and then she can open the public hearing or however you want to do it. Open the public hearing. Give the background and then Well, you've got on your agenda that you're going to have the public hearing. Yeah, it open. So, I would say let's do the public hearing. Okay. So, we're opening the uh agenda at 6:34.

As you can see from the map, uh this is located off of County Road 805. You have to wait. So the way it's supposed to go is you open the public hearing and ask if anybody is here to speak on the subject matter that the public hearing is for and then it's up to Don if he wants to talk first or ask you know have the that part doesn't matter to me but when you open the public hearing you do have to ask if anyone is here to speak on the subject matter of the public hearing. Okay. Are there any citizens that want to make a comment on this? Okay, we have one.

So, I'm available to address for any questions. Okay. It's available for any questions. Does council have any questions? Oh, yes. Sorry. Please, sir. My name is Adam Bartell's and I represent Ambition Group. So um you know as I think Don's going to describe we're looking to subdivide this into approximately two acre two to threeacre lots um to provide um some additional residential options uh to kind of facilitate the growth city without sacrificing the uh estate style acreages in that area there. Now this is the one that has the four lots that are very long and narrow. Yes.

Okay. So, since you're the only person that's come forward, you can close the public hearing. Okay. And then Don will give the presentation and then the gentleman that is the owner will be able to answer your questions and if he wants to come up and Okay. There being no further comments from the public, I now close this public hearing at 6:36 p.m. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council. Good evening, Don.

How you doing? Okay. So, this is a 9.27 acre track of land. It's over there off of County Road 805. I know some of you had a chance to go look at it. Um, I can walk over here and show you real quick. Which one geography Question there, my friend. Excuse me, Don. How much frontage? Uh, commercial frontage does that have? It's not non commercial. It's all residential right now. It's zoned agriculture.

Okay. There's no commercial on County Road 805. Okay, that's what I thought. Okay.

As you can see, those colors, the the green that is agriculture. the kind of down in the far left corner that fuchsia I don't know what color that is that is single family estate um the blue color is single family one and then the the yellow is public which is university property the rest is in the county so I I know it's kind of hard to see, but on your map there they want to do is divide that into, you know, they came to me and says, "Hey, we want to make four or five lots and do this." Well, the only way to make it fit was according to our zoning, each lot has to have an x amount of road frontage. So, to make this work for single family 2, the minimum square or the minimum road frontage for single family 2 is 75 ft wide. Single family one is 100 feet wide and single family three is 60 feet wide. Well, these are a little over 81 feet I believe on the width of those. They are a little bit longer, but that was really the only way to do it without making it a large subdivision, putting streets and infrastructure and all that. So, yes,

it seems kind of strange to have them so long and narrow because if someone puts a house on there, then with it not being any more frontage than that, would they be able to have they would just backyard 1.78 acres. They'll have a big backyard. Big backyard. Yeah. But you couldn't put people like that. You couldn't put a horse there because it takes two acres. So, what? Anyway, it just seems strange to me. What's the square footage on an SF2? Uh, the minimum on the house, the minimum square footage

15, 1500, I believe. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Judy needs one and then I need one.

No, I don't have one. So, if you see this is from our code of ordinances. A would be agriculture would be the first column. SF would be single family estate. Uh SF1 would be single family one and single family two is what we thought would fit for to make this property work if we platt it the way they wish to. But it has to be zoned that before we can do that. So single family 2 it says the maximum height is 35 ft. Sideyard is 7 1/2 ft. Rear yard is minimum 20 feet or the setback uh front yard is 30. Um the lot area for SF2 is 10,000. These are over 40 some odd thousand square feet lot size. Um the minimum lot width is 75. They are 81 plus. The minimum lot depth is 100 ft.

They have to have 15% of green space. I don't think they have an issue with that. And then on the second page a minimum house size is 1500 square feet. So if we zone this to single family too, they have to build a minimum of 1500 square foot and stick bit stick built house. Can't be mobile, can't be tiny homes. Can't be mobile homes. What was the first one? Can't be what? Uh tiny homes. You said three though. You said can't be something then. Mobile homes. Mobile homes. Tiny homes. Tiny homes. I forget what I said. Play back.

Rewind the tape. I want I want to I want to replay a baseball space. You should get that right. God bless. It has to be a stick build house. So, and then have brick or some kind of masonry outside like we that that law was changed I believe in 2018. So, as long as it meets the it's an allowable material, the international building code, they can use it. Okay. Any other questions? Do you have any questions for the They can build something larger than a 1500 square feet house.

You can. Yes. Yes. That just has to be a minimum that size house.

What's the typical lot size when you have 81 feet wide? What's the typical depth? I mean, it varies, okay? Because I So, I did some math. 10,000 square feet, that's the minimum square footage for SF2. At 81 feet, it's 123 feet deep. We're 10 times that. Yeah. So, was there never thought about dividing it into eight 1acre lots? You can't do it because of the road frontage. We put a street in. Sure. At a million dollars. Yeah. Just then you got to have fire hydrants and water and sewer and

Yeah. So, are we not going to have fire hydrants here? They we we also don't we have nowhere sewer isn't it's going to take quite a bit of investment to get sewer there too. Yeah. Oneacre lot. You can do a sew your own septic tank. So, just seems like I don't know. Bad use of of a lot of land. It's it's their land. I know. But it's our city to we're we're entrusted to make wise decisions for this city. We're here asking if it can be reszone to this. It meets all the minimum requirements to be reszoned to this. I know there's a house on Santa Fe Street. They can't get in the garage. It got approved. Was that wise?

I don't know what you're talking about. Santa Fe Street. the house. It's 15 feet from the property line. Side facing garage. When was it built? Last year. Three years ago. Three years. May have been started three years ago. It was finished last year. Well, what do you mean they can't get in the garage? It's 15 feet from the fence to the garage face. You can't even It's You can't even possibly turn into your own garage. Not unless you have a Mini Cooper. I'm just your new house. We've made some bad decisions in the past and I don't want to make bad decisions in the future. So, we're going according to our ordinance.

I'm just wondering about the I don't know if legality is the correct term or not, but just in in the matter of doing the right thing since Mr. Robinson didn't receive a letter, does that could we not table this thing until he gets a letter? Uh, according to, and maybe she can answer this more eloquently than I can, we are required to put it in the paper, which we did, and we're required to mail letters, first class mail, which we did, and he is on the list to get a letter. We don't have any control over the post office. And then I believe the law also says that you have to just prove that you mailed it. So if he if

it's presumed mailed when you stick it in the mailbox. That's the way it's interpreted.

And I believe it states I'm not sure if that's ordinance or state law that says them not receiving a letter does not disqualify the fact that was sent. I mean, as long as the the city has complied with the local government code, and it has, and as long as the city has complied with the city ordinances, and it has, then there's nothing that voids the the action of the PNC. I mean, not to mention that administratively um the manpower hours that goes into u the review, the planning and zoning, the getting ready. So, we've already spent taxpayer dollars and we've paid for the publication, which is usually several hundred dollars. So,

So, we're just here for a rubber stamp. No, you're not here for a rubber stamp. Oh, no. But, but but the analysis is whether or not the city has complied with law. The answer is the city has complied with law. That's why you get a vote. That's that's your the rubber stamp. Mr. Bartelli is is the developer or the one purchasing this property. Is that correct, Don? We own the property. Okay. Could you tell us a little bit what what you plan to do with it? Our plan is to if this is

microphone microphone. Um if the replay is approved is to sell to developers um to let them develop on it. So they could go in there and they could come in then and ask later to maybe put a street in there and have eight one acre estates there. They have to replant it. They have to go through the platting process here. Well, I know, but I'm just asking if No, I mean our intention is to sell four different plats to individual people that want to build a home or long strips. Yeah. To to a developer. Okay. Well, thank you for that.

Excuse me. So, has anybody come up with any kind of ideas on how they're going to make their homes work on that type of property and uh what the next homeowner on at the next say aisle is going to look like? I mean, how will there be any kind of uniformity at all? Well, the uh I mean, the 80t width is still a good size width for for the home sites. It's comparable to most of what's around there. So, it's not, you know, they're going to be on top of each other. They just like you said have a big backyard which is mostly wooded forest area now anyway. So to me like if I had that home my kids would have a blast going exploring the woods in the back there but they they are deep.

So right thank you. Any other questions on that? Is it is it Keen water that supplies that property? Yes.

Okay. And we don't have how far away is sewer? Uh, I know it's more than 300 feet and that's what our ordinance is. I want to say it's probably about 7 to 700 to 1,000 ft away. Um, if you look at these four developments we just brought in, those lots are 60 feet wide by 100, 110, 120. So, this is a lot wider than that. Yes, they're a lot longer. Okay. Are there any other questions?

How big of a lot can you put a tiny horse on? A tiny horse? I'm not I don't know the ordinance on livestock. Don't have it memorized. All right. Okay. Mr. Kelly, thank you so much.

