April 1 Thoughts on Lewisville Council

Nothing foolish about this first Monday.  We worked through two large projects that while not splashy and dramatic will have long reaching effects on the City. I also was honored to throw out the first pitch for the Lewisville Baseball Association. LBA has been running baseball leagues for over fifty years and has over 700 participants this year, from t-ball to softball to baseball. I promise to not skip it over the plate next year if I get the honor again.

New Ordinances

The city and our Old Town area have worked for a couple of years now on a sign ordinance that will create a ‘look and feel’ for our old town area, which includes most of the east side of I-35. This new set of ordinances do two main things; allow the Old Town Design Review more authority on the look and feel before council has to approve, and give property owners a visual representation of the styles and types of signage that we think will fit the area.

Before, our sign ordinance had no graphics and tried to define the look and feel with specific words, which limited creativity. This is a perfect example of pictures being worth a thousand words as the graphic representations now in the ordinance give a definitive target without eliminating creativity. In fact it encourages creativity in look and feel for the area while maintaining an overall feel.

We also completely replaced our existing Zoning ordinance which was last adopted in 1995. Over the years, additions and amendments had created several conflicting areas in the ordinance. The new ordinance does several things:

1- Creates a “special use permit”. This permit allows a property owner to deviate from the zoning of an area for a specific use as long as council deems it proper. With the permit, when the property is vacant or non conforming, the council can revert the property back to its original zoning- making these types of variances ‘temporary’ instead of forever as with a Special Use Zoning. If a property with a SUP is vacant for more than 3 months, the owner has to reapply for the SUP. This ONLY applies to properties with non-conforming uses, not properties that are compliant with their zoning.

2- Accessory buildings are more clearly defined, with the size and number spelled out. Accessory dwellings (mother-in-law apartments), will need special use permits and cannot be leased or sold separately from the residence.

3- Home occupations (rentals), must register with the City and can’t be on properties not zoned residential.

Economic Development

Castle Hills is in the process of creating new retail districts along highway 121 to take advantage of the new traffic that will be attracted to the Nebraska Furniture Mart Development in The Colony. Council approved this creation unanimously.

Council also approved new road work for reconstruction of Midway Road from Huffines Blvd. East to Fire Station #6 near FM 544. This project uses $600,000 from our general fund to leverage a $3.45M bond by the County. In addition we approved $183,200 for a professional management of the new Timber Creek Bridge at Arthur’s Land project which connects Arthur’s Lane to phase two of the Hebron 121 Station development. This will enhance East-West traffic between Lewisville and Castle Hills.

Council approved unanimously an economic development agreement with the Lewisville West shopping center on I-35. They received a 100% property tax rebate on the improved value of the plaza for ten years. This means we’ll continue to receive property taxes on the current $2.06M value and they’ll invest over $5M in improvements to the plaza. In ten years, we will then receive the current property tax rate for the updated property. In the meanwhile we get an attractive update to one of the area’s oldest shopping centers.

In addition we approved a variance to the 100% brick/stone façade, taking it down to 35% brick/stone which is still more than the current structure requires. It’s another example of working with our property owners to update their properties while working with them if a policy might prevent the renovations.

 Community Development

Council waived fees for the upcoming Police vs Fire Department ‘Battle of the Badge’ baseball tournament, the upcoming Relay for Life American Cancer Society’s walk fundraiser for Cancer research, and approved $10,000 in Arts Grant funding for a new spring arts festival being held on June first in Old Town.

We also approved a variance to add a few more street parking spaces around Old Town to help compensate for the parking that will be lost due to the Old Town Plaza beginning construction this year.

Contracts

Council approved a $90,000 contract for transportation consulting with Innovative Transportation Solutions. This group has been responsible for helping the city land several million in transportation project funding from the Federal/State and County levels and has a track record of success for us.

We also helped to fund a new high-resolution radar system that will cover all of North Texas. This system can see debris being thrown by a tornado. But more importantly, will give storm warnings within a minute of a tornado developing as opposed to today’s 15 minute updates. This $10,000 also gives our first responders a better idea of where to go when a storm hits due to the extreme resolution of the radar system.

And finally we approved $263,000 for water meter reading services.

March 18th Thoughts on Council

It’s been a hectic few weeks, and I’m back in the writing groove with a belated review of March 18th’s meeting.

City Business

We accepted the annual Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Our auditors found nothing of note and report that our financial reporting is exemplary. You can find the document here. It is a good bookend to the Budget as it shows expenditures across the city departments.

