Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

good afternoon again and welcome to Planning and Zoning commission February 24th 2025 my name is CA NAD I have the honor of chairing the uh the commission uh if you would please call the rman NAD here commissioner batty present commissioner Jabor present commissioner jabia is absent commissioner ja here commissioner Linton here commissioner mon here commissioner no here commissioner Sagar here alternate commissioner sell here thank you uh you have received the uh the minutes of the previous meeting of January 27 2025 uh I hope that everybody has reviewed it I would entertain the motion to accept and or make Provisions to it I so move second we have a motion to approve the minutes of January 27th and we have a second any discussion all in favor say hi hi any no position the eyes have it great uh we like to get started with the case pz20 25-20 please good afternoon Jason Culbertson requests approval of a replat to part of lot three block one level Farm subdivision into tracks 3A and 3B block one level Farm subdivision bont Jefferson County Texas this property is located within the city's etj which is why it's before the Planning Commission today the intent of the plat is to divide the property into two lots for residential use uh staff recommends approval of the request uh on your screen the area outlined in red is

under review so you can see right now it's one parcel aerial image and the replat um we sent out 12 property owner notices we received three in favor and zero in opposition favor stating they support the request if used for single family purposes I believe we have the applicant present today the applicant good afternoon sir how you doing I am doing great how about you good fantastic uh would you please introduce yourself with your name and address for the record yeah Jason culon 11610 rid bont Texas 77705 great Mr cson do you have any additional information youd like to give us that's pretty much it just uh replat it for us to move over there so you're going to get the piece with the pond huh yes sir all right and the the driveway is going to be a common drive or the entrance would be common just the entrance yes would be common okay great those going to be a nice piece of property sir thank you great any questions for the gentlemen nope thank you thank you uh we're going to open the floor for uh public comment is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak for or against this case none is heard so we close the public comment uh we have heard from the staff and also the app uh I would entertain a motion motion to approve we have a motion to approve pz20 25-20 is there a second second second we have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor say I I and in opposition the I have thank you this closes our uh Planning Commission part and uh The Honorable mayor would lead us

into the joint uh session with the city council not until 3:15 oh you just have to do something right actually was Susan I was not watching the clock but technically the meeting is posted for 3:15 you can start late but you can't start early but she's not here anymore Susan's right there okay am May here you have any good jokes no here yep I'll try it but when you have a attorne is involved things happens

for for for all right mayor it's your show all right may we have roll call please Mayor West pres mayor potim Neil pres council member Duo council member felshaw is absent council member gats council member Samuel council member Turner is absent thank you

will Council I'll turn it back over to you yes sir Stony pedit is requesting a specific use permit to operate an artisian office and shop at 450 buly Street Anderson artisians is a skilled carpentry business specializing in creating one-of aind wooden pieces the proposed use of the property as a business office Craftsman shop could Aid in economic growth of down of the downtown area although the central business district does not have parking requirements our City's traffic engineer has reviewed the proposal and has no immediate traffic concerns staff recommends approval of this request with the following conditions number one construction plans must meet all requirements by water utilities for water and sanitary sewer services including any requirements of the city's backflow pre-treatment indoor fog program number two construction plans shall comply with all applicable fire and building code requirements and number three all operations of the business shall remain in compliance with article 12.08 of the city of bont's code of ordinances staff sent 28 property owner notices we received six in favors in favor and zero in O opposition on the screen the area outlined in red is under review aerial image the site plan floor plan this is the subject property property to the north to the east west and south and I believe we have the applicant present

yes sir how you doing great sure uh Michael S Stony petted second PO Box 5115 B my Texas 77726 uh we're moving the Anderson holes office into the front of that building uh we bought the building with the intent of uh putting our carpentry business Under One Roof with the uh with the Anderson homes business uh the intent is to show our clients as they come in that we have in-house Craftsmen that uh can build custom architectural features for the homes that we build I do have one uh what are your hours of operation uh the artist will be in there from 7:30 to 4: okay thank you uh I guess they do yes sir any other all right thank you guys it cas none is heard so we close the public hearing uh we heard from the staff and we also heard from the applicant and I would entertain a motion a motion to approve with the three conditions second we have a motion to approve and the second is there any discussion all in favor say I I any in opposition the eyes have it thank you