I kind of agree that it's an unusual setup, but by the same token, it could be somebody buying all the nine acres and putting whatever they wanted on there, you know. So, it can't be a tiny home. It can't be a mobile home. It has to be a stick home. So, With my apologies to those who have expressed a negative on this, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we change it to um SF2. Okay. I think

there would you please um just change the order. Could you just say that we're going to address item 7A right now to enable the vote on this matter so we don't bounce back and forth? Yeah. Council, does the PNZ need to come and make their report? We have our chairman here to report their recommendation on this. Not unless your ordinance says that, does it? It does. That they must give a report or their recommendation to the council. Is it in the packet? No, it's a verbal. Okay. And yeah, why is that Mr. Jackson? So,

the first Thank you, city council. Um yeah, PNZ met on uh April 13th and considered the um uh request uh from the ambition group. Um Mr. part was was there and presented pretty much the same information and it was explained to us the reason for the narrowness of the lots was to at least incorporate the 75 ft minimum that uh is required for single family too.

Can you move closer to the mic please? Thank you. and uh he was the only one that spoke to that matter and um I think believe there were four or five of us present for the commission meeting Holly and it was all u recommended to send it to y'all for your consideration with a positive approval and pretty much else everything else has pretty much been discussed. So that is your recommendation? Yes. Uhuh. Okay.

So then we can go ahead and do the motion now. put into the minutes that you're going to consider item 7A before the other public hearing because when we go back like a year or five years from now and we try to understand what happened, we're usually listening. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, do we have a motion? Oh, Holly, do you want to read that, please?

So, for this meeting, um, item 7A is going to be considered before public hearing. Item 6B. Item 7 A review, review, discuss, and consider action on the zoning change request submitted by Nathan Bowers of Ambition Group LLC by ordinance. I'm sorry. Well, yeah. Is there any discussion on this?

You can ask if there's a motion. Mayor, go ahead and ask. Is there a motion on this? Yes. Is there a motion on this? zoning change request submitted by Nathan Bowers and Ambition Group. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the change the zoning change from agriculture to SF2.

Okay. Do I have a second? Okay. Should we table table table this for another meeting? It dies. The motion fails. Okay. Wow. Now we're going back to 6B. Mayor, I'm sorry.

Now we're going back to item six. Item six. Okay. This public hearing on item six. hold a public hearing to um citizens comments and hold a discussion on joint change request from agriculture AG to single family residents SF2 submitted by Nathan Bowers. This is the same one the 9.27 acres. No 6B is the four different parcels from Mr. Griffin. Okay. Hi.

Okay. It's hold a public hearing to hear citizen comments and hold a discussion on a zoning change request from single family residential SF2 to commercial district office and light retail C2 submitted by Dan Griffin with Provident Land Investors LLC for the following four properties. A 2.014 014 acre tract of land located in the J. Pennington survey abstract number 701 and the DMsy survey abstract number 567 within the city limits of King Johnson County, Texas. A 2.824 824 acre tract of land located in the JP Pennington survey abstract number 701. The DMIS survey abstract number 567 and the BBBNC Railroad Company survey abstract number 114 within the city of Keen Johnson County, Texas. A 2.03 acre traffic plan located in the J Pennington survey abstract number 701 within the city of Keen Johnson County, Texas. And a 1.6 61 acre tract of land located in the J Pennington survey abstract number 701 and the David Misa survey abstract number 567 within the city of Keen Johnson County, Texas.

Okay, you're going to open the public hearing. Opening the public hearing at 6:56 p.m. Are there any citizens who want to make a comment on this? No comments. Public hearing. What was it? 656. 657. Excuse me. Uh council um hold it further discussion and consider the motion during item 7B.

6B. Oh, it said 7. Okay. 6B. Sorry. We can move on to general 7B now, which is where we're at. The ordinance. That's where we're at. Okay. General counsel to review and discuss the zoning changes. should be you familiar with this property? Kind of familiar with it.

Um the property is located Highway 67 across from all slips. The city's current comprehensive plan. See if I can Did you already move it? Yeah. Sorry. I wasn't paying attention. um shows this to be a combination of Highway 67 corridor and regional center use. This was brought before council back in February of 2025 and a couple of residents objected to commercial zoning next to their residential properties. The crest was the request was neither approved or denied by council since no consensus could be made. the developers and residents met and have reached an agreement um to leave some of the properties zoned residential as a buffer. Approval of the reszone will provide great highway 67 furnish with the ability to have retail or office space and provide sales and property tax revenues. The planning and zoning commission and staff recommended approval of this item. Um, and you'll see all this information in your packet. Um, are you familiar with this? Do I need to walk over there and play Vanna White?

No, I'm very familiar with it. You can't play Vanna White.

Probably not. Um, but you can you can kind of see there is the the road that comes down has a culde-sac and the other one that goes kind of off to the right there. Um, it's those properties there. The ones in yellow, those are actually owned by the city um as for a sewer easement. So, what he's looking at is those one, two, three, four, as you kind of see on this next page is turning those into commercial. If you look at the very front little sliver on the left hand side of the street, um it's already zone commercial.

John, this is the one where they have the two two sections that they're going to remain as residential because of the people that own the homes near to, right? So, what they proposed and what they met and I will walk over here now. Okay. propert.

Thank So, they're they're back here again asking to do that. And I thought we had the comprehensive plan map in there. But I think it's in your packet, which would be this one here, I believe. Future land use scenarios. You kind of see that one. It's about halfway back in this gigantic stack of papers. Okay. Oh, maybe says 7.4 future land use. And you can see that whole area there along 67 according to our comprehensive plan that was done page 119. Look at you.

Look all.

Ah, yeah. Good job. Thank you, Holly. Page 119. Um, it's zoned highway 67 corridor and it's also zoned or you know in our comprehensive plan is regional center which I believe I had the definition on one of these pages there as well which is in your packet which is on page 121. Thanks Ollie. It talks about future land use categories. Talked about neighborhood neighborhood centers. Um where's the other one? Restaurant theaters offices.

Right. So that was the plan of the city 101 15 years ago when they did their comprehensive plan which we're in the future of doing now. And as you know it's right across from all subs. This is one of the busiest intersections and someday it would be nice to have the whole area commercial. Yeah, it would be nice. Did you have anything you wanted to add?

I would just uh introduce myself. My name is Steve Reid. I'm I represent um the property owner here. And uh you know, I think I think Don's done a a great job of kind of laying out, you know, where where we're at. We're we're back again for the second time because we just I guess got deadlocked the first time. But I think the big issue the first meeting was there were a couple of property owners that were uh concerned. So we've we've gone back and met with them and kind of reached this compromise. Um and uh I think importantly uh we are u the request that we're making is and is honoring your current uh land use plan. So we're asking you to allow us to do uh uh what we want to do with the property u in accordance with what you've told us that the way that you want to see the property developed uh in the future. So, our our request is very consistent and spot on with your current land use plan and um we're we're of course asking for for approval of this zoning change. I'm glad to answer any questions.

Do you have any tenative plans or are you looking is you're just doing this and basing it for the future? We do not have any u uh plans. Um, essentially it's it's for sale. It's Yes, it's for sale. If you ask me, I'd say probably um I'm not asking specifics. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Gen, you know, you're looking at at selling it or building retail or building something that fits that area. Retail. I think retail is what it's Yeah. the the right of way, the road is is a is really it's barely a road, right?

Uh there's no plans at this time to improve that. Not at this time, but you know the road improvement of course would be driven by by the sale of the land or the usage of the land at that time. Yes, sir. But it remains a rightaway. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I have a question for Don.

Okay. on this bottom on the bottom corner residential area. It goes to a point at the very top there where a future road might actually intersect right there. Um I know that's not current right now, but if that's the end of his property, how do you how do you get an entrance into a into a residential place if it if it goes straight to a corner like that? You're like there's no no way for a driveway to get in there. That's that's correct. But um and I did mention that to them when they brought that to me. I said, you know, it's your land, but if someone did so there would there would have to be a road and it could possibly if we go back to the other map here. There is a road right there that kind of culde-sacs or a dedicated road. just not, you know, khichi right now

barely been that way for years. So there is a possibility to extend that and come in if a developer wanted to like I said the two in yellow the city owns those right now. The only reason we own those is because we had put a sewer line in along those railroad tracks and that was the only way to get it to easement at the time was just to buy both the parcels. So there is a possibility to come in from the backside if somebody wanted to make that residential or as far as I know they don't and maybe the future developer will honor the agreement that hey we're going to leave that a treat area as a buffer zone. So but that is a concern.

So that yellow land that the city owns is that zoned what? It's zoned public. So when the city owns it it's zoned public. Okay. It's owned by a public entity. So if the city chose to, they could sell that to an entity or a person and then it could be resolved appropriate. Okay. And we of course we'll slice off eight or 20 feet off the back of that for the easement. Right. Okay. Do we have any more discussion on this? Any more questions of Don? We have Mr. Jackson that needs to make the recommendation from planning and zoning. I'm sorry.

