Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - 06/11/2025 MINUTES
PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION
June 11, 2025
PRESENT:
Jeremy Woodward *Chairman
Noros Martin *Member
Alan Sizemore *Member
Michael Grassi *Member
Brady Enlow *Member
Doug McCulloch •Member
Jack Browne *Alternate No.1
Teresa Rose •SAFB Liaison
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
ABSENT:
Blake Haney *Vice-Chair
Steven Wood *Member
Matt Marrs *Member
GUESTS:
Kent Fehr *Applicants
Josh Hartmangruber •Applicants
I. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Jeremy Woodward at 2:01
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
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Chairman Woodward asked if any of the members of the Commission have a
motion to approve the May 14, 2025 meeting minutes. Commissioner Noros
Martin made the motion, and Commissioner Michael Grassi 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 May 14, 2025
meeting minutes to a vote.
The motion passed with a vote of 7 - 0 in favor.
VI. REGULAR AGENDA
1) C 25-11 2312 Doris Street
Request to allow for a carport in the required front setback in the Single Family
-2 (SF-2) zoning district.
Applicant— Pro Siding &Windows
Owners —Tracy & Kent Fehr
Chairman Woodward asked if there was a motion. Commissioner Jack Browne
made a motion to approve, and Commissioner Michael Grassi seconded the
motion.
Mr. Fabian Medellin presented the case and informed the Commission that the
property is located in the north central part of town, on Doris Street, just off the
intersection of Missile and Hooper Road, and is in the Single Family-2 Zoning
District. The proposed structure is 25 X 22, essentially putting the structure
right at the front property line. Mr. Medellin stated that recently there has been
an increase for carport requests, which has generated discussions regarding
general setback requirements, and have had many permits for carports through
our inspections division. Slides of the subject site, and views of the neighboring
properties in the area were shown, and it was pointed out that there were
multiple properties in the area that have carports.
Staff sent notices to property owners in the 200-foot radius of the subject
property. With a total of 23 notices that were sent, one response was returned
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and it was in favor of the proposed carport. Staff does recommend the request
for the proposed structure in the required front setback of 2312 Doris Street,
with the condition of a future inspection at the time of permitting.
Chairman Woodward asked if the applicant would like to make a statement, but
the applicant declined to make a statement.
Chairman Woodward opened up comments to the public, and with no
comments from the public he opened up comments to the Commission.
With no further discussion Chairman Woodward took the motion to vote. The
motion was approved with a vote of 7-0.
Chairman Woodward stated that Commissioner Doug McCulloch will be
recusing himself from the next case.
2) R 25-05 4700 Gregq Road
Chairman Woodward opened the public hearing at 2:06
Request to rezone+/-30.23 acres of land from Single Family-1 (SF-1)to Single
Family 2 (SF-2) and +/- 9.39 acres of land from Single Family -1 (SF-1) to
General Commercial (GC) zoning district both located at 4700 Gregg Rd.
(43.06 Acres, Block 12, Denton County School Lands, LG2); and amend the
Land Use Plan from Low Density Residential to Commercial to allow for the
construction of standard lot residential subdivision and commercial
development.
Applicant—Josh Hartmangruber
Owner— Doug McCulloch
Mr. Medellin
Chairman Woodward asked for a motion, and Mr. Marrs made the motion to
approve the request following with Commissioner Noros Martin seconding the
motion.
Mr. Medellin presented the case and stated that staff met with Mr. McCulloch
and Mr. Hartmangruber to discuss the potential purchase and then subdivision
of the 43-acre tract. Mr. McCulloch discussed the layout of a residential
subdivision with the potential for commercial properties along Southwest
Parkway. The property is currently zoned Single Family-1 with a stretch of
about 175 feet that (that runs parallel to Gregg Road) that is zoned General
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Commercial. Mr. McCulloch has now become the owner of the property in
question, and is proposing to add an additional 250 swath along southwest
Parkway for a proposed commercial subdivision there, and to the south of that
is requesting to change the Single Family-1 to a Single Family-2 zoning district.
He is requesting this for a couple of reasons, the most important of those being
frontage requirements. With Single Family-1 requirements the lot size needs
to be a minimum of 8,500 square feet with a frontage requirement of 60 feet
wide, and the Single Family-2 requirements are 5,000 square foot minimum lot
size with a frontage requirement of 50 feet wide. By transitioning to the Single
Family-2 zoning, this would allow for more density, more single family uses.
