City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, please silence your devices. We're about to get started. All right, so at 6 o'clock, I call this meeting of the Sagenol City Council to order. Please rise for the pledges. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible.

Thank you. Please be seated. Item 1 C is the invocation. Reverend, welcome.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I just want to say a word of thanksgiving for each of you in each of your own ways. Uh you are the very best of our community and I'm grateful for each of you. So, thank you for your service and would you join me in prayer? Almighty God, we come before you in this season of thanks, as has been called before, the season that should never end. And father, I pray that out of the overflow of our hearts, gratitude would uh be expressed uh to one another uh to our families, to our neighbors, uh that it would invade this community in such a way this thanksgiving that it would truly transform the hearts of each person in Sagena and in this corridor of Fort Worth. Thank you, Father, that this hall represents a place where uh plans are developed, uh strategies are put into place, and wisdom is required. And so, I pray over this council and each each person that uh is sacrificial in their service to every one of our neighbors in this community. I pray your blessing on them and we give thanks, Father, for this opportunity and this season to be together as we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Reverend. Wise words. Uh D's audience participation. That's covered on the screen. Anyone wishing to speak on an item, please see the uh there's a list over there by the chief. If you want to speak on a public hearing, you don't need to fill out a form. I will call for folks to approach at the proper time. Okay, moving on. Consent agenda. I've had a request to pull 2E. So, we will cover all the others. 2 A, action regarding minutes from November 4th. 2B, action regarding cancellation of January 6th council meeting. 2C regarding individual product order pavement management program. 2D X regarding individual product order Blue Mound Road beautifification. That is it. So A, B, C, and D. I will entertain a motion.

Mayor, I make a motion we approve items consent agenda items 2 A, B, C, and D as read. Brack. So we'll second. Please cast your votes. Motion passes. Let the record reflect. We have a quorum, a full house. Thanks for coming, folks. So, we will go to 2E and throw that to Pedro, director of economic development, community engagement.

Good evening, mayor and council. Uh, the reason why this item was pulled because there's been uh some language that's changed since the packet's been released. Uh, so I'm just going to read off what's changing. So, this is a driveway between Chicken Express and the Einstein Brothers. That was a requested item from council from the 380 agreement. Uh, the original said, "This drive shall be installed per the city's standard detail specifications and build requirements. that is being replaced with the drive shall be installed matching the existing firelength paving at 7 in 4,000 PSI reinforced concrete pavement with uh four bars number four bars at 18 in on center each way over compacted subgrade I'm not an engineer or a builder so I have no idea what that means so we consulted and fire engineering and uh Randy have said this is a standard that's uh there for fire lanes and for the fire uh drive that driveway that we're requiring u so that's the only language that's changed Are any questions for Pedro on this folks?

Does the uh fire police department have any issues with this? Oh, no. We we prefer it. Okay, good. T you. You're good. No, I'm saying we we don't have any issues with it at all. Excellent. Okay. Any other questions, folks? If not, I'll entertain a motion for two E. Motion we approve consent agenda item 2 E. I'll second. Valerie second. Motion passes. Excellent. Let's get that moving. Three recogni recogni recognitions, presentations. Gabe,

uh, no recognitions tonight. Just want to mention briefly we had a um, egret and coyote uh, how should we say maybe management meeting last night. Was unable to attend. Some of our council members I know attended. Uh it was such a rockus good time that there's a part two being scheduled for January. So the words of uh former Dallas Cowboy Terrell Owens, get your popcorn ready. I would like to say that was very impressed uh the uh uh animal committee that board that did it. Jose and his team deserves accolades for that. Very very well put on. Uh very good information.

Excellent. Thank you, Nick. Excellent. Anything else? Recognitions. All right, let's move forward. 3B, presentation regarding waste connections, recycling options. Welcome, Abel Mareno. Good evening. Good evening, mayor, city council, city staff. My name is Abel Moreno, North Texas Municipal Manager for Waste Connections. Along with me is Zach McFersonson, district manager over waste connections. Tonight we're going to talk about trash. I know uh in the past year we've we've had a lot of discussion on potentially upgrading the recycle bins uh to a larger recycling cart. Well, your current contract, which was extended last year for two years, will be up in 2026, November. This would be a good time to really explore other avenues, not just with recycling, but also with your trash to implement go for another contract of 10 years. The city of Fate just last night extended three years. Uh some of the other cities on here uh notable Halum City and the city of Crowley. We did transition those drivers in the city of Sagenol. 14 helpers, four local customer service specialists, three local dispatchers, line of business specific, and six diesel technicians along with three route supervisors. Big part of what we do is we're a big partner with the city of Sagenol as so many other cities. Every year we participate in the trunk or treat. Uh we're we're big donators to the train and grain festival as well as uh that's a picture of me having a good time at

the uh grand opening for your for your new library and senior center. Um, so with that said, I'll I'll talk about the future, talk a little bit about AI and what we're looking to add. There's a program called Mapgeears and we would like to initiate this program with the new contract. Mapgeears what it does is really allows real time notification. Uh, as you know with companies like Amazon, UPS, you can get on their app, you can find out, you can get ETAs on when your packages are coming. We'd like to do that with the trash. That's something we can incorporate. Along those same lines with with AI and the cameras, we can start looking at businesses and and really just identifying businesses that have overflow and we and we can get and communicate with those businesses and say, "Hey, look, this is becoming repetitive. We'd like to rightsize your dumpster and just make sure you're utilizing your dumpster properly. If you need extra frequency, if you need a larger dumpster, these are your options. Um, and with this city's permission, if if it nothing changes, we could initiate a a penalty or a fine. Now, this is not to uh nickel and dime a business. This is really just to get them to make sure they're they're staying clean and and uh responsible.

Who would get the fine? Who would get the money for the fine? Would it be the city or would it be you? It would be us.

Okay. But again the point would not be to find the business. We wouldn't do that in the beginning. We would show we would meet with the business and say hey look th this is the issue. We really need you to increase your frequency or or get a bigger dumpster. And with alongside with the city, we would talk about when would be a good time to to do a fine or even if we even initiate a fine. Maybe that's not something uh that that the city's on board with, but it it would be a way to clean the city. I'll I'll hand it over to your current service uh to Zach McFersonson.