Mr. Jackson needs to make the recommendation from planning and zoning. Yes, Mr. Jackson. Is that something in their bylaws? No, it's our ordinance and normally it was submitted by minutes in the packet.

Yes, I checked the ordinance while we're sitting here. It's the same ordinance all my cities have. The report, it just says report. It doesn't say verbally report. So you could do it the way my other cities do it, which is that the planning and zoning commission writes a report and we put it in the packet. Uh it's up to you. So what what's been going on is your practice, not your ordinance. So it is absolutely common every single city PNZ reports to city council, but it's normally in your packet in writing. So if in our packet here it just says under recommendation the P&Z commission and staff recommend approval of this item. Is that sufficient? That's a report. Yeah, that's a

but that would came from me, not the chair. But that's still a report. So I literally have cities that the PNZ chairperson tells the city secretary it's a recommendation or the city manager that it's a recommendation and then they put it in the packet that it's a recommend recommendation. I don't like doing it that way. I like it when your PNZ writes a report at the end of their PNZ meeting and hands it to the city secretary and then that would be in your packet so you could read that ahead of time. Okay. We're not trying to not let you talk here, Phil. Just we're just trying to find more than figure this out. Clarification a streamlined way to make us as efficient as possible. Well, could we do that going forward then? Could we request that, Phil?

Yeah, we can. And she did ask and I said, "Well, I can be here." So, no, but I mean like you'd write it in a report and that way it'll be in our packet so we could read it ahead of time. Yeah, it can be done. All right. Thanks, sir. Let's do that.

Um, I will uh clarify a few things. So, on these track two and track three where part of this is considered residential, that'll stay single family too until somebody comes along later and requests to change that zoning. So, you're not changing the zoning um uh for the homeowners on the that live east of there where it's already a single family, too. Um as Mr. Reid pointed out, they acquies to a bit of a buffer zone there. Um and so the only parts that are being considered, you know, for commercial development are the ones that say commercial in your schematic. and plus the road or the rightway for a road. That's one separate tract of the four total tracks that you have there. We did have the one homeowner um living just east of track three uh that made a presentation or or a comment and he was in fact left off of the mailing list and we hopefully have that worked out to where um that won't happen again in future. zoning requests or reasonzoning requests, but I had reached out to a family member and notified them and he and he made his, you know, presence based on that.

He was here at the last meeting, correct? He was here on the 13th of for our for our meeting.

Um, and so basically that's uh that's the only complications or concerns that uh anybody had. And if you'll notice, you know where the rideway in that little culde-sac area stops and only becomes half of a rideway. That's because Provident has half of that easement, you know. So, the gentleman with the land to the east of that southeast side of that property, you know that, you know, they haven't given up their rideway. They haven't provided a rideway or an easement. So, it'll remain whatever the current easement is, which is basically just a goat trail or something more or less at the moment. So, just wanted to help explain that as well.

Now, the city owns the yellow one, the yellow part right there on that far. And so, there's a culde-sac there. Is that that's part of a culde-sac at the end of that road? Well, this Yeah, but this the tracks that they're talking about don't even uh the roads don't exist. They dead end. The road dead ends at where the public land begins and and other private land. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Do you have any questions?

May I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion we approve the zoning change from SF2 to C2. Okay. For all three tracks. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll second that.

Oh, did he? Bob did. Okay. Thank you, Bob. Bob second. Uh, all those in favor? Any abstain? Okay, it's passed. Thank you. Okay. um will receive a report from representative about metal plate detailing their business and plans for use of the industrial park property they purchased and discussion regarding the project and give directions to staff if any if you would please come forward and welcome to Keen.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, council. Um it's good to see familiar faces. Saw a lot of y'all on Tuesday. You have a slideshow. We got a fancy slideshow. So, I brought two guys y'all gonna know a lot better than me. Matt Presz is moving from Jacksonville, Florida. We'll be relocating to this area before school starts. He's got school age children. So, he'll be moving in July. And I is based out of Houston. He runs our everything west of the Mississippi. So, you will get to know these guys very well. I'll be here a lot, too. and Roy Schiker. He's the he's the guy that put together the really fancy slideshow, but you'll see him a lot too with technical department. We do everything internally. Um I'm not asking for anything. Y'all have given us more than we could have ever hoped. The show the showing at the groundbreaking was uh it definitely made an impression. We really appreciate the support. Uh we look forward to bringing a bunch of good paying jobs to to Keen to Johnson County. We look forward to being a great partner for y'all. And um uh I'm really excited. Jonathan asked for a quick quick and dirty who we are, what we do, why we're here. Um, we wrote one that's about a 45 minute one because this is city council and you'd like to have long meetings. We understand.

No.

And then Jonathan said, "Never mind. Make it seven minutes." So, we're g we're going to sprint through this pretty quick. Please holler any questions you have as we go. If you have questions afterwards, we're happy to answer and we're going to be here a lot. So, hopefully we'll see you around. All right. So, let's see if we can do this. All right. So, we hot dip galvanized steel. You drive up and down the interstate, um you see a lot of our work. Um this is stuff that wasn't galvanized. They painted it or didn't do anything to it. And that's what happens. So, if somebody's building a $3 billion LG export or $3 billion petrochemical plant, they're going to galvanize it because they don't want to start painting it immediately. Um so, in the south, when you spend a lot of money for infrastructure, it it usually gets galvanized. Um so, when it comes to us, this is what it looks like. These are pictures from our plants in the last week. It's kind of stuff that comes into our plants. It's what it looks like after we get done with it.

It's silver colored. It's like the galvanized trash cans you used to see. Um, this is it erected. So, this is where you see galvanizing a lot of places. The solar will do we will do a tremendous amount of solar in Keen, Texas from uh from environmentally uh friendly energy generation. You will see a lot of truckloads of solar pilings leave our plant and you see highway work, petrochemical um bleachers and surroundings for stadiums and that kind of so the process. So this is a little quick and dirty talks about so you we're chemical chemical reaction is what galvanizing is. I know you don't want me to walk through that but it's pretty you know we have bulk hydrochloric acid. We will have about 700,000 pounds of 850 degree molten zinc. It's all inside of a building. All got lots of secondary containment. Um but this is a chemical reaction process. That's what galvanizing is. It's a very simple um but you know my guys when it's hot we're outside and sweating. This is an outdoor kind of world that we live in and um but it works. It's it's a very simple process. They've been galvanizing for 250 years. It's been around a long time. Um we do it, you know, there is a there is a AM spec for us. I know you don't care about this, but it's just to show that galvanizing just you throw paint on it, it does whatever. We have certain specs we have to meet. We have text dots in our plant three or four times a week to make sure we adhere to all of that. This is the part that's fun for as a lay person who doesn't, you know, nerd out on it like I do. Y'all might get a kick out of this. So, most of what uh we do, I've been doing this for 35 years. Rolando's been doing this for 35 years. Matt's been doing it for 20 years. Mo everything we've done in my in my career is going to outlast me. Usually, it

lasts 50 years. Unless you're oceanront, it's going to last 50 years plus.

So, when we galvanize something at this plant, it's going to outlive all of us in this room. It's a It lasts an awfully long time. So, it's a great It's a great u our biggest competitor is paint. This is a quick and dirty thing. Basically, it says that at the bottom hot dip galvanizing 75 years paint 12 to 15 years. That's the nut and bolt out of that's how we stay in business. We last a long time. If you're going to spend $3 billion, you don't want it to last 12 to 15 years. You want it to last 75. So, that's our niche. Um, we're the largest indep independently basically employee own the only people that own metal plate work at Metal Plate actively. Um, I can't take my shares with me when I retire. So, that helps y'all as a community because what that says is uh you go to Matt Perez, he's an owner of Metal Plate. Whoever replaces Matt Perez when he retires, Matt won't take his shares with him. The new guy will. So, we are always motivated the people that work here to make sure we do what we're supposed to do. That's how we've kept growing. That's how we have have gotten the niche that we've got. Um, when we're in the market, we we do a good job. We change the market. We will bring work here that's not currently in this area. We will attract fabricators. People will usually gravitate to where we are. So, I I'm I'm you will be excited a decade from now to see what happens because of metal plate being here in our world. Um, so these are milestones. You don't see you don't really care a whole lot about this, but um, we started in the 30s. Um 49 was first plant in Birmingham. Um next plant in Birmingham was 62. Let's see how fast we can go through this. 70 we moved to Atlanta. 80 we moved to Jacksonville. That's where that's where Matt Perez is right now. 91 we moved to Houston. 99 we expanded in Houston. the reason this next slide and you see

all these years of service down here. Um, we've got a lot of guys. What we do when we hire somebody and we're we're we're interviewing at Southwest Adventist now. Matt is when we hire somebody, we hire them for a career. We don't hire them to work for a little while. Most of our people um our leadership team, we probably average about 25 years with the company. Um, wow.

