So I now call this, uh, meeting of the baytown. This meeting of the baytown city council order
is thursday, april 14th. It is 6:31 pm we are in baytown city hall council
chambers. We do have a quorum. Uh, we will be led in our pledge and invocation this evening by council
member charles johnson of district number three.
you would join me in reciting the pledge to the flag. I pledge allegiance, allegiance
to the flag of the united states of america, and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under god and
indivisible with liberty and justice. Now the texas
flag, honor the texas flag. I pledge allegiance to
the texas one state under god, one
and indivisible. You would bow your heads for a moment of prayer.
dear lord, heavenly father, we thank you for your many abounded abundant
blessings. Thank you for life itself. Thank you for the ability to be involved
in useful work and for the responsibility associated with
it. I pray for the various levels of city officials. I ask that
you grant us the ability to work in harmony even when there is honest
disagreement, the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding needed to
govern. And I pray that you protect all of our first respond responders
and our armed forces. I pray for
the agenda that is set before us tonight. Please give us the assurance of what you
would have us to do and how you would have us to do it for the benefit of those
citizens in our city. I ask all of these things in your son,
our lord and savior jesus. The christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank
you councilman. Alright.
alright. Our first item we have is item one, a approval of the minutes for the baytown
city council regular meeting held on march 10th, 2022. Uh, to entertain a
motion for approval as written. Motion to approve. Second, we have a motion to second any
questions or comments or abstentions, if not all those in favor of the, of the minutes.
uh, to approve the minutes as written, please say, aye. Aye. Those opposed. We'll
move on to item two, a recognition of city of baytown employees, laia
ton and lanette leon. For awards received from the american water works association,
we have mr. Frank semino. Hopefully I got the, I'm gonna read yes,
yes. But, um, but certainly we have some awards, uh, and it's always great when our,
when our employees can be recognized for outstanding work they do
for our citizens. Um, so once again, this, this is recognition
from the, uh, american waterworks association,
latia ton. Superintendent wastewater treatment received the w the william d. Hatfield
award, which recognized an operator wastewater treatment plans for outstanding performance
and professionalism. Leon leon asset manager received the sydney
l allison award, which recognizes a person who has made a significant contribution to
the, to the engineering, science and or operation and maintenance of wastewater
collection and pumping stations with the mission to transport wastewater to a treatment
plant. She also received the water environment association of texas innovative
technology award, which recognizes individuals who have deployed or deployed
innovative technologies to solve water challenges. So I'd like to recognize
these two individuals, uh, by our director of, uh, engineering and public works.
uh, mr. Semino.
that or just one? Okay. There was just one.
okay. Thank you. So next, there'll be a
proclamation and recognition for the lee college basketball team, which we're all proud of. So if I can go, I
think I'm gonna read a proclamation down there and say a few short comments. And then,
uh, I would, if I can, I get counsel to go and join me as we recognize these individuals,
and I'm sure we'll take a picture with them. Uh, I would assume charles
and myself and others will be well in front of all these young men.
such a,
I'll go ahead and read the proclamation for these, these young men, their
successes in lee college athletics. So proclamation c of baytown lee college,
men's basketball, uh, 20 21, 20 22. Whereas lee college
men's basketball team is made up of the following players. Joshua cooper,
devonte austin, darius smith, kyron gibson lemon, jean
nicholas trailer, mario whitley, terrence johnson, reese peel,
uh, jean vinney, uh, chance brown di jean
dii. I, uh, edrick wil, uh, wilkinson, darrell washington,
braden reed. And is also coached by obviously, uh, coach nicholas wade,
who are, we're all very proud of, uh, all his accomp accomplishments that he has done here in
lee college. Lee college men's basketball, through countless hours of practice and preparation
off the court, had a great year ending with the season with 27 wins, the most wins
in a single season in school history, an 18 game win streak in the highest rank
the school has ever achieved, which is 14th. Coach wade earned the
distinguished honor of being named region 14 south zone coach of the year, while leading
the team to the first south zone championship in school history and earning
an invite to the national tournament. And whereas the members of the team were invited to
participate in all region teams, including kyron gibson and chance brown, chosen
for the first team all region selection, darius smith and mario whitley chosen for the
second team all region selections with kyron gibson also chose for all
american. So now, therefore, I, brandon cap's mayor of the city of baytown, texas, do
hereby pro came april 15th, which is tomorrow 2020 as lee college
men's basketball day in baytown. And I urge all our citizens to join me in
recognizing the dedication and hard work the team put to achieve the successful,
uh, season. And certainly we wish 'em a very, uh, very bright future next
year. We have a lot of returning players. I got to meet with them, uh, briefly before the meeting. And so we're
certainly excited that we go deeper into the playoffs. So if I can get counsel and myself,
uh, to go and recognize these individuals.
yes, you have your own day. You have your own day. Yes. We, we
can wear red, everybody can wear red tomorrow. But I, I would also like to recognize
if I can, I think we have some lee college regents and I know we have, uh, dr.
linda, linda eva to join us.
and if you're at lee college regent, uh, we have, uh, regent susan
morono, regent gilbert santana.
we have regent gina guillory, regent weston
cotton. Who are we missing?
that's four. That's it. Okay. That's fine.
anyone else? Any other regents? I wanna make sure I didn't miss them. Alright, thank you.
where spokes make forgot.
so we want not give you another one of these next year if we can
you,
this has been signed by all the baytown city council and our city manager. So best
of luck.
go guys. Alright, ready?
1, 2, 3
blinding moments. Get
it.
are you gonna rec, am I gonna recognize the people that
are here? Okay. They have names, right? Smaller when you're in
the stands.
good start. Yeah.
what are these, what are these? This for something else.
next item.
is that scott? Back there? Is that scott?
where? In the back? Right here, outside the door.
is that him? Yeah. That's,
this is just a solution. Uhhuh.
well, we, we should give some time to present
this. I don't.
okay. Do.
okay. Next we'll move on to item three a. We're gonna consider resolution adopting the city of bay town's five-year
community-based strategic plan. We have mr. Brian moham, I believe they'll be presenting, or
mr. Rick davis and spac
chair kelly williams. Okay.
uh, you wanna go? There's three names.
okay. Well, mayor and council, I'll, I'll tip it off right here and then I'm gonna hand
it over to, uh, mr. Mackey smith, who has been our facilitator
in this whole process. I'm extremely proud of the work that
our strategic planning advisory, uh, committee has done. Uh,
we have one council person that, uh, knows what it's like to go through this process,
and it was, uh, very instrumental in creating our first five year plan, which
was successfully implemented and continues to be implemented until the end of
this year. This sets a blueprint, uh, for the next five
years, and it is based on a, a multitude of,
of exercises designed to, uh, to encourage deep
community listening as I like to always, uh, say so that
we can adequately evaluate what our citizens believe are the
factors, the initiatives, ideas, and dreams that are most likely to elevate their
quality of life. Uh, very proud of this, in fact, uh, as
I read through this, and I hope you've had the chance. Also, I, I'm
so impressed with the process and in fact, in the 15 years
that I've been engaged in community based strategic planning, uh,
I do not recall a process that has gone better than this one
and a plan that's better than this one. And, uh, with that,
I commend them, uh, for their, um,
their participation. Uh, and I'll just gonna
slaughter your names. Um, ali singh,
rebecca kojo, steven bingham, mark stafford,
kelly williams, tommy smith, nicholas rice, trevor smith,
and taylor henkel. So, uh, just commend you
and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And aren't you glad we don't need to do this
for another five years? 'cause it will. But honestly, at
the end of this process, I think you could say that you know this community
fairly a lot better than you did before. I'm guessing that would be
true. With that, I'm gonna turn some time over to, uh, mr.
mackey smith. And, uh, we'll take it from there the rest of the way. And look for
your ratification of the five year strategic plan for the city of baytown.
hello, counsel. It's a real pleasure to be here. Um, thanks to
everyone in the room for showing up to listen to me speak. I came all the way from utah,
and so I just, yeah, you guys knew about it. I don't know how I, I know
you're here for this, right? Um, so
following on, based, what I wanna start off with is outline the process
by which we got to having this plan. In some ways,
it's as important or even more important than what the final deliverable is.
uh, a phrase that we like to use is the broader the base in participation
of creating the plan, the higher the likelihood of actually implementing the
plan. It's this process that ensures that it, it establishes
an expectation of accountability, and it also ensures that the plan doesn't
sit on the shelf, but actually leads to, uh, to guiding
the city's budget and the initiatives that you choose to focus on over the next five
years. So, to start the process, this committee helped lead out
and identify groups that we wanted to talk to. We followed this community engagement
approach where we facilitated dialogue sessions in my time of doing
community-based strategic planning. I don't think I've ever gotten close to the number
of focus groups we did, uh, with this community. Big thanks to this
committee and to brian and rick for their help and to all the council members who
each hosted a session in each of your districts. So we facilitated 26
dialogue sessions, both to the public and already going to a meeting that was
taking place with different organizations throughout the community. We collected
over 2,500 public survey responses. We didn't do a statistically
significant, well, we did a sta a statistically significant survey as well.
but we leveraged this survey to guide the plan because everyone who wanted
to participate had the chance to fill this survey out by design other
type types of surveys. You're only allowed to take certain amounts of people in different neighborhoods.
we wanted to make sure that any resident who wanted to participate could.
we also launched an essay contest where you had over a hundred,
uh, eighth graders respond of what does a perfect baytown
look like in the future? Um, and I believe you, uh, you honored the, those
essay contest winners here in a previous council meeting. So really the
goal and the result of this was to leave no stone unturned as to how we got
to this plan. We took the feedback that was create that, that the
citizens gave us, and we analyzed that feedback
and created the strategic plan to reflect and capture the feedback
that was given. This isn't, uh, we didn't do community outreach
to say, oh, thanks everybody, pat them on the head now we're just gonna go into a back room and create
a plan. It was a really transparent process, and nothing that's in this plan
wasn't brought up directly by residents as a priority to them. So for
those in the room who participated, thank you so much. Again, this is your plan,
not, not ours. So with that, I'm gonna turn over to start talking.
well actually, let me, um, jump in right here and talk about the format of the
plan. The primary directive is to, uh, capture
what quality of life do we want in our community? And in a way it's the mission
statement of this plan. What is the city's mission statement for the next five
years? Under that are five strategic directives or key
focus areas. How should the city focus its resources? Under
those are strategic initiatives, what I like to call action items. What specifically can
we do to drive success in each of these key focus areas?
and lastly, how will we measure success that what what we typically
refer to as goals. So with that format in mind, I'm gonna turn it
over to rebecca who's gonna talk about the mission statement or primary directive of
the city.
I hello. Good evening. Thank you all for having us tonight. Uh, my
name is rebecca coho and I'm the first, uh, committee member that you'll hear from tonight.
so to start our primary directive, this is as maggie mentioned, our mission statement,
our main idea, ethos, thesis, if you will, that we want the city of baytown
to continually pursue as the strategic plan is carried out over the next five years.
our primary directive is to build upon vibrant, build upon
our vibrant economy and unique sense of community by strengthening a more
connected baytown that further embraces people from all backgrounds of life,
um, from all backgrounds, and invest in improving their quality of life. As we considered
the previous primary directive, we really wanted to focus on building upon the successes
of the last strategic plan as the city works to achieve more and grow in the next five years.
and with that, the first strategic, uh, directive we have is economic prosperity.
uh, citizens want to live in a city that provides a multitude of essential
and recreational activities where they can live, work, and play
without the need to leave baytown. And so why is this in the plan? Well, in
community feedback, as mackey mentioned, such as the survey sent out, the residents when
asked for their priorities, uh, really want the city to focus on things like upscale
shopping, fine dining, fine dining, and really things to do. Uh, so the
key initiatives for this directive, uh, first continue to recruit new shopping and dining options.
this next one, adopt, uh, sorry, action plan for mall
renovation. So why is this in the plan? Well, the mall was brought up in every focus
group. Residents are ready for the area to thrive and bring new opportunities.
and citizens are hopeful that renovation will contribute to new options.
and then we also noticed that residents and especially younger families, uh,
desired more options when it came to entertainment. So, uh, things like enter,
um, sorry, businesses like air entertainment are seen as a big win, but really
as a starting point in the right direction. Um,
uh, so success for this in, uh, this initiative. Uh,
we would wanna track it in continued high and, uh, high employment rates,
diversified retail and dining options and average household income. And with that,
I will turn it over to my next to the next committee member.
hi, I'm kelly williams, and I'll be going over, uh, strategic directive number
two, which is focused on providing improvements to critical infrastructure
and in and mobility. Um, as it says, uh,
our citizens wanna live in a community that's cognizant of growth with manageable
traffic, where they can arrive safely and timely
based on our citizen feedback and considering projected growth. This directive
asked the city to focus on traffic management to improve congestion as well as,
uh, pedestrian access improvements to improve safety and connectivity along major
thoroughfare. Go back. One. Um, when asked
where they wanted resources applied, applied citizens responded,
roads and traffic relief were among their top concerns after the shopping
and dining options, of course. But, um, in order to be able to get there in time
for your entertainment, um, we need infrastructural
improvements that will resolve traffic on major roadways, and that
was a frequent point of feedback in our surveys.
to address these concerns, we've identified three key initiatives. The
first being, um, additional investment into road and traffic improvements,
which will include coordination between stoplights, uh, being improved,
alleviating traffic congestion, and completing planned road projects
for major thorough affairs such as garth road and others. Uh,
the second initiative is to improve connectivity of sidewalks, walkways, and trails
so that the city is safer and more walkable, uh, particularly along
school routes. This will be accomplished by constructing additional sidewalks,
walking and biking trails, and improving pedestrian access to city
facilities and amenities. The third objective objective focuses
on continuing to implement, um, flood mitigation projects throughout the
city. While our strategic plan expands on all these initiatives and
sets metrics to gauge success, um, those include reduced
traffic at the primary streets and intersections and proof pedestrian access,
which will be measured through additional feat of sidewalk constructed over the next
five years. And I believe mackey will go over our next initiative.
tag me back in. Um, one thing I do want to clarify, um, for those
in attendance, these aren't the only initiatives that are in the plan. It's
a rather large document that we invite you all to read. It's really, you know, exciting stuff
before you go to bed. Um, but there's
just, if it isn't mentioned today, it is still, there are a lot of other things that are
in the plan. We just want to cover those highlights of what's going to get us furthest along in terms of
implementation. So the third directive was beautification and environmental
stewardship. Residents want to live in a community where they can be
proud to call it home, where and where they can take neighbor, where neighbors take
pride in maintaining their homes and to enjoy the rich beauty of the
area. So likewise, of residents
voicing what they do. Like, um, we also were able to better
understand what do residents not like so much. As you can see, location
was one of the top things that residents love about baytown,
but on the flip side, they don't necessarily like the city reputation and image when it
specifically, when it comes to physical appearance. Now, location, which is a good thing,
you can't change that. So we already have that under check . But,
uh, enhancing the image and the way that that's going to be done is through these key initiatives.
