Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. We'd like to uh call to order the Planning and Zoning Commission, Tuesday, January 13, 2026. Um we'll call the meeting to order. Public comments, citizen comments are limited to two minutes. The planning commission is not permitted to respond to any comments from the public for the Texas uh open meetings act. Number three on the agenda uh consider the approval of the minutes for October 14, 2025 planning and zoning commission meeting and take any action necessary. Do I hear a motion to approve the uh October 14th meeting? I'll make the motion to approve the minutes.

I'll second. All in favor? I

at this time [clears throat] the button anymore. Oh wow. an improvement here. My goodness, that has stumped people for years as I come up here. Okay, let's move forward. Uh, hold a public hearing and consider a request from applicant John Anderson to amend the eastern portion of PD2 plan development district number two on 53.84 84 acres of Anderson Town crossing. Amending exhibit B sub area map use boundaries allowing commercial construction area flexibility. Amending section four architectural standards for facade maximum length to 600 ft maximum. and five lighting parking and signage standards for entry sign location and height of that portion of the PD which lies to the west of US 271 and contains the following property IDs 7383 and 6565 owned by Creative Destination Development LLC recorded at as instrument number 201160 648 in the real property records of Titus County, Texas, city of Mount Pleasant, Texas. Generally located at the northwest side of the intersection of Row 10 Road and West Ferguson Road, Highway 271, east of Lake Tankley, and take any action necessary.

And now we turn it over to Le.

Good evening. Um, this is an interesting case. Um, most of you, I believe, have been um along for the ride on various other portions of this particular plan development. I made a mistake. It's PD2, not PD1 up there, but it's um the Anderson Town Crossing is um a plan development that has been uh talked about for a number of years and it's been in um in existence for several. This is an another amendment. It was amended um once before a year and a half ago to allow Christ to come in. Um, and this is an additional amendment that will allow the retail area to be expanded because there is a um national retail chain who wants to come in and develop an anchor store for the entire uh development on the 271 side uh ne and on the property by Atwood. um and they have some additional need besides having to expand the commercial piece. They want um a facade that's longer and uh higher and bigger signage than were originally called out in the plan development. So, as you can see, um I've got some uh information there. The apartments and the hospital portion on the Tankersley side are already underway. Um, and this is just for the uh 271 site. So, some additional details to kind of refresh everybody. Um, talked about the national retailer, but the commercial area that was originally lined out on that PD was in sort of in front with

multif family on the rear of that site. Well, where they want to put the stores in intrudes into where the original multif family portion was more than 100 ft which was built into the original PD that allowed for staff flexibility. So we had to change the map. That's why we're here. That's the main reason. Um and of course to change the site plan PD amendment site plan is a site plan amendment which is a zoning case. We have to go through that whole thing just to move it. Even though there really was no um it was a sort of a a staff and developer decision on kind of where those lines were drawn. It's not controversial or anything. We're not taking all the multif family out or anything like that. We're just moving it and making it larger. And this is a very exciting um uh development for our city uh to have a national retailer of this caliber come in. Um, additionally, they want to have a retail building that would exceed what they had originally specified as 450 ft facade length um just because they're going to attach that building to another one as you see similar in some of the larger um shopping centers. So, there'll be two big anchor stores, a main one and a semi- main one attached to each other. And so, that exceeds the 450 foot facade limit. So it was uh expanded to 600. Um and then the Sonia size and height requirements of that tenant that has expressed the desire to come in that exceeds the original size depth stipulations that were in the PD as well. They require a maximum 100 foot height and they also uh are because of

the size of their sign and each of those two signs will have all of the other tenant anchor signs on them that would be a a maximum of a th00and square feet. That would be all the signage not just their sign. So we're talking about main signage for the subdivision. Um just just to kind of a little bit on this the uh we did look at the Lowe's sign which is right across the street and on I30 sits up kind of on a hill that site that sign height is 80 feet um itself um we measured it and it is I don't know probably 10 15 maybe even 20 feet higher than the site of where this 100 foot sign will be. So, it won't be as if it was um sticking up way high because the uh it depends on the sign height is from the ground that it sits on. And so, where it looks like uh in the air is uh relative to what height it started at. So I don't um south is not we looked at it carefully but it it did not appear to be uh really um a sinking point. So this is the the area that we're talking about on the left hand side of course um the uh 73 83 65 65 that's the property that is a part of this um and circled in purple so you can kind of see it the the store that showed that has the number 34013 that's the parcel number 34139 that's Atwoods and So um that general area that's the property that Mr.