We just don't leave. We're a unique beast in in our world. If you enjoy doing what we do, um, you stick. And uh it's it's a lot of fun. We we treat it like a family. Yes, we're a fairly large company, but it's it's that we don't have a lot of you know, I'm the I'm the guy that runs all the plants and between me and him, there's only him. So, we don't have a whole lot of bureaucracy. Um we don't do a lot of red tape. If we want to build a plant in Keen, it's me and three guys made the decision we were going to build a plant in Keen. So, it just doesn't take a lot of um time and effort to really say this is what we need to be doing. The reason I've got this picture is this is kind of what we envision. This is Houston. the Houston plants. Uh this is kind of what I envision us looking like up here if we do what I think we can do is two plants side by side with a colllocate. Now the the layout will be a little bit different, but u if if the market's what we think it is and we do what we do, hopefully we'll build a second plant. Um we got to kick butt with the first plant first, but uh that's what the plan is. So, we have we've designed and those of y'all that were at the groundbreaking, you saw that the plant was way on the other end off of 317. Um, and Jonathan has promised that the road will be constructed by the time we open the plant. Uh, so that we'll be in and out on 317. Us and Ble Baptist will be happy that uh we can get in and out and flood waters won't bother us. Um, we also want a stoplight. We want Texas so we don't have anybody getting any wreck with the big tractor trailer turning left there. I don't want somebody to crush that hill and pop us. Um, but that's what we envision. We're going to start there and hopefully we grow. 16. We built the plant in Louisiana. Um, you can see solar at the top there. That's what the plant here is going to have a lot of that too.

Um, so what I'm showing with this the milestones is we're slow to move. Um, we don't we don't since we're privately owned, we don't we don't have debt. I'm paying for it. He's paying for it. These guys are paying for it. We don't move fast in terms of jumping on it. But once we decide we're there, we'll have this plant operational the first quarter. Um we will have we will be doing solar work in late third quarter. You give me five or six months, we're going to be producing solar beams. So um we we we will not move. You're going to see a lot of activity in a hurry. And that's the property here. Those are the two gentlemen. Matt here with the with the really bad smile in the left there is Matt. Um and then Jesse Lopez is coming from Houston uh to to work to run this plant. They're both relocating. Um, this is the ground breaking on Tuesday. Um, our chairman, who's been with us for 56 years, he's been running the company for 56 years, flew out and was just enamored with the city of King. Y'all made a heck of an impression on him. He was really excited about it. He's done five of these in in the last 40 years, and this was far and away his favorite. This is us as a support folks. Um, as you saw, there lots and lots of experience. Um, we've been doing this a long time. Um, our employees are very loyal. Um, they stick because we're we're a little bit different than all of our competitors. We are not publicly owned and we're very proud of and we don't plan on changing it. So, uh, that's who we are. So, why do we come to King? Well, it's a huge market. Dallas, we think, is one of the best markets out there. It's one of the best ones we're not in. We need to be in it. We love Texas. We love Houston. We wanted to be in DFW, but we wanted to be in the DFW market and not be in the big city. Um, I grew up in a small town. My town had 3,500 people. The mayor lived three doors down from me growing up. The chair of the school board went to my church. My third grade, my fifth grade, and my 10th grade teacher were in my church. And when my dad passed away, they hugged me at the at the funeral. My

girls were like, "Dad, your third grade teacher is still here." I love that. I love that. That's why we're in Keen. Um, the small town is is very much um something I think in this world is fading away a little bit. So, we want to try to help keep smalltown America going. So, that's my commitment. Um, I think you've got a great market. I think this is going to be a win-win. Jonathan, thank you for all of your work. There were a couple times where we weren't sure we were going to be able to get the deal done, but Jonathan helped us push through um some of the the idiosyncrasies that go on with these kind of developments. And uh we appreciate y'all's support and we look forward to it. Are there any questions? That was Did I go more than eight minutes? I told him

Don and Jonathan Don and Jonathan did an amazing job and we're so proud of them and we're so proud you guys chose Keen for sure. So So I I have one question. I'm a local contractor and there have been times that I've needed metal products galvanized. You take walk-ins? We take anybody. Okay. Now we do have a minimum charge. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. But uh but yes, we do anything. This will be we will be you know our niche at this plan is going to be we will do some big customers and but we'll do you bring a boat anchor. You want a boat anchor? Have have y'all met with Lee Products and Bill Lee? We we have not met Jonathan has told me about him but we haven't met.

Okay. I've done I've done work with with Bill and his dad for generations. My dad as well. So in fact we we be going to Crowley anymore. He'll be coming to us. I promise. That's good. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank y'all. We appreciate appreciate you.

Thank you. Be safe. Okay. who need uh receive an update from the city manager on assessments of the water runoff drainage issues brought to council's attention by residents of Shelley Drive and give further direction to the staff if any.

Um yeah, as you uh as you know um Owen and Eddie that are down there showed up to council um and it's you know I guess this has been kind of an ongoing thing. So, uh, we took our time, um, to try to do a thorough analysis and investigation of this. Um, and and, um, you know, uh, Jacob and Martin, uh, sent out, uh, one of their staff to take pictures, to review it. Don and I walked the neighborhood, went into almost every backyard. Everyone that was home, we knocked on the doors, uh, looked at it ourselves. I think there's a picture in the packet. Yeah. Um, this is just kind of an example. Um, there's a lot more pictures, uh, if you'd like to see it, but I just wanted to kind of give you a visual, um, of kind of what we're dealing with. Um, you know, we we did research into, you know, who the city engineer was at the time. Um, so, so really what it comes down to, um, I Judy has I've asked her to kind of give the the legal parameters of the city. Uh, but what it comes down to is, um, I'm I'm happy to fix whatever um, you're directed uh, if you direct me to. Um, but the cost of this was like I think the estimated cost is in your packet was like $35,000. um you know this today's standards. So Judy, is it all right if I ask you to your profession take over?

Yes, please.

Okay. So um I I have to support what Jonathan has said that your city has been very attentive to the needs of this particular street because you know I do have other cities that um wouldn't necessarily do that. So I think it shows a caring city. Um but I mean in the end the picture says it all that there were houses built in the 90s and the houses behind were built later. Um how we got with the fence is unclear but the one thing that is very clear is it has nothing to do with the city. So this is a drainage issue and a problem that is between private property owners. Um, there is only, as I recall, there is a utility easement there, no drainage easement. I'm not sure if the utility easement is being used or not, but we have no ownership interest there. Um, and you know, generally, um, I think that it's fair that your residents should come to the city if they think there's a concern, but it's not equitable to point the finger at the city in every set of circumstances. And this is a set of circumstances that the city did everything that we could do in terms of our controls that are in place for development and certificates of occupancy and flat filing. We we did all of that. Um, so apparently there is some drainage problem and the estimate from the engineers uh for the repair uh is a lot of money. But legally the city can't pay that money because the Texas Constitution says that in order for you to spend public funds, you have to be spending your public funds for a public purpose. And this is not a public purpose. This is private property. Um, so if if the part that the investigation

comes into is trying to assess, is there a public purpose here? Is there damage to the public? Is there something that's happening to the public that somehow this could rise to the level of you declaring that there's a public purpose here? And we don't see it. So, um, having said all of that, do I have other city councils that have helped different areas of the city by declaring it serves a public purpose? Yes, I have. But that normally is where they have an ownership interest or there is some type of danger or the the health and well-being of the city as a whole is being affected or some kind of nuisance is being created. But we are talking about a situation that as far as I can tell um is directly affecting only one or two of your residents. There are other people on the street that have implemented um drainage uh remedies like French drains. Um but this is not um something that this is not a municipal municipal problem or municipal mun municipal municipally created issue. this is an issue between private property owners. Um, and you know, I mean, it's just basically from a legal standpoint, you can't spend taxpayer dollars or public funds on something that's going to serve a few individuals.

May I ask you a question? Would this go back to possibly back to the builder, the original builder? So, I it's really difficult for me to to guess about that because the original houses were built to the 1990s and the the the house behind uh I think it's called Jenny Drive. Um they were built at least 20 years ago. So, um for us it I I don't even think we can draw that conclusion. Is it a possibility? It is. Um, you know, I suppose anything I I think the developers did. I think the individuals did. He's deceased.

No, no, no. I think I'm sorry. I misunderstood the question. The I thought the question was, could it have been the fault of the home builder? Well, and the reason I'm asking that is because those homes I was here when those homes were built and I knew the builder and they could have possibly have taken care of that maybe or or if the engineer who who did their layouts should have seen that that could possibly be a a drainage problem eventually. So if the owners of the properties now were the original owners or maybe later, but they could go to that builder maybe instead of coming to the city.