Council also approved $357,000 for additional sewer repairs/replacement for Purnell. This is over 2,000 feet of sewer in Old Town. I’m pleased to see this project moving along, these neighborhoods really needed a complete overhaul.

Finally, Council also approved a conversion of a garage into living space contingent on reverting back to a garage when sold in order to help a family with significant health issues.

Economic Development

Two Townhome projects were approved by City Council. Before people groan on this one, we have to understand that ‘Townhome’ in these two projects are something very different from the image of large buildings with multiple owners and adjoining walls.

Both of these projects consist of single family detached structures, homes, with yards all around and no attached walls. The reason for the townhome designation is it allows for a smaller lot size. Many projects in today’s Lewisville are “infill”, where a developer works on a small or odd shaped piece of property that’s been developed around. Both of these projects start in the $200,000 to $250,000 price range and go upwards of $300,000.

One will be behind the Whataburger on Business 121, a property that would have been ruined by a drilling rig a year ago but is now going to be a long term asset for the City’s tax base. The other will be a senior gated community behind First United Methodist Church on Civic Circle.

We also entered an agreement to build a fire sprinkler riser that Bridal Boutique can tie into as they expand into a building next door in Old Town. Because they will exceed 5,000 square feet, a sprinkler is required. The history of Old Town is riddled with fires and we have long wanted to see these buildings sprinkled. Council approved splitting the cost of the improvement and the City’s part was $52,273. This also includes funds from our Facade Improvement Program. The sprinkler riser will be capable of feeding the entire North East quadrant of Old Town to better protect the history there.

Finally, council approved allowing the RV Center on 498 East Highway 121 to build a wrought iron and brick screening wall along their South Side, instead of the required brick screening wall.  Councilmen Gorena and Vaughn were against allowing for the variance from the required brick wall.

My reasoning for being for this was that the property is extremely deep and a brick wall down that entire length would be onerous for the business. In addition they were offering to put in a wall nicer than the chain link that is there now, which is a vast improvement. Finally, the adjacent properties in that area of town aren’t going to be damaged by the iron and shrub wall- in fact it will be an improvement for them.

I believed it was fair, the business didn’t try to get out of their responsibility to improve the space, and the Council showed that we would help on these oddly shaped properties. There are times for variances, not everything is black and white in this world. We make these judgement calls all the time and my goal is what will be beneficial for all concerned.

It’s nice to see business growth and new high quality single family homes coming back. Lewisville is continuing to be a great place to live, work, and invest in.

 

Thoughts on Lewisville’s 2013 City Council Retreat

The annual retreat basically sets the strategic agenda for the coming year for the city. Much of what we do is operational in nature, budgets, large purchases, contracts. The retreat brings into focus the meatier, long-term goals for the city, which is contentious at times. This year was no different. There was excellent discussion, incredible amounts of research, and the occasional bucket of ‘WTH?”.

2012 Achievements

2012 was my first retreat as a councilman. I’d attended the two previous as a resident. The list of highlights were:

• Rebuilding the seating and adding handicapped accessibility to the Rodeo Arena. I was very active in bringing this one to the table and was glad to have council support. We renovated the seating to modern aluminum benches for a total of 2,160 seats and handicapped accessibility.
• Continued our support of Holiday at the Hall. A big thank you to the Old Town Business Association for all of their hard work at these events, especially the renewed activity for the evening Holiday Stroll.
• Western Days, while being rained out, included a larger kids area, the most vendors to date, a boat show, more lighting, and two great music acts. The total cost from the general fund for both of these events is about $7,000 for security. The rest of the budget comes from two sources: the Hotel Occupancy Tax, which by state law can only be spent on tourism, and from generous corporate donations.
• Implementation of a Utility Line Insurance Program. Council eliminated the sewer clean out program. Expense, liability, and competition with local plumbers were big reasons for removing this program. To counterbalance that removal of service the council, excepting Councilman Gorena, chose to allow Service Line Warranties of America to send a marketing letter to residents to insure against both water and sewer line breakage. Lewisville receives no funds for this. Councilman Gorena’s opposition is based on the concept of the city endorsing a private business and that residents could get this product from their own insurance company. After calling three of the largest homeowners insurance companies and asking for quotes for water and sewer line insurance, I found out that they don’t provide these insurances and that I would have to go to a specialist, like the one the city is allowing to market to our residents. I’m glad we found a way to provide a service for residents to help mitigate future issues.
• Hiring of Catalyst Commercial Inc. to conduct a retail assessment that identified our issues, markets, competition, and finally give approaches for growing retail and reviving our plazas. Council voted for this, except for one councilman, who has a consistent theme against hiring outside experts, as you might read through the balance of this recap. Catalyst has come back with the first round of challenges and market assessments, and are beginning to work on the recruitment phase for bringing new retail concepts in.
• Neighborhood revitalization, which is still a large part of this year’s retreat, included restricting the enclosures of garages. This tends to create homes with higher population density and in the long run reduces the value as people look for homes with garage space.
• Smoking Ordinance improvements. Eliminating smoking in restaurants, bars, and hotel/motel rooms, like we have eliminated for years in all other business establishments. Council was able to add in language that would allow for patio smoking in most bars and restaurants. I’m glad to have voted for this, as did all the current council, excluding Councilman Gorena. By the way, Year over year restaurant receipts for the first quarter of the upgraded ordinances have our restaurants and bars seeing a near 5% increase in taxable receipts.