good luck sir we're going to go to pz20 25-25 the property owner jeram milillo Lucas is requesting a rezoning of 6690 I'm sorry 669 Rebecca Lane from residential single family dwelling District to General commercial multiple family dwelling District or a more restrictive zoning District this rezone request is in conjunction with continuing his lawn business at this location which is not permissible currently within the residential's single family dwelling District the re this rezoning request could be considered spot zoning and may violate chapter 211 of the local government code Additionally the proposed use is not consistent with the surrounding residential single family uses as such planning staff recommends denial of this request sta staff sent 13 property owner notices we received zero in favor and zero in opposition the area on the the area outlined in red on the screen is the area under review aerial image this is the subject property view from the rear of the subject property subject property continued Northwest that's ller Park East South and West and I believe we have the applicant present so this is a uh continuing business that has been here so they were um operating a lawn business um it was reported to us so we had to do a zoning investigation and it revealed that there was a lawn business being operated at this uh at this site and so we cited it um and they filed a rezoning request and

do you know how long they've been operating there I don't can you go back to that picture from the front of the building okay so that's just an office or a residence that's a residence okay all right good any questions for the lady and the applicant good afternoon sir good afternoon Sir Douglas attorney here in bont and uh with Mr Ricardo Alvarez who is the agent of Mr Hero Lucas and we're here to present the Reon request if you would uh State your address one more time for the record please yes it's 2905 tcoa bont Texas 77703 great all right we'll love to hear from you sir we appreciate your time folks this is a uh we feel like this is not a impermissible spot zoning uh situation and I'll explain why we filled we filled uh we have some uh actual small packets we wanted to everybody to look at while we're talk talking about this it just essentially some more photos of the area I'll guide you through I'm going to keep this brief but we understand this body has viewed this as an imp impermissible zoning uh spot zoning but we feel that the way there there's three main uh thank I'm sorry thank you thank you and what these packets are folks it's just it's brief it's just a point of what I'm going about to talk about

it's an affidavit from Mr Alvarez and some photos we can review but we feel that there's three main characteristics of this property that differentiate it from a traditional illegal spot zoning one is the unique placement of the lot involved and I'll get into that in a second number two is the current nature of the Rebecca Lane neighborhood and number three the nature in which the business is operated so as far as the unique placement of the lot one thing unique about this is that when you walk and drive around the Rebecca Lane neighborhood you can never see the business itself if you walk down Rebecca Lane you never see this business this business is not visible naked eye when you're in the Rebecca Lane neighborhood uh it's like it's been pointed out this business is bordered by a road com stock and again if you guys will refer to my packet on Tab a there's just a few General Maps but if you look at let's just say A2 okay this business is bordered by road comto if you see on the on the satellite image here which is uh it's non it has essentially non-residential traffic the other side as has been noted is left Park and undeveloped Forest um and that's the only if you look at the uh the image if you see uh on commstock road on the uh left side of Rebecca Lane on this image there's sort of a dirt path there that is the Ingress and egress for the business going out of Comstock Lane so the business is not feature traffic in and out of it through this neighborhood it's on Comstock Lane and I'll get into that a little bit more

in a second but uh so it's and it it's bordered on the other side by helck road which features a predominant Railroad Track Running parallel to it uh on the other side of hellig road there are no there's one small resident that's pretty far back from the elic road and it's sort of dilapidated but otherwise you have a lot of undeveloped Forest so what you have we feel that this is a unique situation of the land because it does not impact in any way the Rebecca Lane neighborhood because you can't even see it from the neighborhood there's no signage and if you walk around Doris onto Rebecca you just never see the place and secondly on the other side predominantly the side where they have Ingress and ESS the other side it's all pretty much undeveloped save for Left for Park so it's not a traditional spot zoning situation in which you would I don't know put a liquor store in the middle of a neighborhood or a convenience store it doesn't attract people to it and people don't go to it this is a business that's designed to take orders and go out and you know satisfy the orders for their law uh care business when they leave the business to go and service their clients they leave on comto if you refer this page again they turn on comto onto hellig because that's the most uh rational way to get out to the places so they they leave on com stack turn on hellig and then just go to wherever they're going if you notice from this map they never impact the neighborhood so they're at the far tip of the neighborhood they never impact the neighborhood usually have 3 minutes time to talk but since I neglected in in informing you of that I would make a motion to give him additional time I'm sorry I wasn't aware of the three minutes is there a second second I'll run through this really quick I'm a lawyer fa say I go ahead please okay so