Yeah. I mean, I have no opinion on that because I don't know, you know, anything about the building. My my um review has only been to look at, you know, Holly actually pulled out your files um that showed the certificates of occupancy that showed the the inspections. You know, from from a municipal standpoint, we did what we were supposed to do. The city of Keen did what it was supposed to do. Um we there's no way that anybody in your city can be on any construction site 24 hours a day to monitor what's happening. that's we don't have the money for that and neither does any other city. So yeah, I mean it's I I suppose anything's a possibility, but I personally don't have an opinion about that. Um all I know is that from what and we're going to let the engineer talk in a minute because he's nodding, I see, you know, but from what we're seeing, you know, from our review, um this is not an issue that is a city issue. It's an issue that's, you know, between either private property owners, between the builder, private, you know, it's private. It's not a city issue.

You get to go now. Thank you. Yeah. I was going to say, Angie, yeah, just to back that up, uh they they would go to the developer. I've seen that before, too, because it's the developer issue.

In the the research that we did, uh we had two rough sets of plans between the old development and the new development. old development being Shelley Drive and then the new development being Jenny Drive. So that's I'll refer to them. Um Shelly Drive, the old development did not really change the drainage patterns uh from existing from what we can tell. And then in constructing Jenny Drive, uh from what we can tell, it would have improved the drainage. So uh the portion that becomes the bigger issue is where did the wall come in? And there's no reference to this wall in either of those sets of plans. So they they likely would go to the developer if the developer had planned it, but from what from the viewpoint we have is there there was no real plan for a wall there. And it was likely just a aesthetics thing for the homeowner to have a flat lawn versus maybe a little bit sloping lawn. So if if the homeowner put it in, there's no one for them to go point fingers at except city council. So

okay. And then same thing the city there's no drainage ement there too. So the city has has not done anything to implement any drainage changes there because y'all don't have authority to because we not our responsibility then. Exactly. That's basically it. Yes.

Okay. in in in speaking with uh Mr. Larson about it, you know, his argument is it should have never been allowed to happen and that's why we did our back research into this. And then he also cited Texas Water Code 11.086, which you know, Judy educated me on that's not for this type of thing. It's for what? Well, so basically in order to have a cause of action under the water code, it's got to be uh surface water, number one, and number two, we would have to own water there. Excuse me. We would have to own land there. So, we were a land owner, then there may be a cause of action against us, but that provision of the water code is for whomever owns the property, and that's not us.

Okay. So, at previous council meetings, I know Mr. Larson has mentioned the word possible litigation against the city, which based on what we're hearing tonight doesn't sound like there there would be any cause to do that. Um, it would be more directed towards the people that live directly behind them. Correct.

So, um I'm sure you're aware that anybody can file a lawsuit. um you know, so that could happen on any given day, but um the city is fortunate that it's got insurance coverage with the risk pool and that type of suit would be would probably go to them. Um you know, but is there a legal cause of action against the city here? No. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. We needed to know all that. So, and thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Thank you for appreciate it.

Okay, then um we will review and discuss and take action to approve a resolution awarding an application and engineering services contract for the 2026 downtown revitalization grant and authorize the city manager to negotiate contract terms. Um, so with this downtown revitalization, as I did in my report, you know, we're trying to get this million dollars. So, we're kind of moving into phase two, which requires us to award uh to an engineering firm. Um, we actually had a committee that has to be comprised of one council member, which we reached out to Councilman Easley. Appreciate you, uh, Greenstone on that board. We just felt with his experience, he would be a a good one to review. We actually had six companies um uh submit. Um several really strong good candidates. Uh about half of them scored really high and really close to each other. Um but our recommendation uh based on how much Jacob and Martin has supported us, they've given us no reason uh to not put our faith back in them. Um so our recommendation uh based on the scoring, they were the highest score. Um and with the relationship, our recommendation is to um recommend Jacob and Martin to uh take this part of phase two to help us uh develop an actual plan to present um to them for the grant.

Okay. Do y'all have any other questions on this? Any questions? Questions? Okay. Okay. Can I have a motion on this? Um, excuse me. I'll move the motion that we move forward with this. Second.

Second. Okay, Bob. A second. Okay. Um, I have a motion from, uh, Mr. Shaw, uh, Councilman Shaw, uh, for resolution number 2026498 awarding an application and engineering service contract for, uh, the 2026 downtown revitalization grant by Jacob Uh, Smith, Jacob Smith, Jacob Moore. Okay. And authorized city manager to negotiate those terms. Uh, do I have a second? I had a second. All those in favor? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. And it it carried. So, do a good job, Mr. Manager. Okay. We're going to review and discuss and give direction regarding posting a dress code for those who attend and wish to speak to council or to revise the rules of order and procedure. Council, this item has been tabled at the last meeting so that we could ask questions of our attorney. What discussion do you have for this item?

Um Judy and I did talk about this prior. um we met a little bit before to kind of go over this and um she actually said something that that really kind of hit close is we want to be known as a city of grace and and let's be honest it's really kind of one situation that's driving this right now and she made a very good comment too that said you want to have councils where families are driving by and realizing that there's a council going on and they you want them to bring their kids to these um I I think I think because of the past we've lost sight of that a little bit. Um we don't want to make it to where it's hard for people to come here. We want to make it to where people can come here. Um that doesn't mean that somebody walks in and and it's just really inappropriate. Um that doesn't mean we can't graciously pull them to the side and remind them that this is a place where families come to and those types of things. Um you know, we're we're we're not a court. We're um we're a a city entity. Um and so I would just encourage council obviously we'll uphold anything and everything. Um but but let's not make this let's not change everything because of kind of one or two situations. Um you know uh we were even commenting before this started how even the mood in here has completely just changed to you hear laughter. I I mean when I started it was so quiet in here. I was like, "Are we not allowed to talk? Is this like a library?" Because I was so new to what city government was, you know? And and so to to have an atmosphere that is is positive and and happy and and laughing, I I just don't think we need to legislate what people need to wear

um to be here. Um so that's kind of my recommendation. Um, and Judy, I don't know if you had anything you wanted to add to that. No, I mean, you exactly repeated everything I said almost word to word that I would not recommend legislating this issue that um, you know, if you want to put something on your agenda about, you know, please uh, respect that this is a serious meeting for the city of Keen, you know, that would be great. If you want to put something on the door like that, that would be great. But in the end, when it's 100° outside, you don't want someone to think twice about coming into your city council meeting because they have shorts on, right,

and flip-flops. You know, you want them to come. I mean, that's why you're here. So, I I would say, you know, there are some ways we can manage this, but I don't think we need to legislate it. Yeah, I agree with that. She even I certainly agree, too. She she even recommended putting kind of a fun sign out there that says, you know, dress like you would if your kids were here or your grandkids are here. You know, just something that, you know, I don't want us to get so rigid that, you know, we we we chase off more people than than the few, you know, we don't even measuring dress links.

You're speaking to the mom of a 5 foot 10 daughter. So, yeah, you're you're preaching to the choir on that one. The only thing that that I I would like, of course, probably just asking the person to take off a big cowboy hat where the person behind you can't see. Mayor, you you have the authority to do that already. Or or pull up your pants because everybody can see what you're wearing for underwear because that was one of the problems that we had. Preide over the meeting so you have a little bit more authority than you probably realize. Okay. Um, you know, but at the same token, um, anyone else that works for the city certainly can go up to someone and whisper in their ear, "Hey, yeah, you you know, you forgot your pants." I don't know.

Yeah. Well, and we would hope that they would do that. We'd come up and say, "Hey, would you pull your pants up?" But anyway, that was the only two things that I had with anything. Otherwise, I I agree. I We want people here. You know, if they have to wear shorts, that's fine. If you've been out jogging and you want to come in, fine. So long as they're decent shorts. Guess we have to put that. Let's keep Bob from wearing shorts, though, can we? Yeah. I'm sorry. We should keep Bob from wearing shorts. I knew that was going to come up. My god. Well, he enjoys his shorts. All right. Start wearing shorts with hoes in my pants for one.

Well, my name is Ray Johnson. I live at 109 Christine Street, Cleveland. Well, King, Texas, I'm sorry. But I wear shorts in here. People that wear shorts should already know better than wearing shorts like they have been. A grown man come in here dressed the way they do have no respect for theirel. What you got to remember, but I mean like I told him, this ain't no courthouse, so you can't tell them how to dress. But the way they do dress, they should know better, you know. Yeah, I think you're right, R.J. And I guess mainly we're just expecting people to respect the other people that are coming. Respect yourself for number one.

Yeah, they need to do that. That's number one. They need to respect other people. Thank you. Remember Rob, I wore a sport coat, too. Yeah, Bob's one of these. Pleasure. Has his pajamas on when he's zooming, you know. Oh, well, okay. So, we're we're not going to try to dictate the dress then. It's just a discussion. So, we don't need to make a motion or anything on that. Thank you, council discussion. Thank you. Appreciate. Thank you. And thank you, Judy, for reminding us of

what this is supposed to be. Um, the Sorry, last item. Go ahead. Go. Okay. All right. Uh, last item on general is just uh um as as we talked about um we really can't have a council the first one in June. So we could uh technically have one June 18th. Um as of right now there's not really anything on the agenda to I would say warrant an entire meeting for the 18th. Um and we don't have to decide tonight, right? We still have another Do we have to decide tonight if there's going to be a June 18th? Okay. Yeah. Sorry. That's that's just got the Holly on.