one is partnering with local stakeholders on cleanup initiatives of the trash
that we find throughout town. Um, that's an effort that is
ongoing and something that the city is already mindful of and is going to find
new ways to address that. Same with continuing to enact consistent
and proactive code enforcement. And lastly, uh, continue efforts of
tree planting, tree preservation and natural beautification efforts, whether
it's land ordinances and ensuring that there's enough green space and access to
the bay for residents. The way that the city will measure success is
quite simply the less number of residents that are calling in and complaining.
it's, uh, it's a pretty simple science there. You can, you can more easily track that.
and then also measuring the amount of trash that's found and additional
green space. So fourth, we have outdoor recreation and amenities.
good evening, I'm mark stafford. Uh, and to share the strategic directive four,
outdoor recreation and amenities. You see the quote there. I wanna live in a community
where all members of my family can enjoy an active lifestyle. So a lot of
good discussions about involvement of families and our recreation areas
in, uh, three key initiatives. Uh, for this, as you can see, the first one is
identify waterfront front property to develop for recreational
use. And if you notice the phrase there, uh, kayak and paddleboard rentals access
to the bio, but the phrase emphasize the bay and baytown,
uh, and continue to do that because we know that our city does that. Uh,
and has been, uh, secondly to expand trails and bike paths
and recreational pedestrian access. So improve connectivity
of our trails, expand trails. Goose creek trail was often mentioned
in discussions and maintain properties and enable organized
sports for all ages. Increasing opportunities for both youth and
adult rec leagues. And just again, the idea of connecting, uh, young
families, uh, uh, uh, folks, um, all, all in between in
our community. And the metrics for this for success. Uh, increase quality
waterfront access points, improving satisfaction survey
scores, and increased enrollment in our organized sports
here.
good evening. I'm tommy tommy smith. I'm
going to discuss our fifth directive. As he stated earlier, it's not
our final one, but one of our final points that we'll make this evening one of our quotes
from our surveys. I want all members of baytown to enjoy the same connection and
sense of community that I do that really grounded our work and my feelings
about building a connected baytown. And this being a key initiative
that really hit home with me. Uh, one initiative that I really,
really hold true is a way to
engage our community and, uh, through different plans
and implementation. Another way we want to, um, achieve
this initiative is to leverage, um, civic, uh, academy
and to expand our opportunities to volunteer. Even with this, for myself,
volunteering really told me a lot about my community, learned
a lot about the people that I live with and what people want. Uh, the key initiative
also discusses, um, help from all
backgrounds for all backgrounds by way of community development and
pro uh, programs. A metric that we will use to determine success
would be, again, our satisfaction survey scores, uh,
reduce the discrepancy of neighborhoods. When we drive from one end of town to the other, we
see that different things are there and other things may not be here. And also we want
to increase our volunteerism with our citizens. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.
so before I discuss, uh, next steps, um, I wanna take a moment to
commend our department directors and their staff for their commitment, uh, to implementing
the plan. During the last five years, um, we have annually
been able to successfully complete 75 to 85% of
the strategies and ideas, uh, the council has developed,
um, to meet the desires identified, um, by the community.
of course, not everything can be accomplished within the year.
specific projects like the reconstruction of garth road take multiple years
to accomplish. However, many of our successes would not be realities
without their professionalism and expertise to keep our
momentum moving forward. We're also upgrading our community scorecard to an online dashboard
that will be more visibly able to depict, um, the progress that we're
making and implementation of our plan and help increase engagement with
the community. The dashboard will be updated quarterly and available
on baytown.org. We are looking to launch the dashboard later
this year that will coincide, um, with our fiscal year 23
budget in october. And one
thing that we'll also be doing is the spac will conduct annual status
updates with staff on the implementation as well as an annual report
to the city council. And as you all are aware of, one thing that we do
currently is an annual go goal setting, uh, between staff
and council on the annual implementation plan.
so what questions do you have? Alright, counsel,
is there any questions that, uh, mackey could, uh, could answer for you if
you have any? No. Okay. Awesome. Well, thank
you. I guess I'll exit out , easy enough. Well, thank you. And, and certainly,
uh, I think it's, it is certainly a great plan and, and, uh, I do really do appreciate
this. It's pretty easy to read and understand, I think the, uh, the outcomes,
uh, and deliverables from, from a lot of effort. So we do appreciate, uh, all
the effort in, in this, this plan itself. So being with that, I guess we
didn't consider resolution in a, in adopting this item.
so there's an item three a, so I'd entertain a motion for that move to
approve three a second, but motion to second. Any additional questions or comments,
if not, all those in favor? Item three as presented, please say, aye. Aye. All those opposed?
item carries. We have item three b, recognize the members of the city of baytown strategic planning advisory committee.
mr. Moran or mr. Davis,
we have all the spac members. Please come to the podium, please.
surprise, . Now
this order? Yeah, there. Okay.
get a picture. Okay. Oh, there you go. I can
see the names now. . All right. Rebecca kho.
so thank you again for, for one second.
how about if I go there and, and you handle me one. Okay, let's go over here.
okay.
sync? Yes. Thank you.
then we'll do a applause out. Thank you. Say the
name of the microphone. Okay, I'm sorry.
taylor henkel. Sorry.
kelly williams. Ms. Williams. Thank
you. Enjoyed that process. Thank you.
okay, and tommy smith.
mark stafford.
can we get a photo with all them all, uh,
stand basketball players?
close up
a little bit closer.
okay, here we go. One, two.
okay. Thank you.
thank you. You're welcome.
all right, counsel. What I'm gonna do next in the interest of, uh, I'm sure we have a lot of assistance here that
are, uh, signed up to speak. Uh, we do have to take, take. We took care of some items that
we needed to, uh, but I'm gonna take a point of privilege. I'm gonna move items 11 a
12 a, and 12 b up. So we'll start taking this in that order.
uh, what we'll do first is we're gonna, we're gonna get go in executive session, then we'll
come back out and then we'll continue, uh, continue our meeting. So folks,
thank you for coming out this evening, but just please hang on, we'll be back. We're gonna go go into
an executive session here from our attorney, um, and then we'll come back
out and we'll continue our meeting. Okay, so let me, I do have to read
this. So we'll now recess into and convene an executive session pursuant
to texas government code sections 5 5 1 0.071 and 5 5 1 0.087
to deliberate the offer of a financial or other incentive to a business prospect and to seek the
advice of the city attorneys on legal matters related there too.
yeah, I always do that. I forgot because there's another one in there.
alright, we're good.
so I'll now reconvene our open meeting with the baytown city council and, and announce that in accordance with section
5 5 1, uh, 1 0 2 of the texas government code. No action was
taken in executive session.
so we were, we're gonna move on to item 12 a. And so, um,
I'm assuming we're gonna go ahead and move to public comment. Is there a list of individuals, I'm
assuming?
okay,
so everybody signed up on for 12 a
b okay. Alright.
so I believe what's gonna, what's gonna take place, folks, tonight, obviously there's many people that signed up. It
is eight 40. Um, I will, will
ask you to do a few things for, for us this evening. Um, there's
a long list of people who wants, who have, who wants to make comment, and we want to give everybody the opportunity
to do so. This item is obviously very important to our community.
um, um, there's lots of things to say. I ask
that everyone in the room be respectful, make your comments. I think each of you'll have three minutes
each. Uh, you don't have to use the full three minutes, but you can, uh, if
you'd like. Um, and then, um, there's gonna be some beeps that take place. So I, I
believe the, the yellow light gives you a minute. So if you're up, if you speak here at the
podium, uh, at when the yellow light comes on, you have one minute, and then when the red light
goes on, I'm, I'll give you about a second or two, but I'll ask you to make
your closing comment, whatever it may be. Okay. So with that,
uh, we will hear from our citizens this night. We will start first with, uh, pam wolfer.
uh, when you do come up here, please uh, state your name and your home address. Brandon,
I'd like to relinquish my time to chris wilford, please. Okay, thank you.
alright, so next we have chris wilford .
all right, thank you mayor council. I really appreciate y'all being here
tonight and hearing me. Um, as much as you know, pam and I are lifelong bayton
and, uh, we only want the best for our community that we love. It's very important to
us. We are strongly in favor of the proposal before
you tonight. We believe the proposal will greatly benefit our community.
we could bring golf back to baytown in less than two years
and begin the process of developing the south side and the waterfront
property that I feel like is probably our biggest asset in this town
with the hotel and convention center opening. Hopefully by next summer.
the time I feel like in, in pam and I feel like is now the
development of the property has unlimited potential, but has to
be addressed now rather than later. With the addition of the golf course, we
can now have restaurants, bars, and possibly even a boardwalk. The possibilities are totally
unlimited. As far as the golf, I believe rio
ano and david henkel had put together an unbelievable team
of, of expertise with rick buckin, who has developed over
a hundred courses and with landscapes unlimited, who have managed,
uh, some of the top courses in the country as well as 40 in the state of texas.
his team of expertise is unbelievable and I really think we're
fortunate, very fortunate to have that here. And I really do believe that
they have developed a concept of taking, essentially using half the amount of property, of
traditional golf course and building it to where you can actually have a full par, 71, 72 18,
even probably 36 hole golf course. These are experts
in the industry that are putting their reputation on the line because
they know how successful this can be. We
recognize that the concept will be a huge part of golf in the
future. This concept will pursue all over the country,
and we have the opportunity here in baytown to be unique in that we can
be the first one if we think nine hole golf courses.
know many people here think 18 is the only way to go. Nine hole golf courses are not new. In
19 74, 9 hole, there were more nine hole golf courses in this country than 18.
right now, the nine hole concept is being pursued all over, even in the houston area
right now in chambers creek, which is just outside of north of in willis, texas.
they're building a 4,000 home community and they're building a tom layman
nine hole double golf course. And it's also in
considered one of the top golf courses to be built in 2022 on a lot of the golf
magazines. This concept even takes it better,
even farther. The development site we know has so much potential.
you know, we know as much as maybe in a hundred million over the next 10 years,
and we feel like now is the time.
we all remember keah fishing village, clear lake,
a mud hole, cattle grazing asked eddie gray, he was there doing it.
look at it today. In closing, I belief this is an opportunity
the city can't let pass by. Now's the time. We need to be
bold. We need to be proactive, not reactive.
it's something that I feel like we need to go forward with and, and, and make this for all.
be victorians for the kids. Who knows if the next tiger woods didn't
right around the corner, but he hasn't had much opportunity here in baytown.
the other thing I have to say is after hearing the strategic plan, oh my gosh,
this is it. After hearing the strategic plan, this is right along with that
strategic plan. So in closing, I just wanna say thank you very much
and that, um, I feel thankful that you'll allow us to speak tonight and
I hope that you'll consider voting for this proposal. Thank you. Thank you dr. Wilford.
alright, move on, uh, down the list. Um, I'm gonna skip two names. I think they're gonna speak a
little bit later. Uh, we have philip yoder. Is it, is that correct?
alright sir,
thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. My name's phillip yoder. I live at
2 4 0 2 doral drive, that's in the evergreen, uh,
fairways subdivision. Um,
when my, my, when my wife and I decided to move back to
the houston area, we spent a great deal of
time looking at communities all over
and we decided, I started to say settled,
but we didn't settle. We chose baytown,
we chose baytown for a number of reasons. We chose our house for
a number of reasons. One of them is the
park. Um, yes,
it was a golf course. Yes, I used to play golf.
I don't anymore. Um, I do see a lot of
people out there on the discourse and they seem to be enjoying it.
and we're talking about, I've seen in the last
three years that we've lived there, I've seen
probably 10 tournaments that's pretty good for disc,
uh, um, anywhere in the city. I
would like to see a number of things happen. One is
I'm not seeing a, a revenue off of this
proposal. I see revenue for
the developer to the tune of 6,000 or $6 million
out of my pocket, mine and every other person in
baytown. Um, and we
get $40 back. I have a problem with
that. I would like to see the council
vote. No,
I don't wanna see this tabled. I think it's a poor proposal.
I think that if we wait for a couple of years after
the 99 corridors has, uh, finished opening up,
we're going to see a lot more development all around us.
and at that time we may see multiple people
interested in bidding on this project. Thank you
again for your time and I appreciate you hearing me. Alright,
thank you sir. Next we have it looks like robert, is it yda?
good evening ladies and gentlemen and counsel. My name is robert guevara
and I live at 1 4 1 1 doral court in the evergreen fairways,
uh, subdivision. I am greatly
opposed to the development of the golf course
and some of the reasons why are, when we bought this
house that we live in, one of the main reasons that
we purchased a house is we like our privacy.
it's close enough to the main city of baytown,
but far enough out and secluded enough that we get that
privacy. The golf course was just shutting down
when we moved into our house and they
turned it into a park that we enjoy very much that still has the
streams and the little ponds and the walking trails.
and you know, a lot of, a lot of our neighbors enjoy
it as well as he earlier stated. But some of my concerns
are is so we live a little bit, even though we're in the
sea limits, we still live to the outskirts.
and with no disrespect to the law enforcement sir, but it takes
the baytown law enforcement a little bit of time to get there
for any type of call. They're probably undermanned
because I used to be a peace officer, so I understand how that goes.
um, but we're bringing in something
that is supposed to be a gentleman's sport
and you're basically trying to put
something that's more like a pup putt golf on
this property. In my opinion,
I don't feel that that this is in any way
gonna help us as bayton as far as the revenue
goes, like it was already stated. And
we need to build something for us, not against
us. And that's all I have to say and thank
you for hearing me out. Alright, thank you sir.
alright, next, uh, dave hessel. I'd like to text my time to
calvin. Okay. And then we have, is it tom,
is it shop or chop? Chop?
my name is tom s chop. I live at 2 4 1 1 doral drive.
it's also in the evergreen subdivision. I happen to be the hoa
president of the subdivision. And after conferring with people, we had
a couple concerns, uh, with the proposal. One, the biggest concern
is that of the 12 acre track, uh, that is attached
to this. The reason for that is that it backs right up to people's
backyards that bought that property so that they could be on a golf
course. It worried me a little bit that that
part of the proposal had not been identified for doing anything with, which left
it up to the developer after all said and done, that they could come in
and change what they wanted there. So we,
we, we met and we just wanna make sure that the concern was, was felt that that
12 acres there that runs parallel to evergreen,
that backs up right to those people's backyards was something that you would
take into consideration of thinking let's possibly cut this section out of
that. If something were to, to be, uh, looked at later on
in this proposal. And if that was to be done, we,
we would really thank you a lot. At least the neighbors of that, that side of that,
uh, subdivision. I think that I want to stand in favor of,
uh, making sure that they're kept in, in your hearts and things as, as
property owners. And that's really what I've had to say.
thank you. Thank you, sir. If, if I may counsel, I think and may
thank you sir. Okay. Um, if I may, and this may help with, with some other people who speak,
um, may, may be a good time to have councilman lester if you can at
least address that 12 and a half acres that may help future comments.
alright, thank you mayor tom, tom, I appreciate your comments. After visiting with your
group, I got back with the mayor and we talked about it. Um, and
you're correct that that 12 acre track, which you was referred to as
track b, um, the developers really
didn't have a specific plan or guidance, what they wanted to do with it. And in discussion
they've agreed to, to pull that from this agreement so that
12 acres is off the table. So that's where
we stand with that today. And I, I appreciate you again, that's
one of the issues that I've been talking with and trying to resolve for a while.
the developers have agreed that they really didn't have specific plans
and if that was such a concern for the neighborhood, they agreed
to, to drop it and they did so. And we, it has been removed.
so I appreciate that. Thank you mayor. Alright, thank you councilman. Alright.
