[0:02] All right, I'm going to call to order. This is the February 12 planning and zoning commission meeting. Thank you all very much for attending today. And let's do the pledge. Cindy, do you want to lead us to the pledge for the flags?

[0:46] Thank you, Cindy.

[0:51] All right.

[0:51] So, the first item on our agenda is the approval of the minutes from our January 8,

[1:03] 2026 planning and zoning commission meeting.

[1:09] Did you guys read it? Do we have any changes or modifications?

[1:14] Anything? If not?

[1:17] Move to accept the minutes.

[1:18] Do I have a second?

[1:21] All in favor?

[1:23] All right.

[1:25] Approved.

[1:26] City Council liaison report and our normal, now regular liaison.

[1:35] Jackie Georgia is out of town.

[1:37] So she asked our former liaison who we are very lucky to have back again as if you've never left.

[1:44] Brian wet.

[1:45] Yeah, you just thought you got your, y'all got really, just a couple of things I did want to,

[1:50] I think it was worth bringing up. We've had a lot going on in the city this week on Monday.

[1:56] We had a meeting with an economic development team and the purpose of that is what can we do

[2:02] as a city to encourage the right development in our downtown area? And so it was very much an

[2:10] introductory big picture meeting, but it was very interesting about things that we can think about that may not necessarily be short-term things that may be long-term.

[2:19] Today, tonight, actually at seven, we have a meeting about the library, just about what the kind of what the condition is, what the options are.

[2:26] Not really anything, deciding anything, just kind of laying the groundwork to what we should be looking at.

[2:31] And then also we're doing the the vision for the plan for the next year in terms of budget because the budget is right around the corner.

[2:40] So we're having conversations about what do we have an appetite to do and what is what is a priority and kind of getting that ready.

[2:48] So as we have the conversations amongst the come, then we'll have an idea of making a little bit easier because I think we've done a really good job the last couple of years.

[2:58] When budget time comes we've done a lot of heavy lifting before the actual budget meeting back in or in all so

[3:06] Other than that any questions for me

[3:10] Well, I do know that there's a lot going on in the city

[3:13] I don't know who was able to go to the state of the city that was presented. I think it was on February 2nd. It was great

[3:23] Our mayor stood up and talked about all the fabulous things that have gone on this year

[3:28] And I know that planning and zoning has been really, really crazy busy.

[3:31] The last year, 2025, and we are looking ahead, it's going to be very, very busy.

[3:36] And I know that you guys have been really, really, really busy in 2025

[3:40] and looking ahead also. So we have all been putting in the work.

[3:45] So we've been earning our money. Yeah.

[3:49] Sure. Yeah.

[3:51] I did want to also mention thank you just for the

[3:54] public that's listening. It is on the website. I did find that that was put up on the website.

[4:00] The whole presentation was phenomenal when you look back at it and see what has happened again

[4:05] in detail. So it was really good presentation that the mayor did. And by the way, for those of

[4:11] you that maybe didn't come, depending on where you came from, you'll may notice that the Randall

[4:16] is on being torn down as we speak. Traitor Joseph's coming, but I drove by. I was like,

[4:22] looked up like holy cow they're not going to down like right now so yeah that's super exciting.

[4:27] Yeah it was definitely a buzz on various social you know like Facebook groups and that sort of thing

[4:34] people are really excited that were that Randalls is being torn down looking at you know new

[4:41] development coming in that location which is going to be great and if everybody else doesn't know

[4:46] me as is opened in the triangle. I think also we have bistro mistral is just opened up over there as well, which is a high end French, which is I've been to their other location. It's fantastic.

[4:58] And so there's a lot going on. So it's exciting. Yeah, very exciting. So thanks Brian.

[5:04] I am. All right, so the next thing that we have are general public comments.

[5:10] Now this is not public comments related to what we are considering tonight.

[5:16] This is just every other general, you know, if you have other public comments relating

[5:21] to anything not dealing with UVT also from here on after known as Makers District, any

[5:28] other public comments.

[5:35] I'd also like to ask people who are speaking tonight too, please clearly speak into the microphone.

[5:41] State your name when you arrive to the podium and address is optional.

[5:46] But to clearly speak into the microphone, we do have people watching from the Internet

[5:50] and we'll watch the video later on as well.

[5:54] Thank you.

[5:56] Okay,

[6:07] so we're not taking any comments right now on UVT.

[6:10] This is just general anything else other than UVT.

[6:13] Okay, perfect, okay, just want to make sure.

[6:16] Thank you, sorry.

[6:33] I know this is going to be about UVT

[6:36] because I'm reading it from the UVT.

[6:39] But I mean, Danny sat in here for days after days after days

[6:45] and we haven't done anything.

[6:47] we ended up going through whole light and sound and earth and wind and fire. So, you know,

[6:56] if we want to build an economy in Bel Air, we have to let the business owners do what they're

[7:01] going to do and create something. We're going to, we just sat down the hall with workshopping,

[7:08] you know, making an economic difference, building something. But if we don't do something,

[7:15] We get nowhere, so we need to backtrack and go back to Danny Sheen's stuff and get

[7:23] that revived if he still has funding, because apparently you guys don't really

[7:28] know how stuff works.

[7:30] You don't just magically have money to make things work.

[7:36] So just want to put that out there and make sure that we're looking at it,

[7:41] addressing it and doing something.

[7:44] Is

[7:50] there any other general comments?

[7:54] I have a Billy break, but you can want to talk.

[7:57] Gotcha.

[7:58] No problem. Is there anybody else who is going to talk

[8:00] that's not about the UVT Makers District?

[8:05] Nothing else? Okay. All right, so we are here on current business,

[8:11] which is a public hearing to hear any and all

[8:13] persons desiring to be heard or in conjunction with the deletion

[8:16] of the code of ordinances of the City of Belair, Chapter 24, Planning and Zoning, Section 24-547,

[8:23] Urban, Village, Transit, Oriented Development District. We also call it UVT. We are going to,

[8:31] we have already renamed it to Makers District. They're synonymous, and the creation replacement of

[8:38] the new district, Section 24, 547, Makers District, so Monique, do you, who's doing the

[8:48] presentation?

[8:49] So we will have the presentation of the public hearing process.

[8:52] So we will first start off with the presentation by our consultant.

[8:56] So our consultant will have 15 minutes to present their request to the commission.

[9:01] The time limit can be extended by approval of the majority of the commissioners present.

[9:05] We'll then have staff findings, city staffs are present findings and conclusions of each city department and or consultant that reviewed the application.

[9:14] We'll then have public comments, so persons at the meeting who have indicated their desire to address the commission by submitting the form provided shall have three minutes each to present comments concerning the application.

[9:26] Please note that a speaker's time limit may be extended up to five minutes by the approval of the majority of the commissioners present.

[9:33] The time limit is intended to ensure all persons who have an interest in addressing the commission are able to do so in a timely manner.

[9:42] We'll then have the response of the consultant, so the consultant may respond to staff findings, public comments or make additional comments regarding the request, then followed by questions from the commission.

[9:54] So each commissioner shall have the opportunity to make inquiries of the applicant, speaker, or staff, and we'll have the closure of the public carrying them.

[10:04] All right, so I'd like to first introduce Gary Mitchell from Candid Keys Collaborative.

[10:10] He'll be actually presenting tonight for the public hearing for the Belair Makers District.

[10:17] Thank you, Monique. Good evening, everyone.

[10:21] And if we go to the next slide, just to get her, but we're into the area once again,

[10:26] this is the north end of Belair on the west side of West Loop just below West Park. So unlike a

[10:34] property owner coming to the city and requesting a rezoning, this is the city initiating this rezoning,

[10:40] so it's for a number of properties in an area. Mary, can I interrupt you just for a minute? Yes,

[10:45] ma'am. So just to kind of let everybody know, this is kind of a weird area. It's largely historically

[10:52] been somewhat underdeveloped. It's an area that I think the city has kind of been

[10:58] eyeing for a while. There was a number of years ago, there was sort of a plan with the light rail

[11:05] that, you know, and that was the reason why the zoning is the way it is now. That fell through,

[11:12] the light rail didn't happen. Not because of Belair, it was just because of more Houston and

[11:20] metro and whatever they had, they were cooking up or whatever. It didn't happen.

[11:24] So in the interim, we have this area that's largely underdeveloped. The city is looking

[11:29] at this area which honestly has some issues to it. Ingress, egress, there's really only two

[11:36] ways in the same two ways out. It's kind of a weird area that's sort of sandwiched between

[11:42] West Park and the 610 feeder. So it's kind of this weird little unique area. And so to give

[11:51] the public kind of some background on it, we've been meeting for several months talking about this

[11:57] area, trying to sort of revitalize it. And given the fact that it's such a weird little area with only

[12:04] that's really honestly quite difficult to get into and out of, it's unique. And so we're really

[12:11] trying to encourage growth in that area, but not like, you know, like we're not looking

[12:18] at growth like medical offices, buildings, kind of thing, kind of growth. That's not

[12:22] really what is necessarily sort of what is being envisioned, right? And so there is currently

[12:31] an owner in that area who came before, both P and Z and City Council, I think a long

[12:39] long while, years ago, who had a really creative, interesting thing that he wanted to do at the

[12:45] time because of the makeup of PNZ and the makeup of City Council, it did not go over.

[12:52] But I think things have changed now, and we are now sort of wanting the city is really

[12:57] looking at that area to sort of foster sort of creative, you know, development there.

[13:04] And so that is the reason why we have gone back to those folks, which is Thompson and Hanson, who also own Boxwood, Tiny Boxwoods, they own Cookies and Milk, if you have kids, you know about Cookies and Milk, because all the kids love it, and those sort of thing, it seems like he's got this very large property that he owns, that he has, like he's growing, he's sort of interested in doing kind of like a farm to table kind of idea, where he's growing herbs and vegetables,

[13:33] you know, in this area, he also, I believe, has sort of the storage area that he's wanting to sort of build out so that he can park his cars inside.

[13:45] Now, have them all over the street, not be ugly eyes sores.

[13:48] He's wanting to pull them into a larger warehouse area so they're off the streets and off the parking lots and they're out of the eye, you know, out of your eyesight.