really the unique placement of the lot uh second is the current nature of the Rebecca Lane neighborhood area uh one see if one walks around the Rebecca Lane area one sees traces of commercial and Industrial activity all around the neighborhood turn to tab D really quickly I took some photos just Saturday riding around this neighborhood and you see you know I'll shorten it up but you see a lot of instances of commercial dump trucks you see two chicken Coupe areas you see two you know you see the railroad track that runs behind the entire uh neighborhood you see on for instance on page d8 you see a tire out in the middle of the the bend my point is there's a lot of commercial and Industrial activity that is Apparent from the eye or that looks like commercial industrial activity that is uh in this area but the lawn service isn't part of that the lawn again the lawn service is not visible from the area so see me just cut it down okay the manner in which the subject business is conducted I kind of hit on that but I'm just going to briefly uh summarize it the lawn care business doesn't feature walk-in customers it doesn't uh have any obtrusive or open signage of the area again if you're walking around the area you don't even know that business is there it doesn't Ser serve any customers on site so there's no over congestion of the area by customers or any kind of traffic there's because there's none uh the few people who engage with the loan care service on site would enter from comto uh the services are performed offsite like I said so they're not really a commercial establishment that features customers regularly which is the big problem with a lot of the spot impermissible spots zoning you put something in a nice neighborhood and you know a lot of customers come and it can

introduce Vice it can introduce you know over congestion things like that these ills aren't present so um how many employes you go have how many employees do you guys have at least like six six six employees right sometimes sometime we use use four so there's no real impact on the neighborhood from this and again it's it's sort of um invisible in the neighborhood they've been running the business since 2021 they've never had one complaint about noise about pollution anything they're good neighbors uh leer Park I mentioned leer Park often features some unor characters who hang out at the park at night and they leave beer bottles and such these guys go out and clean it up every day because they don't want their neighborhood like this so I would suggest uh I I've submitted some stuff for the record you guys can look at more detail but in general they don't have any kind of negative impact on the area that is usually present in spot zoning situations they're taxpayers they pay their taxes they have a valid uh license with the Secretary of State their business has been operating operating for four years they haven't had one problem with anybody there they just like to continue their business and uh that's why we're asking for the reone there's a lot more detail I can get into but I appreciate your time I understand the the brief nature of this what are the office hours what are the office hours well actually 9 to four 9 to four and then so you have six employees so that's six Vehicles there also no most of the most of the times they he drive together in a truck that I can he step to the mic to answer the question so it's properly recorded thank you I'm sorry yeah like I said there's between I to four and most of the times there's two guys in a truck so there's two or three trucks not more than that so no loud noises from equipment starting and that kind of stuff no we never start in the property because we have to go okay I would say there's more loud

noises from the train track which borders everything and the two chicken coops in the neighborhood although I'm a country guy I like roosters in the morning so so there's noise with that but he still in a resident though it's still in a residential but again I think that's one of the features that differentiates this impermissible spot zoning it's at the tip of this neighborhood and the other uh surrounding area is largely undeveloped this is sort of out in the sticks if you can say something it's out in the sticks in the city it does it no harm to the community it's a good business it provides you know a valuable service to everybody they pay their taxes they're good for the tax base Mr Linton the um in exhibit E I think there were some pictures of tractors is that his tractors that's the the the business tract business tractors e is basically a few photos of within the business and again the business is sort of in sconed in some trees and such and we wanted to represent to the commission too that if uh the res application is U granted if anyone has a pro no one's uh complained about this but if anybody has a problem with the Aesthetics of this specific spot these are Landscaping people they can put they're very well prepared to put Shrubbery around or anything but again you don't really see the area well the uh I was looking at the first V uh picture was of the house was on Rebecca yeah was the Gated part on comto because I saw the Gated part that you enter and exit that's on com this is comto how far along comto is it completely enclosed on the comto so if you coming down Comstock you see the gate but is the rest of it visible to the tracks from comto yes some of it's visible yes but from that Rebecca Lane neighborhood you see this picture right here you see the the the the Gate of course on the right is their

