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HomeMy WebLinkAbout031411R CC Min0 The City of West University Place A Neighborhood City CITY COUNCIL Bob Kelly, Mayor Bob Fry, Councilmember George Boehme, Councilmember Steven Segal, Councilmember Chuck Guffey, Councilmember STAFF Michael Ross, City Manager Alan Petrov, City Attorney Thelma Lenz, City Secretary CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES The City Council of the City of West University Place, Texas, met in special and regular session on Monday, March 14, 2011, in the Municipal Building, 3800 University Boulevard, West University Place, Texas beginning at 5:45 p.m. SPECIAL WORKSHOP (BEGINNING AT 5:45 P.M. IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM) CALL TO ORDER Mayor Kelly called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. Council and staff in attendance were: Mayor Pro Tern Fry, Councilmembers Boehme, Segal, and Guffey, City Manager Ross, City Attorney Petrov, City Secretary Lenz, and ACM/Public Works Director Peifer. The following item was discussed: 1. Shared Parking Agreement Matters related to the consideration of an amended and restated Memorandum of Understanding between the City of West University Place and the West U Baptist Church. At 5:46 p.m. Councilmember Steven Segal moved to recess the workshop and convene into executive session in accordance with Sections 551.071 and 551.072 in Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code (consultation with legal counsel to seek or receive legal advice and discussion about the value or transfer of real property and other real estate matters). Mayor Pro Tern Fry seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Guffey, Segal Noes: None Absent: None At 6:20 p.m., Mayor Pro Tern Fry moved to adjourn the Executive Session and reconvene the workshop. Councilmember Guffey seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Guffey, Segal Noes: None Absent: None At 6:20 p.m., Mayor Pro Tern Fry moved to recess the special workshop and reconvene during regular session. Councilmember Segal seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. City Council Minutes, March 14, 2011 Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Guffey, Segal Noes: None Absent: None REGULAR MEETING (BEGINNING AT 6:30 P.M. IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS) Mayor Kelly called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. All members of Council were present. City Manager Ross, City Secretary Lenz, City Attorney Petrov, ACM/Public Works Director Peifer, Police Chief Walker, and Chief Building Official Brown were also present. Councilmember Chuck Guffey led the Pledge of Allegiance and Pledge to the Texas Flag. City Secretary Lenz confirmed that the Notice of the special and regular meetings was duly posted in accordance with the Texas Government Code, Chapter 551. Agenda items were as follows: 2. Basements Matters related to an ordinance amending Chapter 18 of the City of West University Place Code of Ordinances regarding basements. Lawrence J. Pirtle, 3407 Albans, signed up to speak on this issue and wanted to speak before Council's discussion. Mr. Pirtle said not prohibiting basements in West University Place is a bad idea and the good idea was from the two Commissions that do not recommend them. He said he is a native Houstonian and almost everything that has ever been said about what the effects of flooding, or more importantly our ability to control flooding and the damage from it, has not turned out to be true. He said Mother Nature humbles good ideas and plays havoc and destroys bad ideas. Mr. Pirtle said one comment that made to justify not adopting the ordinance is that it affects private property rights, which doesn't explain to him as to the wisdom or lack of wisdom in the ordinance. He said someone could argue against every one of our building standards as being a deprivation of property rights. Mr. Pirtle said it has been asserted that basements would cause no effect on neighbors, but he's not sure about that. He said what comes to his mind is the effect on the subsidence in the area and the effect to the underground flow or transmission of water. He said it could also have an immediate or long-term effect on property insurance rates. In closing, he said the ZPC and the BSC have it right. At this time, Mayor Pro Tern Fry moved to reconvene discussion from the workshop session in regards to the MOU with West U Baptist Church. Councilmember Guffey seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Guffey, Segal Noes: None Absent: None Page 2 of 7 City Council Minutes, March 14, 2011 Councilmember Segal moved to approve the amended and restated Memorandum of Understanding for West University Town Center shared parking with the West University Baptist Church allowing staff to finalize and execute the agreement with terms substantially the same in all material aspects. Councilmember Boehme seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Guffey, Segal Noes: None Absent: None City Manager Ross explained that this is the further revised Memorandum brought to Council at the last meeting. He said one of the changes is that the church-owned lot on Amherst, adjacent to our property, will have a 10-year agreement for the lease of that property, which can only be terminated by mutual agreement by both the church and the City. Mr. Ross said we also have the lot on the corner of Amherst and College, which will have a 10-year