[13:57] So that's some of the things that he was wanting to do.

[14:00] We had not spoken to him to really figure out how much he, like what exactly it was that he

[14:08] wanted to do in this area. We have since, since the last PNZ meeting, we did get an opportunity

[14:13] to speak with them to find out kind of their idea. One of the items that he, that we had gotten

[14:20] confused about, it was a miscommunication was live work units. He does not want those. They do not

[14:26] want live work units. That is not going to happen. What he was interested in doing, just

[14:32] to let you guys know, they have a similar property in Austin, very similar property.

[14:37] He's got Greg Thompson has kids who live in Austin, school or whatnot. Basically, what

[14:43] he was wanting to do is essentially have Condo's apartment too. That's it, just too. And

[14:52] And it's simply an executive apartment where people from Austin, or potentially if he has

[14:58] as a location and other areas.

[15:00] of the state, when they come into Houston to do business in Houston on their other properties,

[15:05] or other restaurants, or other, you know, their landscaping business, it's just a place

[15:11] to stay. That's it. It's not long-term. It's only for executives. It's short, kind of just

[15:17] quick stays, and they're out. It's not running out to public. It's not low income. It's not

[15:22] having a whole big apartment complex there. We are not interested in short-term rentals

[15:26] on this property. Nothing like any of that. Somehow, there's been some sort of miscommunication.

[15:33] And a lot of the public comments, well, I love public comments. They're always, always,

[15:38] always welcome. We know no multi-family. That is not what's going to be put there.

[15:44] There is not going to be short-term rental going in there. That is not going to happen.

[15:49] These are things that we're going to cap. We want to cap those. So it doesn't get out of hand.

[15:53] We want to do what you guys want, right, but we also have to balance it out with trying to have a creative sort of development in this area, which is a weird area.

[16:03] It's, again, hard to get in and hard to get out.

[16:06] So that's the vision just to let you know, no multi-family, no apartment complexes, no, you know, no apartment complexes, no condo complexes.

[16:15] At the most, there would be two small apartments or condos or townhouses.

[16:23] It would be absolutely capped, possibly maybe three at an acre.

[16:29] That's it.

[16:30] And it would be like an executive style.

[16:33] And it would only be through either an R6 or through a PD.

[16:37] That's kind of what we're sort of envisioning just to let you know.

[16:41] So it's hard because we're wanting to sort of open it up to allow for good development

[16:47] in this area that the city and all of the residents are going to really enjoy and embrace

[16:52] and really appreciate and not be angered at, but at the same time.

[16:57] So we want to open up some zoning to allow some creativity going on there, but we don't want

[17:03] to restrict it so much that people can't go in there, but at the same time we want to restrict

[17:09] that we don't get multi-family or I think there are other people who are talking about low-income housing or something like that's not what's going in there, that's not what we want in there, none of us want that.

[17:22] That was never talked about.

[17:24] And so anyway, I just wanted to open that up and make sure everybody understood because a lot of the public comments related to things that are not going to happen.

[17:33] And, you know, in terms of you guys, your concerns, we hear you, and we know we understand

[17:39] and we are absolutely appreciative of your comments, and we are going to embrace those

[17:46] things so that they do not happen in those locations.

[17:49] So just to let everybody know, and I'm sorry, Gary, that was very, very, very long-winded

[17:53] and everybody else, but I thought it was important to give some background about what's going

[17:58] on with this district if you haven't been sitting through our like six workshops that

[18:03] we've been working on in this area about like what are we going to do with this weird

[18:08] little area you know and it's like all these funky little weird old warehouses and you

[18:14] know let's get some cool stuff going on there maybe it's an artist colony or you know

[18:19] that since there's like a landscape you know with the farm to table kind of ideal maybe

[18:23] we can get some like artist you know people in there doing pottery and some of those

[18:28] little shops or, you know, something cool like that, right? That's not going to cause a lot of

[18:32] noise at night and be disruptive and all of that. So anyway, I just wanted to let everybody know that

[18:37] that's really what we're trying to see sort of going on. And so anyway, I know that there's

[18:46] a lot of concern because it's sort of this blank canvas, but we hear you. We do. So anyway, with that,

[18:51] Gary, I am now turning it over and I apologize for interrupting you. What did they say in Washington?

[18:55] and I reclaim the balance of my time.

[19:00] No, that was very helpful.

[19:02] So once again, just to orient everybody north end of the city,

[19:05] if you can picture up toward the loop in 59,

[19:09] this area in the past was zoned RDD research distribution

[19:13] development, which kind of captured what it was like

[19:16] and has been like.

[19:17] There was the proposal for light rail on West Park back in the day,

[19:20] so this area was re-zoned based on that possibility,

[19:24] more dense, more pedestrian-oriented, didn't happen, so that's where we are today.

[19:29] The conference of plan, the city adopted in 2024, put out a new vision for this area,

[19:34] so now this is the zoning that would carry that out.

[19:37] So under state law, like any zoning, planning zoning commission must recommend to the city

[19:42] council.

[19:43] That's where we are.

[19:44] So public hearing before the commission.

[19:46] So let's see.

[19:47] Next slide.

[19:54] Yeah.

[19:55] Surrounded by Houston on most sides, a portion of Bel Air single-family residential to the south

[20:01] All the next slide

[20:04] There is a discussion in the conference of plan about

[20:07] Kind of the purpose and outlook for this district talks about the potential land uses and

[20:13] What the the development might look like in this area the zoning is where we put that into specifics and

[20:20] And on the live work unit issue, I'll mention the old RDD zoning had live work units in it never happened.

[20:28] That's why it showed up in the conference of plan coming back to this area.

[20:32] It may go away tonight. It's in the current hearing draft, but we'll get to that here in a moment.

[20:39] So like any zoning district, there's typically a purpose statement.

[20:43] Just a lot of this carries straight from the conference of plan.

[20:46] So, as the chair summarized, very unique area at an edge of the city, up against the freeways,

[20:53] multiple constraints, you know, scattered ownership, some smaller, larger properties, floodplain,

[20:59] like other places in Bel Air, limited access even though you've got incredible traffic going

[21:04] by on freeways every day, but not an easy place to get to. It already has a mix of uses medical

[21:10] that was built along the loop in the past,

[21:13] but also lower level buildings, warehouse,

[21:16] so a mix of activities there, some open space,

[21:19] some open property.

[21:20] So the encouragement is reinvesting this area,

[21:23] but we're thinking about nearby residential

[21:26] as any part of Bill Air, possibly a greener atmosphere

[21:30] in this area than in the past,

[21:32] but as in the previous zoning, fairly wide-ranging

[21:35] possibilities for land use,

[21:37] but there is this possibility

[21:39] what's been called a destination development, we'll talk more about that and it is something

[21:44] that could be attractive because this is in a typical area that would draw retail traffic.

[21:49] It's just not the access of the profile for that.

[21:52] So on the next slide, so I'll go through the uses quickly.

[21:56] These are uses that if you have one of these uses and you meet the development standards,

[22:01] you're good to go.

[22:02] Go get a building permit.

[22:03] So as we say, there's a number of typical uses as in some other zoning districts in

[22:09] We did add, I guess it doesn't show up on this list, it's on the next list, but this is, again, very similar to what was in the zoning before the light rail oriented zoning was done on the next slide.

[22:22] These are three new definitions that would be added if this was adopted.

[22:27] We mentioned the idea of a makers district, so Artisan Workshop and the definition talks about small scale, not manufacturing, small scale equipment, indoor activity.

[22:38] The horticultural production, the nursery greenhouse type atmosphere, and it talks about

[22:44] it can be for landscaping purposes, an attractive property, but also selling the products

[22:50] that are grown there.

[22:51] And then a special event venue, including as in this image, possibly outdoor orientation

[22:58] as well as indoor spaces.

[23:00] So that's something that actually isn't in Belier's current zoning ordinance, so something

[23:04] like a wedding reception venue has never really come up in Belier, so that's added.

[23:10] And part of this is that these uses could be mixed in a mixed use proposal.

[23:14] So that's why these are here as well.

[23:17] On the next slide, we go to some of the additional mixed use.

[23:20] There's the mixed use possibilities, the things on that list that could be potentially combined

[23:26] or they could be standalone.

[23:28] And then there's things that are accessory to a primary use.

[23:32] So ours and workshops could have secondary spaces.

[23:35] You think of a warehouse space that has an office maybe up front.

[23:39] Vehicle storage could be an activity on a property, but it can't be the only or the main activity.

[23:45] So things like that.

[23:46] On the next slide, we get to uses that are theoretically could work in this area,

[23:52] but they go through what's called specific use permit review.

[23:55] It comes to the planning commission and it is recommended to city council.

[23:59] And that's where you can attach site-specific conditions to help make it compatible depending on where it what's proposed and what's next work.

[24:07] So as in other bill area zoning districts, there's another number of uses that fall into that category and on the next slide.

[24:17] Then there's the category plan development as in all zoning districts in Belair.

[24:22] This is in typical in zoning ordinances that somebody can come forward and put a proposal out there that maybe doesn't

[24:28] specifically meet the standards in today's ordinance, but it meets the intent and this is where the Thompson Hanson concept has been in our discussion, but of course we have to think about all the properties in this area, this zoning would apply across this district, so it's possible that Thompson Hanson could be permitted by right if they meet the development standards, but everybody in the district would have the plan development option at the end of the day to bring something different and unique.

[24:54] Next slide is the issue of the live work units, as we went through this process, they started out as more on the permitted side of things.

[25:03] Now they're in the under the plan development category, so that means come to the commission, recommend a council, public hearings.

[25:12] It's like a site-specific zone change, and so live work units is under that category right now.

[25:17] That could change through your deliberation, but we looked at how those can be in a number of configurations.

[25:23] What's not on the table is something that looks like multifamily and by it being under the plan development category,

[25:29] you would have complete control over how it's designed.

[25:32] So that's where we stand in the current draft.

[25:35] This slide is what's not permitted in the district.

[25:37] So some things are specifically called out on this list, a standalone parking lot, for example.