I can see her and she can kick me under the table. Um so, uh again um right now it would feel just like having a meeting to have a meeting and um we are going to be going into budget season. So, we're going to be extremely busy, not to mention already being out for a week. I would appreciate it if we could just, you know, last summer we missed two months I think back to back and we survived. Um I would appreciate the extra time to um focus on you know budget season is coming and it's going to be hot and heavy and we're still wrapping up some other things. So I would appreciate it but again if you all want to have a meeting we will we will have a meeting.

Okay. So what are you asking us? Do do you want to set a meeting for June 18th, the third Thursday of June? I'm okay with it. If there's nothing to discuss, there's no reason to for a meeting. That's kind of how we feel. Well, we can cancel it the last minute if there's nothing, but at least Well, right now, as of the last council meeting, y'all rescheduled to June 18th. So, right now, that is on the calendar. Okay. So tonight you need to decide do you want to keep it or scrap it. Scrap it. You need a motion. Please scrap it. Well I mean do we before do we keep it and if it doesn't need to happen they can just cancel the meeting.

Can't they? I mean that's I don't know what we've done. Is there a motion that made the other meeting like Yes. At the last meeting they made a motion to reschedule to June 18th. Okay. Well then we need a motion. Need a motion to scrap it. Then when would the next meeting be? July. July 2nd. July 2nd. July 2nd. I make a motion not to have a meeting on June June 18th. I'll second. All those in favor? It all carries. Okay. So then our next meeting, it all carries. And our next meeting would be July 2nd. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Okay. I promise we will be busy working the entire month of June.

Be checking in on you, too. Well, I would I would be sad if you didn't say uh Mr. Attorney, can I go back to something on six section six before we go to executive? Can you make a motion? Just make the motion. I'd like to make a motion that we go back to section six before we go to uh executive. Section six. Which one? 6A or 6B? 6 A. It will encompass both of them. 6A primarily. We need a second. And yeah, I'll second that.

Okay, that's on the um 6A. Yeah, we have a motion that we want to return to an item on the agenda and we have a second on that. Okay, we need a vote. Have a second on that. Okay, all those in favor? I'll be brief. You know the 6B was brought to us what a year or so ago, Don? 14 months. 14 months. Okay. And it didn't pass then, but it passed tonight because I made concessions.

Okay. But the point I'm trying to make is that as a council person, I want to be known as someone that's easy to do business with in Keen. And it just bothers me that we're trying to legislate or regulate or tell people who own land or want to do business with King that you can't bring your plans to us because they don't make sense. That just really I just want to say that as a council we really ought to think about the people who we're impacting by getting the reputation of them being hard to deal with because my plan didn't make sense to the council. We're here just to uphold the law and the restrictions that our building codes have and let them do what they wish with their little skinny lots if that's what they want. So, I just want to just make that point that it really bothered me that we dashed somebody's hopes because we didn't think it was it made sense. I agree with you on one point, but I would like to have seen maybe some options,

but it's not our place. Well, I I know, but when you have a half acre and you have to put an,800 foot house on there or not, and then there they can put a 1500 square foot house on an acre, 1 point something acres. big difference. Uh there's just different areas that we're doing things in and so we're either gonna have to get a little nicer on all of it.

So, can I just add one other factor that we didn't talk about, we did talk about in the commercial that the way that you have a control over this is by doing redoing your comprehensive plan. Your comprehensive plan is your roadmap for what you want to do in the city. And if I heard you correctly, it's a little bit old. That's that grant right now that's in the process. So, we're we're working on that, but that it takes a year to two years to pull all that data together.

But that's that's that's one of the ways that you have a lot of control over what your city looks like in addition to all of the city controls that are already in place, which is your zoning. Um, but just a reminder that the comprehensive plan applies to residential as well as commercial. Yeah. Well, I agree with that because I've had several people tell me the same thing that it was really hard to get anything through with the city of Keen. And I I don't like having Keen thought of like that either that they can't come and bring their business here or they can't come and build a home here or whatever because it's too complicated. Well, I guess you have to have complications, right, Don? To make things work. You don't have to.

Well, you're the go-to. I'm here to smooth them over. So, so you're going to smooth them over, huh? Yeah. I just I would like to know, maybe I'm out of line, why you guys don't like it? Well, personally, I I would not buy a house that had a 70 foot yard on the side at all. But that's two swipes of the mower. I said, I'm sorry. I I didn't hear you. That has I would not buy a house that has a 70 foot yard on the side. What do you mean? Front or Yeah. 70 foot front. It says seven feet on one side. Yeah, seven feet. I'm sorry. Oh, the side lot line.

I don't want to knock on my neighbor's door and ask toilet paper. These the the lots he live in have five foot. Yeah, I don't like those either. Well, and then me. Yeah, that's just me. Yeah. Yeah. But to deny, like Rob said, deny a property owner, he's meeting the minimum requirements. Yeah, I agree that he's meeting minimum requirements. I just I I not my land. So,

well, I I'd like to kind of chime in there. Yes, you're right. my lots are are very very small, but the way they've conducted the neighborhood with streets and and things that can grow and stay with the growth of the city, I think that's a good way to look at it. I don't uh I I want to be known as a city that we can do business with anybody, but I just don't think that that had enough planning involved in it. And I also have to add that I don't recall if the decision was made with or without prejudice. No, they can bring it back.

Well, thankfully we're talking about it again. Um, your ordinance requires that you make a decision on a zoning change um on the application with or without prejudice because what I was going to say is he can come back. He can come back and do another application. But if you if you do it with prejudice, he cannot. He's got a waiting period. What's the waiting period? One year. I I would just like to see him come back with a couple of options. Like what? Well, I don't know. I don't like the skinny lots, but that's just my personal opinion, which really doesn't matter. The only way to do it would be divide it into two lots. Well, then you've got one of them landlocked. I'm sorry. And build a road in there and make it like kind of like the I mean, they may not have the money to put a road in,

but they're then sell the land as a whole. What he mentioned, that's an option. They could do that. He did not bring us what he wants to do with the land other than he wants to sell it. He wants to sell it and he and he's So you're telling him he can't sell the land? No, he can sell the land. Sell it as a whole. Reszone the nine acres to SF2 and sell it as a whole. Let the next guy who buys it decide what's going to happen to it. But if we reszone it into SF2 with these 81 acre, 81 feet wide, thousand feet deep lots, it's locked it in for that next buyer to stick with that or go through the hassle of replatting it and doing all that if he wants to buy two 81 foot lots or they don't buy it. Well, like Mr. Shaw said, you don't buy it. You have a choice.

No, I'm just not understanding why he doesn't sell it as a whole. John, may I ask? He bought as a whole. I ask you now, he does want to sell it. So why would he not try to sell it to a developer? Can't answer that question for him. Well, I'm just saying if if a developer went in there since he's not going to develop it, he just wants to sell it and they put a road in there, they could have eight oneacre uh lots in there for homes and and it would be feasible. Do we want 81 lots? just going to say part of the

part of the argument, if you will, against this idea was that it's already a crowded street. Why would we want four more homes on that street? And yet now city council wants to double it to eight. No, no, no, no, no. Guys, I I think we're I think we're really overstepping our bounds in this instance. So, I really do.

Can I help you out there? your I'm just going to read your ordinance to you because that's my road map and it should be yours too. Um so your ordinance gives you what you're supposed to consider. It says, "In making the determination, the city council shall consider the following, and this is in section 157.513. Whether the uses permitted by the proposed change will be appropriate in the immediate area concerned, and their relationship to the general area and the city as a whole, whether the proposed change is in accord with any existing or proposed plans for providing public schools, streets, water supplies, sanitary sewers, and other utilities to the area. and shall note those findings. The amount of vacant land currently classified for similar development in the vicinity and elsewhere in the city and any special circumstances which may make a substantial part of the vacant land unsuitable for development. The recent rate at which land is being developed in the same zoning classification as the request particularly in the vicinity of the proposed changes. the manner in which other areas designated for similar development will be or are likely to be affected if the proposed amendment is approved and whether the designation for other areas should also be modified and in any other factors and here's where you did not violate your ordinance any other factors which will substantially affect the public health safety morals or general welfare. Um, so that's kind of like your failsafe provision for your ability to speak your vote, but generally those are the parameters. And there's nothing that says they have to put them on the on the street with seven feet apart. Someone could put it in the very back. Someone could put

their home in the middle. I mean, right. Those minimum setbacks is 20 or 30 in the front. has to be 30 feet off the street. Your house can't be any closer than seven and a half feet from the property line on the side and it can't be closer than 20 on the rear. You have a heck of a long drive, right? You have a shooting there. So, Don, you're thinking that it's appropriate and that them building one home on one of those long lots would be good. And that's what it does. It's his land. Who Who am I to tell him? I'm just trying.

