City Council - Regular Meeting

Hopefully last really hot Tuesday, maybe a cool front, and we'll get down into like 98 or something next week. Thank you guys for joining us. Tonight we're going to kick off our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag, led by Councilmember Daniel Booker, followed by the Texas Pledge led by... Nearly departed director of development services, Bob Vanville. I'm sorry. Retiring. Sorry, I couldn't. And then I will lead the invocation and. Following that, please rise.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Please bow with me. Our most precious Heavenly Father, we come before you, sovereign of the universe, as we yield our will to yours and hope that we can gain your wisdom to do the right things, the compassion and the empathy to see the right people to do those right things for and that we would have the humility to continue to act as friends and family to all around us. We just pray right now with the turmoil in the world and elections coming up that those who stand in office would be statesmen and stateswomen that are more concerned about those that they serve than themselves or a particular

All right. We call this meeting to order at 5.32 p.m. The 1st item on our agenda or public comments. If anyone wishes to speak on a non agenda item, this is the time to do so. I have 1 signed up for an agenda item item. Number 6. We will call that at that time. We have another 1 on national night out. You don't have to sign up to talk, but we, but if you sign up, you go 1st. So, Wayne Cooley will be the 1st to this evening.

Yeah, definitely put that on your calendar. Something worth going to either in your neighborhood or your neighboring neighborhood. Anyone else wish to address the Council at this time for any non-agenda item? All right. There being no one rushing to the podium, we will close public comments and we will go to the next item on the agenda. Something near and dear to my heart is Proclamation for Manufacturing Day. Do you want me to, do you want to come up and talk about it and address it, or do you want me to read the proclamation and then you can come up and address it, Cynthia? Come on down.

Executive Director for BEDC, Cynthia Hernandez.

Awesome. Thank you very much. Before I read, I have to at least take a moment. I'm a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. I'm a second-generation manufacturing engineer. My father worked at IBM, started with IBM typewriters, and they were electric-powered typewriters. They then became more intelligent. Then there was talk to type. as you could dictate to a typewriter. You could then have word processing in a typewriter. Went to PCs as a junior high. We brought the first PC in and they had the first lights out manufacturing of a computer in Austin back in the 1980s. All robotic man

The whereas. Whereas Manufacturing Day is celebrated annually to recognize the vital role manufacturing plays in strengthening our economy, creating meaningful career opportunities, and supporting communities across the nation. And whereas manufacturing is an essential part of the American economy, producing the products, technologies, and innovations that improve our daily lives while providing rewarding careers for workers of all skill levels and whereas manufacturers in Belton and throughout Central Texas contribute significantly to our local and regional economy through job creation, inves

My toy box was filled with spare parts from those said IBM typewriters. I got to tear them apart and put them back together. They never worked, but, you know, they keep working. All right. It's always exciting to be able to showcase that. Our next two items on the agenda, our consent agenda, these can be enacted by a single motion by the council. I will read them into the minutes. And then the council can either remove them and we can discuss them separately or we can enact them through that motion. Item four is adopting the minutes of the previous meetings, including the September 8th council

We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any comments or questions before we vote? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Passes 5-0. Item 6, hold a public hearing and consider a zoning change from transition to plan development transition on approximately half an acre located at 201 South Davis Street. Well, it's not Tina.

Thank you very much. This being a public hearing, we will allow the public to speak on this item for or against. So we will close our deliberations and open the floor. If you wish to speak in favor or against the proposed development, now is the time to do so.

Yeah, thank you. All right. Anyone else wish to speak in favor or against this item? There being no others, we will close the floor and reopen for the council. What say you, council?

We don't think we're ever going to have a flood event again, but you never know. We're in Texas. That's guaranteed.