[25:43] and a number of the other ones are also not permitted in other districts in

[25:47] Belier. On the restaurant side, no drive-through or drive-in activity as in

[25:54] some other districts. Manufacturing is called out because there is a light

[25:58] industrial district on some properties in Belier. In this district it talks about

[26:02] light fabrication and the definition of that kind of tones it down from

[26:06] manufacturing. So and then of course anything else that's not mentioned in the

[26:11] the ordinance as permitted is not permitted.

[26:13] These just happen to be called out specifically.

[26:16] On our next slide, now we'll get into whatever the use

[26:20] that's proposed on a property.

[26:21] These would be the development standards.

[26:23] So as in other districts, there's kind of levels of standards

[26:26] depending on the type of use.

[26:28] In all cases, it would go through a site plan approval process

[26:31] to see the actual layout of a site

[26:33] if it's new development or redevelopment

[26:35] of an existing building or site.

[26:38] And so that's starting, the starting point is

[26:39] how much land do you need to do certain types of use?

[26:43] The plan development is roughly half acre on the next slide.

[26:50] Then we get into lot dimensions, the width and depth,

[26:53] so some typical dimensions there as a starting point

[26:57] and some some uses of course need much more space than that,

[27:00] but that's a basic starting point.

[27:03] Lot coverage is as in all zoning districts is important

[27:06] for the appearance, the amount of green space landscaping,

[27:10] But also as flood implications the amount of property that's covered by building and pavement so so there's the percentages for some some of the uses on our next slide.

[27:21] Then we get into height in this proposal. It's at 40 feet, which usually works out to about three stories depending on the style of the building.

[27:30] 40 feet is permitted by right 53 feet could only be by plan development approval. That's roughly four stories.

[27:38] and then with planned development approval it would be part of the whole site

[27:45] plan development or discussion review to see how that looks and how it fits on

[27:50] the site. So on our next slide finally yards which is building setbacks from

[27:57] the public street or the sidewalk so typical again as in some of our other

[28:02] districts but 15 foot in general and if it's a planned development it's decided

[28:07] through the site plan review process. As it turned out we had discussion about adding

[28:13] the idea of a front height setback plane. That's just the idea that if a building is near certain

[28:19] streets that as a building it's taller the upper parts of the building might have to be set back

[28:24] just to provide more openness along a street. As it turns out originally that was going to be in front

[28:30] of council for another zoning district, the quarter mix use district, before this meeting. It turns

[28:35] out it was postponed because of our weather a few weeks ago so that's actually happening Monday night

[28:40] so we didn't put it in the draft we'll see how things turn out with the other zoning district

[28:45] it could potentially be added to this district so on our next slide final slide just same as in

[28:53] the urban village downtown and the quarter mixed use district as we dealt with previously

[28:57] just this clarification that outdoor seating for a restaurant or other things like that can be

[29:03] be in the setback area up toward the street.

[29:06] So that's our final slide and I'll be back when it's discussion time.

[29:11] Thank you.

[29:13] Thank you very much, Gary.

[29:15] And like I mentioned in the beginning, I mean at least some of the things that I'm going

[29:22] to recommend or propose to the commission that we will obviously vote on and decide are

[29:27] are eliminating live work, allowing or prohibiting under the specific prohibitions.

[29:37] There was like, you know, I can't remember how he worded it, but it was like specifically

[29:41] not allowed uses.

[29:43] Short-term rentals will be under that, I think.

[29:45] That's one of the other things I was going to suggest to specifically exclude the ability

[29:49] of having short-term rentals at all whatsoever in this area.

[29:53] For the most part, though, there's not going to be any residential at all in that little

[29:56] area also in terms of

[30:00] This idea of apartments or anything like that, that's not going to happen. At most, what it will be, will be allowance of having two, three units per acre. And it would be under R6 or PD. And by way of reminder, under PD, PD stands for plan development. Any plan development, you can only have a plan development on a half acre or more. So it's got to be a larger property, half acre.

[30:29] and for PD plan development, they have to come to planning and zoning.

[30:36] We have to either recommend it, or we don't.

[30:39] If we recommend it, it then goes through City Council approval as well, and they can

[30:43] either recommend it or not.

[30:45] So on a plan development, it has to be a half acre or more, and they have to jump through

[30:51] the hoop of coming to PNZ and City Council.

[30:54] So they have to jump through two hoops of approval process in order to get a plan development

[30:59] through. So it's a pretty rigorous process and so anyway that that's the other thing. So there

[31:05] will not be multi-family, there will not be short-term rental, there is not going to be low income

[31:10] housing or anything like that. So just to let you know that's sort of what I was going to recommend

[31:15] this evening in terms of changes from what you see. The only other thing I wanted to make a mention

[31:20] about because it was kind of a funny word was horticulture was used. We spent a great deal of time

[31:26] just to let you all know about deciding about that originally we had thought about putting

[31:33] an agriculture but apparently agriculture includes livestock and we didn't want you guys who live

[31:38] across the street from this area or back up to it how are anywhere around it having to deal with

[31:43] roosters or cows or antelope or whatever else people have these days for livestock so we specifically

[31:51] looked for a word that meant growing vegetables and herbs but not livestock so

[31:57] that's how we landed on horticulture so we were very very very thoughtful about

[32:01] what you know the language that we used and uses as well so anyway I just

[32:07] wanted to make mention of that as well. All right so moving on then to staff

[32:13] findings. Yeah so first of findings we don't have anything additional to add just

[32:17] that we've worked with Gary in the Planning and Zoning Commission over these last five months,

[32:22] and so staff genuinely approves and recommends the approval of the Bellar makers district.

[32:30] That's about it. Okay, so then the next thing we have are public comments, and I recommend,

[32:36] I mean, I recognize fully that I've sort of thrown a large, you know, wrench into the, you know,

[32:41] into the things, because I know a lot of people wanted to talk about, you know, various items,

[32:46] And you're welcome to continue to do that if you want, but just knowing the changes that, you know, that we talked about and are envisioning.

[32:56] You're welcome to continue to speak and put your two cents in, or you are welcome also to not, whichever you want.

[33:03] So she'll call your name. And if you want to come on up, feel free. And if you don't, you're welcome to pass whatever you'd like.

[33:22] Thank you, my name is Ming Liu. I live on Saxon Street, which is just one treat removed from what the proposed zoning is happening.

[33:32] Although this is my first time coming to your zoning meeting, so I'm very excited.

[33:36] I did, I have lived in the area for a long time.

[33:39] I grew up here.

[33:40] I went in Pershing.

[33:41] I went in Belair.

[33:43] Now I'm raising my three kids in Belair.

[33:45] And one of the things I really love about Belair, and that's what we chose to raise my kids here, is

[33:51] this is really a pocket of Houston, where there's actually really good zoning.

[33:56] So the thoughtfulness, Jamie, that you put into your comments, I really appreciate

[33:59] in thoughtfulness on these developments.

[34:02] And I think the reason why I love Belair on the zoning side is it provides a safe and

[34:08] quiet and neighborly environment, which we enjoy in attracting people to this area.

[34:14] So that said, like you said Jamie, that area has some very outdated infrastructure.

[34:20] We have broken asphalt, the sidewalks are uneven so much so that the kids are walking on the middle of the street

[34:26] in order to get to the park nearby that Joe got their park if I am pronouncing it correctly.

[34:32] And there's also a lot of poor drainage issues. So like you have open ditches which is like

[34:36] a little bit outdated and then a lot of pulling the water in the areas when it rains.

[34:44] Well why do I say that? Because I do really love the idea of developing that area.

[34:49] I think we just need to be really thoughtful in doing so. So the concern I have is like

[34:55] the possibility of adding more strain to that area and the impact due to some of the

[35:04] family infrastructure and adding additional strain to that family structure.

[35:09] So one thing that I like, the committee to perhaps consider before making a zoning change

[35:14] like this, that will possibly add more density to that area and more strain to that is perhaps

[35:19] perhaps like before making a zone change to update the infrastructure a little bit because frankly, I think that's a very common sense change because in order to attract all those nice businesses or executives, for example, to give a good impression area.

[35:35] The infrastructure has to be there like the broken asphalt and narrow streets, the low hanging wires that like sometimes commercial trucks like snag and we lose our internet or phone.

[35:46] Okay, I got it.

[35:48] It's not attractive.

[35:49] So I'm just asking the zoning committee to consider that.

[35:52] Like, for a common very common sense

[35:54] before you approve any change to zoning

[35:58] to maybe have the infrastructure updated.

[36:01] And I know it's not part of what your discretion

[36:04] but without the infrastructure, the zoning change

[36:07] doesn't exactly make sense to me.

[36:10] So I loved for the infrastructure to get updated

[36:12] before the zoning change.

[36:13] Thank you.

[36:15] Thank you very much.

[36:20] Next is Billy Bracey, Ridley Bracey, excuse me.

[36:25] Welcome.

[36:26] Hello, and good evening, fellow neighbors.

[36:29] Also a first-timer, I live on Mayfair,

[36:31] just right behind you, sir.

[36:33] And so I have a young family, a young son.

[36:36] We've lived there for almost four years.

[36:38] We enjoy that pocket of Bel Air.

[36:40] For many of the reasons previously stated, it is quiet.

[36:44] We don't have a through-street to the feeder or to the highway,

[36:48] which is nice and I think we'd like to keep it that way.

[36:52] I'll touch on the rooster comment.

[36:54] I appreciate that.

[36:55] I think a cow would be cool or a few of them, okay?

[36:58] But I appreciate the thoughtfulness on that.

[37:01] I was one of the concerned citizens

[37:04] about the multi-family and all that.

[37:06] So I appreciate you addressing that.

[37:07] We don't need to deep dive that.

[37:09] I think that what I will touch on is preserving that community

[37:15] which has a lot of development south of what we're talking about, new homes being built, lots being developed, that's very exciting and we want to preserve and protect and keep our property values in mind as we do this.

[37:30] In terms of a whole bunch of people living up there, you may have mentioned once early that there was one, two, or maybe three units that would be developed, but then at the end of your comments you mentioned a maximum of two or three per acre.