He came to me and said, "How can I make this work? How can we do this?" So, I explained to him, "Well, if you want to go any bigger, you want to do this, you're going to have to do streets, you're going to have to do sub, you know, civil plans, all this." He said, "No, I just want to, you know, divide it up maybe into four or five lots." I said, "Well, the only way to do it and kind of gave him some examples on how to do it, meeting the minimum road frontage requirements of the lots." Okay. So, he was then basically trying to sell one lot if he could, not sell them all together, but he would sell one lot at a time. Yeah. It's just they wanted to divide it up. Okay. But the only way to do it without going into, you know, millions of dollars

Sure. up front to make it a subdivision. And then we have to look at as well. And what I try to look at and advise you on is with what's our population 7,000 right now is

somewhere around there. Five square miles with a thousand new homes. You had another two and a half on average. 252 apartments coming in. I already have other developers looking at bringing in another one to 200 homes. Do we want another subdivision like that crammed into the city? I mean, those are kind of the things that I look at and advise them on. I mean, I'll bring whatever they want me to bring to you for your decision, but you know, my job is to look out according to our comprehensive plan as well. We don't want 40,000 people in five square miles.

True. Well, council, do you all want us to have him have the gentleman come back? I would. I mean, I could see if you had a, you know, a health and safety reason. Well, you know, traffic or something, but it's that whole area. If you look back at the map, most of it's in the county. It's all agricultural. Those are all 20, 30 acres, 4 acres, 5 acres. There's some of those long lots like that out there already. The person right next door has a 600 foot driveway and their house is way in the back. Well, now this is in Keen. It's right next door. Can we go back to that?

No, it's a little sliver right above where they want to build. That's her res. That is a platted lot. But she also owns the land. Okay. But that is a platted lot just like that that they want to build. And the land north of that could be divided up. It is platted lot. So if they wanted to sell that one lot that one lot has been platted just like that. They could sell that by itself, keep all the rest, right? But that's not what those three lots are platted like.

They're similar. They're not even close. How are they not? It's a single shotgun versus a flag lot. Do you not that big? It's 81 ft wide and 1,000 feet deep. That How long is the front of that one? That front of that one's a thousand feet deep, but it widens at the back to a twoacre slot. So does the three and a half acres they want to keep on if you look at the plat. Correct. But the three in the middle are 81 ft wide and 1,000 ft. What is wrong with that? I don't see anything wrong with that if that's what they want to build. I don't like it personally. Okay. I think it's a a bad that shouldn't be part of your decision. That was the number one thing on her list you just read off was you don't like it?

No, I think it's a bad use of land for the city of Keem. They should Why didn't they divide it in half? Why didn't he divide it into two lots? I can't answer that question. You know how long he's owned the property? No, I don't. Mrs. W, would you mind reading that sentence he's referring to that? Yes, please. Whether whether uses permitted by the proposed change will be appropriate in the immediate area concerned and their relationship to the general area and the city as a whole. Those three lots don't match the general area that it's around.

Well, they do. If the lot next to it, if Marsh's lot is a thousand feet long, you got three and a half acres on this one lot on the opposite side. House sits back in a flag lot. So, the other ones could sit back in the back. No, they can't. No, it's a flag lot. Do you understand what a flag lot is? No. Flag lot looks like a flag pole. Okay. What about the 3.36 acre lot? Looks like a flag pole. Yeah, works great. So, you're okay with that one? Just the other three you don't like? Yes. But why? That's be a hard sale. They're they're a shotgun. I don't like shotgun houses that look like a trailer house. What if somebody bought all three of those? Great. So we can't dictate. I know we can't.

So then I think we need to have the gentleman come back and I think when in the meantime, think about how easy it is or difficult it is to do business when keen. Can I mention something here? So when we were in 7A, we we had a motion that died, but we didn't do anything else. So technically, we did not deny this thing at all because it actually says in your paperwork that the council may and and deny or or approve. So we technically have not done anything. Well, I mean, you may the most

other than the fact that we didn't have a motion to approve. Yeah, you you certainly since we've reopened the item, you can choose to do whatever you would like to do. You can take another vote. You can give direction to Dawn to have him come back. Whatever the decision, we need a decision that conforms with the ordinance on with prejudice or without. Make another motion. Do we need to do 6B with prejudice and without as well or 7B? Approval. Oh, that was approval. You only need the prejudice without when you deny now. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So, what would we need to do here now to get this on the next agenda or to We can make another motion on it right now.

Make another motion on it right now. It died for the lack of a second, but we brought it back up. Okay. Correct. Yes, you can. So, we can do it now. You can ask if there's a motion. Okay. Is there a motion on this to leave it as it is or to accept it? No. Is there another motion? Is there another motion on this item? Okay. Is there another motion to approve it?

We're on We're on 7A, right? Yes. Okay. As I recall on 7A, we had a motion and we could not get a second. Correct. Correct. We could not get a second. So, it died. I mean it didn't it didn't pass. In other words, the whole point is to pass. We gave it CPR. So now we've come back and we are asking again is there you know is there we're reconsidering and we're asking if there is a motion and there is not. I'll make the motion. I'll make a motion that we approve the what is it zoning 7A request request 7A

and it's from agriculture to SF2 if I remember right correct I second it all those in favor well the mayor doesn't get please tell me that was okay Yeah, I'm wishing I guess, right? Is she allowed to second? Yeah, she has every right. I just can't break a tie. Just checking. She's acting mayor, mayor prot. She absolutely can. Okay. So, it did not pass.

No, no. Well, she stopped you in the middle of that. Second and I interrupted you, so you have to call vote. All those in favor? Because I second it. It fails. Nobody wants to change their mind. Fails. It fails. Oh, does it fail with prejudice? Do we have to make that distinction? Well, we we need a pretty sure we need a denial. Yeah, we do. Yes. PNZ approved it. So, doesn't it have to be a certain majority? You need a 75 deny.

You need 75% of the council to deny. So if we're denying and we need a separate motion to deny it and we need 75% vote otherwise it's just hanging. It's hanging right now.

And if you deny it you have to deny it either with prejudice or without. This was written in 2009 folks. I apologize. Is there a way to get this on the next agenda? Table it. Okay. Can we table it till the next agenda? I would like to do that. Go ahead. You had a question. Before you do that, Don, I have a question for you. So, um, if this who did this, did did this guy actually spend money to actually get this plat done, or is this something that the city spent $5,000 on the plat with his surveyors already? He spent $750, I believe, with us for the planning application. Yeah, he spent a lot of money

and it's been waiting probably a couple of months to get it on to get it through P&Z. Now here it's back and forth. You know, you need to add this and that on your plat we have to do the public hearings. We had to do the notice in the paper 30, you know, so many days prior to we've spent money as well. And this may not be his only project or it might be his last. Did you when you talked to him and maybe I should have asked a lot of more questions. Um I I

I drew on my drawing here and I gave it to him with a road uh with a circle at the end and showed him like four different lots that he could have done with that property. Did you talk about a road and was there any interest in doing that? No, because because of the money factor. Yes, that's what he said. You typically need a lot more houses to justify a road, you know, because they are not cheap and infrastructure and all that kind of stuff. And it's it's more than just a road. You have to do civils. You have to do drainage. You have to do storm drains. You have to do pre and post drainage, things like that. And once you start putting roads in, then you have to put in the rest of the utilities as well. We do have a water line across the street,

but you can't and you also have the limitation to size because if he could cram a bunch of houses in there, then it might make sense, but again, we don't have sewer there, right? Then you get into So, sorry. Yeah, go ahead. But if if you put a road in, then you have, you know, the issue about the fire department. Roads can't be more than x amount of feet long without a way out, you know, one way in that you should have two way in. So, there's a lot more to than, hey, just put a road in, let's build eight lots. So, Don, he he is basically going to try to sell it. So, they may may want to get it replatted and do something else with it.

And you went and looked out there and there's an old dilapidated house that's about ready to fall down. Is that something that the city wants to have? No. Paul begged that to be torn down. Okay. It's in the works. Yeah. I mean, you know, those are just things to think about, too. Well, and and the other thing is too, does did he have any plans to he said he wasn't going to be able he was going to sell, but did he just he just wanted to divide it up into four lots? Maybe make a little money hopefully and and sell it.

If nobody buys it, nobody buys it because maybe they don't like the shotgun lot. you know, maybe it'll sit there for a hundred years. So, as it is right now, we don't have a denial and we don't have an approval. So, basically, it's tabled. So, if as the status now, we can simply agree uh council can agree to table it and put it on the next agenda. Is she are you making a motion to table or are you asking somebody to make a motion to table? A motion to table. And what what we're gonna have the same discussion, right? Well,

I mean, what what do you want to see? What do you what do you want me to do? What do you want me to go back to him and say, "Sorry, they don't like it." That's pretty much the impression I think he got already. I don't like that feeling, you know, that that we've left. I don't like it either. Myself and Maggie and him and we all put a lot of manh hours into this.