This land was originally zoned Single Family-1 when it was annexed into the
city in 2005. When an annexation is approved,the newly annexed land defaults
to the Single Family-1 zoning district. It was pointed out that the commercial
properties along Southwest Parkway would be buffered to the residential
properties by a commercial street that Mr. Medellin noted in one of the slides.
Mr. Medellin reiterated that the proposed request would leave the existing
General Commercial along Gregg Road, creating a 250 swath of General
Commercial zoning along Southwest Parkway, and then transitioning the
remaining 30 acres from Single Family-1 to a Single Family-2 zoning district.
Then, as part of that, updating the land use plan from low density residential to
commercial for that portion that is currently low density residential along the
Southwest Parkway frontage.
Staff did post signs out on the site as part of our notification process, and a
Times Record News notification was posted. Letters (63) were mailed out to
neighboring properties, and from the responses that were sent back, five were
in favor and two were opposed. Based on the feedback from the two responses
that were opposed, they would want any commercial development as far away
from them as possible. Mr. Medellin stated that if one would consider Mr.
McCulloch's layout, he does take strides and efforts to protect those single-
family residences and future single-family residences.
Mr. Medellin said that staff does recommend the approval of the proposed
zoning request, transitioning 30 acres from Single Family-1 to Single Family-2,
and 9.39 acres from Single Family-1 to General Commercial, and updating that
portion of land use plan from low density residential to commercial.
Chairman Woodward asked if anyone from the public would like to make a
comment. No one came forward to make a statement.
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Chairman Woodward closed the public hearing at 2:13 pm.
Chairman Woodward asked if there was any discussion from the commission,
and there was none.
Commissioner Jack Browne made a motion to recommend the case, and
Commissioner Noros Martin seconded the motion.
Chairman Woodward took the motion to vote, and it passed with a vote of 6-0
(with one abstaining).
Commissioner Doug McCulloch returned to the Commission panel.
VI. OTHER BUSINESS
Mr. Medellin updated the Commission on the last rezone case, which was
5201-5207 Stone Lake Drive, that was approved by City Council at the June
2nd meeting. (The rezone will take effect July 2nd).
The Heart of the Falls Revitalization area and zoning overlay district was
spoken about to update the Commission. It was noted that staff was hosting a
community event at Bridwell Park in an effort to showcase the mural that is
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currently being painted on the multi-purpose court, and secondly to be out there
to discuss and take input from the community regarding the overlay district.
(This was done in place of sending out 2,800 mailers, which would have been
required to be sent out twice.) Staff felt by having the event, it would actually
result in receiving more responses than by the mailers.
Mr. Medellin touched the Legislative session that had a number of bills that
made it all the way through the Congress, through the House, and made it to
the Governor. He presented four bills that will directly impact what we do and
how we operate, and potential amendments that will be needed. He noted that
while they have been approved by the Congress and by the House, they have
not been signed by the Governor as of yet. The Governor will have a week, to
a week and a half, to determine if he will sign them into law, or veto the bills. If
the Governor decides to do nothing with the bills, then they will become law.
Some of the bills noted in the discussion:
House Bill 24 — The bill now defines comprehensive zoning changes. That
would be zoning changes that will increase residential densities that are
essentially citywide changes, or changes that are over a specific geographic
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area like our neighborhood overlay district. The bill's intent is to change the
supermajority requirements, so it distinguishes between your comprehensive
zoning changes and the non-comprehensive zoning changes. Comprehensive
zoning changes will still be under the previous 20% rule. If 20% of the property
owners within that given rezone area, either lots or land, and/or 20% of the
surrounding 200-foot buffer, lots or land, are opposed to a specific protest, that
governing body is required a super majority vote in order to pass that
amendment. Which is still in effect. Mr. Medellin continued, "However, for your
changes, what they call the comprehensive zoning changes (where you're
increasing residential densities), that threshold is going to be increased to 60%.
That's going to be things like your one-off zoning district changes, potentially
like going from Single Family-1 to General Commercial. That's an increase in
residential densities that will require that higher threshold before we will allow,
or be required, to follow that super-majority city council vote. Then the bill also
adds some specific language with sign postings and sign size requirements.