[37:43] There are several acres up there, so I would ask the council to be cognizant of how many

[37:51] new families are we really going to let live there and are they really going to be in

[37:55] and out over the course of a couple of days or a week?

[37:58] That needs to be pretty firm, because that could be 10 or 15 maybe units if we look at that

[38:04] entire area, just to concern there.

[38:07] In terms of piggybacking the gentleman's comment on infrastructure, remember we've got

[38:11] micro center which is a huge parking lot. We've got Walmart which is a humongous parking lot

[38:16] and then we've got these humongous highways all around that area. Okay my street floods when we

[38:21] get three inches of rain in a short amount of time. I'm on May fair I'm two streets removed from

[38:26] there. If we continue to have concrete and buildings and things like that I think the horizontal

[38:32] infrastructure is much more important than the vertical infrastructure. So if we're going to make

[38:38] this consideration for Thompson Hanson which is a big concession for them and maybe there's

[38:44] value for the residents but maybe a whole lot more weighted value for Thompson Hanson of this

[38:49] development. Let's think about the homes that are around there. We live in that I live in that

[38:54] part of Bel Air because it's not way south of here and it's not prone to flood and I don't want to be

[38:59] on 610 being rescued by a helicopter like somewhere in Hurricane Harvey. That's why my family lives in

[39:05] the portion that we do, so we don't want to create a bigger problem while lending

[39:09] a concession to frankly not even a resident of the city. Thank you for hearing me.

[39:15] Thank you very much.

[39:20] Tim Sullivan?

[39:28] Tim Sullivan, 4816 Belair. Welcome.

[39:31] So I'm going to continue my conversation about no living in the area.

[39:38] I don't, I mean there's a neighborhood right next to it.

[39:41] If you want to build something, build something in the neighborhood next to it and go that route.

[39:48] It seems, you know, looking at the uses and non-uses, it seems like

[39:54] Thomson and Hanson can do most everything that they want.

[39:59] Maybe some limit on parking lot, but I would think that parking lot would already be handled

[40:07] because of just general use in the area. We've had the plenty of businesses there that you know the landscaping business. There's lots of lots of space that trucks have to park to pick stuff up.

[40:21] There's the old sandwich manufacturer that you know had to park trucks and whatnot. So that's still the same unless I'm missing something there.

[40:33] So, I just want to reiterate the fact that we don't need living, it's going to change the whole vibe of the space.

[40:43] You know, we all know what happens when mom and dad say, oh, you can go down to the apartment and Houston and use it.

[40:53] Oh, well, so now you got a 21-year-old taking up space and they have a party and, you know,

[41:00] we see it happening all over town. I don't see why we desire that. That's not going to make

[41:06] a creative space. We talked about creativity and artists. I don't know if you've heard the word

[41:16] starving artists you know when we have artists colonies around the city today

[41:22] they're all in lower market places so that the artists can afford them so we're

[41:29] not going to get some artists colony up there unless somebody buys it for them

[41:34] and wills it to them so just reiterating the fact no living in that property thank

[41:42] Thank you.

[41:56] Does anybody else want to speak?

[42:04] And if you could just say your name, because my name

[42:07] is Mahesh Desai.

[42:08] And I live on Saxon Street.

[42:11] And to echo the comment made by the previous gentleman,

[42:15] I strongly recommend that commission should not

[42:19] consider leaving the reason of leaving,

[42:22] because leaving, once you open up the scope of leaving,

[42:27] it goes beyond 1 or 2 or 3 as the previous gentleman said there are so many

[42:34] acres so that's one. Number two, I saw a club and some other businesses that

[42:42] I think it's not a good idea I mean it's not it's not a good idea to invite

[42:48] in the residential area and the third thing is that right now if you drive

[42:53] down on Lehigh, you will see so many cars and trucks parked on Lehigh, making it very difficult

[43:00] some time to cross the incoming and outgoing cars simultaneously. So if you have a very strong

[43:09] development there and if you don't consider the traffic issue, I think it's going to have a more

[43:17] like a problematic area. So I would say and and the last one is that before you consider any

[43:26] planned development, would you make it available for the residents to look at it or whether we will

[43:34] have a chance to make a comment or it's just like once you've once this hearing is done, we are going

[43:40] to consider and approve and then you go to the next step.

[43:45] That is a question. Are we

[43:48] voting on this we're not doing because since we're changing things are we going to do the final vote next month or is it today so we

[43:56] had planned we have it on the agenda to vote consider and vote tonight okay um I think

[44:04] obviously the commission can you know make their appropriate motions and that sort of thing but perhaps we

[44:09] could do a small tweak since we're going to be making some changes maybe we could put the postponement of

[44:15] of the actual final vote until next month of that

[44:18] is without be possible with a vote,

[44:21] obviously a motion.

[44:22] So, and to be clear, City Council will have a hearing

[44:25] as well once a recommendation is made to City Council.

[44:28] So then City Council, there will be another opportunity

[44:31] for public comment at City Council.

[44:34] Yeah, because we're just an advisory board.

[44:36] We actually don't make any final decisions

[44:39] planning zoning down.

[44:40] So we make recommendations and then it goes

[44:42] before City Council with the same process

[44:44] So all over again with city council just to let you know thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you very much. Can I get the date of the next meeting.

[44:56] The next planning and zoning meeting. March.

[45:00] March 12th.

[45:04] Anybody else want to speak?

[45:10] Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did. Yeah, so yeah, so we're, let's, let's hold off on, I guess, unless, what did we talk about?

[45:26] I thought we did talk about it. It was either a week after, I thought it was a week after, wasn't it?

[45:34] Yeah, it's that week. I thought we had either said, I can't remember. I thought we had said it was a week afterwards that we had decided.

[45:41] We did.

[45:41] Todd, do you remember?

[45:44] We had discussed it as-

[45:45] Is it the week before?

[45:46] I think it was the week before.

[45:49] Before.

[45:49] Okay.

[45:50] I was going to check my calendar here real quick too.

[45:53] Okay.

[45:53] So it's the week before.

[45:54] Which is what date?

[45:56] Okay.

[45:56] So it's March 6th then.

[45:58] Okay.

[45:58] March 6th.

[46:01] March 5th.

[46:03] March 5th.

[46:04] March 5th.

[46:05] The next P and Z meeting that we will vote on this, the final vote will be March 5th.

[46:10] So um and typically the agenda is posted the Friday before the meeting this March 5th is a

[46:19] Thursday so typically the agenda will be posted I think on right on the website on

[46:23] Yes the Friday before the Friday right before so that's when you would be able to see

[46:29] what the plan would be on on the Friday before March 5th. Okay so um

[46:36] Okay, so what you're saying is we're going to have the next meeting, not on our regular

[46:42] scheduled date on the 12th, but on the previous Thursday, which is March 5th.

[46:48] And then the agenda would be due that Friday, January 30th, actually the day that we would

[46:56] No, no.

[47:01] My apologies, I am okay. So March 12th, and it will now be moved to March 5th.

[47:07] And the agenda will be due on the 27th. I'm so sorry about that.

[47:17] Okay.

[47:17] And Monday, I want to make sure to that there were no other meetings at same night in the same space.

[47:24] I didn't remember that there were,

[47:27] according to the calendar,

[47:29] but I wanted to make sure

[47:30] that one of the other commissions

[47:32] didn't have their meeting on that same line.

[47:34] So, so far, no, there's not another meeting

[47:37] on Thursday, March 5th.

[47:40] Okay.

[47:41] All right.

[47:41] Great.

[47:42] All right.

[47:43] So,

[47:44] what else am I have here?

[47:51] All right.

[47:51] So, we did the response to the city.

[47:52] We did the questions from the quiz.

[47:54] Okay.

[47:54] So, do we,

[47:55] can we clarify that there are no further public comments?

[47:58] Yes, are there any further public comments?

[48:02] And we did receive a few written comments since they will be included in the agenda

[48:07] packet.

[48:08] I will not read some word for word, but just giving you a list of the comments that we

[48:14] did receive.

[48:15] We received a written comment from Marine Brunetti.

[48:19] She discussed the STR ordinance, so short-term rentals and was against that.

[48:26] we did receive a written comment from Billy Bray just stating that they don't

[48:32] want any type of housing in the Bel Air makers district. We also received a

[48:40] written comment from Brooke Bray again seconding that you know they don't want

[48:46] any type of live work units or they they actually don't want Thompson

[48:53] and Hanson to house their workers in the district.

[48:59] So the next written comment that we received

[49:04] is from Hugh Lou, and he says they are formally writing

[49:11] to express their strong opposition

[49:13] to any type of live in development in the district,

[49:19] and they're wanting to not have such intense developments and citing traffic and safety concerns,

[49:30] parking overflow and the neighborhood impact. They also raise concerns over infrastructure and drainage concerns

[49:37] and then income ballability with the neighborhood as well.

[49:42] So they also don't want any precedent zoning creep that would creep into any

[49:49] neighboring residential neighborhoods. We received a written comment from Ming

[49:57] Lu. Again there are they have strong opposition to any type of live work or

[50:04] residential development in the district. They would like first the outdated and

[50:11] infrastructure to be updated before any zoning changes occur, just citing the failing

[50:19] street conditions, citing pedestrian safety as well in the residential neighborhood to

[50:25] the south of the Bel Airmakers District.

[50:28] We received a written comment from myLongVS, again in opposition to Thompson and Hanson having

[50:38] having any type of workers living in the district, they say that they frequently collect

[50:44] litter left by the employees of the Thompson and Hanson team, which is both embarrassing

[50:50] and distressing, so they are against any type of live-in units.

[50:59] We had a written comment just asking for additional information on the Thompson and Hanson proposal,

[51:06] Again, just to reiterate, Thomson and Hanson, they have not submitted a formal proposal to us in the recent year.

[51:14] The last time they submitted a proposal just for inquiry was back in 2022, so we don't have a current proposal, but

[51:23] that is what their public comment is written on regarding the fire they received at their property.

[51:29] That concludes the written comments that we've received so far.

[51:33] Since we are now moving the deliberation consideration and final vote to the March meeting

[51:43] our next deadline for written comment is Wednesday, February 25th.