I believe this may be tom kincaid if I'm not mistaken, but if
not, if not, I can tell you what street you live on. You live on, on weight lane,
so whoever lives on, or your right lane, excuse me, tom, is that tom
tom still here? I seen him earlier, but, um, okay.
so we'll move on down. So we have, uh, sharon johnston.
sharon johnson.
okay. Okay. Alright, thank you.
so next we have, uh, steve white.
uh, thank you for the opportunity. My name is steve white, I live at 83 0 6 pine falls drive,
houston, texas. I live in cyprus. Um,
june, june the 13th, I'll be moving to baytown. Uh,
and I will be living in the subdivision.
I want to thank you for taking tract b off the table, but I want to know
one, what table did you put it on? What's
it gonna be? Is the city gonna maintain ownership of that?
yes. Yeah, it's city property. Okay. Alright. So,
so, alright. So if it, if they, if you wanna sell it, it's gonna have
to be through the okay. Through the same process.
the, the, the biggest question I have as far as this whole process
goes, and I've been following this since it broke, uh, back in, in
nove, uh, january, is the, the lack of
due diligence on the part of baytown as far as
projections, uh, looking at, uh,
development plans, you know, seeing what would be done,
you know, a nine hole course that's supposed to be 18 holes. How much
would, how much traffic would that generate as far as players playing it?
how much would that be affected by tournaments, whether
it's local tournaments or tournaments through the, through the convention center?
I wanted, I, and you know, there doesn't seem, you know, I haven't seen anybody
bring out any, uh, plans that show that there have been studies
done that it's gonna create all this business, you know, the
millions and millions of dollars of business that everybody call keeps talking about.
you know, it's, as best I could tell, it's the developers telling you
that there's going to be millions of dollars of business generated.
I I wanna see a study that will show a hundred thousand dollars worth
of business generated. That's all. I,
I hope you'll vote against it. Thank you. Thanks sir.
alright, we have, next is mitch martinez.
good evening. Um, I would just like to
address, hmm, address. Oh s**t, what is my
address? , I just moved there. I'm sorry. I'm, I
just moved there. Well, um, I'll, I'll repeat it for you. 24 30.
there we go. That's the one. Um, I would just like to address the fact that, like
I said, I did just move to the neighborhood. Okay. And I enjoy that
neighborhood because like the other gentleman said, it's, it's a little bit farther
away, you know, um, I don't, I don't like the hustle and bustle
all the time. You know, you're surrounded by folks all day long. You're in traffic all
day long and while growth is good for the city and
all that, it's encroaching and encroaching and encroaching, encroaching. And soon
if I want to get away from it, I'm gonna have to move again. And that's
just not something that I want to do. Is this a great thing?
it could be potentially, but disneyland is a great
thing. That doesn't mean I wanna live there. Um, and in this
case it's not even a full golf course from what I'm understanding.
so it's not even really disneyland, it's
like a rodeo carnival that comes and goes
and, you know, that's just not something that I want to have to deal with. And like
all these other points have been made, it's gonna increase traffic. It's gonna
have a negative effect in the sense that you
don't know who or what or where is gonna be around your house
and all of the houses in this neighborhood, they're not like the neighborhoods that you have
closer to town where you have your tall fences and you have more privacy.
these are low fences you can see right into everyone's backyard, but it's a tight-knit
community. You start bringing in people that don't live there and
it, it defeats the purpose of a gated community in my opinion. Uh,
thank you. I'm gonna go and memorize my address. .
alright. Oh no, you can, uh, get a little
latch and tie your address around your, your, your, your, I get it.
alright, next we have calvin inger. I believe you have nine minutes.
I my time mark wilkerson.
okay. Uh, so you have 12 minutes. I, I was asked not to pick up the microphone, so
I won't, uh, counsel, it's good to be back before you this evening.
uh, I appreciate as always, uh, what
y'all do and endure, uh, for the betterment of our citizens.
uh, I would also like to thank chris
presley for his words in the paper today. Uh,
and I, and, and the, the, the
beautiful, serene peaceful nature
of that facility and that property.
and I'll tell you why in a little bit
why that struck home with me. But
I, I, I just wanna reiterate just, and, and I know y'all
understand this, but I, I just allow me to reiterate,
we're gonna pay somebody $6 million. We're gonna
give them a $2 million clubhouse.
the use of the use of city property, the use of a parking lot,
the use of a driving range, the use of two big metal
buildings, a practice facility,
and other city property, as you said it best, that totals up to about $14 million
when you consider the value of all that. Okay?
so I think, chris, that was a good number. I think that was a fair
number. Now, as y'all recall, will recall the
last time I was here, I made a request
for some additional due diligence to pump the brakes. Okay,
well I took it upon myself to do that
and I think I have some good interesting numbers for y'all to look
at.
there might be two in there. Make sure, see if heather, yeah, there's two. Give heather one
and wall off.
okay, so last mon, last monday
I called, uh, outbid
called fusion golf. A nice young man named casey jones.
and he were talking, he, and I was asking him, I'm trying to get from casey
a price per hole to build an
18 hole golf course. Okay? These guys,
they're not as big as, uh,
landscape unlimited. They're not even close, but they're a good solid little
company. They built golf courses, they work on golf courses, they built golf
courses in europe. They're good guys and they know what they're talking about.
about, he offered to meet me out there to look at it. 'cause I said basically this
used to be a golf course. Some of the holes are still there, some aren't.
but yeah, if he come see this casey, that would really be a good thing.
and he did. He came out and we visited and he looked at everything
before he came out. He said, you're looking at
comfortably $400,000 per
hole to build an 18 hole golf course. Okay?
he comes out, he looks at everything, he goes, well,
this looks better than I had imagined it. He said, now I can say,
and I, I sent an email, you have the email,
casey, thank you for our meeting yesterday.
correct me if I'm wrong, or let me reiterate, you said a rough
estimate per hole was 350 k to 400
k. Is that correct? And you'll notice at the top of the email
he says, yes, sir. Okay, so now
you have some rough math that I've attached. I apologize for the loose
leaf notebook, paper copy, golf course
construction. Cost 350 k to 400
is a range of 6.3 million
to 7.2 million. Now, again, revisit, this
is just for a golf hole, okay? Not a parking lot,
not a clubhouse. Not a driving range, not for all the ancillaries. By
the way, this number also does not include irrigation.
okay? So,
but this is, this is what's
6.3 million to 7.2. Okay, there it is.
we're, that's 18 holes. Okay?
we're knocking on the door of an 18 hole golf course
for between 6.3 and 7.2. There'll be other costs to
that. But this is the shocker. Here's the shocker.
eight holes out there are intact. They are intact.
there's tee boxes, there's fairways, there's greens, and
elevated greens. Okay, did any of y'all know that? Did any of y'all
know that that was out there? Eight holes, they're
only using six. They're adding three small, three parts, I think to theirs.
eight holes are intact. So now look at your math
eight, which is the eight holes times $200,000
to get those holes in operation. That's 1.6 million.
you can add another three hole golf, uh, hole for another 200 grand.
now you're up to 1.8 million. Then there's your
10 times 400. I'm using the higher range of what casey
said. 10 times 400,000, $4 million,
5.6 million. Add another 1.2 million
for irrigation, and you're at 6.8 million. There
will be other costs, okay? It won't be at six minutes. But
here's the killer. Here's the catch. This is amazing.
remember the eight holes in tact, there are also golf. The
golf, the, the cart trails are still in place.
that's how much they are. And so for eight times two,
200,000, 1.6 million plus another two for a
three hole golf course, add in,
add in. That's just under 2 million. Add
in $800,000 for irrigation. Okay?
you're under 3 million. You could actually,
and it wouldn't take long to build and get these holes functional.
the point is, you can have a functional nine hole golf course
with a plan to build 10 more later
for $3 million less. That's $3 million
less than you're gonna pay them to have a nine hole functional golf
course with a plan to bill nine more later.
that's a better deal. That's due diligence. Okay, ladies and gentlemen,
that's doing your homework. And
I beg you, I beg you to table this
and engage in some real due diligence. Go out for some bids,
find other math in mind. Don't rely on what I've showed you. Go out
and find others to do the same thing that I've done and come up
with other numbers. This begs to put the brakes on
and, and stop this and engage in real due diligence
and save a whole bunch of money in the process as to
pose to building this nine hole gimmick that
lemme take the, the achilles te heel of what they want to do. It's nine holes.
it's basically you, it's nine fairways, okay? You can add all the
greens you want, but the fact is, if it's nine
holes, you can only have 18 foursomes, maybe 20
on that course at a given time. If you have 18 holes, you
have 36 to 40 foursomes. It's simple math and revenue.
so please, you have new information, that's good information,
that's cost effective information that saves you money from what
you're gonna be giving them along with all the other property for nothing.
you have a good deal here. Explore it. I'm just asking you to
pump the brakes and look deeper into this. That's all I'm asking
you. And I think it's a, I I think you'll ultimately,
I hope y'all will consider rethinking everything and,
and, and let's end up with a quality facility.
one other thing, if I'm mike brandon, fred marty,
uh, I grew up knowing fred marty. He was on the u of a golf team that won
the national championship back in the sixties. He
worked with tim hazelwood and those guys, fred, uh,
was a tour professional for many years. Went out and worked for the city of phoenix
and, and helped manage four golf courses.
he told me saturday he, and he told me the number, I can't remember,
it was in their youth golf program and their youth
golf program. If you were a youth golfer, you didn't pay a green fee.
thousands and thousands of youth golfers in phoenix never
paid a green fee ever. We can do that.
we can be that. We can, we can do youth golf. We can't do a viable
youth golf environment because they can't afford it. They
can't afford to have all those kids running around out there. So that's
just one of the things I would love to see. He's, fred
said we had one of the best youth programs in the united states. We
could have that here. We could have that here. So thank
y'all. Please do the right thing. Let's look down the road and
let's make a good decision. Thank y'all. Alright, thank you.
so next we have david mccartney,
david mccartney, 1 0 5 3 9 eagle drive. Uh,
good evening, mayor and council. Uh, you know, I just
want to state, I am pro golf. Uh, after all, I was the
district council member for the golf course for many years and I did try
to have a successful boat to get the golf course passed.
and unfortunately we lost it by, uh, 61 boats.
and now that the hotel convention centers coming in, that
is a game changer. And I'd like to see a golf course. It would help,
uh, the development in the area and it would help the hotel convention center.
however, I, I just don't like this deal. I think it's a bad deal. It's
one of the worst I've ever seen. It's way too rich for the developers and the
city's getting too little back in return and there's just too many unknowns.
and I didn't like the rfp process. We have one bidder
and in the past, whenever we had, uh, rfp with one bidder, we always
went out and put it out again to see if we could get more. We didn't reach out in
any golf trade magazines. We didn't really try to get anybody
in that industry to come out here and give us any more options.
and that's another thing I don't like. We're all told there are no other options.
there are no other options. Uh, we have to do this one.
well, you know, it takes a former mayor to go out in three days.
he can come up with another option. So I know that there's other options that
could be done. We just need to pump the brakes and look at it. Let's
not make a mistake. Let's make sure we're making the right deal for the taxpayers
and the citizens of baytown and do our due diligence. There's
no rush to do this. So we have nothing to lose and everything to
gain. And, and calvin just made a perfect example of what,
what might be able to be done. That that's what I gotta say. So I encourage you
to either table this or, or vote no. Okay. Alright. Thank you.
so next I think I see, uh, so next we have jeff walters, you move seat.
so I didn't know where you went. I'm jeff walters 2303
james bowie drive. Um, you know, we
elect y'all to represent us in, uh,
have good financial sense. Um, this wasn't
looked into as well as I thought it should be.
um, you know, baytown definitely needs a golf course.
there's no question about it. Uh, there's an oil field that backs up to that
property. You could put 18 holes, beautify the city, but instead,
uh, this was very short term in trying to find someone
to put something in. Uh, kind of raises
questions of why, um,
you know, I vote for you and you
we want the best for our city. Um, don't
bring in some half baked idea of a golf
course. Put something in here we can be proud of. Um,
that's all I have. I know that there's other people looking into it,
uh, because of the way it was done.
so vote your conscience, vote what's financially responsible
for our city and build something that we'll be proud of.
so that's all I've gotta say. Alright, thank you. Alright, next we have scott johnson.
good evening. Uh, scott johnson, 24 18 dorell
drive in baytown. I live in evergreen sub fairways for
over 19 years and it is a great neighborhood.
I never, ever planned to ever attend another council meeting.
much less to end up here at the podium. And I'm sure mike probably said the same thing.
and there we are. So when I retired less than six months
ago, there was no talk of a golf course. So discussion
of a cop of a golf course completely surprised me.
first of all, I love to play golf. I'm not any good,
but I love the game. And I want you to know that I support
a golf course, a quality course.
baytown deserves a first class course.
baytown has spent millions on evergreen park, including
the purchase of land. We've heard all this before. The renovation of the clubhouse,
lighting the parking lot, irrigation improvements, trail improvements,
disc, golf cart. This park offers so much to the community.
fishing, backing, walking the trails, driving range in beautiful
green space. And habitat. The, the
city has several first class facilities, pirates bay,
uh, the nature center, the marina, and soon to be a first
class hotel in the convention center and several other fantastic
parks around town. Let's hire a, a golf course architect,
the silver firm, do a feasibility study, get input from,
from, uh, area golfers and design the first class golf
course, one that we could all be proud of.
bid it out and do it right. Our neighborhood in trinity
oaks has a beautiful park around it. It serves as a community,
as a park. It has a sign, evergreen park.
this land is more valuable than a dollar a year.