Good evening. Uh as Abel mentioned, my name is Zach McFersonson. I stepped into the DM role about April as Abel stepped into the municipal marketing manager role. Um I think you guys by now have all figured out how how well AEL maintains relationships with cities and um it does us a great service to have him in that role. though. Um, kind of looking at our current service, what you guys have right now is obviously a rear load take all. Um, some of the issues we see with that, um, a lot of it is curb appeal, right? You have customers with either no container, mismatch containers, um, can lead to animals getting into trash, spreading stuff around. Um, it it can lead to this city being dirty, right? And additional problems that can be mitigated through going to carted service. Um, big issue we face is a lot of the carts and containers customers have don't have the catch bars on them. Right? So, the back of that truck has a tipper on it. It's got a hook designed to grab a bar on our industrial containers to where the guys aren't physically lifting them into the truck. With that, there's there's a safety risk, right? We've service bags not in containers. We have guys lifting heavy containers. Um, I think this year alone, if you look at just grabbing bags as far as service, we've had eight guys either stuck by needles, sharp objects, something of that nature to where they had to seek medical attention to get blood testing, whatever, maybe get stitches. Um, so there's a lot that goes into um us wanting to transition to the parks. It's it's really unproductive. Um, it is hard to not only find people to do it, but it's hard to find people that are are willing and capable of servicing at a level that we expect and you guys expect. Um, there's still a place for rear load, right? You can see the back of the truck in the picture. It's this big giant hole, right? It it's designed for bulky service. It's designed for chairs and stuff like that, right? it's very hard

to utilize in an everyday service that's beneficial for for us as a company and you guys as a city. So, some example setouts. Um, some of these are from Sagenov, some of these pictures are from other cities we've uh done this transition with. What we find a lot of times is when we initially propose this, there's a a a huge push back to going to carts when in reality a lot of time there's a lot of customers that have basically the carts we use except they're they're paying for out of pocket, right? So, it's typically not as large of a transition as as we would think. And right now, just driving around over the past month or so, taking a taking a look at everything, it's about 40 or 50% of customers have containers that basically meet the the specs of our containers. So, why add carts? Um, outside of safety, one of the biggest things is is staffing is becoming a challenge, right? I kind of mentioned it already. It's getting hard to find people that are willing to stand on the back of the truck in the freezing rain, smoking hot summer. Um there's there's a lot of things they can go do for about the same dollar amount per hour. Um so it's getting harder and harder to convince them and and eventually it's going to it's going to phase itself out just by the fact that we won't be able to get people on the back of the truck. The safety and productivity, this is safety's um safety is our number one core value as a company. We take it very seriously. This is something that over the past year has come to light more for us. Um, we've had multiple life-changing events with employees on the back of trucks. Um, and it's it's becoming an issue more and more every day. We see people every day driving down the road staring at their phone that's essentially covering up their whole face, right? We've got we've got guys that are essentially risking their lives on the back of the trucks and and it's it's becoming a bigger issue and it's something that we as a company are are

looking to handle as soon as possible. residential capacity and ability to scale. Um it's much easier for us to scale to the needs of the city. Um whether it's upsizing, downsizing, whatever it may be. Um when we're doing it in a carted manner, um we control the carts, we order them. Basically, you guys tell them where we need to take them and we take them and we get everything handled. City aesthetics. Um this is a big one. There's a there's a appeal that comes with the carts, right? There's everything's uniform. Everything is maintained. U as issues come up with carts. It's not on the resident to replace them, buy a new one. They simply whether it's a wheel fell off, whether the lid broke off, whether the can cracked in half, right? We can repair certain things and we replace others and it never comes at a cost to the customer. And then litter control. We already kind of spoke about this. There's I've got it at my house in Collieville. Um you got animals that like to dig into stuff. So this eliminates a lot of that. Um there's there's additional attachments we can put on the on the lids. Um it's basically a gravity lock. There's a lot of routes we can go to ensure that when the the trash is put in the can, it's staying there. So what we would like to propose is um obviously we mentioned this kind of was initiated by the discussions around recycling. Um and when we take into consideration the safety concerns for for us as a company we want to propose moving to automated trash service twice a week with a 95gallon cart. Automated recycling service twice a month with a 95gallon cart. And so basically you're going you guys have the 18 gallon bins right now. So you're going from about 80 gallons a month to just under 200 when you look at it in the the every other week. Um we will procure all the new trucks. That obviously doesn't come at a cost to the city. Um the carts, we're taking care of that. We get them ordered. We get them

delivered. We put education material on the carts as they get delivered. Um and then the bundled brush and bulky item collection will transition to be collected on a weekly basis. So when you look at it in the grand scheme of things, um we're really it's it's it's a hard transition to go from take all to to carted. We're we're aware of that. We've dealt with it with other cities. Um when you look at it a capacity vantage point, when you when you do twice a week carded service and a limited bulk and brush pickup every week is we're typically increasing service. So, these are some comp residential prices. Um, something to note, these are none of these are our prices. Um, and then there's obviously listed whether they're carded, the weekly service amount, the weekly or the the amount of the bulk and brush pickup and whether they include recycling or not. Um, some of the similar ones and some of the ones to point out really are outliers, you have Trophy Club and Hazel. Those are newer contracts. Um, those are twice a week take all. Um, one of them including a brush service outside of that with a grapple truck, which is what we service you guys with quarterly, and then one of them having recycle and one of them not. So, that's that's your typical market right now for the twice a week take all service with some sort of brush mixed in there. Uh, mineral wells, they're they're automated twice a week, once a week bulk with no recycling. You have White Settlement, once a week service, once a month bulk with recycling. Fort Worth, you have once a week service, once a month with recycling, and then the same with Waga. So, you can see a good variety of service in the price ranges that go with that. Um, I'm very confident that at the twice a week automated service and once a week uh

bulk service, we're going to be very near the once a week uh service that you see with White Settlement and Wataga. So, what does the transition look like? Um, as I stated, I know this is uh can be sometimes scary to certain residents. We've done this. We have done this. Uh, can you go back? I mean, it'd been nice if you'd have put the recommendation for Sagenol on there so we could have seen it compared to the others. We're still we're still working through that right now. Um, I didn't want to put a soft number in there. Um, like I said, we're going to be right in that that 19 range. that what in the 190 range 19.