[51:55] That is the deadline for additional written comment.

[51:58] Thank

[52:04] you very much money. Okay and now we can have questions from the commission to staff or are

[52:13] consulted? Gary Mitchell? Anybody have any questions? I think we're going to talk about this a little bit

[52:20] more probably at the beginning of the workshop, but you know in terms of changes and that sort of

[52:26] thing so. So if you guys have any questions that you want clarified tonight, you can ask those any type

[52:33] deliberation that you would want tonight, you know, we aren't voting until the March meeting, but if there's anything you wish to discuss.

[52:40] I the only thing I was curious about again just is what does the current.

[52:48] Didn't City Council vote on a short-term rental ordinance that changed what is that?

[52:54] Again, so that we all know what is the current residential right?

[52:59] Well, it prohibits it in residential districts and it regulates it in commercial districts.

[53:04] So there's permit and registration, revocation, appeal procedures in commercial districts and

[53:11] it's not allowed in residential at all.

[53:13] So if we were to create it as a not allowed use, it's not really addressed in the zoning

[53:20] ordinance.

[53:20] It's a separate ordinance in the code of ordinance as it's in a different chapter.

[53:23] So if it was something that we want to state that we want to prohibit in this district, we

[53:28] we would probably just refer to that definition.

[53:30] And I mean, you can state it's not an allowed use

[53:33] and of a short-term rental as defined in chapter,

[53:37] whatever chapter it was that we put it in.

[53:41] Thank you, Charles, that's what I wanted to.

[53:43] Great, thank you.

[53:45] Any other questions?

[53:50] Yeah, we're gonna workshop it a little bit more.

[53:53] Well, it's on the regular agenda, not the workshop,

[53:56] but we're still in the public hearing process,

[53:59] so we need to close out the public.

[54:00] Okay.

[54:01] process. All right so madam chairwoman if I could speak because there's the part about responding to comments I just

[54:08] wanted to touch on one item the infrastructure part that was mentioned and I understand the sentiment about

[54:14] before you rezone deal with infrastructure I just want to mention today zoning the UVT is much more intensive

[54:21] zoning it allows taller buildings more density so that's what was on the table because the light rail

[54:27] went away, the zoning needed to change, so if you don't rezone to something else, the current

[54:34] zoning is much more intensive. Nobody's built to that, but that's what's on the books today,

[54:38] so that would put more strain on infrastructure. Yeah, just to clarify a little bit, just to

[54:43] DevTell and what Gary just mentioned. So before our prior zoning, which we are changing, had much

[54:49] taller buildings allowed in this district. What we have done is we've brought those buildings

[54:56] way lower. They're shorter because we kind of collectively anyway are advising you know we're

[55:02] making a recommendation that we don't want really big buildings over there because of exactly

[55:07] that it's going to be too congested. The two little ingress and egress into this area just wouldn't

[55:14] allow for having like a whole basically you know skyscraper area or even you know not maybe not

[55:23] skyscraper, but like, you know, 10, 15 story buildings over there lined up, it just wouldn't work.

[55:30] So that's why we brought the buildings down. The height came down in this area. That's part

[55:35] of our new proposal for the zoning. And it's, you know, it's providing a lot more restrictions than

[55:43] it was. We're making it more livable for those residences around it.

[55:53] Anything else?

[55:53] All right well at this point I think are you ready to close yeah yeah do I have a motion to close the public hearing

[56:02] Move to close the public hearing

[56:05] All right all in favor

[56:07] Okay, we are adjourned. Thank you all very very much and again just the hearing we still have the other items on the

[56:14] We do yeah, but just if people want to if you guys want to leave now you're welcome to it

[56:19] We just are gonna go through the last remaining bits

[56:21] But you're welcome to step out now and just again by reminder March 5th is when we'll do final deliberations on this

[56:27] But we're going to tighten it up tonight. Yes, it's still on the agenda for deliberation so y'all can still discuss

[56:33] deliberation on the proposed zoning right discuss it more. Okay, so that was the thing I was gonna say because as the public was leaving so we have to

[56:42] move to

[56:44] Yes

[56:45] To table items two and three first

[56:48] That way it's like most of the public is left I think right? We that's what we would agree do you want to discuss it or

[56:54] Do you not want to discuss it further if you're tabling it then we're not talking about this

[57:00] Makers district for the rest of the night. No, I so we want to talk about it and then at the end we want to then move to table, right?

[57:08] Yeah, you're postponed. Yeah, table there's a theoretical table when you go to the untable

[57:14] Okay, so we want to what we then might that would be after discussion.

[57:19] Okay, so I need done to make a motion about you have to make a couple motions.

[57:28] So the first motion is that we're going to discuss further, right?

[57:36] Well, before we get into that, item 72, did what I had heard was wanting to potentially move up the closed meeting in executive.

[57:52] That's what I was going to do. Yes. So that was the true motion. I was going to make. I just wanted to clarify that I didn't, we didn't need to do the other one. The public had left that there's nothing that we needed to do since room.

[58:04] So, is there a motion to reorder the agenda to move up the executive and close session?

[58:08] Yes, I'm going to make a motion.

[58:11] Yes.

[58:12] I want to make a motion to move up the item under close meeting up in front of 7-2 in order

[58:25] to be able to allow that quick discussion and then come back in the regular session back

[58:30] to where the agenda item was.

[58:32] Okay. Is there a second?

[58:35] Second.

[58:36] All in favor.

[58:38] Aye.

[58:39] And it passes.

[58:40] Okay.

[58:43] Okay.

[58:43] So we're on the, we're on the closed meeting portion.

[58:46] So is there a motion to go to retire into closed session?

[58:48] Yes. So we're going to have, yes.

[58:51] To discuss and consult with attorney client privilege matters regarding legal advice concerning attorney client privilege matters and pending litigation regarding zoning matters.

[59:03] Resumant to Texas Government Code Chapter 551, Section 551.071.

[59:12] Yes.

[59:12] So moved.

[59:14] Seconded.

[59:15] Thank you.

[59:15] All in favor?

[59:16] Aye.

[59:17] Okay.

[59:17] So we'll go on to executive session and there and then.

[59:21] And then we'll come back out and here it'll be maybe ten minutes that we're going to step in

[59:25] if that's okay.

[59:27] Consulting with the attorney regarding attorney client privilege matters, depending litigation.

[59:31] Okay.

[59:32] So we'll be in there having a meeting really briefly for about 10 minutes, and then we'll be back, and we'll discuss more the remainder of what we have on our agenda.

[59:42] Thank you.

[59:42] All right. Thank you.

[59:44] That's all right.

[59:47] All right, so we are back.

[59:50] Zach sent me straight.

[59:51] She's run into the restroom.

[59:52] So set me straight, we're back on the regular agenda, or we, this whole thing's been so.

[1:00:01] Wobbled around. What do we, when she, when Laura gets back from the restroom, what are we hitting next? Yes. Yes. To clarify, nothing was voted on during the closed session, and there's no action to be taken by the commission. We currently do not have a quorum, so we'll wait for Lord to get back so that we have a quorum and can discuss the next business item. Which is, which is item 72. Okay, so we're on 72. Okay, thank you.

[1:00:29] Yeah, okay. All right.

[1:00:39] Do we want to take a general two-minute break?

[1:00:42] Yeah, yeah, no, we knew she was going to go to the restroom.

[1:02:18] No, it is not on the workshop agenda. It's on the general regular agenda.

[1:02:24] Yeah, so that's the next agenda item is to finish the maker's discussion.

[1:02:58] Now we have a quorum back. Are we ready to resume the regular meeting?

[1:03:03] Yes, we are resuming the regular meeting. We're back on session. We have a quorum.

[1:03:06] and we are going to be addressing on the agenda item 7, number 2, consideration, deliberation,

[1:03:15] and possible action on the deletion of the code of ordinances of the city of Belair, Chapter 24,

[1:03:21] Planning and Zoning Section 24, 547 UVT.

[1:03:26] In creation and replacement of the new district, Belair make a district.

[1:03:31] All right. Yes. And the creation and replacement of a new district, section five, 24, 547, Baker, Bellaire,

[1:03:39] Baker district, I can't even imagine I should have just let me love to read it. It's too late in the day.

[1:03:46] I can't read. Okay. So we're back. We're going to talk about now the changes that we referenced

[1:03:54] during the public hearing then, some of the kind of things.

[1:03:59] So as I mentioned, we just like a couple folks, like me,

[1:04:05] and just two other people on the city council,

[1:04:08] got an opportunity chat a little bit more with Greg Thompson

[1:04:12] about some of sort of the thoughts is basically the deal.

[1:04:17] Live work is not what he wants.

[1:04:19] We do, he does not want live work, and obviously the residents

[1:04:24] don't want live work. And the commission, we all struggled with live work. So, live work,

[1:04:29] we don't have to mess with anymore. We can change that. And as I mentioned before,

[1:04:35] what he had envisioned, and again, he did say it is not a deal breaker. It is not a deal breaker.

[1:04:42] So, if we all decide, no, on these executive apartment idea, it's fine. But if it's not that big of a

[1:04:51] the deal, he said it would be great.

[1:04:54] But basically, the deal is that he's got the same sort of situation up in Austin.

[1:04:59] He's got some kids, I think, maybe that lived there or go to school there.

[1:05:02] Whatever his deal is, but they have the property, they have the business up in Austin.

[1:05:06] And his idea is basically corporate apartment, no more than two.

[1:05:11] That's it.

[1:05:12] It's really simple.

[1:05:13] It's not a situation where it'd be employees per se living there.

[1:05:19] it'd be like Greg Thompson and whatever, and Hanson, whatever his first name is, you know,

[1:05:25] when they, or whomever, like, because he said that they've got this woman apparently in Austin

[1:05:30] who's got kids and green kids that live in Houston. And so she is one of the ones that he was

[1:05:35] actually thinking about. She's older. And so he said that when she comes to town, it would be great

[1:05:41] that, you know, she could, you know, work there, but then also stay there, you know, kind of like

[1:05:48] an executive apartment kind of thing. She's been with their company for decades and decades

[1:05:52] and she's still there and she's older and and that's the idea that he envisioned just to let

[1:05:57] you guys understand and know. So I know that I'm not understanding. I mean I've done I've pulled

[1:06:05] all nighters at my office before. I mean I didn't need an apartment to do that so I mean what would

[1:06:13] You're a warrior, though.