I know municipal uses is on the deed,
but it's an established park. Just say no.
thank you. Thank you, scott.
next I have, uh, byron beck. Oh, there you are,
byron beck, 47, 27 blackstone street, and the,
uh, beautiful east point subdivisions. Mr. Johnson. Uh,
we've heard a lot of info, uh, interesting information tonight. Um,
I, I'm a reformed sunday duffer. I guess, uh,
my back won't allow me to play golf anymore. So, uh, I approached
this from somebody that's been on the course. Um,
I'm not opposed to the city building a golf course, and what
I'm hearing from other people is really, for the most part, people
are in favor of building a golf course. They're just not in favor of this deal
and the way that this process is moving ahead. Um, there's
a lot of red flags that I've seen in this that
I think we should all take note of. Um, one
is I've never seen so many former
council members and mayors come out publicly against
something that the council is considering right now. I know many
of them would counsel, uh, counsel you privately
if they disagreed with something, but, uh, it's really an unprecedented step
to, for them to come out publicly in the sun and to address, uh,
you folks against something that you're considering. I think that has a lot of weight.
uh, we heard tonight, everyone that lives in that
area is against this. The ones that are most effective are asking
you not to do this. Uh, I think that carries a lot of weight.
uh, there's a few other things I'd like to maybe bring up that if we're gonna look at other
proposals, there's some things that maybe we ought to look at
to see if it would help out the situation. One
is we have that eyesore of a
former driving range on I 10 by the nissan store. I don't know if
somehow that can be utilized to help out the students.
um, another fact I looked up, uh, I haven't heard it here tonight, but
I've heard it in many other places, is the, the
students have to drive so far if they want to go to eagle point. I plotted
it out on google. It takes 15 minutes to get to evergreen. It takes 22
to get to eagle point. I, I don't see that worth $6 million.
um, I would urge you to
maybe take another look at everything, see what other proposals would be out there.
uh, mostly go to the voters and tell 'em that you're very fiscally
conservative. I don't think you could say that again if you voted yes on this proposal.
so I would just urge you to vote your conscience, but consider everything
and the amount of opposition that's come out to this particular plan.
and I think it'll come to the right decision. Thank you. Alright, thank you.
uh, next we have chet thi.
hello, counsel. Mayor, my name is chet thi. I live at two 11 post oak drive.
um, I'm a real estate appraiser by profession. A lot of you know that. And
my whole little world revolves around comparable sales and comparable projects.
um, there's nobody here that can tell me anything about
comparables or similar projects to what this project, this t 36
proposal is in reference to how it's being evaluated.
uh, and that's a real problem for me as far as from a professional standpoint
and just being a tax paying citizen. Uh, nobody can give me an idea
of anything, but we're guessing the su the success of this project
based on educated
guesses at best. And I understand that's a part of our,
that happens sometimes. But my concern with this is
we're talking about multi-millions of tax dollars at hand here and into,
it's going into an unproven with no similar projects,
nothing to evaluate from a new concept, one
of a kind never been done before. But the most concerning
is unproven project with there being no similar
comparable projects to evaluate from. I'm asking that,
that if this proposal does come to a vote, that you please consider
a no vote. Uh, and it's spending the city's tax dollars on such
an unproven project. The city claims to be a citizen driven
citizen that is driven by citizen comments. And I ask that
you actually do that in this situation. There've been
many, many citizens asking out loud where this
conceptual ideas come from. And one
thing's for sure, this hasn't been citizen driven in any shape, form, or fashion.
there's only been a handful of citizens when you consider the total population.
only been a handful of people have even commented. I appreciate your consideration.
thank you guys. Alright, thank you, che. Alright,
so we have two individuals. Uh, they are the developers of, of this project,
and so we wanna hear from them. Before we do that, um, there is some letters that
I did wanna make the community, uh, aware about. I'll read one and I think the city manager will
read two. Um, the first one does come from, uh, goose creek schools.
uh, it was, it's from the, uh, director of athletics, lee lee martinez.
uh, dear mayor cap and council members, I'm writing to express my support for the proposed golf course
in baytown for the benefit of our students athletes in goose creek. C uh, c-I-s-c-I-s-d.
as the district athletic director, it is my responsibility to help provide resources for
athletic programs under my purview. Our high school golfers have historically been
provided with the necessary amenities in baytown to practice, uh,
golf throughout the school year. Many, many years ago, students from the high school and sterling high school
practice at the country club golf course, and more recently, our high school students utilize evergreen as a
practice facility. Due to the unforeseen or unfortunate, uh, closure of
these golf courses are high school students from and goose creek memorial are required to
travel to neighboring mountain bellevue each day to practice golf at eagle point golf club.
while appreciative, this agreement creates several challenges for our student golfers, the
travel time and associated costs are higher due to the distance in relation to our local
high schools. And in addition to that, our district pays thousands of dollars each year
for this service. A golf course situated in baytown would allow our student golfers to
practice in their hometown. This provision would also reduce the amount of travel time for
most students on the golf team. Expenditures for this program would be locally allocated,
which would benefit our local economy. A golf course in baytown would greatly benefit our
golf teams in goose creek, cisd for many reasons. Uh, it is my hope
that the golf course is approved by city council. Signed, uh, lee martinez,
director of athletics. So just wanna make you aware of that. Uh, and then I, I believe there's two letters.
if you can briefly, uh, I guess convey that message.
sure. To whom it may concern, montego management two
llc montego owns approximately 180
acres of land immediately west of the former evergreen golf course located on
evergreen road, baytown, texas. Montego is writing to submit
this letter of support for the golf course proposed by miramar properties.
montego has had numerous conversations with rio ano, the owner
slash representative of miramar properties regarding the golf course development.
we believe that the golf course project would be a significant enhancement to the amenities
on the south side of baytown and ultimately attract both residents and visitors
to the sector of town. The project would compliment the housing development that
montego intends to develop on its property. The vistas afforded by
a golf course and the residences that would use such a facility make high quality
single family housing and attract a development option. Given the
near completion of grand parkway and the improved access to the southern part of
baytown, montego is eager to move forward with the development of his property.
the layout and structure of its development will be impacted by the golf course project.
therefore, montego submits this letter of support for the golf course project in
hopes that it can work cooperatively with both the city and the golf course operator to
achieve development that benefits all parties. Thank you. The second
letter, and that's signed, by the way, bradford, a phillips president
of montego management, llc.
um, this is, uh, addressed to rio. As a developer
with an interest on the south side of baytown, I support well-planned and quality
development that brings value to the south side and community as a whole.
it appears that you have done considerable due diligence and have surrounded yourself
with top professionals that would result in a product that we can all be proud of.
our hope is that the community will unite in an effort to do the same.
matt wells. Wells holding. Alright, thank you.
alright. Uh, now we will, um,
we will hear from our, the two developers. So we have rio and david, whoever wants to
go first or however y'all want to. You have.
okay. I'll be brief. Um, I'm, uh, rio
ano. I'm from east tennessee. And, um, my
partner david henkel, also from east tennessee. Um, I wanted to,
uh, also introduce, we've got, uh, our professionals,
designers, builders and operators, uh, world class,
uh, as has been, was aptly stated by, uh, chris, uh, dr.
walford. Um, uh, thanks for, for your, your talk and
your, your kind words. Uh, jack morgan, uh, with,
uh, landscapes unlimited is on the, on the zoom call with us. Uh,
jake rickson, uh, also one of our ops guys. He's on
the call. Um, let's see. Mark mattingly,
he's our operations guy. He would be operating the course, uh,
for us, marketing, et cetera. He's also on the call with landscapes unlimited.
uh, rick buckin is on the zoom call with us is, uh, rick buckin
is our designer. Uh, rick has presently
has five courses in the top 100 residential
courses in the country, uh, currently has number five.
um, the, uh, colorado golf club that he, uh, co-developed
with, uh, mike mcg gidrick, um, who's also on the call,
uh, who was a legend in, in, um, in the, uh, pga circles.
and, uh, lpga, uh, he's a, a, an amazing golf
swing coach as coach some of the legends of golf. So he's
on the zoom call with us as well. And he's gonna say a few words here in a minute.
and, uh, we also have jeff, jeff tennell. He owns allegheny
image factory. And one of the things that we were planning to
do as part of this development is actually film an eight
episode, essentially kinda a reality tv show that would
provide the city of baytown an opportunity to have a national platform,
um, and showcase the course, obviously in baytown in general.
um, so I'm gonna turn things over briefly to, um, mike
mcg gidrick, who wants to say a few words about, uh, this 18 hole
golf course. And I can't emphasize that, that enough. 6,200
yards par. 71 72 18 hole golf
course. Okay. It's not a gimmick, it's not a
toy. It's not some mini golf. It's an 18 hole golf course.
uh, mike, are you there? Angie? Is he there? Mike, if you would,
I am. Mike. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. You got the helm.
yeah. Thank you for, uh, the opportunity to speak. My name is mike
ettrick. I'm a pga golf professional. I've been a pga golf
professional for 37 years. I'm a golf professional
in at the robert trent jones golf course in gainesville,
virginia. I used to be a golf professional in houston,
texas, a golf club of houston. Many of you know, we used to host the shell
houston open, and I was the developer and founder of
colorado golf club, where rick ton was
a land planner and a golf course developer. And I used landscapes
unlimited to build colorado golf club. What I'd like to
share with you is the essence of this golf course.
and it's new, it's a new concept to some of the audience,
but around the world, it really isn't new. If you would go to japan,
for example, a large majority of their golf courses
have duo grains on every hole. And the purpose for that is
they have summer greens and they have winter greens in the, in
the united states, there's many golf courses that have been designed both
past and currently that have multiple,
uh, tees and have multiple, um, green
complexes on a golf hole, where you, you'll see two holes. So, for example,
old memorial in tampa has, uh, a couple
extra holes on their golf course. Uh, the traditions in
palm beach, um, west or in, uh, california
has, uh, a hole like that. And if you look at what
rick buckin has designed, I think it's just magical because
this is a regulation golf course that has multiple
tees, that you have different shot lines to play. You have
multiple greens. So think about it, if, if you're going to play nine holes,
you're gonna play a regulation, nine holes, and now you're gonna play
the second nine holes from a different tee box to a different shot line
down the fairway to a different green. And so you're
playing an 18 hole regulation golf course. So, because
of land constraints, it's a brilliant concept. The best
part about this is if you do your research, the usga,
which is the governing body of, and which is the united states golf association,
uh, will approve this golf course as a legitimate 18
hole golf course. They will do the slope rating, the golf course
rating, and it would be, this golf course would be a legitimate
golf course to hold sanctioned golf tournaments at. So if you, if you
ever had a usg golf tournament or other golf tournaments, state
golf tournaments, this would be considered a legitimate
golf course. Now, if you take the best architects in the world,
ben crenshaw, bill coer, I've shown him this concept, jack
nicholas, I've talked to about this concept. If you look at what golf is today,
golf is different. Jack nicholas, the biggest name in golf, is
building 12 hole golf courses. Right now, you're seeing a lot of nine hole golf
courses being built that are reversible nine. So in atlanta,
georgia, three years ago, they built a reversible nine hole golf
course. It's one of the most popular golf courses in that area.
so what they're trying to do, uh, I think reals, uh,
assembled a great team. You'll have a fantastic golf course.
and, and it is more than the golf course. It's a place to play golf on the golf course.
it's a place to practice golf and learn golf with the practice
facility. And then you have the clubhouse and the amenities to enjoy the
social aspects of golf and the world. And so at the end of the
day, you will have one of the top facilities in the country.
and this, this will be known as, uh, one of the
first ever 18 over nine golf courses. And, and I promise
you, you will see many of these in the coming years.
mike, thanks. Thanks very much, uh, for your words.
um, mark mattingly, are you there, buddy?
I am, yes. Hello. We go. Yeah. Thank you. Good evening, paul. Yeah, mark, can you basically give
us a quick overview of your company, landscapes unlimited, and, uh, just
talk in general terms, if you would, about what we're trying to accomplish, and,
uh, we'll go from there. Sure. Well, as, as you said
earlier, um, I represent the operations, uh, side of our company. Um, like
mike before me here, I'm a pga member as well, and been in the business for about 30 years.
but we have a, uh, team of experts in every element
of, uh, golf operation, discipline, from marketing and human resources
to food and beverage, obviously agronomics, golf operations, programming,
and everything in between. And, uh, we would be fully deployed at this project to
see, to it that, um, it really comes to life in the way that it's been,
uh, prepared in the proposal. And, um, we're confident, uh,
that there is definitely a market need there in the research that we've done in the area. And, uh,
we've used some modeling, as a matter of fact, and using some of our benchmarking
within the company. We're very comfortable at the, um, feasibility of this
project from an operations perspective. And on the line with us, uh, tonight too, our other
members of our team that really specialize in the, um,
the execution or the construction, if you will, of the, uh, the project.
and that would be, uh, jake brite and jack morgan. And if you want to ask a little
bit more from them, rio, in terms of, you know, bringing it out of the dirt and into life, they
can speak to that. But operationally, we're very comfortable with it. We're excited about it, and
I really think it's gonna be an asset to the community. Thanks, mark.
jack, jake, any of you guys want to, uh, kick in here? A few words,
please?
sure. Hi, bri. Thanks. Um,
landscapes of limb has been building golf courses for 40 to 45 years, um,
right across the country and internationally as well. Um,
we have a, we definitely have a footprint in texas, in the houston area. Um,
you know, our, our, um, our process, our approach
with this one would be to work with rick, um, on the architectural
side and come up with a schedule of values on an open book, uh,
transparent cost plus scenario. Um,
in terms of, you know, in terms of, um, one of the, the gentlemen that, that brought up the,
the cost per whole, you know, really this is an iterative process where we
take all things into account, retain what we can retain, um,
and, and, and build, build from there. So, um,
from jack, any, anything to add on there?
