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Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - 07/09/2025 MINUTES PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION July 9, 2025 PRESENT: Jeremy Woodward *Chairman Blake Haney •Vice-Chair Noros Martin *Member Alan Sizemore *Member Michael Grassi *Member Matt Marrs *Member Brady Enlow *Member Doug McCulloch •Member Jack Browne *Alternate No.1 Paul Menzies, Assistant City Manager •City Staff Terry Floyd,Development Services Director •City Staff Fabian Medellin, Planning Manager •City Staff James McKechnie, City Attorney •City Staff Christal Cates, Neighborhood Revitalization Coordinator-Planner II •City Staff Kalie Shelley-Hughes •City Staff ABSENT: Steven Wood *Member Teresa Rose •SAFB Liaison GUESTS: Moriah Williams Wichita Falls Economic Development I. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chairman Jeremy Woodward at 2:00 pm. II. PUBLIC COMMENTS Chairman Woodward 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. ADOPTION OF MINUTES 1 Chairman Woodward asked if any of the members of the Commission have a motion to approve the June 11, 2025 meeting minutes. Commissioner Noros Martin made the motion, and Commissioner Matt Marrs seconded the motion. Chairman Woodward asked if anyone from the public would like to make a comment. No one came forward with any comments. Chairman Woodward then took the motion to approve the June 11, 2025 meeting minutes to a vote The motion passed with a vote of 9 - 0 in favor. IV. CONSENT AGENDA Chairman Woodward then asked if there were any items that were to be moved from the consent agenda to the regular agenda. Mr. Fabian Medellin stated that there were none, but he wanted to make an update for a couple of staff recommendations for two plats that had a couple of last-minute revisions that were submitted to staff after the book was printed and prepared for the Commission. He informed the Commission that staff will be recommending full approval of raid the Scott Addition Preliminary Plat and the Cooper Milley Addition Plat. All others will remain the same. Chairman Woodward asked if there was a motion to approve the consent agenda. Commissioner Matt Marrs made the motion to approve, and Commissioner Jack Browne seconded the motion. Chairman Woodward asked if anyone from the public would like to speak about the consent agenda, and no one made any comments. Chairman Woodward took the motion to approve the consent agenda to vote, and it passed with a vote of 9-0. Chairman Woodward then moved on to the regular agenda. V. REGULAR AGENDA raS Chairman Woodward declared a public meeting open, at 2:02 for the discussion for Text Amendment 25-01. TA 25-01 — Public Hearing to discuss the proposed boundary and text amendments to the Code of Ordinances, Appendix B—Zoning Ordinances, for the creation of the Heart of the Falls Overlay District. Request to allow for a carport in the required front setback in the Single Family -2 (SF-2) zoning district. Ms. Christal Cates stated that nothing that they are doing has changed from the last presentation that was made to the Commission. She explained that staff did want to use this platform to have another public meeting, so any citizens with questions or concerns about the proposed amendments could have an opportunity to come forth. Mr. Fabian Medellin interjected to inform the Commission that because some non-traditional engagement efforts did not have the responses that staff had hoped for from some of the neighborhood park meetings that were held. Because of that, staff has decided to go back to a more traditional notification process. Staff has moved some funds around internally to be able to mail out notices of all of the 2800 property owners within the Neighborhood Revitalization area. To give them this opportunity as well as an opportunity at the parks, and at the meeting that will be at the library on Thursday July 15th at 6:00. We are having this public hearing, no actions to be taken, for any community members that want to become more informed of what will be happening. Ms. Cates continued stating that the feedback so far has all been positive, and have had some great feedback from the residents. City staff have put a great deal of information out for this not only through our planned meetings and events, but also through advertising, public announcements, a press release, and we have zoning input forms that residents can access on our city website. All in hopes of getting feedback and spreading information to our residents. The main discussion is the creation of a special overlay district. We have our historic districts that are similar to what is being proposed, of having an overlay. She presented a slide showing the boundaries, which are the same as the Heart of the Falls Revitalization area. Ms. Cates said that we feel that relaxing some of the requirements will help spark revitalization in that area, by streamlining the process and to help make development easier. She stated that the Neighborhood Empowerment Zone plan was approved by the City Council on June 3rd, so that is active now. We already have some individuals filling out applications now, and should be receiving those application back sometime in the week. 3 Some of the key elements for the proposal are: ..ry► • Eliminate parking requirements for all non-residential uses. • Eliminate the 10,000 sf. Minimum lot size requirements for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU'S). • Require 1 parking stall for Accessory Swelling Units (ADU'S). • Allow for alternative paving material, e.g., gravel, for accessory dwelling unit parking requirements. • Amend setback requirements to both residential and nonresidential uses fitting with the current built environment to allow for the expansion of developable area. • Extend the General Commercial (GC) zoning district that is currently Limited Commercial (LC) zoning district on 9m and 10th street, from Polk Street to Kemp Boulevard. • Extend Limited Commercial (LC) zoning district to cover the gaps currently zoned Single Family-2 (SF-2) Residential on the west side of Harrison Street from Avenue C to Avenue F. • Extend Limited Commercial (LC) zoning to cover the gaps currently zoned Single Family-2 (SF-2) Residential on both sides of Monroe Street from Avenue E to Avenue H. • Rezone the Commercial Corridor (CC) zoning district to General Commercial (GC) zoning district. • Extend the Limited Commercial (LC) zoning district along the east side of Kemp Boulevard from 8th Street to Seymour Highway. Ms. Cates noted the Commissioners have a diagram, in their packets, of the current zoning layout and the proposed zoning so they can see where the differences will be. She also informed the Commissioners that many of the older homes in that area already have Accessory Dwelling Units, but when they get deteriorated to the point