Anderson owned with um in his company name that is the subject of this uh additional case history. We went through some of this. Um the preliminary plat when it was approved was 2024 and then most of you are here and I I brought that forward. That's in the red box. And we also have this site plan that came through was um uh put through for the uh apartment and Chris has got its site plan which is the purple triangle in that red box in uh 20 late I guess that was 2024 and I and 2025. Um just to make a note that any uh entrances have to be approved by technon onto their roadway roadways um prior to final flat approval for all of the buildout for this subdivision. So that part is coming and um just the the area the major national retailer wants to locate and it's shown in the purple box. Future land use map. Um, often we talk about our our comprehensive plan and what their vision for land use was. And just as a reminder, this entire site um is shown in brown and that's a mixeduse center in our city, which means both residential and commercial. And this amendments to the PD is is staying true to that. um that there is additional flexibility being built in so that the market will determine if there's more or less retail versus uh multif family and residential in that portion of the PD instead of being so set so we don't have to keep coming back and amending it because they move something um slightly.

This is the amended site plan for the part that we're talking about and it it It really doesn't differ very much from the old one other than the fact that it has some um preliminary drawings shown on it for the buildings in the green area um with the parking lot already shown. The those buildings um are the retail and they've been shoved back just just a little bit onto the site into where it was previously considered to be res and multif family. that will continue in um the uh parcel 23 and just that kind of it's depicted with a couple of culde-sacs in there to show that it's we're talking residential. Um that will continue and um there are pad sites that were already depicted in the first um plan development are not changing along 271. The changes that are proposed as I discussed are um the commercial area um in the in the goal that just moved back slightly in relation to um Atwoods. It was a little bit closer to the tree previously. Uh this extended facade length. In other words, you'll notice that those those are three stores showing. They may be more or less than three. It may just be two, but longer than than 450 ft. Um and the sign locations that are proposed are shown in the golden red box. So we notified property owners um where the ovals are. Um all property owners within 200 ft of the property boundary. One property owner has responded in

opposition and her property is on Rotan Road marked with an X. Um that uh she was um and I I I meant to bring you copies of that and I um I I apologize I didn't but she was concerned about the development along Row 10 Road and she didn't like the development from the subdivision. She did not or from the development she did not have any specific um comments about what the amendment of the PD is. She was upset about the entire development that has already been approved and is as you know uh contiguous to her property very close is already underway with the apartments. Um we went out there today and there's some framing going on even on the clubhouse and so it's it's vertical and and there's a lot of traffic uh construction traffic. That was her main issue. It did not her comments did not concern what the amendment is about. Um it was advertised in the newspaper um as public hearing um per state law and additionally um state law changed that there was a consideration that zoning case signs needed to be erected and so um Mr. Anderson put one up on his property um along road 10 and 271 in time to inform the public that this public hearing in this case is moving forward. The staff is recommending approval um based on the fact that the current PD in place um has already been u adjudicated I guess for lack of a better word through u the public uh sphere and there are minimal changes that it that is

compatible with the original intent and the development that's underway and and also as I pointed out the comprehensive plan that there are available utilities um that are coming Chris is supposed to open um first of next month I believe for business and that uh that utility line that was coming is uh almost in place and there won't be any detrimental impact on any existing uses from this amendment. Any questions? This is like 90% cosmetic. I mean it there's no substantial structural changes. No,

you're you're moving a couple of buildings back.

We had to move those back, but on the map that I drove that's hardwired into the zoning and so if you change it, you're changing the zoning. So it has to come forward through the process to be discussed. the difference is is probably uh less than 100 feet because the the PD allowed staff to approve it. If it was within 100 ft of the use change, so there was already commercial use in that area, they they moved the because the building's bigger than they anticipated, that's why. They moved back into what was multif family by somewhere around close to 200 feet, which was a little bit further than what I had the authority to say it was okay. So, we brought that forward. The signage um came up because they along with other national retailers that I'm familiar with and have worked with are are very adamant about their sign. They've done a lot of research and they when they want a 100 foot sign, they want a 100 foot sign. And I know for for a fact that there I don't know about this one, but I know there are retailers that will kill a deal and go somewhere else if they can't have the sign that they want. So that was as you said is cosmetic and nobody had thought about it at the time that Anderson Town crossing went forward the first time that that you know I mean they had sign lighting and and all those and landscaping and things like that in there generally but it there were no tenants there was no actual customer wanting to come. Now we have one so that's what the PD is doing.

Okay. I I personally [clears throat] think again that it's more cosmetic than it is functional. Is going to follow the guidelines of some of these major retailers and as you say they're going to want their sign.