no, I just, I, I think that open book cost plus is our approach
with rick's group as far as our, uh, engagement and, um,
you know, we'll, we'll work within a prescribed budget and, uh, we'll
maximize those dollars and, and, uh, you know, figure out how to get this thing in
at, in under our app budget. And that
open book transparent approach is if it costs
a dollar, you pay a dollar. So that's, that's the way this thing will work. And, uh,
you know, we're dedicated to get this thing in the ground and at the best possible
price of most efficient schedule with utilizing our best resources.
thanks, joe. Uh, you know, I might add that we've done, I don't know, we've completed well over
2,500 projects. I think we're pushing up on 3000 now. Most of those
are golf courses all around the country. We have had a significant
presence in, in, in texas and done a lot of municipal work in texas.
so, um, you know, we're well familiar with the, with the, with the marketplace.
um, we we're, we're set up regionally, so we have a very strong texas
region. We have equipment personnel all time there in texas,
and a lot of resources in and around the houston area. So, um, you know, we're
ready to, we're ready to get in the ground.
thanks, jack. Uh, in the interest of time, um,
I'm gonna go ahead and just, uh, finish up here. Um, and, and
what I wanna say is, uh, you know, mackey smith,
uh, you enlightened me, uh, you know, I'm, I'm glad you
came up before me. And here's, here's, here's
their package right here. Okay. They presented you guys, and here we are knocking at
your door and write down in under key initiatives,
it says, maintain, expand properties to enable organized sports
such as soccer, football, disc, golf pickleball, and more
evaluate partnerships with private sector entities on increasing
golfing amenities to your residents, namely the private development
of evergreen golf course. And here we are knocking at your door
and closing, what I'd like to say is vote for yes, brings
18 holes, 6,200 yard public golf course to your community.
it brings junior golf back to your community. A vote for
yes, brings approximately, probably in excess of a hundred million
of new development to the south side overlay
u-haul. Have several lois, this isn't something we
just pulled outta the air that specifically touches on who those
people are. They're willing to come to your community. They're willing to come
to south side overlay
a vote for yes. Uh, for an entertainment hub for
the new convention center. The convention center needs somewhere
off campus where your patrons and your convention years can go.
right now, you do not have that. We can provide you that.
and the last thing I'd say is a vote for yes, brings hundreds of jobs
to the south side overlay, which is also extremely important to
baytown and a vote for no
kills all the entertainment opportunities that, uh, and indefinitely
that we could provide you. And, uh, mayor, I thank you for your time,
council members appreciate your time as well. I'm gonna turn things over to, uh, my
partner, david henkel .
thanks, uh, appreciate the opportunity to speak to you guys again for the
citizens who are here. Um, my background is retail,
retail development. I've spent 34 years working both
as a retailer on the development side. And we started this process working
with the city on the golf course. Uh, couple of things that I
did, I wanted to really show the council members and city leadership
some of the things that I've been involved with and really introduced in some city leaders,
uh, in oklahoma city that I think has really done a great job
with a public, private, um, program over the last 30 years.
so we, we met in oklahoma city, we toured an outlet center that I'm
the managing partner of a 400,000 square foot outlet center, is the only outlet
center in the state of oklahoma. We met city leaders, uh,
who really have been instrumental in, and again, creating programs,
public, private, uh, programs over the last 30 years
because oklahoma city, like houston in the late eighties was hit hard
when with oil prices. So we, you know, the mayor, city
manager, economic development, councilman lester, councilman johnson,
we all spent a day and a half up there. And so I'm immersed in
a world of retail, entertainment concepts,
food and beverage. So we met earlier today
with a, a big name in the entertainment concept, with an entertainment
concept about baytown. I brought them
to the community. I met with, uh, some sit leaders up here
three or four weeks ago. This has nothing to do with the golf course.
and what I say to everybody in this room is, we're here because we want to be here.
and economic development is momentum based.
and on the south side right now, there's no momentum to speak of.
and we think the golf course starts that. And we've been in discussion with all
the adjacent landowners. I've been asked more than once, david, can you guys give
us a master plan? And the example I I would say to you is, we can't
master plan your neighbor's yard to build a
swimming pool. You don't own that. But I can tell you there's strong interests by
rio. And I have not only developing the golf course, but
also being part of making baytown a better community by
offering some of the things that was presented in this presentation tonight. That's why we
named the the llc build baytown one. We
hope that there's a build baytown two and a three and a four.
and again, you know, these guys have, have seen some of
my work. You know, the relationships that we have are real, I'm on the
board of a, of a food tech company, just put a ceo in
30 plus year professional, and he's gonna be part of developing
the food and beverage concept for the clubhouse. So we have
invested an inordinate amount of time, energy, not just in the project, the
golf project itself, but trying to, to be part of
helping craft the future of baytown. So I can
understand, a lot of questions have been asked about
the golf course. It's different. I get that. But, you know, there's been a lot of,
of, of untruths of a lot of things said that just flat
out aren't true. So we're here tonight 'cause we want to be here.
we've worked with, with leadership to try to help our part
of helping baytown move forward. So obviously we want you guys to
vote yes. 'cause we want to be here. We're not a couple guys flying in
doing a deal and leaving town. That's not the way I built my career.
that's not the way rio has built his career. So, council members, we appreciate
the opportunity to speak to you tonight. You know, I, I think the team that rio
has assembled is world class. You know, everybody has strong opinions,
but this group of professionals is at the top of the food chain
when it comes to the golfing industry. Our goal is to build this golf course
and then find ways to do the other developments, retail developments with
entertainment components and food and beverage. So we appreciate your support and
thank you for the opportunity to speak. Alright, thank you.
alright. That, that has been everyone who has signed up to speak and obviously we heard from the developers.
uh, what I'm gonna do now is, um, go, and I'm gonna start with district
six, uh, the district council member, uh, to hear, hear some comments. Um,
I'm go from there. Second. Gonna go
seconds. Okay? Yes, sir. Okay, mayor, thanks.
um, I tell you this, this whole process, in my opinion
has been difficult without a doubt. I, I don't think anybody up here would disagree with that.
and in some aspects it's been backwards. Um,
typically we look at three 80 agreements. Uh, developer will come in
and say, we're gonna do a, b, and c. And for that we want
d, e, and f. And then we sit up here as a council and say, okay, we, we like
that and we go for it. Or don't.
this process kind of was, well, we'll, we'll come in and,
and please don't be offended to anybody. We'll, we'll come in and we'll build a nine hole
that plays 18 or an 18 hole course. It's got a little extra proper on it.
we'll decide what we're gonna do that later. But trust us. Give us 6 million bucks and we'll, we'll
call you when we're done. We'll, no,
that didn't settle well with me. And so since january, we've been going back and forth
and, and we have modified and tweaked and discussed and made changes
to the three 80 agreement. And I've said all along, that was my whole point
was to get it where the three 80 agreement and the lease would
be better for the city. Now how much
has that changed? Originally, I think the original three 80 agreement was
probably 99% developer, 1% city, in my opinion. I think it's
about a 60 40 split at this point in time. Could it be better? Yeah,
but at what point do they say, eh, it doesn't,
the difference between nine that plays 18 or 18 hole, I like the comment that it would be
approved as an 18 hole versus an absolute 18.
I'm not gonna get into that argument. I'm really not. Um,
when it first started out, I got phone calls, how could you be opposed to golf
in the city of baytown? You're crazy. And then I got the same
amount of phone calls from people who said, we've already voted on this, and the answer's no.
now that's transitioned to if you're not for 18,
the answer's no. And if golf never comes back, that's better.
well, that can't be, we, we can't draw those hard lines like that.
but I've worked hard over the last few months along with the mayor and a couple other members of this council
to get this contract more equitable for the city.
we've added in a performance matrix, we've added in clarification that
any amenities beyond the golf course itself
on the what's left of the 105 acres, has to be golf related
and approved by the city, by us, the landlord.
um, we've made some, again, again, changes and changes
incremental. And it's gotten to a point that,
you know, do we want to have golf to be an amenity for our our hotel
conference center or not? And again, I'm not gonna argue nine versus
18, a traditional 18 versus a modified 18.
you know, if, if we vote no on this deal, golf is gonna go away
because I got half the people calling me say they voted and they said no golf.
and I have the other half saying, well, we want golf off. So
here we go back again. How are we gonna argue that point? Um,
$6 million. This is a lot of money. I I got stormwater
issues in my district that never will end. $6 million will go a long
way towards those, the $6 million for a course
that somebody else is gonna own and operate basically, even though it's our property. I,
I use the term own loosely. They're gonna, if there's a loss on
an annual basis, they're gonna absorb that loss. The city's not. If the city builds
an 18 hole golf course and we operate it, if there's a loss, we absorb that
loss. I don't know if any municipal course in this area that doesn't sustain
a loss on an annual basis. So when you start talking about what it costs the city, you gotta build
back that loss every year. So it may cost us
double, okay, six to $12 million and then we have a $500,000 a
year loss every year. It's an amenity, it's a part. We
would absorb that, but this is a private entity gonna absorb
that loss. So it's a difficult
issue. There's been a lot of going back and forth. I've had folks
that I've known for a long time, uh, very terse conversations
with me and that's fine. I like those conversations. Um, but I also
heard that, you know, we need to listen to the people. And, and believe me, we are, I am. And that's
why we have delayed this until this point in time.
we have, you know, we started off pretty much running downhill with scissors
and, and a couple of us up here, and chris is one of them, have said, no, we're
not doing that. We're gonna, we are gonna methodically do that. Would I like to see
some, some options? Yeah, I would, but there's really not
an appetite for it. So again, do we walk away from a potential
deal? You know, I'll wait till the
vote comes to make my vote. But it, it's, it's tough. It
is tough to do this. Any developer doing any project, there's always incentives
and so forth. And so we're looking at a return on investment.
the potential return on investment is truly being a catalyst.
disperse some stuff up there. And I've argued with this council for months, 99
is gonna be significant activity down there. They're already starting
to clear some of those properties down there. It's amazing. So get ready.
it's gonna be a whirlwind when that stuff kicks in. So,
and mayor, I'll just let go with that. But it, it's pretty frustrating.
again, the coalitions that have transitioned since january today,
there are people that are working together that I thought would never
work together, but they are. So it is just one of those things.
but yeah, it is folks that say that we're not listening. They're not paying attention
'cause we are listening. But for every one of you that sits up here and says, I want it this
way, I've got somebody else on my phone says, I want it a different way.
so it's not that, it's not like flipping the switch. It's not that cut and dry.
so again, we've, we've done the best we can. We carved out some of the properties.
some of the biggest issues that we had or that I had was
the extra property that's not being used specifically by the course. That's
a question mark. It's a blank. What are we gonna put in there? Well, some
of that's come to light and I appreciate that. Again, that's a little different than a normal three
80 because a normal three 80 would, you've already laid it all out to me. So
it, it's, it's been a long process. It's difficult, it's difficult for the developers.
um, so, you
know, it really comes down to me to we want golf or not. And,
and we'll make that decision here in a little bit. Thank you, mayor.
thank you councilman. I think, uh, councilman resley, you wanna go next and yes sir. You may
have take a small recess. I'm not sure. . Okay. Alright. So
I've talked from the very start about the process. And in
my opinion, it was a backwards process.
and it, it, it was a poor process in my
opinion. And,
you know, it, it, it appears their, their council may be somewhat divided to
some degree. And when I came here tonight and saw how crowded this room was,
I thought, well, the community is divided. But sitting
through these open sessions, to
the best of my knowledge, out of all the people that have spoken,
out of all the people that have come up to that podium and said, I'm for or against it,
I only know of, of the wars that have said there are for it.
every other voice and every other person that has come to that podium
other than the developers are not for it. So
I don't think the community is divided. I think the community
is together. And I am frustrated.
I'm a passionate person and, and I'm a little rough around the edges sometimes,
but I am frustrated that that council has
been put in a tough position and the developers have endured.
but it's a position, in my opinion, we didn't have to be in.
and to me,
all, you know, all it takes to rectify the situation
is four of us to vote no or to table it
indefinitely and allow
the taxpayers, all of the citizens that have opposed it,
the respect they deserve, and to see
what other options may exist, possibly the developers
involved in that process. I don't know. I,
you know, the, the question to me is, is why pump the, you know,
is it's not why pump it's, it's why not? I do agree there. There's nothing to
lose by doing that. And you know, mayor, you, you mentioned last time
that the former mayor spoke, you know, you, you closed with the comment
that you're not opposed to looking at options. And
you know, we've heard tonight, , there there may be other options
that could save the city millions of dollars. And
so, you know, that's, that's kind of where I'm at. And I, I
represent the lowest income district in this city. And
I, I'm here to tell you, I haven't had any calls
to me that said we voted no, we don't want golf.
I've had zero. And you know, I,
I'm not gonna rep plow old ground. Clearly. I don't think it's a good deal.
but, and, and I usually look at everything from a business perspective,
that's sometimes that's a fault of mine. But I, I've lived on texas avenue
for 17 years and I was attracted
to the area. And what I was most attracted
to were the people down there because I met a lot of
good people that cared. And I've sat on this dais for nine years,
and I can't tell you the number of times that we voted and talked about
very important issues, and no one cared.
and, and I see a room full of people that care. And that's what
we have here tonight. And it's very special. And I think this
council should listen to it and heed to that.
so that's where I'm at. You know, I, I respect these developers.