2013 Agenda- Stormwater Utility Program and Rates

Stormwater is water that runs from buildings, roads and parking lots, and is not absorbed into the ground. In 1972 the Federal government passed the Clean Water Act which phased in a process for cities to deal with pollution entering the water system. In 2003 cities the size of Lewisville had to have a program in place for reduction of pollutants and managing stormwater quality. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) also put in place rules for handling stormwater and pollution. As is expected, neither of these mandates came with any revenues to pay for the increased costs to cities.

Lewisville currently funds the costs of inspecting our stormwater system, pollution control programs, routine creek and stormwater system cleaning to the cost of almost $1M a year. We’ve also funded the stormwater system through General Obligation bonds over the years.

A stormwater utility is a revenue source that Texas allows municipalities to create and dedicate the funds specifically to stormwater systems and pollution reduction of our stormwater. This program was first recommended to council in 1992 by a citizen committee. Out of the sixteen cities Lewisville compares itself to, only Lewisville and Carrollton do not use this tool.

After reviewing several options, including continuing to fund this from the general fund, council unanimously agreed to pursue a fee structure that would fund the existing expenses from the general fund and then look to build more revenue to fund upwards of $29M in stormwater projects that we have scheduled to meet state and federal requirements over the next 10 to 15 years. There are several ways to get this done, and financing is a viable option with extremely low rates now. Financing would also get these projects done in 4 years, 11 years sooner than if we went on a cash only basis. Meaning that people living here now would benefit from their tax dollars. Of course cash sounds great, assuming commodity prices like cement don’t increase over that decade and end up costing us more. There are several models available and we will be reviewing those models this year.

2013 Water Supply Plan Current and Future

Staff then gave a general overview of our city’s water supply both current and future needs. There was no real action to take on this issue. We are in good shape for the midterm, but, like all of Texas, we have a very large water deficit to fix over the next 45 years.

2013 Water Rate Discussion

There are no financial reasons for changing our current water rates. However, there are rate structures that can be used to encourage conservation. The trick is that the city has to generate a specific amount of water and sewer revenues to continue running our water and sewer systems. All of the programs we saw, and we saw about 4 of them, are designed to be ‘revenue neutral’, but cut the total amount of water used.

After reviewing these I am worried about a couple of things. One, since the City is one of the largest users of water, any price structure that increases the city’s rates basically trickles back to residents in the form of higher bills or taxes, or reduced services. Another concern, none of the rate structures lowed costs for our lowest users. I would like to see some offset for our lowest water users who are typically poor and on fixed incomes, to help counter the proposed stormwater fee.

The discussion ended with a request to see models that create a 1% reduction in water usage. I also requested exploring education services that we might do to get the same 1% reduction. As a city we will continue to gradually improve our usage. We already are one of the lowest users of water in the metroplex. Hopefully these efforts will allow us to continue to set the bar for those around us.

Capital Improvement Plan for 2013

In 2003 residents authorized the city council to issue several million in bonds. There is still just over $14M in unsold bonds available as part of that bond election. The bond market is such that the city can afford to sell these bonds while keeping the tax rate the same since interest rates are so low.

