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Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - 11/13/2024 MINUTES PLANNING &ZONING COMMISSION November 13th, 2024 PRESENT: David Cook *Chairman Jeremy Woodward *Vice-Chair Blake Haney •Member Michael Grassi •Member Noros Martin •Member Wayne Pharries •Member Steve Wood *Member Doug McCulloch •Member Matt Marrs ♦Member Brady Enlow *Alternate No.1 Richard Milhollon •SAFB Liaison Mark McBurnett •SAFB Liaison James McKechnie, Legal Department •city Staff Terry Floyd, Development Services Director •City Staff Fabian Medellin, Planning Manager •City Staff Cedric Hu, Planner I •City Staff Tyson Traw-Deputy Director Public Works •City Staff Robin Marshall, Admin Assistant •City Staff ABSENT: Alan Sizemore •Alternate No.2 I. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chairman David Cook, at 2:00. IL PUBLIC COMMENTS Chairman Cook asked if there were any comments from the public for any items not on the agenda. No one from the public had any comments. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chairman Cook asked if any of the members of the Commission have a motion to approve the October 9th, 2024 meeting minutes. Commissioner Noros Martin made the motion, and Commissioner Matt Marrs seconded the motion. Chairman Cook took the motion to a vote and the motion passed 9-0. IV. CONSENT AGENDA Chairman Cook asked if there are any items on the consent agenda that needed to be moved down to the regular agenda. Mr. Fabian Medellin stated that there were none. Chairman Cook asked if there was a motion to approve the consent agenda. Commissioner Michael Grassi made a motion to approve and Commissioner Matt Marrs seconded the motion. Chairman Cook asked if there was anyone from the public that wished to speak. No one came forward. Chairman Cook asked if there were any comments from anyone on the Commission, and no comments were made. Chairman Cook took the motion to vote, and the motion passed 9-0. V. Regular Agenda 1. Case C24-25 — 4109 Mustang Street - Consider taking action on a conditional use to allow for the development of a carport in a Single Family-2 Residential (SF-2)zoning district. Owner: Mr. Bryan Reitsma Location: 4109 Mustang Chairman Cook asked if there was a motion to approve the case. Mr. Matt Marrs made the motion and Commissioner Steven Woods seconded the motion. Mr. Cedric Hu presented the case and stated that the applicant is seeking approval of a 23ft 6.5 inches X 22ft. carport in the front setback of the property. The carport will have a total of four posts (height of 8 feet), no walls, a three-foot setback from the interior side property line, and will be built at the front property line. Mr. Hu presented photos of the property and surrounding area, pointing out that this property is in the single family 2 zoned district, and is completely surrounded by single family 2 zoning. He cited that there are seven properties within 200 feet that have a carport in the front setback area. Mr. Reitsma had applied for a Conditional Use Permit in the past, but not realizing that permit had expired he started construction on his carport. Mr. Hu stated that part of our Conditional Use Application process is to send out notification letters to property owners within a 200 ft radius of the client's property. The Planning and Zoning Department notified 35 property owners, with two responding in favor, and zero responses in opposition or undecided. Mr. Hu said the positive responses indicate the neighborhood would support a carport. If granted approval, the carport must comply with all other building standards and permitting, and a building permit will be required. He concluded his presentation stating that staff recommends approval of this Conditional Use Carport request for 4108 Mustang Street with the following conditions: 1. Further site plan review by planning and building inspections at the time of permitting for construction to verify conformance with Sec.4220 and all other applicable code and ordinances. Chairman Cook asked if the applicant wished to make a presentation. The applicant did not make a presentation. Then Chairman Cook then asked if anyone from the audience would like to make a presentation, and no one came forward. Chairman Cook then opened up discussion to the Commissioners. Commissioner Doug McCulloch asked if the carport framing that was shown one of the pictures was already existing. Mr. Fabian Medellin responded saying that the owner was under the assumption that the 2017 Conditional Use Permit was still in effect, and began the construction of this carport. One of our Building Inspectors noticed the construction and placed a stop work order, and required the owner to pull a building permit. It was at that time that we notified him that the original Conditional Use permit was expired, was no longer valid, and that he would need to reapply for another Conditional Use Permit. Commissioner Noros Martin noted that from the pictures, there are no sidewalks on the street frontage. He then asked if there are any easements along the property that the carport would be built over. Mr. Medellin informed the Commission that there are no easements on the applicant's property, but there are some easements outside of his property lines in the right of way. Chairman Cook asked the Commission if there was any additional discussion, which there were no more comments made by the panel. Chairman Cook to the motion to vote, and the motion passed 9-0. VI. STAFF UPDATE At this point, Mr. Medellin made a staff update. First, Mr. Terry Floyd stated that the rezoning case for the Data Center, that was presented a couple Tuesday's past, was approved by Council. The project has already started the process to move forward, and he thanked the Commission for their support. Mr. Medellin informed the Commission that that the Planning Division is undertaking some projects that will involve the Zoning Commission as well. He said, in 2019, the City Council and their strategic planning efforts felt that neighborhood revitalization was an initiative that the staff needs to undertake. Just after Covid, in 2021, a neighborhood was selected as an inaugural revitalization area. Which we call the Central Wichita Falls Revitalization area, and it is an area immediately surrounding Old High. (Basically, on the East side, bounded by Brook Avenue down to Kell Freeway, then Kemp to Seymour Highway.) He said while looking at neighborhoods, this one was selected for a number of reasons. While there are