I had the opportunity to meet 'em. I think they're nice guys. I, I really do. I mean, it
was a pleasure to meet you and and you guys haven't called me or, or leaned on
me and tried to convince me of anything, and I really respect that. I do.
so I'm just putting it out there. I'm, I'm making a personal
plea , and, and I've served with these folks
for a long time and, and I respect everybody up here. I'm making a
personal plea to pump the brakes. And I'm asking the developer
to, to be okay with that and, and, and give
the respect to these citizens. They, they deserve that. So I'm making a
personal plea. I've done everything I can and, and I'm just, I'm not gonna
fight anymore. I guess we'll vote it up or down or table. And, and I've been an open
as and as honest as I can be. And, and I appreciate the time.
thank you.
so we'll move on to other council comments and then, uh, then, uh,
we'll move from there. Yes, ma'am. I'll, I'll start at district one if you have any comments or questions. Um,
just a few comments. Uh, mayor and I, I do appreciate those
that, that showed up and spoke, but I also have those that
would call me. They may not be here, but we also listen to
those that may not have been able to show up or, or just preferred
to call or email us. So it's not just those that show up
that we listen to. But I do appreciate y'all taking time out of your
schedule to come down. And I know it's already gonna be 10 o'clock and you're hanging in
there with us. Um, you know, a year, a year
ago before this whole golf course came into play,
um, I was told about a, a, a root at report that the
city had conducted back in the nineties. And so I'm like, what
is that? And so I, I looked it up and, uh, made
copies. I gave some to council during a retreat. I talked to rick about
it. Um, and it was the regional urban design assistance
team that visited baytown on june 7th through the 11th
in 1990. Since that report,
they stated that we are underutilizing our waterways,
1990. Here we are in 2022. Now granted a
lot of the stuff that was on the report, the city has moved
tremendously forward. And that was credit also to those that were here before
us on this da. So I give them a lot of credit as well, because
we are where we are because of this report and the, the needs
that they identified that we needed for the city, and again,
the waterways, um, to quote one of the residents that was
a part of this is to be successful. I'm afraid
we'll just have to work together. We have to work
together to bring forward the future that we need for baytown.
it goes on to say that building a better baytown will require not only
a community consensus about the direction in which baytown should
move forward in the future, but a willingness to
spend money to bring that future forward. It's a 79
page report. Uh, you know, the city has a copy of it. You can google
the report and read it page by page because I did.
and I took a lot of that to heart. The, one of the other
questions that I got from, um, some of my residents were about, you
know, is this golf course going to be eco-friendly? And
they kept telling me that golf courses were not eco-friendly.
look at all the waste and, and, and, you know, it's not environmentally friendly. So
I went back and I did some research as well, according to golf
digest, environmentally friendly golf courses are the wave
of the future. I asked rick, I said, do we need to put
something in into this agreement that ensures these
developers are gonna create an eco-friendly golf course for the environment
being so close to our waterways? And he said, we don't
need to put it into the, the contract, but we can
look at it during the design design phase of the golf
course. And that's certainly something that I would be keeping an eye on should
this measure pass tonight. Um, mossy oak
over in west point, mississippi, they, they were the ones that
this article was written about. Palm desert. Um, country club
also has an eco-friendly golf course. So this is not going
to be something that they're just gonna go throw out there, and it's
not gonna be eco-friendly. I'm addressing this because it was brought up by
a resident. So I'm addressing their concerns. So there it goes
on to state how golf courses can be eco-friendly, but, um,
many of you may already know that. But, um, to me,
every business begins with an idea. I heard comments about,
oh, this is unique. This is one of a kind, whatever. Every business,
you know, starts with an idea. You, if you are a business owner,
you had an idea to build your business, did someone tell you it's not gonna work?
don't do it. It's too much money, you're gonna lose money. Did you move forward?
probably, and hopefully you were successful in your business,
but we're beginning with an idea and I, I really,
you know, I have had those mixed reviews of yeses and nos and, you
know, do I fall in between? So I have had those. So really
our goal is to create and, uh, you know, and foster
economic development in an area that has not had it and has
been asking for it since 1990. So that's where
I'll leave my remarks. Thank you, councilwoman. I'm going to
district three.
I wanna say thank you to everyone that came out tonight. Uh, the developers,
I'm gonna call out some people in my district that I see sitting in the audience that I've had
communication with. Chet ths, mr. Rebeck, um,
I really appreciate you all coming out and showing your concern
for the city of baytown with this being so far away from our district.
that being said, I'm going to address some issues that I've,
I've had maybe six emails today
from some people from my district with their concerns.
I'm out, I'm out and about around town with my family a lot,
and I've had more phone calls, dinner interruptions,
grocery shopping trips that took an extra 30 minutes.
not complaining, but I love those opportunities where I have an opportunity
to interact with our citizens out in public.
one of the main concerns was safety. Going
back to the, uh, first time that the developers presented, they said
that the greens were going to be, I believe, twice the size of
nor of, um, the average golf course. So I
looked up some statistics on people getting hit by golf balls.
and what I found was that it is less than 1% of individuals
who play golf or hit by golf balls and even smaller number
are killed. And that's not a joke. I've had a couple of questions
asked about if we were gonna get sued if someone was killed by a golf ball,
looked it up. That being
said, something else that was brought to my attention
on several occasions was the opportunity to bring golf back. Not
for us older people before the children.
I had a son this year, well last year that was asking me
about wanting to play golf. We went out to
the golf course up I 10, we played,
he enjoyed himself, started asking some constituents and friends
about their experience. And the one thing that really
struck a chord with me is how our children are being treated
on the golf course up the road from us. I don't wanna subject
my child to that. I don't want to hear of any of our children being
subjected to that type of treatment. I think we need
a golf course here. I've listened to the developers,
trained professionals. Five of the top
100 golf courses have been, these guys have had
a part in that. We talk about the image of the city. Rick can
attest to this. When I got on council, I said, we need to really look at the image of our city.
people on the outside have a bad, we have a bad reputation
on the outside. And even with on the inside with misinformation,
this is an opportunity to bring something new to baytown. We
say that we are different here in baytown, that we want a better baytown.
this is something that's new and different that is being
offered to us. We have an opportunity for development,
had comments in the paper. I've said it from the beginning. When was the last time
we had a developer want to come in and do anything south of 1 46?
I, I can't remember, of a town.
but we have an opportunity here, and I don't know if we're gonna get that opportunity
again, talking about working together
if we can't come to an agreement that if
it's something that we need, something that people want. It came up in,
um, some studies some years ago that everyone wanted
a golf course. When it come to answer the question about taking our time,
we've been talking about this since november,
december, january, february, march, april, roughly five or
six months. I don't think we've taken this, this much time on any topic
that I can remember since I've been on council except
the hotel conference center. And this is gonna be a compliment to it. Hopefully
we can do something to have a golf course open
that would coincide with the opening of the hotel conference center.
hopefully we can, um, make that happen.
I keep hearing the word gimmick being thrown out. So I looked up the definition
of gimmick. It's a trick to bring attention to.
I don't believe that we have trained professionals here trying
to trick us into something new is not always bad.
I keep hearing about traditional tee boxes,
fairways greens in a hole. I think that is pretty
traditional. We also heard tonight, and I've seen it myself,
when golf started, it was nine hole courses.
looking at research, it's saying that it's going back to
less than 18 because people don't want to spend five hours
on a golf course. They're gonna rate this as an
18 hole golf course. You don't have to play 18. You can play nine and
go home. 75 minutes. I can go play
golf with my children and be back home in the amount of time it would take me to go
to showbiz and watch a movie. I'm, I like the family
aspect of this. I really hope that
we can come to an agreement. I hope that the misinformation,
um, if it's voted one way or the other would cease.
that's not what we should be about. And we should really think about our image when
we're giving misinformation out and, and, and, and we're speaking
it as a truth. There's a difference between truth and fact.
a fact is like math two plus two is not going to change. Truth is
relative to the person and their perception and their opinion. We
should be speaking facts when we speak about this. Fact is it's gonna cost us $6 million.
it's a matter of opinion. If you think it's too much. That's something that we've
been debating. And really, when
mr. Lester said that we are listening, we are listening,
I, I applaud us as a council for getting this
agreement worked out to where it's more favorable
for the city. I applaud us for that. We've had some tough conversations,
but we're not separated up here. Once this vote goes through,
guess what's gonna happen? We're gonna support it 100%. One way or the other.
I would like to see us come together. That's what I'm
looking for.
um, I'm gonna leave that with my comments. Thank
you for the opportunity, mayor. Thank you councilman councilwoman.
so for me, the course design's never really been an issue for me. Um,
I see both sides of it. Um, I could have gone either way with traditional 18
or this new design. Um, so that, that's
never really been the deal. Um, for me, the, the deal's always been the details
of the three 80 agreement. Um, from the beginning,
I've always thought that the, the 40 year land lease
and the 20 year tax free was a really excellent incentive
to build any development. And I was always kind of stumped on why the
6 million needed to be, um, on top of that and, and something that I
was always stuck with, um, I had asked from the very beginning
that we maybe, um, recruit some financial partnership with the
school district. And the reason for that is because they have always expressed
to me and others that a golf course is a need for baytown. Whereas
for us as a city, it's just been a want for our citizens. And so
when this opportunity came up, I was really hoping that,
um, this would be, um, a financial partnership with the school district. And I'm very
disappointed that that couldn't come to fruition by tonight. Um,
the big thing that I keep hearing over and over is that this isn't about
a golf course. This is a catalyst or a multiplier effect
for what was just said could be a hundred million in new development
south of 1 46. Um, some citizens ask, you
know, what's in it for us? What's the revenue? Um, if that
new development was, would come to fruition, that would be, that would be
the revenue and the properties being developed and the property taxes generated
and the sales tax. That, that's, that would be the revenue for the city. Um,
the question is, because none of that new development is in this
contract. So the question is, is, uh, do we trust
the developers to deliver what's just a promise?
um, and do we think that $6 million plus
the, the other, the land, uh, value is worth that, um,
that development, if it did come to fruition, if this was
heather bettencourt $6 million, I would be, I would be all in.
um, because, um, you know, I don't mind taking that kind of risk.
and you guys are, are reputable developers. Your resumes and y'all's experience
is, um, is great. And I'm really disappointed to hear you say,
if this doesn't pass, that it would kill development by you indefinitely in
baytown. Because I think you do have a place here, as you can
see, this particular issue or property is contentious, but there are so many
other opportunities in case this doesn't go through. So I hope you would
reconsider that. If it doesn't, um, it, like
I said, if this was my money, it'd probably be no brainer when it's other people's money. Um,
I have to take a second look at it. And, and what I'm voting on is what
is in this three 80 agreement. And, and all it is is the golf course.
um, the last thing I just wanted to mention, mayor, was how disappointed
I am in the amount of misinformation that was put out there
about this entire experience. Um, there were rumors,
innuendos, and flat out lies passed out as fact.
um, I have to say that I am fully confident in the rfp
process for this. And I have, uh, no doubt
in my mind that anyone up here is going to
personally gain from this development whatsoever. And the innuendos
that we are pushing this through for personal gain is just offensive. Thank
you. Thank you ma'am. Councilman,
uh, just wanna thank everyone who came out, uh, to speak tonight. I really do value,
um, the input from each one of you. Um, got a lot of
calls and text messages, um, over the last few days. Tried to
return as much of those as I could. Um, and, but today
actually I decided to reach out to, I just randomly picked some people who I hadn't
heard from. 'cause I mean, the folks that are calling me are very passionate one
way or the other. Right? And I was kind of curious where, um, everyone in the
middle stood, um, unfortunately about every single one of 'em said, oh, I'm
on the fence. And I said, well, welcome. It's comfort,
it's comfortable here. Unfortunately, I have to fall off the fence one way or
the other. They don't necessarily have to make that decision. So, um, for me,
um, as far as the, the, the golf course itself,
um, that was not a, um, you know,
a make or break type point for me. The, the nine that plays is
18. Um, I believe in the, in the, the, the folks you've put
together that have reviewed that, and I, I believe it will work. Um, and
so for me, the thing that I had to look at was, um, similar
to what you said, it was just this, this deal that we have in front of us. Um,
and I do, I do think $6 million is, um,
a substantial amount of money to, to give out on the front end of
a contract. You know, most of our three eighties. Um, we have some other way
to, uh, give that back to developers farther along in the process,
um, through through sales tax incentives or, or, or something having to do with a
valorem. Um, and so, uh, and that's, that's what
I've heard from, from, from uh, residents is they're, um,
you know, they have hesitation with giving out that much, um,
that much cash on the front end of this deal on a, um,
unproven, uh, concept. Whether, whether you believe it's gonna work or
not, it is the first of its kind. So it is unproven in that regard.
um, and so I, I think, um, for
me, uh, there was a, um, a pastor, uh, that I had once who actually lived
in evergreen fairways. Uh, he, he would always say, you can't wanna do something
so badly that you do it badly. Um, and I, and I'm, so, I I
think we have, this has moved very quickly. Um, I mean, up to tonight
we're still talking about little tweaks in the lease. And so,
um, you know, for me, uh, it's just,
I think this is a bit fast and, and there is still more discussion
we could have to make this a better deal for the city. Okay.
alright. So obviously we've heard from many of our citizens, and for me, uh,
I'll, I'll take a little bit, maybe a broader perspective and certainly,
uh, more of a, a legacy in a sense from cradle to grave.
so, you know, I've been here for quite a while in a sense where
the, at least a since the, uh, the golf field that took place, uh,
a few years ago, so many in your room in the room here have been contacting
me for years. And it's really on two on two things that
I'll discuss. One, golf, once we didn't,
you know, at one time we've had two golf courses, 18 hole traditional courses.
it was great. And I'm sure in the heyday it was, it was awesome and it was well played.
however, we don't have any today.
there is zero golf in baytown right now. It doesn't matter if it's nine hole,
18 hole, 36 hole, you name it. Not one golf
round today. So for years, people like chat and
others have, we've had, I don't know, maybe spent 40
hours on the phone talking about golf chat and, and all that. And
what are you gonna do, mayor, to bring golf back to baytown? What can I do to help you?
right? I've heard it from many, many folks, uh, on both
sides of this issue, to tell you the truth, right? Golf is an amenity.
I believe that a city our size, we should have, there's, and I think everybody
in the room seems to have expressed that there's no doubt, you know, mr. Walters,
you're in real estate. You understand that an amenity, even if you don't play golf,
brings value. It brings value to evergreen
fairways, it brings value to the south, south side of town and it brings value to our
entire community. And so, um, I will tell you, uh,
golfers that have been been calling me for years about mayor,
what, what will it take to bring back golf? What I have told them repeatedly, because
the hyatt regency was on the hills, right? The convention center hyatt.
and to compliment that, to add an amenity for those individuals that are gonna stay
at the hyatt regency in baylor island, they need somewhere to go. They may come in here and
have a half a day, whatever the case may be. Uh,
offering the amenity of golf nearby is, I think, very
much needed. And I think we all can agree on that. So what
has taken place though is, and what I've told these guys said, after we break ground
on the height regency, let's talk golf, because I believe it's a game changer,
okay? What has occurred was, in last november,
a developer came forth with a concept when they toured our city,
as is expressed by ms. Alvarado and, and others, that throughout the years is
baytown. We do not take advantage and we have not taken advantage of our water frontage.
we just haven't. And now there's an opportunity in front of us from these developers
that were able to see something that either we haven't seen ourselves, or
whatever the case may be. They, they go, they see this water frontage along the bay
there, along galveston bay, along evergreen. And it is true. There is no doubt. It is a
beautiful neighborhood. I considered moving there myself. Uh, still may, who
knows. But I will tell you that, uh, when it comes to golf,
I'm not gonna sit here and debate what nine holes looks like and what 18 holes
look like. At the end of the day, it's grass and sand and bunkers and all that.