We do locally have posting requirements. However, we didn't have any size
requirements, so that'll be something that we'll have to look at. If the Governor
does sign it, this bill will go into effect the first of this year."
House Bill 2464 — Home based businesses — Mr. Medellin This bill is geared
specifically for the regulation or preemption of how we permit, or allow, for
home-based businesses. We do have a section of the ordinance that does
allow for that. What this bill does is essentially establish what a home-based
business is and what it calls a no-impact home-based business. The bill
essentially preempts us from regulating in a couple of different ways; no impact
home-based businesses. That's a business where there's no increases in traffic
or parking. The activity of the business isn't visible from the right of way. That
is a business that you wouldn't know is there if you were driving down the street.
What it does prohibit us from doing is requiring permits for a home-based
business, which we don't currently require rezoning or seeking any special
permissions for home-based business, which we don't. Sprinkler systems for
that single family, and it also includes two family structures, so your duplexes.
But what it does allow us to do is still regulate its compliance with other state,
federal, and local laws, including some of our zoning laws, specifically for us,
our noise and traffic controls, pollution, waste. What we may need to refine is
our ability to regulate who is employed by that home-based business, because
it is exclusively only allowed those persons that reside in that home-based
business, and we may need to refine some of the language on maintaining the
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residential character of the home-based business. He then added that we are
also still allowed to limit alcohol sales, structured sober living facilities and
sexually-oriented businesses. If signed by the Governor, this would take effect
September 1st of this year.
HB2844 — This bill is geared towards Health Department health code violations
and regulations. This bill lists a number of ways how cities can no longer regulate
mobile food vendors, everything from commissary kitchen requirements — to size
of their propane tanks, GPS tracking, proximity to other food trucks and
restaurants. Since most of those will be geared towards health codes, that will be
administered by our health department. He stated that one thing that may affect
us in zoning is the hours of operation. Our outdoor food court ordinance does limit
hours of operation depending on the proximity to residential areas. The closer to
homes, the earlier they are required to shut down, which may be something that
we will have to completely remove. If signed by the Governor, it won't go into effect
until September 1st
HB4506 — Notification changes for zoning amendments or boundary changes.
This allows municipalities to send notices electronically, either by text or by email.
With this, the general public will have to opt in to a program. We currently have a
program called Notify Me, which is primarily used for notification of public meetings
and agenda postings. That will have to be modified for specific cases, and that
way we can vet some of those responses through that program, which will
potentially save time and money. If signed by the Governor, that will go into effect
September 1st this year as well.
HUD Code Manufactured Housing — This would prohibit a municipality from
requiring special use permits, which in our language would be conditional use
permits for new HUD code homes. If we allow single family units in a residential
district, we also have to, by right, allow for new HUD Code Homes. It would allow
us to limit those new HUD Code Homes to a singular district, like a manufactured
housing district (which we do have). But those are limited to around existing
manufactured home parks. Going forward, we will either have to remove them in
all of our residential districts/commercial districts, or allow them by right. If signed
by the Governor, or if it goes into effect because of inaction, that won't take effect
until September of 2026. That would be to allow time to work through zoning
changes. Mr. Medellin reiterated that we would have to remove the Zoning
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Manufactured Home Zoning Ordinance, because in most of our zoning districts,
single-family uses are allowed by right. The bill states if we allow single family
homes by right, we also then have to allow HUD Code Homes by right. We can
remove them completely, or allow it to stay.
Mr. Medellin asked if there were any questions from the Commissioners.
Mr. Browne asked if HB24 (the zoning changing protest), when speaking of the
super majority requirement, would that be the super majority of the Planning and
Zoning Commission? Mr. Medellin clarified that it would be super majority of the
City Council.
Mr. Browne asked if the city cannot regulate no impact home businesses that
prohibit or obtain a license/permit. For example, we couldn't require someone to
get permits if they are preparing food that they are selling out of their house? Mr.
Medellin said we can't require them to have a permit, like a business license or an
operating license to operate that home business. He stated that for any specific
health code requirements, we can still require those permits.
Chairman Woodward asked if there were any other comments or questions,
which there were none.
Aso
V. ADJOURNMENT
Chairman Woodward adjourned the meeting at 2:30 pm.
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