Projects we would fund are primarily road upgrades for North West Old Town; Herod, Hatcher, Walters, Richland, Edna, Lynn, Degan, and Temple. North East Old Town; Harris, Walters, Henrietta, Leonard. Also some extra work in the McKenzie/Hembry area. In addition we could work on Railroad Street, S. Kealy, extend Corporate Drive towards Castle Hills, and enhance the I-35 corridor, including walking crossings and decorative designs on the intersections. Council as a whole agreed to move forward with these bonds, with only Gorena expressing reservation but agreeing because it had been voter approved.

Councilman Gorena piped up about how the Washington Monument was stopped and then started again, a great example of ‘pay as you go’. Except for the fact that it was built by a not for profit who ran out of funds, and that pesky Civil War happened at the same time. Comparing things like roads, water and sewer to a monument seems a bit disingenuous to me. By the way, Lewisville councils have been very conservative, “paygo” is just one of several tools we use. Our animal shelter for example was cash. When financing makes sense, we use it. For most people, financing allows for a home to be purchased instead of waiting decades for a $100,000 home, only to find it is now $150,000. Paygo has a cost, inflation and the fact that the people who payed for it typically don’t see any benefit. If you can keep your interest rate below inflation you pay less and can get projects done sooner.

Retail Merchandising Plan Update

Lewisville hired Catalyst retail consulting to help us deal with our declining retail centers. Their brief has defined three retail trade areas that we can use to attract new businesses. We have the Main Street Corridor West of I-35, the Old Town Corridor, and the Hebron Parkway corridor. They’ve put together a comprehensive description of these areas including demographics, income, types of businesses already in the area, and business types that we’re lacking based on existing businesses and population. Our next steps will be to find businesses that will fit well and fill gaps in these three locations. So far I’m impressed with the product we’re getting from the consultants and am happy council overcame Councilman Gorena’s objections to hiring consultants.

Economic Development Review of 2012

This segment basically recapped the activities of our Economic Development team for the past year. This is a challenging department as much of their work has to be kept quiet as companies are looking to move and the city doesn’t want others to poach potential businesses.

One of the big projects this past year was to create a comprehensive ‘Land Use Map’ of the city to give an inventory on how properties are used and where differences between usage and zoning exist. This helps with master planning the long-range growth of the city.

Creation of a Special Use Permit Ordinance that allows us to review property with unique characteristics on a case-by-case basis to make sure it is compatible with the neighborhood and meets quality standards. Council will be reviewing and voting on this in the coming months.

Signs in Old Town. You have no idea how contentious signs and signage are in city government. The goal with the new Old Town Sign Ordinance is to give businesses a better idea of what’s appropriate through visual and not just text-based documents. It looks good and should come to council for a vote shortly.

Neighborhood Preservation Committee final report of actions to keep up our neighborhoods. Several items will be working their way to a vote including a new set of rules on Accessory Buildings.

Old Town Plaza has moved through the design, property acquisition, and bid phases this past year. We are hoping to break ground on this in the next four months or so.

Lake Park Master Plan and Levee Improvement District Plans are both in their last stages for development on the north side of the Lewisville Lake Park, and South of Vista Ridge Mall, respectively.

I-35 redevelopment, I-35 branding, and Mill Street Upgrades have also been developed and will begin coming out of the ground this year. Along with this are the Retail Analysis with Catalyst mentioned earlier, and a comprehensive overview of facilities that will need environmental cleanup so we can offer federal funding to help replace these properties.

Marketing, web and billboard programs now exist to help developers and businesses find out more about Lewisville. This in addition to working on 30 specific development projects, the smallest; $2M in property development and 25 employees. The largest; $60M in property development and some 200 employees. Not all of these will land in Lewisville, but they take creativity, time, and above all a council willing to be creative to attract business and not simply say “we’re hands off, come here if you want”. Over the past year we have worked to build partnerships that are good for the city and good for the business, and ultimately good for our wallets by keeping the tax rates low without giving away the farm.

Economic development also shepherded 87 building permits for single family residences, 48 duplexes or townhomes and two multi family buildings through our planning department which is the other half of this department. We also had 61 Certificates of Occupancy processed for new and growing businesses.

All in all a solid year for our Economic Development. There are other large projects on the horizon, but as you can see, a tremendous amount was achieved for the year.

Lewisville Lake Development

For the last couple of years the city has worked with Wynne Jackson to decide how we might redevelop the North end of the Lake Park Corps of Engineers lease. This area encompasses the property by the DCTA Highland Village rail stop and includes Sneaky Pete’s, The Slalom Shop, and Eagle Point. Wynne Jackson developed a master plan that would keep the amenities  in that area but would add a high quality lakeside hotel and conference center, a spa/resort lodge with cabins, restaurants, and an expanded marina and boat service center, as well as lakeside apartment property right next to the rail station.