Just everybody remember we're not taking action on this tonight. This is just a discussion. So yeah, understand. I just they're throwing numbers and I'm doing a comparison. So

transition um like we said, Crowley, Halum City, we've done this multiple times. Uh we've gotten a good plan together on on how to transition from the take service to the carded, right? would be a detailed plan coordinated with staff, council, everyone that would like to be involved can be involved, right? The more the marrier. Um timeline for assembly once we would if this was approved, it typically takes about 4 to 8 weeks for the amount of carts we'd be looking at. Um really dependent on the manufacturer. um the 95gallon containers. Um something that we can start doing um is instead of having waste connections printed on the side that you can see on that blue recycling container, we can have a whatever logo you guys would want to represent the city of Sagenon can be stamped on there.

Um and then once we do roll it out, we've done this, we did this with Crowley and it actually worked out really good. Um something we see as a operational headache is when we transition from take all to carted. A lot of people think they need more carts than they really do. A lot of people think they're going to need a smaller cart or they think they can handle the big cart. There's a lot of ways it can go. So what we did with Crowley is we put a 30-day waiting period on it to get them adjusted to the the standard cart and then we allowed them to call us either get a smaller container being the 65 adding another 95gallon container whatever of that sorts. And one of the biggest concerns is is the containers are going to be too big and too heavy. With Crowley about 7,000 residents, we transitioned one resident to a 65gallon cart from the 95s.

So with if if somebody wants an additional cart, is there going to be an additional fee for that extra cart or? Yeah, it's significantly discounted compared to the base rate, but yes, there's an an additional fee. Have you any idea what that would be? Not yet. Okay. It's t Oh, sorry. Uh, if you need to finish answering his, you can. No, go ahead. Okay. So, on the once a week bulk though, they could still put out like the black trash bags extra with extra trash if they needed to because that's been the biggest I think reason why you get push back is like right now, I mean, you can put out a lot of bags. Yeah.

And they'll take it. Yeah. So I think as long as there's still that option, I don't think the push back will be near as much because I think people think it's all one or all the other. Correct. Yeah. No, it's it's really it's a catchall term for anything that's not in a cart is the way we look at it. So long as long as it's bagged, easy for us to pick up. As long as it's not hazardous material, it's it's going to get picked up. The other thing I've got is the colors. People are used to green for recycle. any reason why you went to blue for the recycle? That's what we've done for however many years as a company. Just curious because you know people people are creatures of habit with that's a good question and I don't have the answer to it but that's

what I can say is we can make the carts the same color and make recycling yellow or you know we there's ways to I mean it's not a big deal or anything. I'm just people are creatures that have it. And then one more question, and maybe your guys will cover this later, but um is has there ever been a thought to having a place for bulk brush where residents could come and dump their own brush so that that kind of takes off the load from from y'all having to do it? Yeah, we do it with multiple cities. We kind of leave that up to the city. Um it it's dependent on the city, right? If you guys have the space for us to put rolloffs, basically what your appetite for it is, but we do it with multiple cities. Um and yeah, it's definitely something something we're open to.

Okay. One of one of the complaints I hear from people in Fort Worth is if if the bag's sticking up a little bit, Fort Worth won't they won't pick it up. Is that going to be an issue with with this or to an extent it happens. Um it's pretty much a common sense rule, right? The the fear with that is when that can gets lifted up and tipped over, if it's if there's too much hanging above the cart, it's going to get basically thrown over the truck and can hit a park car, passing car, whatever it may be. We typically say about a 45 degree rule, but even then it depends on the makeup of the material. But if No, if you're talking a couple inches, Fort Worth, if it's if it's slightly open, they will not pick it up.

Fort Worth is tyrants. I mean, I've got friends that live there. They get tickets all I mean, if it's open that much, they get tickets. Yeah. No, it's it's got to be pretty severe for for us to not pick it up. Um, and a lot of times as long as it's bagged, our guys, you know, as a courtesy, we have tags that we can put on stuff and label what the issue is or something. So, a lot of times what they'll do is they'll pull one or two bags off the top, service it, throw those bags back in the cart, service it, and then they'll tag it. That way, the customer knows, hey, don't fill it up as much as you did, right? To the point that you filled it up this time, it was an issue. We took care of it, and then we'll kind of handle it that way. But, no, you're talking I've heard the stories, too. It's it's it's not going to be a forward scenario.

So, I know I'm not the only one with this problem, but we keep two cars in our garage and then other people just their garages are just full of stuff and we find it difficult already to have room for the container we do have. So these are much larger. So could you have a smaller one instead of the bigger one and it could still work with the automated Yep. system. And then the recycle bin, you know, we don't we don't need one that big. So are there smaller recycle bins? Yep. We can go down to 65 gallon on both of them.

Okay. So that and then would you pick up recycling twice a week or once a week? Recycling we we're proposing that it would be every other week. So every other week. So it would be twice a month. Yeah. Just because of the the because it is bigger the capacity increase the smaller one if you if you knew you wouldn't overfill it. You could still have a smaller one. Even at the smaller one you're still looking at an additional 45 gallons of service. So basically two of your bins think that you would get at the every other week level. And then um talking about you wouldn't have any employees riding along the outside of the truck or would you

not on the truck that would be servicing the carts. It's a driver alone. Um but on the the truck that would be servicing the bulk and brush that we would still have in place. You would have So would there be any kind of a program? I know you said it was hard to get people to to take those jobs, but if at the time of transition, if you do transition and there are still people working for you as the helpers, would you have any kind of a program to help them find employment elsewhere?