Okay. However, this is the first time that we heard he just wanted to sell it, which made a difference to me because the next person coming in maybe doesn't want it to have for then they probably wouldn't buy it. Spaghetti Lots. I'm sorry. When you're a realtor, if you saw someone go, I don't like that. I'm not going to buy it. Uh, well, maybe I can buy it and reszone it myself if that's what they want to do. But they know it's

personal opinion, Don. Being a realtor, I don't like the long lots. Uh, they're going to be those special people who are going to want those long lots because they want that big backyard, but there's going to be a lot of people who do not. So, it's four. It's not 104. It's four. There's also the benefit of having a long driveway when you think about there is to build a nice put the house back in the very back of it and pretend I lived in the country.

Well, and then you're taxed on the concrete driveway that you put all the way back to the back. Anyway, but th those were my reasons as a realtor. But again, if he's going to sell it, someone else could come in with a whole different idea of what they want to do. They can and they would have to go through the process if they want to change. Well, then they should have money if they're going to buy it to do that if they want to do something like that. Now, if they have a reason for having wanting the spaghetti lots, they're welcome to them if they could pay for them. What What are we getting on it right now? It's zoned agriculture. We probably get penny pennies nothing on that almost 10 acres. Yeah. Well, if it was zoned residential, four lots, that's going to increase right there.

Yeah. And again, I don't want no this town to be crammed full of small little subdivisions. I don't think anybody else wants that either. We're already, you know, getting to that point. Whoa. I think I think respectfully we've already all agreed that we need to table it. Um the options remain like if you're going to deny it, we need five votes. If you're gonna do nothing, I mean, he's left in limbo. Right now, we're still in limbo because we don't have a denial. I'd say we just table. But hang on before we table. I mean, guys, who didn't vote for this? You got to give Don some direction so that when

Mr. What's his name comes back, he can say, I want to I'm going to do this or this and this. Or we can't just say emotionally, we don't think this is a good idea. No, that's not the way a city council operates. give him some direction or vote this thing through, right? Or what's the point of even bringing it back if it's going to be the same way? You're not going to make a decision. The citizens I talked to wanted less lots. What do you mean less lots? They wanted one or two. They wanted bigger lots. Well, then they should buy it and they should divide it themselves. They can't buy it if this guy has it. He owns it and he wants to make four lots out of it so he can make more money. Okay.

Well, So, I'm just I'm representing the citizens. That's the what they've told me. I agree with them on a personal level. Yes. That two lots would have made more sense than than four. Shoot. I didn't even do three. Don't disagree with that. They'd still be wider. There's direction.

I was going to abstain from any vote because I'm I'm not in a I'm conflicted. Rob's made great points. Well, I'm conflicted, too. I mean, the citizens spoke to me and they said they didn't want it at all. But by the same token, that's right now it's zoned agriculture. So, what's to keep someone from putting a pig farm in there? Nothing.

Nothing. And would you rather have that or would you rather have four nice stick homes in your neighborhood? I'm telling you guys, it's not a bad option. Well, and I really like my personal opinions, but that's just all it is. I really think we need to talk, we need to think about this guy and what he's gone through to do this and how it's going to benefit the city rather than what we think personally. So, I would like to see by building four lots is going to bring in a little more revenue, especially if they build four houses on it. It's going to bring in more revenue if they sell. when they say well we can't if if and we can't

we have to try to plan for the future the best way we can for keep right now it's it's bringing in nothing and we got a a horrible ice of a house that we're going to have to spend money on probably to abate if we can't get the land owners do it which means we as a city have to do that ourselves or it's going to cost us money to have that house abandoned torn down whatever is that is that house May I excuse me I'm May I ask if if if I can ask them if they want to vote again and would we be able to if we did? Okay. Does council want to vote on it again or do you want to table it?

I'm not making this.

Well, I'd say we I would say we vote on it again because I'd like to vote on it again. Personal feelings got to stay out of it. Yeah, they do. And we need a decision. And we need a decision. And that's your job. I would say we vote on it again because personal feelings got to stay out of it. Okay. I would like to have a motion on this. Um land again. We're going to vote again, gentlemen. So, I would like to have a motion. I motion that we pass this because we got to leave our personal feelings out of it.

SF from agricultural to SF2. I'm sorry. Okay. Do I have a second? I second it. Okay. All those in favor? You got to leave personal feelings out of it. And I can't break tie. Well, Chuck said he was abstaining from it. Oh, okay.

Reason I think I already said it. It's it's not anything emotional for me. For me, it's it's about what what we have available. I want it to be I think the city would want it to be um more usable than than what it looks like. Um it it just doesn't look like it has a lot of use. It looks like it has um the makings of um a land owner and then putting 24 old cars behind it all the way down the road. That's a huge exaggeration, but I I just it doesn't feel like a plan for our city. It doesn't feel like something that's planned well um as in a neighborhood. So,

I agree. But there again, it's personal feelings and you can't right now it's has no use at all because it's agriculture right now. And just like they said, they could put something out there, animals or something out there and maybe the neighbors wouldn't like that. But this way there would be a house there that would be an income source for Keen on on taxes and stuff. And so to me again for Keen it would probably be something good and it would make good use of that land. You know we talked about a land owner perhaps putting a long long long driveway down there. Who's going to spend the kind of money it's going to take to put a 750 um next? What? Gravel.

And then Yeah. And and then can it? Yeah. For that they're all going to want to have them up in the front. So there's gonna be three or four houses. I don't know. Don, can it be a gravel driveway? It has to be concrete for x amount of feet off the street. I think up to the building line. Okay. 30t. 30 ft. Yeah. But did we have you got to finish? You have to call for denials. Yeah, you have to. Who's opposed? We've got three, four. Okay. All those opposed. Why are you? Don't say it doesn't feel right. Don't say it.

Okay. Well, anyway, those abstaining Those abstaining, it passed. Okay. It passed. No, I I voted no. But three, two to one. Why did you vote? Um, I voted no because I've developed property before and it just I I'll go back to what Judy mentioned in the first paragraph that she read. I just didn't feel like those four lots were a good fit for Keen. But you just said feel. That's what we're supposed to do. Okay. We're making our decisions based on our feelings. I'm

That's what the iron is for. And we moved to It carried, right? Yes, it carried. It passed. Correct. It carried. Okay. So, sorry if I was out of line. I'm sorry. No, we're just letting personal feelings get involved in it too much. So, now we're moving back to item 8A. I'm sorry. We're moving back to item 8A.

8A. Okay. Executive session. Miss Russell, if you would read the executive session agenda, please. Pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551, Texas Government Code, the city council may recess into executive session at any time during the meeting that a need arises for the city council to seek advice from the city attorney as to any posted item on um any posted item and by the following authority. Texas Government Code section 551.07. 071 consultation with an attorney for advice about pending litigation. Uh Vincent Castro versus the city of Keen, Texas. Jonathan Sites, Samantha Gillan, Rob Foster, Troy Smith, Johnny Ray Shaw, and Robert Chapman. B. Texas Government Code section 551071. Cons consultation with an attorney for advice about pending litigation. City of Keen versus Lloyd Thomas, Bonnie Thomas and unknown members of Meds Surge North Texas LLC. All persons claiming any title or interest in land under deed hereto for given to the city of Keen and item C Texas government code section 5.1.074 074 personnel matters to deliberate the appointment employment evaluation re assignment duties discipline or dismissal of a public officer or employee um application received for an appointment to the Keen EDCA board. The time is now 8:24 going into executive session. Okay.

I think we're just reconvene. There's no

There's no action. Okay. Okay, I'm reconvening uh in um open session um back at 9:18 from executive session and no action was be taken. Let's see here. Are there any requests for future agenda items,

Mayor? Okay. It's not necessarily an agenda item, but when we're talking about property, could you say I really appreciated that you said that that property was across from Alups. It would have been nice if it said the other property was at the intersection of 804B or 85B and Oaklan as opposed to so and so parcel of the Pennington property blah blah blah. I mean, who knows where that is, but it'd be nice if you gave landmarks so we could tell where that property was.

I said every time it I like giving tours. I My dad gave me directions like you need to go to Old Smith, Mr. Smith's house and turn left and go down to Huster's house and turn right. And then do we need any direction as far as when PNZ brings a recommendation? Do we need to make a motion to do that? Clean it up. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other things for the agenda?

Nothing. We may not need another meeting. I just I I want to thank you council very very much. Um this is this has just been a pure joy working with you guys. Um it's it's it's been good to it's just been great. It's just been great. Y'all don't agree all the time, but it's you know you very respectful. Thank you so much. Well, thank you. Okay, meeting is adjourned. Uh no further business at 9:20.