multiple deteriorating neighborhoods with older infrastructure and older housing, we wanted to start with a neighborhood that we knew we could be successful in order to make the program overall successful. He stated that the Planning Department felt this area had lots of infield development, lots of commercial pockets, nodes that can be rehabbed and reshaped. Mr. Medellin also noted that the area has a lot of cornerstones, Old High and Zundy being two of them that have supported the neighborhood for a long time. In 2021 & 2022, staff began a lot of neighborhood engagement, reaching out to the public asking what revitalization looked to them. We have a partner in the neighborhood, the Floral Heights United Methodist Church, that allowed us to go in and have some of our city town hall meetings there. On a couple of Saturdays, and a few Thursdays, we invited the public to have small group discussions, and surveyed them about what they like about their neighborhood. What could be improved, what needs to go away, what are your short- and long-term goals? We gathered all this information and came up with some guiding values based on all the information that was given to us from the public. "It's preserve, advance, connect. The surveys showed that the people wanted to preserve not only the current inhabitants, residents of that community. They wanted to basically ensure that any efforts that we undertook did not displace anyone.They wanted to preserve their buildings, preserve their trees, sidewalks, and then the culture within that neighborhood.Then they also wanted to advance. Advanced opportunities for redevelopment, advance commercial opportunities. There are a lot of commercial nodes, but not a lot of commercial activity. Most of them are vacant in the area and advance just beautification efforts. Thirdly, connect. They wanted to connect with each other, connect with city services, connect with other nonprofits, and connect themselves to their public spaces. That was one thing that we found out that as we were sitting out talking with them, a lot of them didn't know about the city services that are available to them today. That morphed a little bit into an information fair, once again, hosted by Floral Heights, where we set up city service booths, a set up nonprofit booths, allow the general public to come in, learn about some of those services that were available to them today, where they could benefit themselves and for their homes." "At the same time, we're on the backside taking surveys, getting more information. That was 2021 and 2022. Then, 2023 is when we started to do a lot of research. What are other communities doing? What tools are they using to revitalize, in how they have done it? What were some pitfalls? What were some successes? Really, one of the biggest things as far as success, in 2023 is staff. In 2023, I was able to get an approval for a neighborhood revitalization coordinator. That's why we don't see Christal here anymore, because she is my Neighborhood Revitalization Coordinator. Now, with her now on board and moved into that position as of January this year, we've been able to really move with some speed and with progress. Since she's come on board as my coordinator, we've now formed a committee of stakeholders. That's residents, property owners, business owners, and city councilors, a total of 10 of us, not including staff." Mr. Medellin showed a photo, and said that the photo was from one of their meetings that was at the El ChatOn restaurant there on Holiday. He continued, saying that "the El ChatOn business owner is one of our committee members. They're actually the first restaurants there on ninth Street, that's why we include them in the Committee." Mr. Medellin listed the of the members. Michael Mitchell, is the Chair. Wendy Browder, (a resident) is our Vice Chair. Jose Garcia owns a few commercial properties there on Monroe, and has experience on building homes. Andrea Robles, like he previously stated, owns El ChatOn. Larry Fox, owns the Den on ninth Street. After creating a group of stakeholders, they realized there's a number of issues that they needed to talk through. Mr. Medellin said, they went back out in the streets and surveyed the community. They asked, what's important to them, and what would they like to see done first? What were their priorities for the neighborhood? Right off the top of that, safety was number one. Safety, then neighborhood maintenance, parks, services, and infrastructure. That was their top five. So, since the committee was formed in May, "we've been meeting bi-weekly, basically, other than fourth of July week, bi-weekly, just discussing different issues, how we could use some of these tools that other communities have used to benefit the central revitalization area." Just walking through a couple of these tools: Safety; Once we started looking at some numbers and some statistics, we thought of a new program, which we are going to be working through eventually once we've rounded out all the different topics, where a potential introductory home security system with a doorbell camera and a basic porch light. Because you wouldn't believe how dark some of these streets are because of just the thick canopy of trees that limit the amount of light from the intersections from the street lights. Parks; Improving Bridwell, was a priority to them. So, our Parks Department, and our Rec Department, working through our Community Development Block grant, actually went through and applied for some funding to renovate the court there." Nsid Mr. Medellin then showed a couple of photos showing how they demoed the old basketball court, and they built a multi-purpose court that includes basketball and futsal. He stated that they had "just held an unveiling, a Block Party,for that court just this past weekend. And that was part of this initiative. So, we used that new court as an opportunity to take that next step to do more." Instead of just building a multi-purpose court and just leaving it there, the committee decided to celebrate, and showcase, the court. They decided to get the neighborhood out, so they could see it, know about it, and introduce them to the sport a little bit. So, the neighborhood could connect with each other. It was a very successful event. During the Block Party staff continued taking surveys to get more feedback from the residents. There were a lot of businesses and individuals that donated gift cards for staff to give away as raffle prizes for those that completed one of the at