Absolutely. Honest, the the ideal situation is that they stay employed with us. Um about two years ago, we built a CDL school in Gastonia, North Carolina. And then about a year ago, we actually put another one in in Houston, which is where our corporate headquarters is. Um, starting about six months ago, we've had a big push. Um, it kind of started with more interest from the the helper level that we send them down, pay for their CDL, obviously their schooling, and then they come back, have a guaranteed job, they work for us. So through natural attrition that I kind of spoke of already, um, we would get down to a manageable number to where we would be able to send those guys to the CDL school and get them their licenses. And honestly, it it completely changes their life, right? They go from throwing trash on the back of a truck to having a being a professional driver. So each resident um initially would would receive one green cart, one blue cart or trash and recycle whatever whatever color we settle on. Um and then obviously like I said we we typically we we're moving towards that 30-day waiting period because there is a lot of transition. It's it's hard to drop a can off, take two more out the next week and then a month later the customer's paying for three carts and they realize I don't need them and then we got to go back out, pick them up. So, we saw good uh you know, pretty big success with that waiting period. Um, but after that, obviously, like I said, you can go to the smaller carts, you can get more. We'll we'll give the residents what they need. So, this is a a sheet from our cart vendor. Um, just kind of showing a little bit of the specs. Um, I'm sure most of you guys are familiar with what the the 95gallon carts look like. Um, something to note I think is a big misconception between what a lot of residents view as the cart is they're picturing the ones that are at Home Depot if unless they've had a, you know, industrial brand of cart before. They're a lot heavier. They're anywhere from,

you know, 6 to 10 pounds heavier than the ones we use. Um, they're costly. They're I don't know how stores get away with charging what they charge for carts. Um, so I understand the the I guess intimidation by going cartoned, right? It's it's a lot more manageable than it's made to seem. Um, so on these carts Mhm. does the would the citizens buy the carts or would you all furnish one cart? We furnish them. If you go back, it said it had a 10-year warranty. So, uh, that's that's just applicable to us.

Okay. This this is this is the sheet that they'll send us every year with updates if they're changing the carts and stuff. So, there's no warranty that they need to worry about. There's no upfront cost. There's no cost ever associated with a cart to the resident. We pay for them upfront. All they have to do if they break, gets lost, gets stolen, whatever it is, they call us, tell us what they need, we'll fix it if we can. We can't, we'll bring a new one out. Okay. Thank you.

Yep. So, what are the some of the some of the value added benefits? Um, operationally for us, safety is the biggest one, right? I kind of spoke about what what is leading us in this direction. Um, it's something we take very seriously and it's it's getting to a point where this is the direction we're going to go as a company. This is the direction the the industry is going. Um, I think there's a reason that that us Republic and Waste Management are going this direction. Um, and a lot of it is to do with with safety. Um, with the tariffs and just the economy on itself, everything has gone up, right? We've seen since 2021, there's been a 40% increase in the capital costs related to trash service. We're at a point right now where we've already we've already secured our pricing um, for 2026. So, we're able to do it at a at a rate that is significantly discounted to what a smaller company would. Right? That's one of the benefits for us is we're we're nationwide. We're in Canada. We have great vendors that we spend a boatload of money with and they reward us for it and we in turn get to help the cities out with that pricing. Um, we have a tenure team. Uh, I've been here I've been with the company for five years. Abel's been 15 years. Um, we have a lot of people that have been there for a long time, right? We have we have experience with servicing residential areas that have a great mix of commercial and industrial and it's something that we can focus on the commercial industrial more as that grows in Sagena with with this transition to carts planning for the future. Um, talked about the capital, right? It's this is the direction the industry is going. We're able to do it at a point right now where it's not necessarily the industry standard and so we're not handcuffed by industry pricing.

Commitment to education on service enhancements. Um this is a big one. I've mentioned it already, but one of the big things we've done in in cities with the past transitions is speaking to uh senior centers. We go do events there. Whatever it may be, we can bring food. There's a there's a lot of ways we can do it. That's a big concern for a lot of cities and that's something we've we've practiced and we're we're happy to do. company structure. Um, obviously we're we're a Texas company. Um, we're a publicly traded company. Um, but we get to operate on a decentralized model and that allows us to myself, able, my controller, Darcy, to operate our business as as we see fit in the market that is directly affected by us. And this is a a representation of our company operating values, right? safety and integrity being number one and two. Um, safety is paramount. The biggest goal for us is to send guys home the same way they came to work. Um, and frankly with the with the rear load service, it's getting harder and harder to do every day.

With that, you guys have any more questions? I have just a comment. Um, I definitely want to see something with the recycles because I'm tired of all the trash blowing around. Um, you know, we got our containers, they had lids, but you know, the lids would get blow down the road and everything and It's you can tell when it's trash day on the streets. I mean, just clean it up. And I'd love to see the cans with the city logo on them. I mean, I wouldn't have a problem people leaving them outside their house if that's what they had. Yeah. Yeah. A good presentation, but devils in the details. I need to see

I need to see numbers, you know? I need to see like to me the bigger the longer I can to me the longer I can sign a contract, the better. Five, 10 year contract. that to me that's that's the way I' I'd like to quit this every other year, every three year stuff. Get a get a lock solid one down. Absolutely. But again, devils in the details what what's going to cost. I can tell you that uh allowing a private business to find our citizens is going to be a very hard deal for somebody like me to option. It's an option.

Other questions for Zach and Abel? When do you think you can come back with a more detailed plan? All the gory information. I should have hard pricing in the next week or so. I said this is the the first of discussions. I I anticipate more discussions on this. Let's we're at the end of the year. Maybe we can see y'all again in Q1 next year to get to talk hard more specific numbers and things. Would that be reasonable? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. When's our region when's our contract up this? Is it next into next year? November. November. November 2026. Okay. So, one year from now. Yeah. Year from now. So, we're starting it plenty ahead of time. Starting good.

So, yeah. So, let's let's tentatively come back sometime Q1 next year. We'll see some more. Yeah. Does that sound good, everybody? All right, gentlemen. Thank you'all for coming. Appreciate the info. Thank you. More to come. All right, moving on. Public hearing. So, 4 A and 4B were presented at P&Z and withdrawn. uh and that was approved. But I wanted Maria to give just a quick quick brief on that and sort of an update on what happened.