The numbers look promising. The city’s investment could be as much as $24M while the remaining $137M would come from private investors. The project conservatively estimates a total city revenue over 27 years (because that’s how far the models extend) of $91M with an extra $11M for the county. Plus, the business model proposed is quite profitable for the developers, making this a marketable project. The entire council agreed we should continue to discuss and prospect for developers to make this happen, even though Gorena grumbled about it being government involvement in a private transaction, which, surprise, it is because the city is the only one with access to the master lease from the Corps of Engineers, by law. While the numbers are estimates, I doubt a developer is going to risk their investment on a model that doesn’t stand an excellent chance of turning a profit.

Vision 2025 Plan- Lewisville’s Centennial

This was one of my campaign planks.The 2010 Plan was extremely useful when I served on the Community Development board. It gave a good overview of what residents wanted from their leaders. The 2025 plan will reset those goals and help guide our leaders for years to come. Please let me know if you’d like to take part.

This plan will be comprehensive as it will cover City services, communication, neighborhoods, relationships with other governmental entities, codes, economic development, land use, housing, incentives, police, fire, amenities, infrastructure, parks, and the list goes on and on.

The program kick off will be in March with a Town Hall scheduled for May 16th. The committees will meet through December and recommendations and adoption will happen by April of next year. I hope you will make your voice heard.

Code Enforcement- Retooled

Council approved a new and more effective code enforcement software package, allowing our officers to get a baseline inventory of properties as a benchmark for future enforcement. Code enforcement was also merged with our Building Inspection division to create better communication since these areas overlap. We hired three new Code Enforcement officers and gave them less territory so they are more effective.

The city is finishing the creation of a residential property database allowing us to rank violations and conditions by August of this year. We are now tracking the percent of properties that make compliance throughout the city and are actively working to increase that percentage.

In addition Police and code enforcement will meet bimonthly to discuss measures to meet measurable improvements throughout the city. We will have ‘problem property units’ that will hold property owners accountable and help those that need it make compliance. This will help us deal with blighted properties quicker.

The new software will also allow residents to see how a problem property is progressing through a web page. Making it easier for our code enforcement to update residents without taking away from their inspection duties.

I’m excited to see all the pieces are in place, and am looking forward to having measurable improvement in blighted properties.

Hotel Motel Inspection Program

In addition to code enforcement getting an overhaul, council approved having staff build a program for Hotel/Motel inspections. This would be self funding as we would charge a fee for these property inspections. The goal is to end substandard rooms and to hold sub standard operators accountable for their properties. I think we can all agree that Lewisville is welcoming to quality businesses, and that we are willing to make sure businesses in our community add to our quality of life.

Employee Health Program

Even though the city is self insured, costs have been steadily rising and have increased 40% over the last four fiscal years. Last year the city spent $7.8M on insurance claims.

Council directed the staff to look at a program called cost-plus where the city contracts with a small group of providers and negotiates a rate that is a set percentage above Medicare rates. This might be difficult as it could create legal challenges if providers decide to bill the balance to the employee.

We also agreed to look at developing an employee health clinic. The city basically contracts with a specific clinic provider that only serves the municipality or a group of municipalities. This requires we pay for a facility, perhaps simply re-purpose existing space, and then basically pay the salaries of the medical team that staffs the facility as well as any business expenses. To break even, about 18% of our current primary care visits for employees would have to flip to the city owned clinic.

We would be competing against other doctors at this point which is a con, however we could see significant cost savings that would counter the double-digit inflation of healthcare for several years.

Special Use Permit Ordinance

The special use permit would allow council and planning and zoning flexibility when discussing property with special characteristics to make sure compatibility with existing properties. Today we have to zone a property as a Special Use Zone, which is basically permanent. A SUP would allow temporary districting, and more room to negotiate.

Staff has stated that the city really needs to revamp our zoning ordinances. There are large areas of overlap and conflict in the existing organically grown zoning ordinances. Council agreed this should be looked at by the 2025 committee to better map out how the city develops in the future.