I leave that up to the, to the experts. Not these two guys, but the folks that,
that, that were on the call earlier, um, to go and hear that
this would be a sanctioned 18 hole golf course, usga,
you know, sanctioned, that we could have that, that means something to me. It may not mean something
to you, it means something to me. And, uh, a lot of you, I look,
I can look at the list right here. I mean, a majority, obviously, you live on evergreen, and
I've talked to many of you, I've talked to the president of hoa and y'all had a, y'all's
biggest concern was the fact that y'all were told multi-family
apartments were gonna come right in front of your neighborhood. And we, we went,
it was misinformation, it was disseminated, and it was wrong, okay?
and there's many things that have been said and, and printed in the local paper.
and it's just really, it's, it's disturbing. And, um, anybody
who goes and operates irresponsibly like that, um, certainly has certainly
lost my respect. But I still have to go and govern as
a mayor and look at everything that y'all have told me throughout the years. So what happens? So
we have golf now, or we have golf. We have a proposal here for
somebody that looked at the acreage. I believe they looked at one 17, I think the footprint's
one 105. And they went and put their, put their experts
together, people who have developed courses like tory pines, and
I think four of the top 200 golf courses in the world. That is the
team that we're looking at. So, I do value a lot of your opinion as citizens
on everything. There's people in this room, the mike wilson's, everybody. I lean
on y'all for advice on how do we progress our city, right? And
you give me the advice, and I value it. I value, even if I disagree with it, I do value it.
but I gotta rely on the experts when it comes to anything and any decision that
I make. And so, when I hear people of
the magnitude that, that these guys put the team, a team together, when it comes to the number
one, uh, you know, developer in texas for golf, that means
something to me in a decision making authority. Okay? And it should mean something to you.
so we'll put golf aside, 'cause we have to talk about the rest of the
picture. I think we solve and mitigated the issue with, um,
apartments that are gonna, that are not gonna come to, uh, evergreen fairways.
the, the entire 12 and a half acres is taken out of the agreement. And the city,
as it was expressed by count, councilman lester, that is our responsibility. And
it, it, there is no development, uh, in its future. I mean, who knows, but
I'm just gonna say nothing from what we're talking about today. And so
I asked myself, okay, let's look at the bigger picture. And I've said it before,
this is more than golf. And it is, okay, when it, when
we go and, and I have, um, had many conversations. So as
councilman lester, so as councilman johnson and, and others, if they've had conversations,
uh, I've visited this individual, uh, david henkel, uh, uh,
retail center in oklahoma city. And there's a lot of great, great things
that can come to baytown. That's the other side of this. For years,
I have councilmen out there. Uh, I have, uh, councilman hoskins and
hessel and mccartney, if he's still here. I have, uh, former mayor
minger for years. The one thing we hear all the time, besides
what's gonna happen with the mall, is why can't we have this? And why can't
we have that? Why don't we have one of these things? Why don't we have one of those things?
why does, why do these things develop not here in baytown?
and sometimes I think it's 'cause well, one, nobody's been knocking on our door.
that's just the truth. The other reason is, are we able, as
a council and as a community be, are we able to be innovative, to
go and really be a community that can welcome when good developers come knocking
at your door? And I believe these two definitely are, are we able
to go put aside our personal purposes on how we pray, play golf?
are we able to really, really wrap our mind around and listen to the experts
value our citizens and move forward with something? And for me,
I believe, and I have to trust, I wish we could, if I, believe me, I tried. If I can
go and say, david henkel, I want you to guarantee me this, that, and the other,
and a hundred million dollars development, I would love to put that in a contract. But unfortunately,
that's just not how it works. Okay? And so when people tell
me, why don't we have this? And why don't we have that? It's because people haven't been knocking
on our door or the people. We have people knocking on our door, but they don't have the resources. Okay?
so when I look at all these pieces of the puzzle that could really progress
baytown of where, what we really think our city wants to be like when it comes to
retail and entertainment and food and beverage and all the neat things. These
are some of the guys, I can't say they can make it all happen. Uh, I have trust that
they can make some of it happen. And I think you'll be very happy and rewarded with that.
um, I do wanna respect all the, the individuals that live in evergreen. I've been very protective
of them along with councilman lester encroachment and, and, and
obviously the, uh, the, uh, the beautiful serene surroundings. That is
something we still wanna respect. But it was a golf course there before and everybody seemed
to be happy then. A lot of people. And, and actually
recently a personally, a personal friend of mine moved there 'cause he was hoping golf would return. And
so I did. I hear, I have heard a lot of those calls from the individuals in,
uh, in the area. I will tell you what, I've actually also
had a lot of calls on, uh, especially on that side of town. And I think that's what councilwoman
alvarado mentioned. Uh, people along the alexander corridor off
of ward road in eva, maud in plumwood, all those areas,
uh, it's about, and, and roseland, uh, they're all like, why can't
we get something here on alexander? Why don't, why do we
get nothing that travels here? Why don't people look here? And I could tell you this, council
and administration, you've seen a little bit of improvement. Sidewalks and
painting and, and that, and ward road is, uh, yeah, ward road has just recently been,
uh, kind of been redeveloped. And we're hoping, we're hoping that with 99
hyatt regency and people like this and a golf course will
make things, those things happen. Um, fiscal responsibility.
you know, mr. Beck, I, I, you and I, we go round and round all the time about fiscal responsibility.
there's no doubt. You know, we may not share the same perspective of what that looks like, but I
could tell you this, this is what I do know. I know. Um, I mean, we did
have mayor manager, he did present some options on possible stuff on, on paper.
but I have to listen to experts at the end of the day, what it didn't say in there, and I'm
gonna tell you, I'm gonna make a statement that I can't believe I'm gonna, that, that I'm gonna make.
but I came to this realization recently was I'm actually glad that
the, the vote that took place a few years ago about an 18 hole golf course, I'm
glad that it felt, and I'm gonna tell you why, because I believe
this is actually a better product at the end of the day
for the height regency for our citizens. It's a sanctioned course. It's
18 holes, regardless if it's what you may see as 18 holes. But I guarantee you
that these guys have run all the numbers and analysis. It's not our course.
and that's what's good about it. It's a public course and a municipal property.
but at the end of the day, these guys are on the hook for that, uh, maintenance
and operations. And I'm gonna tell you that if you want 18 hole golf, then we're gonna have to go
and do a lot of more digging and some deep pockets that we don't have right now for this particular
type of amenity that we all want. There's not, the land doesn't
matter, but there's been statements about land and all this magic land that exists. But if you go look
on maps other than a beach, there is not land to go and
put 18 holes on. These guys went and recruited the experts to
do the best they can to give us a sanction 18 hole golf course on
105 acres or whatever it may be. And that's the reality that we gotta
look at. Okay? And that's the reality I have to make a decision on.
um, I'm hopeful I'm trustful that, that these guys will do what they say. If this
passes. Um, I, I certainly think baytown is a great place for them to invest.
uh, but when it comes to the course itself, um,
I have a lot, I mean, I, the renderings, the renderings have been out there, all the type of golf play. I don't
think golf balls are gonna rain on our head, but we have to make a decision on really
what do we wanna look like? And, and, and really the information I have is I
gotta rely on the experts, uh, to go and move this forward. Um, I
do appreciate everybody's input and certainly opinion. And I hate that a golf
course, even even six years ago or seven years ago was divisive.
why is it that we have to divide our community on something,
uh, that we should be enjoying, but for some reason we do that.
um, my, the reason why I made the statement about I'm glad the golf course failed is because the
operational cost 6 million is all, is a chunk and change, a chunk and change.
but believe me, it is. But that's nothing compared to if we
go into an 18 hole course and go and try to operate it with someone else.
'cause these guys are gonna go away. We will be on the hook for millions of dollars
every year perpetually, okay? And it's not gonna be anything like
$6 million. So for me, when I look at it, the investment of $6 million
for what we get is an amenity and the, and the development that's gonna take place.
'cause I gotta consider, I have to consider all those things. Chet does not,
chet wants to play golf, I understand that. But we have to consider all those type of
things. And I respect you, chet, you know that. But I'm just saying, we, I have, those are the things that's in front of us as a
council. And so I wish I could share the opportunities of some really
neat stuff that can come to baytown. I hope that comes to fruition. I really, really do.
I gotta trust david henkel and, and rio on that. But that's where I'm at.
that's where I'm at on the decision. It's tough. This is a tough job, believe me. Okay?
you get dragged through the mud just 'cause you're sitting up here in one of these chairs, okay?
and so I do appreciate everybody's time this evening. It is late and I, and I think let's,
it's time to make a decision. So what I'm gonna do, okay,
what I'm gonna do, unless there's any reason why I think we need to go in executive session,
okay? If not, then I'm gonna do a roll call vote. I'm gonna start with just, I have one last
question for the city manager please, or city attorney. One last question, quick question. Sure.
so just to clarify, so I have asked
about the patent pending status several times, and I think some folks
kind of see that as a way to, to maybe catch somebody to
lie or gig somebody or whatnot. But really,
you know, , believe it or not, one of the reasons why I ask
is that if, if we do this product,
listen, I, I don't have to see it, but has the city attorney or the city
manager, I I, I wouldn't want the city to have any liability
for infringement or anything like that. So have, have,
has the city attorney seen the, the patent application or the patent pending status,
or has the city manager so that we don't incur any
potential liability? I have not council member as the city attorney. I have
not. Well, that
seems like it could be a problem, mr. Mayor. Uh, we, we, we could incur
substantial liability if someone else has the patent on the design
hole. So, okay. So
for if you, if you're gonna, if you're gonna speak it, you're gonna have to go to the mic though.
yeah. Since we started on this path, there's been lots of questions about
the business model and about the intellectual property
and we've disclosed what we have to
date. And quite frankly, when you read the newspaper and
you see quotes out there, I think it's very smart that we have disclosed
what we have within reason. But the patent process
and how that impacts disagreement are mutually exclusive
events. The only way the city could violate a patent is if the city decided
to build a competing golf course. So
I'm not sure what you're, you're asking about patent protection, quite frankly,
it's not relevant okay. To this business transaction. Okay. In your opinion it's not.
and I just wanna be sure we, we have a duty to do the best we can. And listen,
you understand it has no relevance to this. No, sir, I don't. Or I wouldn't ask it. Yeah. Well,
you've asked me three times and I've told you and I just asked you four. Okay, we're gonna move on guys.
so, so the good thing is on the patent
I will say this is that that is their worry. If anybody were to go and replicate
whatever they do, wind up patenting, if it gets patented, I guess then
that is, that the risk is on them. That has really nothing to, it's irrelevant to the city
itself. So I that I'm gonna do a roll call vote. I'm gonna start with district six. Uh, uh,
confirm motion and second. Oh yes, that's right. I guess we do need to do that, right? Alright, let
me get my agenda here.
you're right. No, you're right. So it's getting late. So the first item, so we know, yes, it's getting very
late, um, but I will say we are on item 12 a. So
the first, the first item that I'll entertain a motion on would be item 12 a consider an
ordinance authorized in a chapter three 80 economic development agreement for public golf course and golf
related amenities. S the long term lease of evergreen park, previously located
at 1530 evergreen road to build baytown one, llc.
um, I think I, I wanna say a few things on this, if I may. And, and councilman,
if you can express, um, I, I'm gonna call 'em controls,
but kind of the things that made this a more equitable type of
agreement. If, if you don't mind sharing that. Yeah, thank you mayor. Um,
again, as a couple of my colleagues have, have indicated up here, it's,
it's been the three 80 agreement all along for me. The, the, the course itself
not that much. Um, but we've added in a significant number of controls.
um, one of the things we clarified is to any other amenity other
than the course that goes in, has to come, it has to be golf related
or inter golf entertainment related. And we have the ability
to review and approve that. Now, there's a type timeline
on that, and I can understand from the developer's point, they bring a concept forward for the few acres
that are left, that's not part of the course. They want
a quick turnaround. I got that. So, so that, that's one of those, we,
um, shorten the valorem from the full 40 to down
to 20. I've, I've asked the questions of other entities and,
and 15 to 20 valor for if they build buildings and so forth
is, is appropriate. I had, uh, clarified and,
and made sure of that. What happens to those buildings if they build
something, what happens at the end of the lease and it reverts to the city.
so there's a lot of comments out there. Well, we're giving it away. We'll never get it back. Now the property belongs
to the city, will always belong to the city, and if they build something at the end of the lease,
it belongs to the city. Um, I also asked this evening, what
if they default, they go outta business, then whatever they build
belongs to the city so the property doesn't go away. Um,
what are some of the other, we, we built a significant number of those issues
in, we were able to carve out the 12 point half, 12.6 acres
right along evergreen because the, the, the folks out there were concerned about that.
the developers came forward and said, you know, we really don't have an idea
what we're gonna do with that yet. And it's kind of, okay then if you don't, we're gonna pull it out. And they
said that's not an issue for them. So we pulled that out. So there's been progress
all the way through. And I would agree that when, when we're talking about how we're rushing into
this, um, I've been around through the city a long time and this
is probably one of the longest debated, discussed, heated
arguments in closed door sessions that I've ever been
aware of. Um, so could we continue this
and continue to browbeat it down? It, it basically comes down to
are we gonna do golf or not? And so there's a lot of stuff in the three 80.
yeah. You know, I'd like to see it better, but at what, at a point in time in
any negotiation for anything, you've gotta be willing to
take some and give some. And, and I think the developers have, have, they've
been real tightlipped on what their, their thoughts and processes are, and I can somewhat understand
that. But we as a city, the bottom line is do we want to put a
golf course down there or not? And so that's where we
are. Alright. So I think we still need a motion
and, and, and again, up until tonight, and I told folks what I may do
and what I might do, and I wasn't going to decide upon listening
to the folks tonight, the discussions that we had, you
know, the five minute discussion we had in the executive session,
I'll move that. We approve the current three 80 agreement as discussed in executive
session. Okay. I think with that one thing, if I may and may be in use to
them, um, I don't think he touched on it. So this course is
6,210 yards. Correct. Uh,
one control that, that we were looking at because there was information,
you know, that this course can be a putt putt golf course, whatever the case may be. So
there was one provision that we were looking at to entertain, um, uh, a
could not be reduced more than 10%. We just kind of just came up with a 10% clause.