Yeah. Good evening, mayor and council. So, this is a resoning request from Falcon. They are the property owner at 112 Spring Hollow Drive. So, this resoning came about from um their plan. So, they originally had planned to have their driveway off of Spring Hollow Drive, and after discussion with the neighborhood um and staff, they took the initiative to change that over to Maroy. But to do so, they would need to own land off of Maroy. And so, they reached out to the neighbor um neighboring property. and they um after discussion they agreed on doing a land swap that would allow them to o own a portion off of Mroy and it would also allow them to um gift portions of their property to the neighborhood in the HOA at Spring Hollow. So this reszoning would um accommodate for that land swap. It would allow them to um reszone the portions that they're gifting to the HOA to be single family and align with the residential area. And it would also allow them to take the portion that is uh currently high industrial to be um or I'm sorry community commercial and would now align to their use which would be heavy and light industrial. But with that being said, they also in their discussion with the HOA in the neighborhood, they agreed to no longer build the screening fence that is required by our ordinance and they had reached out to the building department to start the process to um apply for a variance. However, previously they went before the BOA and they had a prior ruling that denied them um to not build that screening fence. And so after discussion with staff, we believed and we recommended for the item to be

withdrawn from planning and zoning commission and city council to allow them to come back with a PD that would combine the resoning that you see today and the screening fence to be removed from their project. So at that time you all would have the opportunity to discuss this a little bit more in detail with the applicant. Um but today that that was the the reason for the reasonzoning to be withdrawn. At our planning and zoning commission meeting on um November 11th, we also um let the commission know of this and they recommended the approval of um the withdrawal of this item and the following item. And so today that is what we have before y'all. Do y'all have any questions? Yes. So, I'm confused about the screening fence. The reason they did not want to build the screening fence was that because it would impede their ability to use the drive. No, ma'am. So, I believe they stated that it was a financial burden to build the fence and additionally provide um amenities to the HOA and the residential areas.

So, does the neighborhood want the screening? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. So they are in discussion with the HOA in the neighborhood and they are also in agreement. Um they were in favor of the resoning and I believe they are now um also in discussion for this PD. There's an existing BM there now which basically takes place of the fence. And it's only a portion of the fence. It's a small portion. The majority of it is still being built. So it it is my understanding that the HOA is okay with not having that fence. Yes. Yes, sir. I I had one more question just for clarification. It was confusing at the PNZ.

Can I just clarify that point really quick? Um they are currently proposing for all of the screening fence along all the entire residential to be deviated from. But that request will come as a PD package before y'all and then y'all can amend if if needed. So just so there was a lot of confusion at the PNZ on the one part it says here on 4A at the very end it says uh change from community commercial to light industrial and heavy industrial and everybody got locked up on heavy industrial. So I'll just point my cast is this they they were worried about the company I forget the name of the company

manufacturing. Yeah. Which one? Star manufacturing. They are the they were worried about them moving their manufacturing uh some very loud machines over closer to um the uh housing and uh do we have insuranceances that that won't happen? Yes. So the portion that they are receiving from Falcon is directly behind their property. So it is not near a picture if you can show us. Do you have a It is within your packet.

Let's remember we're not discussing that tonight. So let's let's not get too much in the weeds. We are just really I just want her to give a a quick background on where we are. We will get this again. We just need to tonight approve the withdrawal to make sure you're okay with that and then it'll come back around to PN and to us later. So we can't we don't need to get into the details tonight and I fear Bren can can that we shouldn't get into too many details tonight. Can you sort of give us an I don't know just fill in

it's it's on the agenda and so you can either go the the route of opening the public hearing considering the item voting tableing it but what they really want to do is withdraw and and provide the appropriate application to you that can address everything and then that that certainly what that will go through P&Z and come back to city council. Okay. So, we don't need to open the the public hearing for any of this. No, I just didn't want to discuss too much when we're not in a public hearing. That was my big concern. That's that's correct. And the only reason it's on the agenda is because staff consulted with me and my advice is once an application is filed.

Um it's the city's decision whether or not to take action on it or whether to approve the withdrawal. So, this is a request for withdrawal and we could have just said, "Well, then it's withdrawn." But I I my advice is when these come up, you should vote on it. Okay. Just for the withdrawal. Well, and just for clarification for me, the only reason I'm asking these questions is because it's going to come back before us. And if I can resolve the questions now, I don't have to write them down and try to remember to ask them again in a month. That's that was my only thing. But I can wait a month. I I'll keep my notes

and just just I watched the planning and zoning and I think they were confused. The one gentleman I think thought that the warehouse was going to turn into a heavy heavy industrial and as long as they have some clarification on that I think we're fine. But yeah, they it was very confusing. Yes. And um I think city could have done a better job explaining it.

Yes, sir. And we did um discuss this item with him before the meeting and after the meeting. And since then we've received um a couple letters from this gentleman and he um had just clarified that he had spoken to the HOA president and was aware that um they are in favor of the reasonzoning and that um they weren't going to be located directly behind his property. Okay. Any other questions for Maria on this? And I appreciate thank you for coming and you and Susie giving us a an update on this very complex issue. Um so if there no other questions I will entertain a motion to approve the withdrawal.

Mayor make a motion withdrawal use do the withdrawal as okay can second that. Okay. Is that a good enough motion? Bren is that fair? It is just for the record that's for both items. Both items. Yes. Okay. So this is for this motion is for A and B. For A and B. We're doing a right now at the moment. And then I'll click on item B. Make another motion. So I can't make a motion for both of them. I thinkally you can just record it. Brent said legally we can. So what's the what's the problem?

Yeah. I I don't want to I'm sorry. I don't want to make things difficult for you either. Uh but legally you can. Uh, and you don't have to even vote electronically in well by reading. We just voted. Okay. Motion motion approved. Council approves withdrawal. Everybody good? Thank you. Thank you folks. Okay. 4C consideration action regarding pro well first of all at 643. We're in a public hearing. Consideration action regarding a proposal textural proposed textural agreement amendment the zoning ordinance regarding modifying the city's permitted use table. Susie Victor Trevino. Welcome.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Okay.

So, before you, you have a textual amendment to amend the permitted use table. The planning and zoning team utilizes the permitted use table to identify what is and what is not allowed and where it is and where is not allowed. Typically in urban planning, it's common practice to update permitted use table and any zoning and subdivision ordinances and codes. So that way we have updated material, right? Cuz what we were 50 years ago is not what we are today. Um within the time frame that I have been here, within the six years, I don't believe we've had a master permitted table update. Um, so I'm not sure when the last time was, but it was some time ago. Today we have separated the textual amendments for the table in sections. So today before you you have automobile uses, commercial, retail and service and medical and then in the future you will be seeing different categories. Okay. So I've gone ahead and separated the automobile in subcategories because it is a very long section. So the first section is going to be vehicle sales which consist of auto auctions, motorcycle sales, and auto sales new and used. The PNZ team is proposing to propose that all of these uses are not permissible within the community. And that was based off of the fact that a lot of these uses like motorcycle sales