[1:06:15] Lawyers are badasses, right?

[1:06:17] Like, we don't have to sleep, right?

[1:06:21] These are like, landscape or restaurant people.

[1:06:27] What would prevent this person, you know,

[1:06:29] if there was a, you know, what do you call

[1:06:33] of those ones that come down from the wall, Murphy bed?

[1:06:39] What would prevent, you know, in a space

[1:06:42] from them doing that without having to change the zoning where somebody could be

[1:06:50] creative and we don't understand and we have it figured out how they would

[1:06:57] finagle and if they did that as opposed to and he did it in his business

[1:07:03] location and as opposed to saying because you can't just go well Greg Thompson

[1:07:12] and can do it. And then it's really only two or three when the speaker brought up two or

[1:07:20] three per acre ends up being a lot more than just two or three because there's a greater area.

[1:07:26] And what if then somebody else said, oh, I want some, you know, for mine. And then, you know, these pop-up

[1:07:37] almost caretaker apartment type. And I hate to call it an apartment because I understand

[1:07:42] it's not an apartment, corporate housing, you know, executive, executive, I mean whatever, you know,

[1:07:50] because, you know, I mean, I had thought, well, what if his best employee ends up in a bad position

[1:08:02] and their apartment has burned down and they need a place to stay temporarily, while they get

[1:08:09] back up on their feet? I mean, can it be used for that? And how do we regulate it? How do we say no?

[1:08:16] How would we even know? I mean, if, you know, if all you're doing is almost, you know,

[1:08:25] corporate housing, if all you're doing is, hey, instead of spending, you know,

[1:08:39] two to $500

[1:08:39] need it to let my grandchildren come spend the night with me, then what is it that we're doing here?

[1:08:47] I mean, it seems like you could accomplish the same goal of, you know, just pushing a table

[1:08:56] out of the way and, you know, unless he wants to make it a home away from home for a particular

[1:09:05] person that works for him.

[1:09:09] I don't see any reason to put residential

[1:09:12] anything on that property for exactly the reasons you just enumerated but we

[1:09:17] kind of talked about it before is these guys they have a vision of what they

[1:09:22] want and we want to try to accommodate them because it's very nice and unique and

[1:09:27] it accomplishes developing that part of the city which has been

[1:09:31] and fallow for quite some time.

[1:09:34] But the control after is not gonna be able to be accomplished.

[1:09:42] It's like he, you know, he said that in Austin

[1:09:46] he's got his kids living there.

[1:09:48] And what he envisioned for this place was some older lady

[1:09:52] that works for him, that when she comes over here.

[1:09:56] So now we not only have accommodated them,

[1:09:59] but we've we're now not one off but we're two off with these and if he said that it's

[1:10:07] not a deal breaker there's no reason to open the can of worms because you have just let

[1:10:13] that it's out and now you're never going to get it back. Yeah whoever else owns an acre they

[1:10:20] can put it three more. The next acre can put it three more so you have all these little disjointed

[1:10:26] places that people can stay in for some undetermined amount of time, they're not going to be short term

[1:10:35] riddles.

[1:10:38] It just seems to me that we're creating problems for ourselves that will be fighting forever.

[1:10:46] So I don't think we should have anything, any way shape or form to live in that area.

[1:11:01] I'm not agreeing or disagreeing.

[1:11:03] I just, I know one of the things that came up was the R6.

[1:11:08] What is exactly the R6 definition?

[1:11:13] I just wanted to make sure I understood it to just, to that had been brought up.

[1:11:18] So R6 is a small lot residential attach district and it's an upper medium density residential area.

[1:11:28] So, you know, the minimum dwelling unit for a townhouse dwelling is 1,625 square feet.

[1:11:38] So, if we were to add R6 zoning ordinances to Bel Airmakers District, you know, we do have specific limitations.

[1:11:47] But the minimum, I'm sorry, that was the minimum lot area.

[1:11:52] The minimum dwelling unit is, I believe it's 1100 square feet.

[1:11:58] So that would be the minimum they can build.

[1:12:00] You know, I don't know if they need that much, but I say they, I mean the entire district,

[1:12:04] not just Thompson and Hanson, the entire district, you know, the minimum if they wanted to create

[1:12:09] a townhouse, the minimum dwelling unit would be 1100 square feet.

[1:12:14] So you'll recall that what's in front of council right now with the quarter mixed use right you can have townhouse

[1:12:21] But it can only be part of mixed use can't be standalone

[1:12:24] So what you did was put the r6 standards for town homes on those town homes in CMU

[1:12:31] So it would be the same idea here if you went down that path town homes might be allowed

[1:12:37] Subjects of the r6 dimensional standards

[1:12:39] And then it would be yeah

[1:12:41] The idea was also conceptually.

[1:12:43] It was also not only just R6, but it would also be capped, right?

[1:12:49] And the capping has caused some questions because really it's capping it like two units

[1:12:58] an acre, potentially, I guess, is come of the thought.

[1:13:01] But so my two cents on this is we need to be talking about the entire district, not a particular

[1:13:07] property or owner.

[1:13:08] This would be available to anyone if you're talking about limiting to a particular site that would be more planned development situation where you're or specific use permit that you have to get some additional approval.

[1:13:22] But right now there isn't a residential in the current draft.

[1:13:26] There's no residential use except for live work which sounds like it's certainly going away.

[1:13:32] there's nothing right now for residential in the currently okay that's right and that's

[1:13:40] inclusive of whether or not somebody would try to come up with a PD and they came before us

[1:13:46] and said hey we want to do a PD and makers so it would need to be in the district provisions

[1:13:51] that townhouse is an allowance for a planned development proposal subject to approval but that would

[1:13:58] be available to anybody, not just a particular property.

[1:14:04] So they could do a PD in this area or no?

[1:14:07] Oh, yes.

[1:14:08] You can do, right now, you can do a planned development, but it's all non-residential

[1:14:12] uses.

[1:14:13] Okay.

[1:14:13] So they could not come before us and say we want to do a PD with two executive apartments.

[1:14:19] Okay.

[1:14:20] Okay.

[1:14:20] All right.

[1:14:20] That was my question is whether they could do that or not.

[1:14:23] And what I was saying is if you add that, that needs to be opened to anybody.

[1:14:26] Right.

[1:14:27] Right.

[1:14:27] Yeah.

[1:14:27] or that they, right now, it doesn't say you can come in with a PD in that in R6 style.

[1:14:34] Right.

[1:14:34] So right now, the current zoning doesn't have residential outside the live working it.

[1:14:42] We just were out again that there's no other option currently in the zoning that allows for residential.

[1:14:51] Now, theoretically, somebody can buy a couple of properties in this zoning district and say

[1:14:57] I want to re-zone them to R6.

[1:14:58] They could propose that.

[1:15:00] They could propose that, but right now, you could propose a rezoning of any proper. Correct. Right. Are you going to get it? That's right. So right now, there's nothing in the rigs for that. So if we were trying to do something, it would be that we'd be adding that we could certainly take out. We're going to take out the live working. It's a good thing. Yeah, that's, I think, I think that's definitely. Definitely taking that out. We're taking that out. Right. Right. Right now, though, there's no other options. Right.

[1:15:26] In the current zoning that allows for any residential even as part of a PD that's what I wanted and you know

[1:15:34] I'll tell you guys I am so torn on this. I mean I really am because it's like you know on one side

[1:15:40] It's like you got Thompson and Hans and they've got this great little vision that they have in this area that really is kind of wood

[1:15:48] Theoretically be kind of the anchor right the draw to this area to bring

[1:15:53] different new creative type businesses to this area because you know Thompson

[1:15:57] and Hanson are there and they've got this little garden action you know and

[1:16:01] maybe they'll open a cookies and milk when she and his property ever comes

[1:16:05] online or not or whatever's going on with that one you know kind of thing

[1:16:08] whatever they or they may have like a little boxwood over there you know a little

[1:16:12] restaurant or who knows form to table with their little garden action you know so

[1:16:17] we want to give them some concessions obviously which I think we have right

[1:16:22] And so that's what I'm kind of torn about right because but the problem is is if we do open the door to even two units like you said

[1:16:29] It's opening it to the everybody and that's something that

[1:16:34] Personally, I'm not so sure I'm super excited about opening it up to like

[1:16:39] Let's say new property owner whoever you know buying up

[1:16:44] You know an acre in this area and all of a sudden wanting to put in two units that are weird

[1:16:52] By right and that like maybe that's not what anybody at all wants and so that causes me heartburn

[1:16:58] To open it up to everybody else. You know, and that's why it so I'm personally just kind of letting you guys know

[1:17:05] I'm just so torn about that but even with them and again if he hadn't just told you

[1:17:11] It's not a deal breaker. Maybe it should have more more weight

[1:17:15] But he said it's not a deal breaker had to take the man it is word. Yes. We want to accommodate him

[1:17:21] He's not going to own that property forever. There will be somebody after him and then any

[1:17:29] concessions, any agreements, any

[1:17:32] arrangements that you have with him are gone and

[1:17:36] The new owner might not feel that way. He might not be the same kind of guy and then you have a problem something

[1:17:44] It's just out of control. Yeah. Yeah. I have a question. How big is that area?

[1:17:52] I believe we always say it's about 30 acres for the total district, okay, so, so,

[1:18:03] so 30 acres.

[1:18:05] If somebody had enough money, they could conceivably come in and buy up the entire district

[1:18:11] and redevelop it, I mean, she did that with that much bigger area that was the Chevron property.

[1:18:19] and so 30 acres times 3 equals 90. The place that shall not be named has about 90.

[1:18:37] So we've, there is the potential that something like that could happen which is exactly what all the residents have said. No. I mean, the, the MF.

[1:18:52] I know our goal is to what is for the best benefit of Bel Air.

[1:18:59] And I know that definitely the multi-family in this area is not what the residents and

[1:19:06] I agree on that was always been the concern is ingress and egress.