house going down that neighborhood you never see any of the but from there it goes all fromto to the railroad tracks that's the part that's exposed to the neighborhood and I'm assuming that the issue is going to because if I'm not mistaken I think someone purchased a land across the street looking for home development in the future and it's probably going to be an issue with the exposure but as for you said he's been there for four years he's been for four years there's no issues and if there's any kind of issue with exposure they're uniquely qualified to to rectify that with their landscaping business they can put up shrubs trees anything they need it'd be it beautify the area you know and again they've been in business for four years never had any problems nobody's ever complained about anything an inspector gave him a citation in November and I understand why but we're here to try to reason on it because this is a they're a benefit to the community they clean up they make their Community better you started four years ago with how many people just two maybe three so you have grown this business to what it is now try to make it grown a little bit more um counselor if uh if this is reson then the if they sell the business what happens to it it doesn't change the zoning it does it go it's stays yes sir the zoning is with the with the property not with the business and I will say they've been living in that property since 2015 and they don't plan on going anywhere and one final thing I'll say is uh you know a lot of times in these spot zoning situations in addition to a lot of the ills of it there's a situation where it can attract other businesses because of that business trying to make money like for instance you have a CLE and they

have a uh crazy Jose's moves next to it or you know things like that this isn't going to attract any other businesses because there's no reason to you know settle next to a longcape landscape business uh can this be reone counselor to only landscaping business no sir yeah so when you change the zoning you can't really it's not like a specific use permit where you're offering specific to that use when you rezone it's rezoned to in this case it would be um General commercial any possible restriction that we can put in there like for for the next if the owner changes they have to come for a specific use permit it appears that these guys have the right thing it took the city Obama four years to figure out they're not supposed to and they build a business I'm trying to help them but I I'm also concerned with the neighbors so if if we turn this into commercial and some guy wants to come up with some big industrial shop over there that's going to be hindrance to to the neighbors but he would be justified in doing so because the property would be General commercial uh Demi what's the closest uh commercial property to this looking at this map nowhere close um it would be further uh hell big towards Lucas East Lucas Area is probably the closest it the commercial zoning District would get to it um I will say so to this request is for a reone um not

a specific use permit um right now lawn businesses um on our permitted use table um they're not permitted period in a residential single family um so that's why it it can't come before you guys as a specific use permit um request so if we were to do a rezoning I know one of the things that you had said was that um it won't be a liquor store or a convenience store well if it's ever sold 50 years down the road gcmd that zoning District could allow for a liquor store or a a convenience store um and again I would I would caution that this could violate seeing the zoning map right here this could violate uh chapter 211 um and be considered spot zoning um I'm not saying that these these reasonings aren't um valid or have some validity to them it's just in looking at the facts this could be spot zoning and therefore that's why planning staff cannot support it how else can we can we rezone this to enable them to operate what other category can we put him in what's another alternative the closest thing that you could probably entertain is gcmd 2 um and require a specific use permit on top of it however that's still if if it came back is that I still would have to recommend spot or recommend denial due to spot zoning on the uh rezoning portion of it um the other part you you know we could look at what the impacts of lawn businesses and residential zoning districts um could have have on neighboring um properties uh and require specific use permits within the RS zoning District that that's something that we could look at if um council is interested in that kind of a of a review um but you know I I will caution that there is a reason why this this case was

uh why staff was notified of of this rezoning or this uh lawn business occurring out of this property um and so we had to address it it and that's why this request is before you guys I do have a question for you councilman if you would yes like what prce spot zoning is allowed none none none there no different classifications in spot zone no however if that were to be General commercial then someone else could come in after he leaves and it would not be spot zon because it would be attached to a gcmd yes sir so we could allow it to grow yes sir okay we talked about spot I'm sorry my question is let's say if we do change this so they can have office so they can have a public come in in and out then you cannot City cannot stop doing that because it's already Zone changed and they can have 10 or 15 customers coming in day if yeah like in for example in gcmd you could have a apartment complex on that property if if it fits the zoning or the setbacks and all the other requirements but uh it opens up a lot of a lot of uses com uh I think it might be best if if we put this on hold or or have it rejected and then come back with a with a gcmd to enable them to operate uh hate to put them out of their business just because they uh let me just ask question years what was your occupation prior to you having this business because you've lived there for since 2015 so what were you doing before that and did you use the property for