um, we can either shrink that or just put a period that you could not reduce this
less than 6,210 yards. I hate to do this on the dice, but
is that something that would be acceptable to you? Absolutely. The last thing we wanna do is reduce,
well, I figured that, but we were trying to add absolutely some brackets and controls. So,
so that's good. So, um, I would say your, just so you'll know, the, the
agreement would include, or at least on operation would include the, it would be that
it would be 6,210 yards no less. So this
could never be reduced. I think additionally there, I wanna let, I want everybody to
know what's taking place was also, um, we
want to, we wanna put some kind of some performance metrics or at least some measures in a sense where,
um, after five years of, of, of operation, we
will average that, uh, round of golf, uh, play
in a sense yearly, we'll come up with an average, let's say it's 500,
any, any subsequent year following that, what will trigger something
to, to kind of revisit with them to, to go and, and mitigate why are they're not promoting
the course, whatever the case may be. It could never fall below 50%
of, of whatever that five year average was. So we're, we, were trying to put everything
we could in play that would go and add control to make sure that, that these guys,
um, are being held accountable for, uh, a, a golf course, 18 hole
golf course. It can't be reduced. It couldn't get enc encroached in our, in
our neighborhood. So those are a lot of the things that, that were included in that. So there is a motion.
do I hear a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any
additional question of comments on, uh, item 12 a? If not, uh,
we'll do a show of hands, um, or we'll do a roll call vote. I'm
gonna start with councilman lester in district six.
aye. All right. Uh, I'll go back to district one.
aye. Uh, district two nay.
district three aye. District four nay,
district five nay, and myself is a yes.
so item 12 a does pass and we move on to item 12
b. Consider an ordinance accepting, uh, the bid of miramar properties llc
and authorizing the lease of approximately 117 acres of land situated
in the williams caught lower league abstract number 65, harris county, texas
to build baytown one llc for the development and operation of a public golf course.
so I'd entertain a motion for item 12 b. Councilman
move to approve 12 b. Second motion. Second. Yes sir. For a moment to
clarify that motion is for the reduced amount, not the one that was in the record, but one,
it was just information. Yes. Alright. Okay. So obviously whatever agreement would
reflect that that yard at 6,210.
okay. So we have a motion to second any additional questions or comments, if
not all those in favor of well, I'll just do a roll call, vote again. Uh, we'll start with district six
again. Aye. District one, aye. District two
nay. District three. Aye. District four,
nay five, nay and myself is a yes. Item 12
b does carry. So we do appreciate everyone for coming out this evening. Uh, we
do have some more business to take care of. If you want to sit here and
do consent agenda with us, you can. Alright.
so we have item four a.
we have to conduct a second hearing. We gotta go
to the hearing.
yes. We did the resolution or did we? Yes.
okay. Yes, yes, we did the three a. Recognize that we're on four and yeah, we
recognize. Does anybody need a recess for three minutes or something for
bathroom break or not? No, I'm okay chris. No, I'm good. It went away, believe it or not.
well, I don't know where it went, but, okay. Alright. Well maybe,
nah, just went away. I don't have to go. It don't just, he went away. My
son used to say that. Alright, let's move forward guys. Alright, we have item four a. It's,
uh, conducted a second public hearing regarding the proposed annexation appro, approximately be quiet, 18.9,
uh, 18.95 acres of privately owned land located generally south
of I 10 and east of thompson road. So, uh, yes sir, go ahead.
as you know, this came before you already, this had our first public hearing last month.
uh, this is 19 acres at I 10 and thompson road. Uh, it
is also going through the rezone process to, uh, light industrial.
um, so this part of the process is just par for the course. Alright.
ah, no pun intended. Alright, so let me read this public hearing for today is being held for
the purpose of giving all interested persons the right to express their views regarding the subject of this public
hearing. Everyone desired to be a part of today's hearing. Should it be either signed the appropriate list in the foyer
or emailed the city clerk prior to the posted time of this meeting. Each participant
shall give his or her name and address in order to provide a proper record of this hearing. The rules allow,
uh, each person three minutes to present information. However, I encourage everyone to be as
brief and to the point as possible. If you are a group of persons wishing to address the council on
this same subject, please select a spokesperson to present the information. And if anyone
has any questions, please direct 'em to me. So it is now ten forty two. So
I now call this, uh, uh, second public hearing, uh, regarding the
proposed annexation of the land. I did describe to order, uh, if the subject matter has
been summarized by staff. I believe there is one person that is, that has signed up to speak. Mr.
tus, I'm assuming you do not want to speak. I know
, I'll tell you what anyway,
but I do appreciate it. I'll tell you what, you're a trooper. Alright, so, uh, there being
no one else desiring to speak, it is now 10 42 still, uh, pm
uh, and I close the second public hearing regarding the proposed annexation of the land that I did
described. So we move on, on to item five
a consider resolution to establish, uh, a city baytown naming policy for city
parks, roadways, trails, and facilities. For this, I'm gonna move, uh, if
I can, if I can get a motion to table this item to a future agenda, that'd
be great. Move to table this item to april 24th.
second. Second. 28th. 28th. 28th. Yeah. 28th, second. Okay,
we have a motion to second to table, uh, item five, eight to april 28th. I will
say, uh, only comment I'll make on this, I think this item that we will have some good discussion.
uh, and so obviously, uh, moving it beyond tonight, I appreciate the feedback
that I've received from you all. I know we're having some so much fun guys, but let's just move forward. Thank
you. Yes. We have a motion to second on item five a to the table.
yeah, yeah, we we got that. Did we get a second? Yes, I made a second.
oh, did, okay. Thank you. Alright, motion second, uh, for table. So all those in favor of table
tabling item five a please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed discussions, receive and
discuss a presentation of the comprehensive plan 2040. That is not gonna happen tonight
on that on united. So, so I, I would, I would like to,
um, just meredith dang from our consultant, this is the
second time we've made her sit for hours and not oh, you're another trooper. So I'd
like to, let's do respectfully request that we give her 15 minutes to just go ahead
and give you what we got. Okay. If that'd be all right. Well, I, yes. 'cause you're here.
I'm gonna, if that's the case, I'm gonna ask for a three minute recess, or,
or you can go ahead and give it. And chris, if you can come here, sit there and I'll be right
back. Okay. I'll sit here. Okay, we're good? Yes, sir. You
got 15 minutes. I'll be back 15 minutes. So, well, well, I'll, I'll give meredith
a quick intro only to say that, um, remember that
as the comprehensive plan, um, we, we just wanna make sure
that this is basically the quick intro to say over the next month or so
before we bring this back for adoption. We wanna make sure that you understand
kind of how it's, uh, how it's organized, how it got to where we're at,
and that we really want everybody, uh, to, to take some time and,
and go over the document as it is. Um, if you have any questions,
obviously staff is, is easily available for this. Um, we'd also
like to offer if anybody would like, um, some one-on-one time to go through the
document. Again, it is a big document, but we feel it's important enough that it warrants
that kind of attention. Um, and, uh, remember we only get
to do this every few years and it is an important document. We wanna make sure
that it jives with everything that, that you guys have set forth, everything
that's in the strategic plan for the next five years. And, um, everything that's
in all the other related plans. Remember we just did a parks plan last year that was
600 pages or something like that. Um, so we, we wanna make sure that everything fits
together. So with that, I won't take any more of meredith's time.
all right. Good evening. It's a pleasure to join you. Uh, can I get
my presentation second? And I will try to make it
way quicker than 18 minutes because I know it's, uh, very late.
it's a bf thank you for hanging out. There you go.
all right, so my name is meredith dang. Again,
I'm the practice leader of community planning at ken keys collaborative, and we've been assisting
the city on developing the comprehensive plan.
okay, let's get through that. So the comprehensive plan is a 20 year
long range plan. So we're looking out to the year 2040. It touches on
land use, infrastructure, housing and neighborhoods, economic development, parks and
recreation. So really all sorts of, uh, things that the city deals with every
day. It is a policy and guidance document, and it provides
the legal basis for the city's land development regulations.
we've been working on this plan since january of last year. We've gone through
multiple different phases, um, and now we're kind of nearing the end. So
the plan finalization stage, we have, uh, throughout
this, uh, process, been engaging the community. And I want to thank
the members of the comprehensive plan advisory committee for all their input and
feedback, um, over the course of the project, as well as all the public and stakeholders
that came out to the various listening sessions, town halls, open houses,
um, surveys, community events, and also, um, providing
feedback through baytown engage. One of my favorite things
was we held an art contest, uh, last summer. And
since this is looking out to the year 2040, uh, the plan is, is really
for, uh, uh, the youth of tomorrow as well. And we asked them
to imagine what will baytown look like in the year 2040. And the art
that they generated, um, has become the covers of each of our planned sections.
so I think this is, uh, really neat. On the left, uh, that's our land use and development cover, and
on the right, that's our economic development section cover. So
the plan, uh, when you go through it, you'll see that there's sections on growth, capacity,
land use and development, housing and neighborhoods, transportation, economic
development and recreation and amenities starts with existing city,
which is the existing conditions in baytown today. So in each of those different topic areas,
there's information about, um, what those things are like
in baytown today, whether it's transportation or land use. And there's
also, um, a series of demographic data.
skip through that. Then the plan is all the, uh, recommendations
are organized by these top priority themes, which we presented to you. Um, last
fall. They, uh, jive very well with what's in the strategic
plan. So things like enhancing mobility and access, putting the bay back in
baytown, which, um, y'all were talking about tonight as well. Um, image
and appearance. So a lot of these same, same themes.
then in the future city, again, we try to integrate that feedback that we got from
residents as much as possible. So you'll see quotes from residents throughout.
and then we have a, uh, matrix that summarizes all the recommendations in each section
as well as if it's a short range, medium range, or long term, um,
initiative. And then proposed, uh, action leaders as well as partners.
and then, uh, each of the recommendations has, um, specific details
and also call out boxes or best practices that kind of provide a little bit more
background information on different topics. This is also, I wanna
mention an online plan. So, um, when you go through it, we're still in the process
of kind of linking all the different, um, other, other plans and things like
that, but it will be, um, hopefully a very accessible plan.
uh, the land use map is a, um, an important part of all comprehensive
plans. The future land use map is, uh, different than a zoning map.
it, um, is not, uh, parcel based. It's a little bit more generalized
development pattern, and it shows the, uh, desired and, and
or expected land uses in the future. Uh, so there are eight different land
use categories ranging from rural all the way, um, up to industrial.
and for each of those, we have information about the land use types
you might find in that category, as well as some location criteria.
uh, so this is what the, uh, draft map looks like. And we won't go into details
tonight, but you can take a look, um, at your leisure and let us know
if you see anything, um, that, uh, again, we're still in the draft phase,
so we can still, um, update this map.
so how the comprehensive plan will be used, it is a guidance document that,
uh, you all and city staff will use during your normal processes like budgeting,
capital projects, planning grant pursuits, uh, planning and zoning. Uh,
commission uses the future land use map during their zoning and subdivision applications,
for example. And of course, um, partnerships.
so, uh, once the plan is adopted, um, any of the recommendations would require
additional action by city council, um, since it's not a regulatory
document. So recommendations move forward through, um, ordinances,
budgeting, et cetera. And then
the outdated presentation here. Um, but we have, uh, since there are like over
a hundred recommendations in the plan, we whittled it down to kind of
the top 20. And then over the past month, um, we've had an open house in
the library and, uh, we had, um, folks come out and
they voted for their, uh, top three. So I won't go through, um, all these
tonight. Um, but they are things like updating the unified, uh, land
development code, um, working on things like storm
water detention, uh, regional storm water detention,
um, revitalizing and protecting older established neighborhoods,
looking at congestion mitigation programs and, um,
key intersections in traffic flow and, uh, protecting
large trees and using low maintenance, uh, landscaping.
so a variety of different, um, priorities that kind of have filtered up
to the top. Oh, and economic development. Um,
looking at revitalizing commercial corridors, including sites away from guard
row. So alexander road, I know that, uh, was brought up tonight. That
was also a focus, um, that we heard. So in terms of, um,
beyond tonight, we just wrapped up our month long open house and
public online commenting period. We're working on finalizing the public hearing
draft. We'll be taking the, um, public hearing version of the plan
to the planning and zoning commission in, in may. And then we'll bring
the plan before you all at your, um, late may meeting as
well. And plan is online.
we'd love to get any comments from you all.
hopefully that was less than 15 minutes. Thank you all very much. Um, we hope
you're able to, uh, take a look at the plan and we welcome any,
um, questions or comments anyhow, any
questions, comments, sir? Thank you for sticking with us. Thank you, ma'am.
mayor, I just want it, appreciate it. I just wanted to say thanks to meredith and, and your group and
our planning step. It's, it's hard to to adequately describe to you the
amount of work that went into this plan and, and how closely they
tied it to the community-based strategic plan in stretching that five
year plan out, even, even further 18 years to kind of see what it looks like,
uh, that plan looks like in the future. And so thank you for your work. Very fine work.
thank you. Frankie. Is frankie here? Thank you. Frankie.
thank you. Thank you.
I know she's probably thinking this. It'll be 2040 by the time this meeting's over. Alright,
so we'll move to a consent agenda. Agenda. We have items
there on the consent. It is seven, eighth through
k. Is it? K? Hold on. I know we're gonna pull some, but mm-hmm
. Uh, so what is printed as a a through m? Um,
I guess there's three items. So first, if I can, uh, get, uh, three items to be pulled
that we're not ready on. I'm assuming they're not ready. So, uh, first we need
to pull or we can just, um, omit them from the consent motion.
which three? It's a, b, and k move to approve
consent items a through m, save and accept a, b, k. Second,
you have a motion to second. So with that consent agenda, all those in favor consent as
presented, minus the three items as said, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed?
alright. Uh, then we have appointments item eight a, consider
two appointments at the baytown housing authority. Ms. Jackson, uh, looks like, uh, there's two reappointments,
grace, coronado, and fran parent I'd entertain a motion for these two individuals. Uh,
second, a motion a second. Any questions or comments? If not all those, uh,
are those willing, uh, to reappoint these two individuals, please say, aye. Aye. Those
opposed? Carrie, we'll go to item eight b, consider one appointment to the baytown fire control prevention
emergency medical services district board. Uh, we have district
reappointment, uh, mr. Pre singh motion to approve.
second, I have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments on mr. Singh?
not all those, uh, for approval please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed? We have our managers
report way too much about my career to
come up with anything right now. I good choice. I, I'm ju I'm just fine, mayor and
council. Thank you. All right. And I, I would assume, uh, for the, in the interest of time that, uh, let's,
uh, the next agenda item, let's place the council member district report, uh, for councilman
johnson on that item please. So I'll entertain a motion. I guess we have to suspended.
suspended. Okay. Suspended to the next meeting. Motion to suspend until
april the 28th. Second. Motion to second.
all those in favor? Uh, for suspension please say aye. Aye. Opposed? And
we have taken care of all the other items. So that being that baytown city council has addressed
all post agenda items as meetings now adjourned.
bye.