[1:19:12] So how do you minimize that?

[1:19:15] How do you maximize the benefit to the city?

[1:19:18] and again as we all know that that's what we're trying to do. I think we've got, we've

[1:19:23] got some flexibility in there now. I think it's the resident, any residential is probably

[1:19:29] not what the residents want, probably not in the best benefit of the city, I think.

[1:19:38] I mean, it's conceivably they turn it into a gated community where, you know, one entrance,

[1:19:48] I mean, I don't think they could do that with our six, I don't think they can do it with the city street, they'd have to yeah, you'd have to go through the public carries to close down the streets in the back.

[1:20:01] What is that? I was looking at it earlier Anderson. I think and I even can't even remember Anderson.

[1:20:09] Lehigh is in the terminal right, but those are internal.

[1:20:13] It's the access, Anderson's the access and is Anderson, a city of Belair road, or is that a city of Houston road?

[1:20:24] I think it's a city of Belair road, but the residential development adjacent to it is a city of Houston.

[1:20:32] And so again, City of Houston has access off of the City of Bel Air Street, much like the what do you call it, the nursery that's also there.

[1:20:45] I mean, that's what we've talked about as a concern of mine.

[1:20:48] What if they, I don't want them to go and put a residential, see they, they could.

[1:20:52] What if somebody put a residential, put a 300 unit thing there, how would their access do we have the right?

[1:21:00] That's why no, we were taught how do we stop that also because that's been the worry of mine is

[1:21:06] What do they do with the nursery and do we have the right to block back because if that becomes a

[1:21:12] If that becomes something

[1:21:14] Then you're back to the same thing is you don't have the ability to go in for the ingress and egress

[1:21:19] I guess that's how we would the city of better would stop it would be through your traffic

[1:21:25] You know doing the announcement

[1:21:27] You're right, a single lane road on where Glenmont is, can't handle much more in terms

[1:21:32] of a big residential.

[1:21:36] So, Zach, I have a question for you about this.

[1:21:39] Let's say, just theoretically, PNZ turns down the idea of R6, PD, kind of anything residential

[1:21:48] there, okay?

[1:21:48] Let's just say PNZ, like at this point on this deal, we're like, yeah, no, we're not going

[1:21:53] to do that.

[1:21:54] And it goes out to council. Can council resurrect it if they so desire?

[1:22:00] Yes. So you only make recommendation. Even if you recommended no zoning change, council could still.

[1:22:07] They could bring it back up. Make a zoning change.

[1:22:08] All right.

[1:22:10] Your yours is just or even if, you know, for any plan development or anything, if y'all recommend denial, it still can go to council and they can recommend approve or they can approve it.

[1:22:19] Okay, well with that then, you know, I mean, are we voting on this today? Do we know?

[1:22:27] No, you've been in an announcement that we were pushing the vote to mark.

[1:22:31] Okay, so then, I know this isn't a workshop, but I'm just going to let y'all know kind

[1:22:36] of then we're on thinking. I don't know where you are, I know where you are, where I am

[1:22:43] At this point, if City Council can resurrect it, if we say no, since I have legitimately been on the fence about this, I agree.

[1:22:52] I think it opens up a can of worms having even just two units per acre, and for all of the reasons that you both have said, because, you know,

[1:23:03] So, Thomson and Hanson may be great neighbors and good with their two units, but that's not

[1:23:09] to say some other landowner or business owner over there will be as kind and considerate.

[1:23:17] So, because of all of those reasons that you all brought up, I am also leaning towards

[1:23:23] then not allowing any residential in makers, and again, if City Council determines otherwise

[1:23:31] and resurrects it. That's obviously up to them, but I think that's where my head is.

[1:23:45] Yeah, take

[1:23:46] out live work and that's it. I think that's it, right?

[1:23:53] Yeah.

[1:24:03] Yeah, can we? Can I reverse it?

[1:24:08] Is it too sticky? I would recommend that we just go ahead and do it on March 6th.

[1:24:13] If we kind of made an informal announcement already, that would seem to be appropriate.

[1:24:17] Yeah, yeah, because we did we we really did stress the final you know comments and the whole thing

[1:24:23] That's why I've asked earlier about

[1:24:25] All right, so but but again Gary you are not needed on the 5th

[1:24:34] Yes, sir. Are we good with everything else you guys?

[1:24:37] A height limit story, plot size, setback, the whole thing, everything else looks good?

[1:24:43] The the one that says pending

[1:24:46] I think Council's vote on CMU, that was kind of like a question mark, a placeholder,

[1:24:55] a question mark, and since they didn't vote on it, how are we going to,

[1:25:12] so

[1:25:34] we don't

[1:25:35] just say, whatever they decide, go ahead and insert it, it still comes back through us.

[1:25:43] And we should get some clarity on that on February 16th, which is sooner than I just said,

[1:25:48] that's this coming Monday, so CMU is going to Council on Monday.

[1:25:51] So then we should be good to go on March 5th. So actually postponing had may work to had to kill two birds once thing. Yes, ma'am.

[1:26:02] I agree. Anderson is in the city limits. Anderson.

[1:26:08] Yeah, that's how to look it up. So bell air city limits. That's okay, but well.

[1:26:13] It's just good to know and then same thing with Glenmont. Glenmont is in the city limits

[1:26:18] of Bel Air. That's your axis points on that south side.

[1:26:24] Well, it depends, though, which Glenmont, because there's a Glenmont right on the adjacent

[1:26:28] street to us on Sunburst, right, behind where Pinoc, that Glenmont is in Houston.

[1:26:36] Yes, portions of Glenmont are in Houston.

[1:26:38] That's inside the loop inside the loop yeah inside the loop right it's again the development on the north side is city of Houston

[1:26:49] On the south side it is Bel air the houses the street is owned by

[1:26:54] City of Bel air

[1:26:56] Anderson is

[1:26:57] Norse Anderson, North South Glenmont east west is not I already closed the map

[1:27:08] I was only told I was only asked about Anderson.

[1:27:10] I know, I thank you.

[1:27:12] I'll look after this, it's not germane anymore.

[1:27:18] All right, are we good?

[1:27:21] So we would need a motion to postpone item 7-2

[1:27:25] and save 7-3, because 7-3 was the recommendation

[1:27:29] that are to a special meeting scheduled for March 5th

[1:27:34] in lieu of the regular meeting due

[1:27:35] to the spring break holiday on the regular meeting date.

[1:27:39] If you need motions for all of that, that can all be one motion.

[1:27:43] Todd, you're my motion.

[1:27:46] I make that motion.

[1:27:50] All in favor.

[1:27:52] All right.

[1:27:53] OK, it passes.

[1:27:58] So that concludes that committee reports.

[1:28:01] We have no committees, correspondence.

[1:28:03] We have no correspondence.

[1:28:04] Do we have any new business?

[1:28:05] Anybody new business?

[1:28:07] No, new business.

[1:28:14] I just want to announce that we did get a specific use permit from the Belair high school slash Belair little link for their,

[1:28:23] I guess, request to use the Belair high school field at this and then an avenue B.

[1:28:31] And so that specific use permit will have a public hearing scheduled in April.

[1:28:38] Staff will work to make sure that one, they have a complete application, two, will start

[1:28:41] figuring out our declines for noticing in the paper, sending mailouts out, and also ensuring

[1:28:50] that Belair Little League posts their notice of public hearing signage on the property.

[1:28:56] so again we did receive an application and that is scheduled for our April

[1:29:01] regular session. And that would be an amendment to the existing SUP for that

[1:29:05] property. Yes and essentially it would just not show just allow little league

[1:29:11] beller little league to practice on the beller high school fields on forness and

[1:29:15] doesn't that correct and extend the hours of play as well I think those are the

[1:29:19] two highlights I have. Okay can we get a copy of the application sooner like

[1:29:29] I'm not sure about tomorrow, but I can review it once we have the complete application.

[1:29:34] I'll send it over to you guys.

[1:29:36] Does that mean you have to wait for them to do their public hearing notices?

[1:29:41] No, ma'am.

[1:29:42] It just means I have to actually review the entire application before I want to send it out

[1:29:46] to you guys.

[1:29:47] So I'm still in the very preliminary stages of our staff review first.

[1:29:51] So once I may have missed something and then you're going to send them back and they'll

[1:29:55] kick it out.

[1:29:56] Yes.

[1:29:56] So once we have the complete application, I'll send it over to the commission.

[1:30:00] Thank you. All right. I think that is everything we've got.

[1:30:08] Do I have a motion to adjourn, motion to adjourn, second, all in favor. And we're adjourned. Thanks you guys. I apologize. You have a workshop on the, you have a workshop with the parking workshop. Yeah, we do have a parking workshop, which of course will be gripping.

[1:30:27] Yay.

[1:30:33] You said 10 minutes. I can do this in 10 minutes. Okay. Call the workshop.

[1:30:38] to order. Call the workshop to order. Thank you, Zach. Exactly. I don't know what I would

[1:30:42] do without you. Thank you. Monique, if you have that last slide with the, so in the packet,

[1:30:48] there were probably eight pages of information about share parking. And last meeting, I did something

[1:30:53] similar on offsite parking. It's just to show partly, there's a lot of considerations when you start

[1:31:00] looking at parking regulations. And also, we did some comparisons just to know what some of the other

[1:31:05] So these are doing on this, but the reason I'm focusing on these is Belair's basic parking requirements are not that unusual how many parking spaces for a restaurant or office they're pretty typical requirements.

[1:31:18] So it's these other flexibility mechanisms that could make a difference in providing some potential relief to some of the smaller sites.

[1:31:26] So last time we talked about offsite parking, so the distinction I want to make is offsite is you're still having to meet your usual parking requirement, but you're being allowed to satisfy that off of your property.

[1:31:41] Shared parking on a single site, think of a shopping center. You got a bunch of, you know, you may have a grocery store, whatever.

[1:31:49] There's different uses that have different parking requirements, so shared parking on one site, you can kind of mix the parking because some uses have parking needs at different times.

[1:32:02] So the typical example is church.

[1:32:04] Church has their heavy parking on the weekend, maybe on a weeknight, office buildings, typically during the day, restaurant, busier at night.