are not in dire need for the city. We have a lot of them nearby within reach. um and they're not necessarily something that in limited parcels that we have are in the priority list. So that's just what we would recommend in order to utilize our existing land to our full potential. With that, I'm going to after each category, I'm just going to ask all if y'all have any questions and that way we take notes properly on anything that y'all want changed or need clarification on. Nope. No, no questions on that one. Okay. So, with that, I'll move to the next section, which is auto rentals. Auto rentals are something that can be very beneficial to a city, but the location is very critical. We don't want to have an excessive auto rental location, right, by residential areas, right? Something that this kind of usage allows for and is concerning can be safety noise um and just storage issues. So for NC and for yeah for NC for the auto rentals car and truck we're proposing to not allow it at all. neighborhood commercial in the city of Sagnel is currently located all within the residential areas where it would really affect that. Um, for community commercial, we're proposing to have it allowed with an SUP and that way the PNZ and city council can vote on it on a case-by case basis because again, location is very important and having the ability to allow y'all to vote on that on compatibility is very important. Whereas

if you just allow it by right, it you're never going to see it before you. it's just automatically um voted upon. Yes sir. What about uh existing businesses once they fall under a special use but there

that's a great question. So there is a legal term that is legal non-conforming usage. So any business that currently is allowed by the right by SUP or by right women um the permitted use table apologies um they would be grandfathered. That's not a legal reward, right? It would be legal non-conforming, but they're basically allowed to continue that use and if someone applies for a CO after them with the same use, they're also able to have that. It would just be changed if they change that usage. So, if today they're an auto rental and tomorrow they're a barber shop and then want to go back to an auto rental after, it's no longer a legal non-conforming use and then they would have to apply through the SCP or uh not be permissal, whatever is approved today.

But, but if they sold their business to somebody else, continue it, that would be fine. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Um the second half of that would be RV rentals. Um, RVs are typically not something that we really see a lot of in Sagnol and again usage is very much dependent on city on a case- by case basis. So for this we are proposing to not allow them within CC and industrial. So all throughout the city. Um any questions on that one? Okay. So for our next one, we have storage. And this would just be in regards to RV storage. Again, that kind of goes based off the previous of the fact that RVs are not really a pressing issue. If you just have a big storage of all RVs, one, they're really big, so it's going to be hard to hide that fact, right? Um that may cause other issues like security issues and people breaking in. Um, so we would just recommend not allowing them. Any questions on that section? Okay, our next one is auto services, auto part sales, and auto garages, which of course are a great benefit to any city, but again, it's dependent on compatibility. So, that's something that you're really going to see trending on all of this. Um, the first one being at car wash in neighborhood commercial. We would propose to not have that permitted because again, neighborhood commercial right by the residential areas. I don't think that that's something that residents want to wake up to every day necessarily. Um, for community commercial for PNZ, we were proposing to not have it permitted. However, there

was a lot of apprehension and they didn't necessarily vote to change it. But I think as staff when we discussed this, we would just go ahead and keep it as is. So it would be permissible through an SUP and that way it's not allowed by right anywhere. Um for LI and HI, that can get complicated, right? because we may have an industry such as fuel city that has that car wash integrated. So again, that would be on a case-byase basis. So we would recommend keeping that as an SUP instead of by right so we don't just have car washes everywhere. With that, we also have auto parts and accessory sales, auto repair garages, auto service stations, and auto service stations light maintenance. Um, for all of the neighborhood commercials, we're proposing to change that to not permissible. Again, going with it's not very compatible with where we currently have NC for community commercial sections of these categories. We're proposing to change it from right to SCP. So that way y'all can review that on a case-by case basis. Um these are still permitted in the industrial areas. So I do just want to make that clear. Um so within your packet you have changes outlined in red and current usages that are being kept in black. Uh, so I do want to let them y all just know that that is still being proposed to be kept in the industrial section. So with that, opening it in case y'all have any questions or concerns or any requests to change anything. Okay, our next one is transportation centers.

city of Sagenol and it's not a very large community um where we need a bus and train and taxi sa station um especially not within the neighborhood commercial or the neighborhood mixeduse zones. Um I do want to point out that we kept it permissible in light industrial and heavy industrial but if y'all wanted to change that we're opening that up to y'all to decide on. Um, but right now we're just proposing to change it from not permissible in NCU. Our next categories are parking lots. I think we can all agree we don't want random parking lots everywhere throughout the city. We want purposeful development. Um, for park and ride lots, we're proposing to not have them allowed anywhere in the city except for in city facilities. This is because we this past year we did have training grain at Willow Creek Park and we did use a park and ride shuttle system where people could park in a parking lot and be shuttled to their final destination. So this is really essential to future events. So we are proposing to keep that within city facility. And for parking lots, auto and truck, we are requesting for them to only be permitted within SCP in the industrial zones and not be permissible in community commercial.

So if I read this right, then it wouldn't be allowed. Uh Park and ride is not allowed anywhere in the city except for city facilities. For park and ride lots for parking what? For park and ride lots, it would only be permissible in city facility which is that shuttle system. Where does it state that? I see add residential PO I don't know what all these are. Amendments permitted with specific use to not permitted. And then the next one is CCL LI and HI amended from permitted by right to not permitted. Both of them are not permitted.

Yes. But if you take a look at the permitted use table, it's already under city facility as an S. So that's not anything that's changing. So it's already currently allowed by SU in city facilities. So the city can do park ride, but no one else. That's what we're proposing. Okay. Yes, sounds fair.

Um, we currently don't see a need for these establishments where you have to have a parking lot to be shuttled to a different business. Um, so that was just our background on that. Um, again, for parking lots, commercial, auto, and truck, we're requesting for CC not to be permitted, but LI and HI would be allowed through an SU. Um, parking lot off premises, that's a very important one. If you remember for the last recent meetings we've had in regards to the Sagnol local favorite development off- premise parking is something that has been brought up and in addition you have a letter of support from DFW plastics there also a development in the community that is wanting to expand and have a multi-million dollar redevelopment um with that they're really constructed on land and so they're wanting to see if they can have off- premise parking so that they can make that achievable. So we do have an ordinance referenced as 202317 that prohibits on premise parking but the permitted use table for that was never amended. So, what we're proposing for that one is to keep all of the residential uses as not permissible, but for community commercial, city facility, light industrial, and heavy industrial zones, applicants would be allowed to apply with an SUP to have off- premise parking. And so with that, that ordinance would have a stipulation just letting applicants know that it they

would be allowed to apply for any deviation through an STP that would be have to be approved through the formal process. So with that, do you all have any questions? Yes. Yes, sir. I I do. Uh okay. Fire station one. We we know that the city has a parking problem there already. Yes, sir. So if we approve this item four, would that stop them from entering into a contractual agreement, say with the adjacent business to use part of their parking?