amortized agreement so that if the church chooses to cancel in less than 10 years, for each year there will be a 10% cost of the total part of construction that the City would be paid. Mr. Ross said also that we have part of the new parking lot directly adjacent to the new expanded City facility in front of the police station that will be used exclusively for public safety vehicles. At this time a vote was made on the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Guffey, Segal Noes: None Absent: None Mayor Kelly reconvened the regular session and resumed discussion regarding basements. He said he agree with Mr. Pirtle and said the thing that struck him most about the discussion was the property rights issues. He said the issue of property rights is always a concern, but it seems to him that the very nature of zoning affects property rights. He said one thing valuable about living in West U is our zoning rights and that there isn't one of them that does not seem to adversely affect property rights in some way. Mayor Kelly said he is a strong zoning proponent and said we have two capable Boards, the Zoning and Planning Commission and the Building and Standards Commission, and both came to the conclusion to not allow basements. He then read excerpts from the July 26, 2010 Minutes regarding this matter. Mayor Kelly said there are no better reasons to prohibit basements than those given by Mr. Pirtle. Mayor Kelly said he thinks you can come up with a set of regulations, but said he has to agree with a previous comment that he doesn't think that an average homeowner in West U is going to know whether those regulations are actually being complied with. He said our City does a great job of making sure residents are compliant, but if somebody wants to game us, we can sometimes let something slide through and it might not be until a major flood when we will know the extent of the problem. Mayor Kelly said it doesn't bother him to interfere with property rights for zoning, because that's what zoning is all about. He said it gets down to the reasonableness of that zoning and thinks that for all the reasons Mr. Pirtle outlined and the two Commissions concluded, he doesn't think that this is an unreasonable interference with property rights. Page 3 of 7 City Council Minutes, March 14, 2011 Mayor Kelly said he agrees with what Councilmember Segal stated at the last meeting, which is that this issue has gone through the process and if we want to follow up later and have some sort of limited exceptions, then we can; but for now we need to get something in place so we won't have full basements being built with no prohibition. Mayor Kelly said since the last meeting, this issue has gone back to the BSC and they decided that they were not going to change their recommendation, so he assumes that what Council has before it is the two Commissions recommendations to Council, based on their years of study of this issue, that their recommendation is still not to allow basements in the City of West University Place. Councilmember Segal spoke and confirmed that he does feel that we should adopt a ban so that we have a ban in place and worry about exceptions later. He said his understanding is that with the defeat of the motion last week, the other three members of Council asked staff to bring back the ordinance brought forward tonight. Councilmember Boehme asked Chief Building Official John Brown to come to the podium to answer a few questions. Councilmember Boehme confirmed with Mr. Brown that currently we have no ordinance in our Code restricting basements in any way shape or form. Councilmember Boehme also confirmed with Mr. Brown that the recommendation by staff is what Mr. Brown brought forth to the Building and Standards Commission late last year. He asked Mr. Brown if he believes that the recommendation provides the normal protections to surrounding property owners. Mr. Brown said he wrote the ordinance in this way to try to protect homeowners, but having said that he wanted to be clear that staff will enforce whatever Council wishes. Councilmember Boehme said he agrees with much of what Mr. Brown says, but what we are doing here is not proposing a law that allows basements, but rather proposing a law that greatly restricts basements. He asked Mr. Brown to explain what this recommendation allows and how restrictive it is. Mr. Brown explained that the way the recommendation is written it limits basements to 200 square feet or less and by the Residential Code it's allowed to have up to 200 square feet without emergency egress from that space. He said the height of the structure inside is limited to 8 feet and the location of the basement is limited to the center third of the width of the structure about the property. Regarding property rights, Councilmember Boehme said when we identify a problem, which we did, we go and draft an ordinance that goes and solves that problem in the least restrictive way possible and it still sometimes allow people to do things that none of us will agree with; but, it provides all the protections that other City codes provide in terms of providing the protection to the surrounding property owners. He said he thinks that is the proper role for this Council when making laws. Councilmember Boehme said he understands that it is a dumb idea in most circumstances, but he listened to the engineers and what they said was that this is a feasible thing to do, though it may not be very smart. He said so is it