Uh I think it fits all with within what we've approved before. Uh and I think this is the first of many minor adjustments that goes with a project this size. Hopefully hopefully it's we've taken care of by using the flexibility between the multif family and you know just generally calling it mixed use. We won't have to do this again. I hope because it like you said it it does take up time and it's confusing to people. I don't have anything else any you guys have any thoughts? You have to open the public hearing though.

Well, I'm still talking about the commission. They they can comment before we go to over here, right? Okay. You guys got any thoughts on it? Yeah, that it's just part of the exercise. Okay. At this point, uh we want to open a public hearing. Questions from anybody in the public, anyone that's here, anybody's got any visions for what going on out there. So, I would welcome anyone to uh the podium. Is there anybody here that would like to comment one way or another? Good. I wish all the meeting [laughter]

[laughter] Okay. At this point then we're going to close the public hearing and u I I make a motion that we approve the changes presented tonight. I second the motion.

Okay. Uh is you going to call for a vote? Okay. Please call for the vote. All those in favor? I I I passes unanimously. Uh we want to move on to the planning director's report. And I guess that's in again. Yeah, here it comes.

So, we um have some busy um folks in town. We have a number of projects that are coming through. Uh we will be bringing forward the tax credit apartments um that are on Tennyson that were they came through before and were the tax credit portion was approved before I even came to work here in 2024. Um they uh are platting and doing a site plan for you all to see and it It appears to track that it will be um on the February PNC meeting um to move forward with that project. Uh seven Bruis has um picked up their permit to build. We the extended stay hotel um which I think that that was all permitted for the most part. It has gone through um the site approval with staff that's about to go vertical too. Um we have uh Anderson uh channel crossing that's underway um and in a pretty big way actually. We're out there today and uh we're we're going to have more and more projects uh on the other tax credit apartments on 16th Street. They're coming along real well too. Um, I'm working on trying to have a chance to get a map together and put it on the website so people can see which project is which and what they're supposed to be when they're finished. Some of them come through you if they aren't already platted. Um, some of them don't. So, we we have a number of those that we are working

with. Um I will tell you that I've met with um hotel two hotels that will they they will be coming forward also. Um one of the hotels is uh going to be in the Anderson Town Crossing area off of Tankersley and the other one is going to be across from the project we just talked about off on 271. So there um both all of those you will see. Um I I won't I can't I doubt seriously it'll be February before you see them because it just takes them a while to get their ducks in a row and their pieces. They'll have to have plaques both on both pieces of property and site plan. So um at least the site plan will be needed on um the project that John Anderson is doing because it's part of that's part of the PD. you see that and it gets approved that specific site plan. So, we there's a lot of exciting development going on in town. We get um people discussing their projects to enlarge um and expand and kind of uh build their businesses up um several a week that are in process various in process. We've got a couple of um uh they've already been platted warehouses in town that are going to be expanding. We have lots of other small projects that may or may not impact you, but um we definitely have an uptick in development. So, we're staying on it to try and make sure that that they um adhere to our all of our rules and make uh our

vitality and vibrancy not be um a drain on the existing uh city, which is always a problem because you you you want growth, but then you don't want some of the negative things that growth brings. So, that's pretty much why we we try and get um better planning uh in place and we are working on bringing forward some new zoning standards, a downtown standard that I've talked about. I'm making pro progress with the main street group, several of the committee members and I sitting down going through um trying to get a draft downtown zoning district um to the point where we start public meetings and we'll bring that to you when we have it ready. It isn't right now. Um we will have presumably we'll present the idea of having um vacant building registration downtown to make sure that any buildings that are not actively for sale um and are not being utilized um they're registered. And there's a mechanism in place to make sure that the owners keep them up in an appropriate way and then they have to pay registration fee for the time that they are empty to kind of incentivize them not holding the property and having it just slowly dilapidate and go down. That would be just in that new downtown district that we're trying to work on. working on some incentives and tax um reinvestment zone and other types of incentive as policy to be able to bring some of the um ability to be uh flex flexible with some of the financing that

we're having discussions. We want to be uh competitive. We're in comp competition with the um cities around us for uh some of the expansion um activities at some of the retailers in particular on the national level. Although I will say I will kind of brag on us a little bit. So the extended stay hotel I believe probably talked to may have gotten involved with prefer is why they're here but seven bruise Marshalls and Ashley Furniture all found Mount Pleasant on their own and they wanted to be here and so if we can be you know generally competitive with other cities we stand a really good chance to get some of these um more expansive choices and restaurants and um retail and and other services that we can bring here. And obviously we don't want to grow too fast, but we have all of our infrastructure in place and we're working pretty hard and making sure we stay ahead of some of the um pressures that come with our growth. Just want to let you know that we're working on it. Questions? All right. Does anybody have any other questions or anything at this time? If not, then I make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second the motion.