least 100 surveys that were filled out. We estimate that there were about 300 people at the Block Party. Mr. Medellin stated that the next thing that other communities have used that has been successful is a neighborhood empowerment zone. He explained that it is a specific designation where we take a geographic area and try to eliminate barriers to new development and redevelopment. .1100, "Barriers on our side of things, that's usually financial. That's costs and fees for any redevelopment. That's permitting, basically any construction permitting, any conditional use permitting, replating, liens that may be on a property and releasing those. That way there's less financial burden on anyone trying to redevelop a property. We essentially and even allow up to an abatement of property taxes, too, depending on an improvement value. We've got a draft version of this neighborhood empowerment zone document. Once we work through all the different topics, it's all going to be consolidated into a neighborhood plan. And once we get to that neighborhood plan, that's going to be presented to city council for approval and then implementation." "So, the next topic that I recommend we talk about is zoning. How has zoning been a barrier in new development and redevelopment? How can some laws be changed to help spur that incentive, that reinvestment into the community? For the last two meetings that we've had, I've been basically going through the Basics of zoning." He continued, "what is zoning? Why is it in place? What does it do? And now, what does it hurt too? And that's the flip side of the coin. Where have we seen it? Where has it slowed things down? So, we're getting to the point now where we're going to be actually coming up with some ideas of how maybe some zoning ordinances could be changed. And that's where I'd like to actually have a joint session between the Planning and Zoning Commission and our Neighborhood Revitalization Committee, so we can actually put a pen to paper, list out some of these changes that could be made. Basically, starting from scratch is where I'd like to start. Looking at things like uses. What uses do you think should or shouldn't be allowed in your neighborhood? And even going into boundaries. Where's that boundary between commercial and residential? Where does that lie? Is it a blend, as it a hard line? So, we're having that discussion. And I'd like to have you guys there just to see the process happen, maybe call upon some of your expertise if questions should arise. But I anticipate doing that either early part of next month or maybe even at our December Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, depending on how many cases we get in for the month." Mr. Medellin stated that this is all leading towards that neighborhood plan, which he hopes to have everything ready for the City Council at the start of the year. Then suggested that making modifications to the ordinances for this neighborhood by looking at required setbacks, parking spaces and landscaping requirements, so that way we can help improve and incentivize redevelopment in that area The Commission discussed with Mr. Medellin that they could send a small group of representatives from the Commission to join in with the Neighborhood Revitalization meetings, and they could report back to the Commission. They decided to have a sub committee consisting of Commissioners: Wayne Pharries, Doug McCulloch, Steven Wood and Jeremy Woodward, that would join in on the meetings. Mr. Medellin also informed the Commission that staff has been applying for a grant for the neighborhood to address some of the mentioned concerns. He stated the grant is from the EPA, and it focuses more on the structure of the neighborhood and less on who lives there. He then spoke on other grants that are available, citing the Community Development Block grant that is available to us, but that grant is very restrictive because of all the requirements that it has. The EPA grant will take structures, residential or commercial, and making them more energy efficient, less cost burden to maintain those structures on the owners, and reduction of greenhouse gasses (pollution). One other initiative under that grant that we are including is Harrison Street Stormwater Relief. Harrison Street has historically flooded to the point where cars will stall if they drive through Harrison, and on the list for flooding is Avenue E as well. The EPA has some requirements with this grant as well, that we will be including in the grant. Replacing lead and copper water service lines, and improving water quality. He stated that staff will be submitting this grant the following week, and hopefully will hear good news back from the EPA soon. It was asked of Mr. Medellin what the total for the grant would be and what the match on it would be, and he informed the Commissioners that it would be 23- million-dollar grant with zero match on it. If we meet all of the parameters, hit all the guidelines and align with all these goals, then it's basically the rating system interview. If we make it to the second round, then it will be selection after that. We are trying to address everything from dilapidated housing, vacant housing, and commercial structures. We have partnered with Habitat for Humanity, who will be taking ownership of these rehab vacant structures. We have partnered with a commercial property owner there in the neighborhood who will allow us to go and rehab their commercial property. Then let us fill it with a tenant of our choosing. We have selected the Wichita Falls Farmers Market Association to be the tenant, because that was another thing the neighborhood wanted. They wanted fresh produce,and fresh meats to be available to the community because that has been lacking there for a while. And the Arts Alliance has partnered with us to install a couple of murals on street intersections there as well. Then we will also have a few minor improvements, being filling in some missing sidewalks, adding some bike lanes to give more mobility options, reducing more greenhouse gasses, less cars on the road and less emissions. Mr. Medellin concluded his lor staff update stating that all of that has gone into the grant which has taken about three months for staff to put together. Chairman Cook asked if there were any more comments, and there were none made by the Commission. VII. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Cook adjourned the meeting at 2:29pm Davi ok, airman Date ri Terryyd, Director of Development Date 1