Being gravel or the pavers that I was reading in the packet was the question I was going to raise. And then the other ones were, I just want to make sure, you know, we're dipping into these imagined belt. And so I just want to make sure that like staff wise, you're comfortable, confident with designs and layouts and facades that as we progress into these, that we're actually achieving, you know, look and feel as well as um opportunity and things like that that were in the in the design so

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve item six as presented with the restrictions that were listed. ... ... ...

It did state in the motion or the proposal that it has to comply with mobile food. So it references that which references the concrete.

Well, I don't think there's a distinction with food truck. As far as the ordinance, I don't believe it. As far as, yeah.

Any other comments on the motion at hand? I will say it. I think it's a great idea. I think I look at it as a minimum viable product. I mean, it's to require a lot of modification to kind of to Luke's point. If we have a lot of requirements here, add a lot of costs, which adds more risk to you. And then if we put more risk and then it doesn't work out, then we've modified a piece of property that won't be used. I think this is a really good compromise between the two and and like john said i think you know we've already got a lot of foot traffic there continue to build on that i think one of t

Okay. Thank you. Again, this being a public hearing, we will close our deliberations and open the floor. If anyone wishes to speak in favor or against this future land use map amendment, they may do so. No one wishes to address the council. We will close the public hearing and reconvene for council deliberation.

We have a motion and a second to approve the future land use map amendment as presented. Any comments or questions before we vote? Aye. Passes. Oh, all those opposed? I didn't hear anybody. It's not saying I, so sorry. Passes five to zero. Item eight, also a public hearing and amendments, considering amendments to the Imagine Belton Standards 4.3 signage related to pole signs, heights along I-35 corridor and the zoning ordinance section 38.18C relating to wall attached signs. Mr. Van Til.

Again, as Bob stated, this will be a public hearing, so we will stop our deliberations and open the floor if anyone wishes to speak in favor or against the proposed sign ordinance amendments for both pole signs as well as attached wall signs. They may do so. There being no comments from the floor, we will close that and reopen deliberations, says the council.

Well, Bob, let me tell you how floored I am that signs are in front of us again. So I just love this. So a couple of questions. One, as on every map we show, and I don't know if this snuck by us in Imagine Belt and stuff, but you showed a big map with a hundred foot max, but That's only highway frontage, right? Yes. That's not the entire zone.

Just want to make that clear before I continue on. Second, nothing against certain businesses. Those like Pandas, they've got art marketing design teams. You're not going to find 100% of a building facade that's a sign because it would just look tacky and they're not going to do it. I'm not worried about them as much as I would be in no offense to me that owns maybe a smoke shop, but I don't know a smoke shop owner would do the same. Um, and so my, I don't know, that's, that's my, my tussle is those that I know that have chains and marketing teams. And it's not my concern. It's what, what abou

And, um, so I go at midnight with a little rush and, um, you know, I, I, you know, signage is a huge thing in businesses.

The way it shows, it's not street. It's facade, so whatever the facade is. If there are three facades, you would have three opportunities.

So if you've got a Panda Express that fronts two major buildings... Highways. Two major highways, and you would use the same... It would look appropriate both sides. But the total would exceed what you just said. Is this a total or is it a per facade? Because if there's... Yeah. Well, yeah, because the thing is, if you've got two faces, you would have two facades that you would have potentially two calculations, not one calculation is divided by two.

I think they're starting to drop the logo.

The measurement of the front should be for the front. And if you want to do another design on the side, that whatever size of that side is, you get to do the ratio percentage.

Example is Muscovy at the corner in downtown, that the front would be limited to the front facade and the side would be limited to the front side. The two measurements there is about the cost, basically. That way it's appropriate on...

Honestly, I think what was presented and what was stated was per facade, and it's 80% of the facade. It just didn't go into the detail of what happens if you have four facades or three facades or two facades or just one.

I think public-facing is probably the right way.

If it's, for example, the way Panda is set up, there's a, you're sitting in a drive-thru at Wendy or coming around Wendy's and you see Panda. Are they only limited to signage on whatever sides have a street or can, if they want to put a sign on all four sides, can they?