Gas Ordinance

No real changes have happened regarding municipal drilling and fracking. Councilman Gorena chose this moment to paint the council as anti-drilling vs pro-drilling. He then commented that ‘the reason we went to war’ was to drill for oil. Of course the drilling that happens in the middle east is for oil, not natural gas, of which the US is rapidly becoming a net exporter. Being involved at the beginning of our gas ordinance and having helped craft much of the language, those opposed were almost exclusively opposed to drilling in residential neighborhoods, as can be seen by our gas wells being in industrial areas or on properties that have plenty of buffer to not cut property values of homeowners.

Based on our discussion of water use and rates earlier, Council asked that staff draw up a rule allowing the city manager to restrict high-capacity uses that could have a long-term impact on the city water purchases from Dallas Water Utilities. So, if a business wanted to use millions of gallons of water for a one time project that would throw us into the next price tier for dozens of years, we could stop that without calling a council meeting.

Mosquito Plan

City staff has basically codified how and when we will use truck spraying in the city if required. Our program is based on a Texas Program and covers everything Lewisville can do to prevent mosquito breeding areas as well as mosquito outbreaks. Staff presented council with an overview of the program so we would better know how Lewisville will handle mosquito outbreaks in the future.

I’m not a fan of aerial spray. Individuals consistently using DEET has been proven more effective. The ‘statistics’ that were given to us at the end of last season were pathetic. There was no consistency, entire days were not tracked, and monthly incident rates of West Nile mean nothing when you’re trying to decide when and where to spray. I’m not for aerial spraying until we get some good science as to its results for reducing West Nile. At this point all we know is that aerial spraying at the end of the season might have eliminated some cases and might also have done nothing as the natural life cycle of the mosquito and the weather effectively reduced incidents. Unfortunately, no one in the region chose to effectively find baseline numbers, which could have easily been done, especially since we had areas that were sprayed versus areas that weren’t, both in Denton County.

Chicken Regulations

Finally we discussed backyard chickens. I’ve been following this topic for about a year as our neighbors in Flower Mound went through the process.

I’m all for basically making chickens fall under the same rules as pets; no more than 6. If they smell or make too much noise our current nuisance ordinances take care of those issues. I would not allow roosters.

Council discussed having a setback, something like ten feet from any neighboring building I might agree with. Setbacks would basically cut the smallest lots from having chickens. Councilman Ferguson proposed that larger parcels could have more, with perhaps a top number of eight or so chickens.

There was no opposition to chickens on the council; it’s really down to how many, setbacks if any, and lot sizes. I’d expect to see some options in March or April for council to vote on.

And that’s the year in review and the year moving forward. If you’ve read all the way to here, you’ve earned a cup of coffee. Just let me know when and where.

February 4th Thoughts on Council

Lots of catch up this week, the retreat was the 7th-9th and will get its own post over the weekend.

Capital Improvement

The Timber Creek Lift station is a major piece of our waste water treatment system and will help the city deal with growth on the East side for many years to come. Due to the complexity of this project and limited staff resources, the city staff recommended $345,000 for Inspection and Construction Management Services for the several required projects. Council approved this unanimously. This has implications for our vote on the 2025 plan a couple of paragraphs from now.

We also approved a $100,000 contract for ‘Type D Grade 1 Flex Base’, crushed concrete material used in road construction and repair for the year.

In addition, council approved the 2012 Assessment/Service Plan for the Castle Hills Public Improvement District, basically letting us know how they’re handling their bond debt and projected project costs in the future.

Economic Development

Bankston Nissan has asked for a few changes to their entrances as they are expanding their I-35 facilities. Council approved.

We also approved unanimously, the ability for the City Manager to use eminent domain for the alley and plaza project on the North side of the Old Town retail district. Because the owner of the building that houses the Flying Pig did not wish to take part in the plaza project by donating right of way in exchange for services, as all the other property owners did, we authorized the City Manager to use eminent domain if our attempt to buy the right of way fails, per state law.

Community Development 2025 Plan

Council, excepting Councilman Gorena, approved $228,000 over two years for the upcoming 2025 plan. Gorena, as always, was against the program. What really puzzles me is his statement that ‘staff can do it’. Not two items earlier he approved outsourcing construction oversight on the Timber Creek project, which specifically stated that contracting was needed because staff didn’t have the time and expertise needed. Now we have a project that staff had repeatedly stated needed outside expertise, and for some reason Gorena can’t see why that’s the case.  The inconsistency is at best, confusing.

Denton has just spent over $600,000 for a similar study, so we are using quite a few staff resources to keep the costs low, and I for one believe this is a critical project for residents to truly direct where they want their home to go in the future.