your business see I'm a builder man I'm a builder and he's my friend so he do some work for me and he needs my help so I try and help him to Res the L Mr Lucas is in here this is Ricardo I understand whoever can answer that question for me what's the answer answer can you repeat could you repeat the question I'm sorry if he has lived there since 2015 what was his occupation and what did he use the 1.0 acres for this what he before this this what he he's been theing just uh cutting yards and and try and put some like little plants and in the in the land lawn care for a long time before this so he was doing Lawn Care since 2015 from this place yes well he was the business started in 2021 though the the Lucas La understand the business started but what was he doing was he doing that yards and stuff from there too let me see what the attorney says um we'll need to get the speaker we were under the impression that he was the applicant we'll need to get the speaker to State his name and address for the record so it can be properly recorded yes sir please state your name and address for the record my name is Ricardo uh uh T2 glingo Street 7705 and you are representing the Mr Lucas yes sir I'm G be there okay yes sir thank youed him as the agent on I understand thank you uh councilman you had something to sayne what is illegal illegal or legal legal there we don't recognize spot zoning exactly is there a reason why well that' be a question for our director but um just because of that it creates different zones inside so when let's just say and

Demi you jump in whenever you feel comfortable but if you have a um a business in the middle of a residential property it essentially changes the structure of that neighborhood um another business can come in and buy if they chose to buy that land and essentially spread out um one of the questions was what's the next closest residential property because that would allow it to not be spot zoning but if you look at the triangle if that becomes commercial than any of the other opportunities around it that touches it could also extend to be commercial as well um if the idea is for Council to keep that as a residential neighborhood um you would be hard pressed to keep businesses out because now they have a contingent of commercial property which they can connect to to build for commercial use and it affects the value of the property that would be a question for our planners essentially um I will also add that this is considered a stable area on our comprehensive plan so as it's already developed as a residential single family structure um it is consistent with the existing surrounding uses and also um compatible with our comprehensive plan to rezone it to General commercial multiple family dwelling District um that would not be uh compatible to our um comprehensive plan so it would go against the plans we have in place and if I'm correct there's development residential development a couple boxs down from this is that correct yes sir okay uh go ahead the now that I understand that you don't live in this property it's someone else's property Sir Mr Lucas lives in the property har Lucas and Mr Lucas owns the business correct and he has nothing to do with any either one of them he works with him and he's his Confidant and he represents him in matters so how long has Mr Luc

has been been in the landscaping business he us a start like uh he's he start like like he said like four four years ago he used to be work for somebody else this specific Lucas Landscaping has been in uh place since 2021 but he's been doing long long work for people for long so the business been in for four years but you've been in well this is not your house either so you don't the 2015 for the house is not even involved with you no sir but they've been living in the house apparently the gentleman who lives there has been doing landscaping since he's been there okay right okay all right we're not getting anywhere sir here's here's what I propose I think we should go ahead and uh deny this and have him come back with uh with jcmd 2 might be more palatable because then the next the next uh applicant would have to have a specific use permit and we can at least protect the neighborhood that way uh is that correct counselor I don't want to I don't want to stare them wrong so you have two options you can deny it but they don't have to reapply um there's some a different um so we can t it there's a there's a different due process if they Cho do a different route you can table it um and ask for additional information or reconsideration um but again they don't have to they don't have to reapply for anything different so uh if you table it you generally table it from additional information from staff um if there's something else that you want staff to do or staff to consider um but if you deny it they don't have to come back before well the staff has already properly done their work the staff has uh can they change their mind and come back with some other request with the gcmd to they

can so again if you if you if you deny it this isn't their last step um Council still has the final authority to say um how they how they want to move forward so it it would have to go before councel uh for full Authority and then after that they have some options on how they want to appeal or reapply so that would be up to the applicant so counselor if we deny a day it's still going to go for city council correct yes yeah but then uh it's it's going to get more difficult you were going to say something yes sir um if we were to deny today then the applicant would have to wait one year um that's in the Planning Commission bylaws um they'll have to wait one more or one year till they can reapply for a rezoning request all right I'll I'll make a motion to uh table this for until further information from the applicant and advisement with the city attorney and the staff is there a second second any discussion all in favor say I I and in opposition the eyes have it you guys get your thing together come back thank you sir appreciate your time right guys probably can't speak English that's probably why that's that's I mean he should have said that he should have said hey I'm his translator all right well folks thank you very much for the entertainment I enjoyed it uh Mr Mayor thank you sir I can't understand why the goddamn City took four years to figure this out

you oh sounds to me like he's been long time