Well, I think if we say public facing and you can make the argument that all four sides are public facing, like you're in the middle of a mall, you're a pad site, you know.

All right. Chair, we'll entertain a motion. That's very good. Do we need to? I want to say it that way.

I'll make a motion to approve this agenda item for both parts, but the caveat that a public-facing side of an entity, whatever math ratio that is, applies to that side.

We have a motion and a second to approve the amendments to the Imagine Belton standards for signage for pole signs as presented and with wall attached signs with the amendment that the calculation per side would be for the facade on each side for the calculation for that side. So as an example, if one side, it would be 80%. For one side on the length, if it was four sides, it would be each item would be determined independently on that. Right.

I think I heard a second. Did I hear a second? You did. It was me. Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other comments or questions? No, I think, you know, signs is beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And there are a lot of pretty signs and there are a lot of ugly signs. um and we want pretty signs but there's no way you can make a pretty ordinance to address just pretty signs so i think by having at least some standard um it allows for us to at least narrow it down and at least get it into uh reasonable um all right any other comments before we vote just my only other comment with the changes to i-35

All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Passes five to zero. Item nine, hold a public hearing and consider amendments. Yeah, we'll finally put that one to bed. You know, sitting on some items or...

Well done, Bob. Ten years. Yeah, persevered.

We'll put this one on your gravestone. We'll put it 100 feet in the air. It'll be 80%. Sorry, Bob is retiring and this is his last public council meeting. All right, item nine, hold a public hearing and consider amendments to the zoning ordinance relating to A, section 42 definitions, adding a definition of a comprehensive zoning change. B is section 49 relating to zoning protest rules, public hearing requirements, and the validity of zoning changes. Item C is section 46.8, non-conforming uses relating to HUD code manufactured homes. And item D is section 46.8, non-conforming uses relating to

Can we make one for our state representative and say, here's your sign?

All right, this being a public hearing, we will close our deliberations and open the floor for anyone who wishes to speak in favor or in opposition to the amendments to the zoning ordinances as presented. There being no public comments, we will close the floor and reopen our deliberations. I will make a note, since these are cleanup items related to a state requirement, which we are a subsidiary of the state, we have no option but to approve these items. So this is what you would call kabuki theater.

We have a motion and a second to approve the items that were required for us to approve. Any comments or questions other than my little snide comment?

I don't know why we would need to vote this in because it's mandated. So we should probably just do it. All right. Any other comments? All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? And honestly, with all that said, these are not bad things. Most of these are not bad things. These are things we are probably doing for the most part anyway. The burden of proof of zoning changes in the first 60 to 90 days is on us. The burden of proof after that reasonable period of time is then on someone else. And so... Appreciate you guys going through that with the fine tooth comb last 2 items item num

Appreciate that. All right. This is not a public hearing, so say you, council members.

Yeah. I commend the staff for what they've done because I can imagine going around and counting curb cuts and ramps and evaluating them as the highlight of anybody's day.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the resolution adopting the ADA policy self-evaluation transition plan for the city of Belton. Any other comments before we vote? The one comment I will say is there are ADA requirements within the city that the city also works with. So this is not something that flows down to the other. This is actually looking in the mirror and using those same policies on our buildings. not just those who reside within our facilities. So again, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. So appreciate the staff being willing to do that in-house, saves t

Thank you for putting rain in the forecast.

All right. Again, not a public hearing. Council, any comments or questions or a motion?

Can you go back to the rain picture? Sure can. Look at that diesel price on there. Man, oh, man.

We didn't realize we were in fantasy world. Gas prices were under $3.

I'll make a motion to approve the bid award to McLean Construction as presented and not to exceed the amount as applicable by state law.

We have a motion and a second to adopt item 11 as presented. Any other comments or questions? I thank you guys for coming and learning all about our signs and ADA and all the things. So all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Passes 5-0. We stand adjourned at 644.