No, that would help them. So by opening that up to be eligible through an SUP, they would have the opportunity to come before y'all apply for an SUP. And the great thing about SUVs is that y'all can have stipulations. So if you wanted to put that the parking lot had to be if ever sold in the future, it had to be sold off with that parcel if they owned a different parcel or in this instance, they would obviously have to have some sort of parking agreement if they wanted to share somebody else's parking under a different ownership. So it would open up a lot of possibilities for them.

Okay. So, I guess I'm I'm confused because A says we're moving it from Pacific use to not permitted and then ordinance 2023-17 says it was adopted to enforce on premise parking but the table was never updated. So, if we just leave it as the table as it is now there's no change. So, A is only in reference to office professional neighborhood commercial and NMU.

Okay. the current use table for CC, CF, LII, and HI. That's being proposed to allow through an SUP. So, for instance, the local favorite is in a community commercial zoning. So, if we amend this to have them be able to apply in an SCP, then they would be eligible. Does it fall under A or B? It's currently as is. So that's not a change. Currently under what? It's currently asis in the permitted use table. It It's B. It's community commercial. It's CC.

Okay. Thank you. So it's CC. I It's We reszoned it to CC. It was community facility. It was a city. We reszone it to CC. I just trying to So if we don't do anything to this one, it's it's okay now because the table was never updated, right?

Yes. However, the only problem if we don't decide to do anything is that that would be allowed in neighborhood mixed use OP and NC. And after speaking with the fire department, we definitely don't want to open that up to just everybody, especially the residential areas. So that's why we were proposing to not have that open in there and only have that within community commercial city facility LI and HI because I think that's the only people that would really need them in the future. And the big thing on that one on B is we're amending that ordinance as well. That needed to be updated too. That that's the one that's stopping them right now from

Yes. So everything that's on this slide is just things that are being proposed because that never got updated. It's existing. So that's why it's not on there as a letter technically. Any other questions? Yes, sir. Right. Can maybe the fire department go a little bit more into why not on office professional, neighborhood commercial and neighborhood mixed use?

It's not necessarily the fire department. It's more building an overall ordinance and it's really towards the multif family use to make sure that's what it stem from primarily to make sure that apartments were providing adequate or multif family buildings were providing adequate space for all their residents because we've had that problem in the past when we had didn't have a tool to enforce that. So the office professional I can't speak to. I think I think that's just another one. We want to make sure they have adequate parking at their facility and they're not parking in the in the roadway. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

My biggest, well, not my biggest, but one of the concerns I have on this also too is this company who's wanting to bring in lot more jobs and stuff. Now, they're they're hindered and we're inflicting pain on them to build more parking which will benefit the city and the citizens really from a tax base. And uh I just I I struggle with this. I want to make absolutely sure that we give them as much freedom as we can. Well, I think that's what the ordinance is doing. It's providing a mechanism to allow that facilities. Yes. Yeah. That's the whole intent.

The existing regulation is preventing them. I might add too that this is common to update your use charts, but as we're built out and we see more redevelopment, you get rid of uses that are not practical. So, I'm making this up. Uh, I've got to take a trip to West Texas, but Andrews, Texas. Brack would know. He's a good love boy. Uh, they have a nuclear waste disposal facility. Do we need a nuclear waste disposal facility in Sageno? Probably not. I don't think that we would ever need, but we do need to clean up our use charts so that it's competitive with the market and to the point when we get these redevelopment projects, we want to be flexible as these uh properties expand or uh change into other uses. So, this would affect the DFW Plastics, the fire station. We've had some discussions about a retailer on the boulevard expanding and they have some parking issues, so this fixes it for them.

Yes. Um, if y'all wanted to keep that open to OP and NC, y'all are more than welcome to. We just don't see because those are typically smaller businesses in general. We just don't see that. But with the NMU, that would be where the multif family component would come in. And that was what was advisable through the fire department. Just wanted to clarify that. I think I think we're happy with it as is. We just need we just needed clarification. Okay. Any questions in regards to any of the other ones? The other um the pack that you had handed out to us, it's got a thing on here changed to medical. We didn't talk anything about medical. Yes, that is an upcoming slide. Okay. I thought you were done. No, just for this slide. Okay.

So, I know that you probably did all this for the sake of efficiency, but if we needed to, could we break this up and like table some because I would like to see the zoning map and see what businesses would be then legal non-conforming um because it will affect them at some point in the future. Um, so that's just, you know, I would like to see that. Um, so I don't know if that's something that we can do. Can we split it up? Yeah. Well, actually, I'd like I I I need to visit with Susie about this. Uh, have I have a cons a legal concern about it? Uh, and so if we could actually table the entire item, that'll give you all the opportunity to study things and give me the opportunity. Do you mean just the automobile one or this whole packet?

The the whole packet. Whole kit and kaboodleoodle as it were? Yes, please. Okay. Okay. Sorry, I got with Bessie, but That was that was going to be my recommendation at the end anyway. So, I'm I'm all happy. Um, keep going. Any other questions with this section? No, I think we're good. Keep going. Okay. Okay. So, that finishes the automobile section. Next, I'm gonna hand it out to Miss Pina, and she is going to discuss the commercial retail and service.

Right. So going into this section, the um first change that we're proposing is within the convenience stores with or without fuel cells or K gas stations and the neighborhood uh commercial zoning to amend that by permitted by right to not permitted and in the commercial community commercial amend that from permitted by right to permitted with a specific use permit. Main reasoning being the placement of our current zones of a neighborhood commercial. It makes it very difficult to add gas stations that wouldn't negatively impact traffic flow uh because of their proximity to residential areas. But we do want to keep the Sorry, go ahead.