appropriate for us to go that step further and say we are not going to Page 4 of 7 City Council Minutes, March 14, 2011 pass a law that provides the protection to other property owners because it's a silly idea. He said he thinks that's too far. Councilmember Guffey said we have a number of basements in the City that are not called basements (i.e. lift station). He asked has there been any evidence around the City of any subsidence in those areas. Mr. Brown said that would be an answer for someone in Public Works, but said he has never heard of any. Councilmember Guffey said he doesn't see any evidence of the technical problems as suggested by Mr. Pirtle. He said as for insurance, it might affect the individual who has a basement but he can't see that it would affect the insurance rates for the entire City. In response to Councilmember Guffey's question as to what is the most disastrous thing that could happen with these basements, Mr. Brown said the most-likely thing would be water intrusion, which could occur through a fault or ground shift/movement. Councilmember Guffey asked about flooding because that seems to be the most concern. Mr. Brown responded that we need to remember that the flood plain is a line on a map, so it's the best guess scenario when you have a 100 or 500 year flood plain. He said just because it says that you are not in the flood plain and you allow a basement to be built there doesn't mean that in the next flood water won't get into a particular basement. Councilmember Guffey said he doesn't see that these problems exist significantly enough that the City should intrude and not allow a person to build a basement if he wants to. He said it may be foolish, but he doesn't think the City should have a heavy hand in how people conduct business within their own property as long as it doesn't affect the rest of the City of neighbors. Councilmember Segal said he is concerned about homes where we have a lot of 50 foot lots one after another and the big structures. He said maybe there should be an increase pervious requirement for "x" amount of basement space so that it limits the adverse affect if there is one. Mayor Kelly said he would generally agree with some of the arguments made by Councilmember Guffey, but he has to disagree because we are virtually stacked on top of each other and it's not getting any better. He said when we have two Commissions and three structural engineers recommend against this, it seems that the safer course of action is to err on the side of protection for the landowners. Councilmember Boehme moved to adopt the City's staff recommendation. Councilmember Guffey seconded the motion. Councilmember Segal moved to amend the motion to increase the pervious requirement. No second. Mayor Kelly moved to amend the motion to adopt the ordinance as presented, except in Appendix A after Section 18.61 Basements, which he suggests reads 'The construction of the basement for residential and commercial structures is prohibited" and drop everything under that. Councilmember Segal seconded the motion. MOTION FAILED. Ayes: Kelly, Segal Noes: Fry, Boehme, Guffey Absent: None Page 5 of 7 City Council Minutes, March 14, 2011 A vote was now made on the original motion by Councilmember Boehme, which was seconded by Councilmember Guffey, to follow the staff's recommendation to adopt the proposed ordinance as presented on first reading. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Fry, Boehme, Guffey Noes: Kelly, Segal Absent: None 3. Public Comments Ed Heathcott, resident at 2729 Arbuckle and member of the Building and Standards Commission, spoke to say that the Commission has discussed this in detail and the consensus amongst them is that if you build a basement in time the water protection will fail whether it's 20 or 50 years from now. He said at the time water seepage does get in there, it will then create mold and mold will then have the ability contaminate property, which can be damaging and can cause loss in value to the property; so, he personally doesn't think basements should be allowed. 4. Consent Agenda All Consent Agenda items listed are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Council member requests in which event the item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. A. City Council Minutes Approve City Council minutes of February 28, 2011. B. 2011 Election Matters Matters related to an ordinance amending Ordinance Number 1937 calling the May 14, 2011 General Election. Asuntos de la election de 2011 Asuntos relacionaron a una ordenanza que enmienda Numero de Ordenanza 1937 Ilamamiento la el 14 de mayo de 2011 Election general. Cac Van Oe v$ Cuoc Bau Civ Nam 2011 Cac van de lien quan tai mot phap lenh sira doi Phap lenh So gqi 1937 14 thang nam 2011 Tong Tuy6n UP. Mayor Pro Tern Fry moved to accept the Consent Agenda as presented. Councilmember Boehme seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Guffey, Segal Noes: None Absent: None 5. Public Comments There were no comments from the public. 6. Adiourn Page 6 of 7 City Council Minutes, March 14, 2011 With no further business before the Council, at 7:13 p.m., Mayor Pro Tem Fry moved to adjourn the special meeting and Councilmember Guffey moved to close the regular meeting. Councilmember Segal seconded both motions. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Gulley, Segal Noes: None Absent: None Meetings adjourned. Prepared a C-1 e a Thelma A. Lenz, City Secretary r*X40 De A Page 7 of 7