that they have to be torn down,they are not allowed to build them back due to current zoning ordinances. Our plan will allow them to be able to rebuild those units, and allow owners those uses in that current zone. In regards to parking, residents cited concerns for the cost of paving material, so we would like to offer an alternative paving material which would allow residents to use gravel for accessory dwelling unit parking requirements. Regarding the Commercial Corridor (CC), Ms. Cates pointed out that the zoning district just to the south (on Kemp) is General Commercial (GC). The only difference between the commercial corridor and the general commercial is when it was created, they put in a key element where the building materials were regulated. Legislation has changed since then and we can no 4 longer require specific building materials. So, now there really is no difference except having a different zoning designation. We are just going to change it back to General Commercial and have it extended down Kemp. By changing the CC to GC, it will make it more in alignment rather than having another separate zoning district that people will have to look up. For the extension of the Limited Commercial zoning district along the east side of Kemp, that will be to fill in a gap which will help speed up, and streamline, any future development that begins in that area. Ms. Cates informed the Commission that the zoning amendments are on the city website, and they are broken down so the proposed changes can easily be seen. There is also an input form on the site, so anyone can go to our website and fill it out. We welcome any input, and thought having it on the Internet might make it easier for most. (This information and the input form have been posted on our Facebook apps as well.) Commissioner Doug McCulloch noted his appreciation to Ms. Cates for all the work she has put into this project, by cleaning up a lot of gaps and filling in with some consistency. Her time is appreciated, and was well worth it. Ms. Cates stated that staff will have another public information meeting, to give the citizens as much time that we can, and to make sure that no one is concerned or upset with what's going to change. After that, we will hopefully bring this back before the Commission for a recommendation to City Council. Chairman Woodward asked if anyone from the audience would like to speak, or ask a question on the matter. Mr. Allen Moore came forward and said his only concern is the use of gravel for a driveway is a problem because the gravel will get in the street, and asphalt/cement is just better. He recommended if a resident is going to spend money to improve their property,, then they should invest in asphalt or cement. Ms. Cates said that when they had their meeting with the Revitalization Committee, the use of gravel was something that was unanimously pushed for. With the way our ordinances are written, requiring improved surfaces, she didn't think the request for gravel would be considered Staff even tried to bring up the possibility in the future when that property is sold and somebody else has a wheelchair. Needing to get into that accessory dwelling unit and a gravel surface will be an issue for them. The Committee's main point was that the people in this area right now are really paycheck to paycheck. If they're going to invest money in the property itself, that they want to allow gravel. She reiterated that the Commission was unanimous in requesting the use of gravel. 5 Ms. Cates clarified that gravel would be used only for Accessory Dwelling Unit vow parking. Chairman Woodward asked if there were any more comments or questions from anyone from the public, and there were none. In addition, he asked if any of the Commissioners had any comments, and none were made. Chairman Woodward closed the public meeting at 2:14. VI. OTHER BUSINESS Mr. Fabian Medellin updated the Commission on the latest regarding the legislative session, The Governor signed five bills that pertain to our zoning ordinance that could have some impact and require some amendments. The following are the five bills that will be discussed in this update: 1) HB 24—Zoning Changes Protests (Super Majority) (Effective 9/01/25) Creates a distinction for one-off request for zoning amendments or rezones, and the protest requirements for those — versus — your more comprehensive city-wide/regional-wide changes. Percentage changed from 20% to 60% 2) HB 2462 — Home-Based Business (Effective 9/01/25) Cities are preempted from regulating no impact home-based businesses. Home businesses will not be regulated as long as they are not creating traffic, large trash or storing chemicals. The residence needs to be nondescript where they perform their business without any complaints.Whether that's nuisance, lighting or anything like that, including environmental. 3) HB 2844— Mobile Food Truck Regulation (Effective 9/01/25) This bill pertains mainly to Health Codes. We will look at it as it pertains to the outdoor food court ordinance and any changes that we may need to make to that regulation, specifically with the hours of operation. 4) HB 4506— Notification for Zoning Changes (Effective 9/01/25) A new allowance for municipalities to notify of any zoning changes, via text or email if the property owners register and sign up for that service, versus traditional mail notification. woo 5) SB 785 — HUD-code Manufactured Housing (Effective 9/01/26) Allowing for manufactured HUD code homes within the same zoning districts as single family uses if they are included in that district. Also, requiring at least one district to allow for manufactured homes. Staff will look into each of the bills to see how they will affect our ordinances, and will speak with our sister cities for their insight on the new bills, and how they view the changes. Then staff will have a workshop of how we will address the potential updates to our ordinances. Commissioner McCulloch asked to go back to a question about a plat in the consent agenda. He asked for some background on the 300-acre plat that has a request to rezone. Mr. Medellin stated that it is a tentative subdivision in the business park, that will be split it into two lots. Speaking for the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation, Moriah Williams told the Commission that this is a project that could potentially be acquiring this land as an economic development project. This replat will make it easier for the project to be phased out according to the owner's timeline. It will not change the use of the park at all, it will just make it easier for development. It was stated this project is under an NDA at this time. VII. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Woodward adjourned the meeting at 2:24 pm. .///ZS re y odward, Chairman Date -�� 5 ((3 (2v5- Terry oyd, Director of Development Date 7