We do want to keep the option open for the community commercial to be reviewed on a case-by case basis. Another feedback that we've gotten is the amount of gas stations currently available at the city of Sageno where um having these being reviewed on a case by case basis would allow us to not have them just all come in and perhaps put more stipulations or conditions into those into those developments. Would there be a way to break that out to convenience stores with fuel sales sales and convenience stores without as separate? Because

um my feeling is is that a convenience store with no fuel cells is the definition of a mom and pop shop. And I don't I don't know that I'd be comfortable with restricting it. I I understand the fuel side, but um I if somebody wants to open a little like a bodega almost, right? Yeah. Just a little shop. I I don't want this because it's a convenience store. I don't want it to be not permitted in neighborhood commercial because I I think it does fit with the zoning.

Yeah. And thank you for bringing that up. That was something brought up on our PNC meeting as well. Uh Bessie, our attorney during that meeting did note that currently within an ordinance, the definition for convenience store with or without fuel cells um groups it together in the way that the convenience store is more so an accessory to the gas station, but uh as we're amending the permitted use table by sections. When we go on to the commercial side, uh we will bring um an intended definition for just convenient shops that are more geared to what you're bringing up. the because that's definitely not what we're proposing and this change wouldn't affect or prevent uh smaller businesses or mom and pop shops from opening and that in those residential areas. But thank you for bringing that up.

Yeah, I'm I'm trying to figure out why we would h why we would say we don't want gas stations. I mean, right now where I live in Sageno, I buy 98% of all my gas in Fort Worth because we don't have a gas station over there. You don't go to Fuel City or QT. I don't drive all the way back over here. I don't cross that railroad track. You don't have to go to fuel city. Drive down the road from you, brother. Fuel city. And the community commercial would remain permitted through a specific use permit. Um so that would allow you to have applicants bring it forward to you and review it on a case- by case basis. So it wouldn't be completely eliminated, but um again, it's majority the concern with the proximity to the residential areas.

Yeah. I guess I'm trying and that's something where this is going to be table but I I'll ask to meet with y'all to get because this this is my weakness this these all this zoning right now and what I'm trying to figure out is I'm sitting there and I'm looking at Blue Mountain and I'm looking at Bailey Boswell and I'm like boy I don't see a problem of putting a gas station somewhere down through there. Uh we currently don't have one. So I would need to be that could we do that still

if it's you could and it's likely. So right now Randy just stepped out but we've got pre-development plans on a gas station in the corner of uh Bailey Boswell and Lumound. There's talks of one further to the west. The rationale is that the council has more control through the SCP process when something's allowed by right. Uh it's coming in. So it gives the council more control.

Yeah. I I have no problem with the SU thing. What I got a problem with is the not permitted period. And I think that's what I was going to recommend was that whenever this comes back, I mean, maybe we make non the neighborhood commercial an S and then community commercial S and that way we have the ability to to look at it.

So the the good news is in neighborhood commercial there's there's relatively few parcels left that are neighborhood commercial and the sensitivity is because they're adjacent to people's homes. So, of course, you want more likely restrictions and controls as opposed to say, you know, a 7-Eleven on the corner of Old Decar and Bailey Bos. That's a commercial area. Uh Bailey Boswell's commercial. Sagon Boulevard is certainly commercial. We we don't have to worry about noise, light in the same way that we would a neighbor neighborhood commercial parcel. But like I say, I think we're down to a handful of neighborhood commercial parcels that are undeveloped. So,

we need to keep in mind neighborhood mixed use as well. I certainly don't want to start mixing up those with gas station. I think that's one we really need to be cognizant of. That's a newer one for us. And we we've done a few of those, targeted those around town. So, let's keep that separate. I would I would want to say no to neighborhood mixed use. Absolutely. Because of how we want to keep that more hometown walkable kind of thing as opposed but community commercial is a whole different ballgame. Well, but again, having it where it's I think it still needs to be an S and not not permitted at all because even in neighborhood mixed use, the way that the language is, it's with or without fuel sales. And you might have a neighborhood mixeduse convenience store like a bodega. Well, I'd love to break that apart. I think that would be best to break those two have two separate

Yeah. Because if we did that, then, you know, fuel sales not permitted, but I think I think we should break those apart. Absolutely. Because I the bodega, like you said, is is absolutely great for neighborhoods. Mhm. And Todd, go ahead. I really don't think a gas station filling station wants to locate in a neighborhood commercial area. They want to be on a major intersection. So, I don't even think you would get a request to put one in neighborhood commercial. The other the other thing we probably need to look at is electric vehicle. It's not technically not a fuel sale, but

right, our our current definition doesn't include it, but like we said, we um that would be a definition that would need to be either updated or whenever we move into the amendment of the commercial area to have a convenience store just as a dedicated and separately defined use from what we're covering today.

Um any further questions, comments? Okay. And the next part of changes within that commercial category or retail category is reclassifying uses to the medical section. Um the uses that would be needing to be reclassified would be ambulance service, cosmetic tattoo establishment, massage therapy establishment and pharmacy. Some of them some of them are a little bit more self-explanatory like the ambulance service. the cosmetic tattoo establishment and massage therapy establishment do have some services that fall under the um traditionally defined medical uses. Hence, it would be more fitting to have them within that category. And I'm about to go into the next slide as to some changes that would be happening within those uses as well within the medical category. Any questions? Okay. So medical covering all of these uses within the um community commercial zoning. So to abide to state legislature that determines that either all of these uses have to be permitted by right or through a specific use permit. We're proposing to amend that permitted use table to have consistent requirements for all uh to have them all through a specific use permit that would allow again to these for these applications to be brought forward to PNC commission and to y'all to add stipulations if needed and to approve on a case-by case basis. Do we have any questions regarding those proposals? Okay. And that is the end of our list of proposed amendments as of right now to the permitted use table.

Any other questions for Louisa or Susie? All right. So, we're talking about tableabling this. Do we have a time frame for tableabling? Should we just table indefinitely? What is the If if we could table it indefinitely, I just have some logistical issues and work with uh Susie. Okay. I will entertain a motion then. Mayor move that we table this indefinitely. Okay, I'll second. Okay, thanks, sir.

Oh, sorry. All right, motion table passes. Thank you'all folks. We will see this again. All right. So, moving on. We are in there's no executive session required thankfully. So, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Mayor make motion we adjourn. We say Brack Valerie second. Motion passes. So, at 7:14 we're journed. Thank y'all.