[1:32:11] So you start to get these opportunities to share parking and it ends up taking less

[1:32:16] less land for parking if you can share.

[1:32:19] So boil down on this slide is on the one hand, Belair has more options than some cities

[1:32:26] in the zoning ordinance for sharing parking.

[1:32:28] You can share among the uses on a site like a shopping center.

[1:32:32] You can share parking across two properties that are next to each other.

[1:32:37] And there are some requirements to go with that.

[1:32:39] If you're wanting to share parking, there's a table and a method in the ordinance that you just do a calculation and it tells you this is how much reduction in your parking you can get by sharing.

[1:32:51] There also has the option which a lot of cities do that you can do a site specific study you can bring in a parking specialist and demonstrate to the city that I don't need as much parking as you typically require and they do comparisons, etc.

[1:33:06] not all cities have these options. On the other hand, billiers, more restrictive like we talked about last time, it's this distance requirement. There's a very low distance of how far away your parking can be from the use that it's serving. Other cities have much larger distances.

[1:33:24] There's some limits on that automatic calculation method for figuring out your shared parking. That's something specifically that Travis and Monique brought up early on is they'd like to have more flexibility there.

[1:33:34] Do the calculation, and then almost like a fudge factor, there's some discretion, and you can look at the specific situation.

[1:33:42] I think what the model is going to be is like a lot of things in zoning.

[1:33:46] Staff has certain discretion to provide some flexibility.

[1:33:50] Beyond some point, it would come to you, so it's more of a public and a recommendation process.

[1:33:56] It doesn't have to go to council, but planning zoning commission would then make that decision.

[1:34:01] And then just some of the provisions themselves need some cleanup, they're not clear in some

[1:34:08] ways of what is required.

[1:34:11] So on the right-hand side, this is a preview where I'm kind of winding down.

[1:34:16] This is my last focus is the parking potential amendments, and then y'all and staff can

[1:34:21] run with that.

[1:34:22] But updates to that automatic calculation method of how you calculate how much shared parking

[1:34:27] reduction you can get.

[1:34:29] Expand the special study option right now that's only available to single sites.

[1:34:34] It's not available to multiple properties that want to share parking, so that could be expanded.

[1:34:40] In the current ordinance, you can only share up to 25.

[1:34:44] Let me reword the reduction in your parking can only be up to 25%.

[1:34:51] In other ordinances, it either doesn't set a limit or that limit is much higher.

[1:34:56] So that's a potential relief mechanism, the distance item, as I mentioned, the, and you recall when we talked about offside parking last time, we talked about how different ordinances, different cities measure it different ways from the entrance of the building to the parking, from the edge of the property to another property offsite where the parking is where I'm probably going is just a simple radius, just at the edge of your property within X feet.

[1:35:25] draw a circle. Your parking has to be somewhere within that area. Make it simpler for everybody.

[1:35:32] As in other places, there's a provision right now in Belair that if you were allowed to reduce your

[1:35:39] parking even more than the 25%, you may be required to set aside some land on your property. So worst case,

[1:35:48] if no, it turns out you do need more parking. There's not enough parking. It's overflowing into the

[1:35:53] neighborhood, whatever that reserve comes back and you have to provide more parking.

[1:35:59] I think in the areas that we're looking at, along Vissonette, the city center area here,

[1:36:06] these properties don't have extra space in many cases to set aside some land for a reserve.

[1:36:12] So I'm not sure how realistic that is in Belir. There's other ways to deal with that.

[1:36:17] Then requiring people to set aside land. They're already having to deal with drainage and everything else.

[1:36:23] The point about linking the off site and the shared parking is it's clear in some other

[1:36:28] ordinances that, okay, say, say a couple of adjacent properties want to share their parking.

[1:36:34] So you work out those numbers, how much parking they're going to share between them.

[1:36:39] But in some other ordinances, then some of that amount could also be off site.

[1:36:44] So you're kind of combining what we talked about last meeting that parking can be off site.

[1:36:48] but on the particular properties, you're also allowing them to have less parking, you're reducing that so you can kind of combine these different tools and make them work together.

[1:36:59] And then there's other types of credits, if you think along spruce where the streetscape was done with the parking, there's, you can do credits that a property next to that can get credit that there's on street parking in front of their business.

[1:37:12] There's other ways to reduce one thing that's happening in some cities is with all the Uber and Lyft activity.

[1:37:19] If you've got too much parking on your property, it never gets used.

[1:37:22] You could say you could designate that as a rideshare waiting area.

[1:37:26] You know, instead of those folks driving around, they wait in an area to go pick up people.

[1:37:30] You could get a credit against that and reduce your parking because your parking is being used for another public purpose.

[1:37:37] So we had some discussion, Travis and I and our staff that some cities and actually all the comparisons we did, they have a standard parking standard for shopping center.

[1:37:50] So think about any of our shopping centers around here that have multiple businesses.

[1:37:55] Some ordinances have for that shopping center for every thousand square feet, you have to have four parking spaces.

[1:38:02] Just like that's a typical standard for retail store or just standalone.

[1:38:05] alone. We talked about that. We've not seen that work well in a lot of places.

[1:38:11] Early in my career, I worked in a place where there was a shopping center, where

[1:38:14] tenants were coming and going every month. You know, a new restaurant would

[1:38:18] come in, a business would leave, and then you had to go back to the parking

[1:38:21] calculations and figure out do they have enough parking. So it can be a headache.

[1:38:26] But on the other hand, Bel Air's ordinance right now says take one of our

[1:38:30] shopping centers that has eight businesses in it right now. The Bel Air

[1:38:33] ordinances, each of those has to figure out their parking requirement and add them up.

[1:38:38] Well, in reality, they could probably share some of that parking.

[1:38:42] They all don't need to have their individual parking.

[1:38:44] That's what share parking allows you to do is everybody benefits and you can reduce the overall

[1:38:50] parking. At the end of the day, like I said earlier, ideally you'd like to give staff more discretion

[1:38:56] to just work case by case and try and provide some relief to property owners within a limit

[1:39:02] But when it's getting to some point, yeah, it should come to a body like this and be more of a public process and so so that's kind of the thinking of where we're going with this not so much changing the parking requirements, but providing other types of flexibility. So so I'll leave it there.

[1:39:20] Where do we go after this on parking?

[1:39:23] It I'll come back with specific amendments just like we've done everything we've been doing to this point was zoning districts and the provisions for those this will now be going into the parking section of chapter 24 and changing potentially changing language adding language.

[1:39:39] And that section is good for all districts then, okay, for commercial districts, okay.

[1:39:47] There's a few provisions that were like, it's actually the UBT district that's going away.

[1:39:53] It had some things tied specifically to it, but most of it is across the board.

[1:39:57] Okay.

[1:39:59] So in terms of this workshop then, what do you need from us?

[1:40:03] Do you need some, do you want us to kind of, you know, talk about chat about kind of thoughts

[1:40:09] that we have or on the next workshop you're going to come with suggested changes

[1:40:17] that I take it. Exactly. We're going to dig into the text and look at specific changes.

[1:40:22] Okay. Because I'm really interested in honestly what y'all have to say in terms of what you guys

[1:40:34] would envision being better. You know what I'm saying? Like because you guys are

[1:40:40] really staff and just for the record I'm talking to the staff. You know this

[1:40:48] is a lot more sort of I mean it's obviously going to be a bigger battle for you

[1:40:53] guys because you guys and businesses obviously but and you're up against a lot

[1:40:58] more restrictive stuff with parking, and so I agree, I think the parking is very restrictive,

[1:41:06] and I like a lot of these thoughts that you have, Gary, that he's posed to us, but you know,

[1:41:13] your input is obviously crucial for parking. At this point, kind of our feedback is what we

[1:41:19] think, and we need to unlock things a little bit, not drastically, but there's a few things we can

[1:41:24] tweak that would improve it. And that's also the feedback we're getting from our economic development

[1:41:27] consultant. Good. That's a key consideration on some of these tight sites in town to really help

[1:41:34] them develop and redevelop. Okay. We'll come forward with some recommendations. Good. Yeah,

[1:41:40] that's great. I mean, like in terms of, you know, the shared and all of this, like, I don't know,

[1:41:54] like such a restrictive radius or you know you have to only you can only share to a business

[1:41:59] away you know like who cares like if like the Wendy's is gonna let them share let it you know

[1:42:05] wherever on business you know I mean like who you know like that's just my thought obviously you

[1:42:11] all have a lot more insight on it but like stuff like that like I agree I think it's very restrictive

[1:42:17] but of course we do live in a significant driving city and so everybody's got cars nobody's

[1:42:24] is really not in a car, so.

[1:42:26] And it's so hard to hit the nail on the head anyway,

[1:42:28] because you can have all these ratios

[1:42:29] for all these business types.

[1:42:31] And it really depends on the success

[1:42:33] of that particular business, you know.

[1:42:35] Some restaurants are going to require

[1:42:37] half the parking of others.

[1:42:39] So there's a lot of variability.

[1:42:41] Yeah, and certainly I'm not suggesting,

[1:42:43] because I know Gary at one point you were like,

[1:42:45] some cities just do it with any kind of parking restrictions

[1:42:48] at all, it's a free-fuel.

[1:42:50] Obviously, I think that that would be madness in our city,

[1:42:52] but I was just going to say you're coming about shared parking to take it that's what that's kind

[1:42:58] of what's happening when you remove parking they got to figure it out they share they use on

[1:43:02] street they use valet yeah so I think the guardrail in a billier situation is don't overflow into

[1:43:10] neighborhoods yeah that's that's exactly what I was going to say is that if you just open it up

[1:43:15] complete that's what I was referring to in terms of if we just opened it up and had no parking

[1:43:20] restriction the madness would be really because it would everybody would flood

[1:43:23] the neighborhoods and our residences you know obviously you know we don't

[1:43:29] want that obviously so that's I think the biggest issue. So the approaches we're

[1:43:34] talking about is kind of a middle ground between Wild West and some guard

[1:43:38] rail some parameters property owners still gonna be responsible to provide

[1:43:42] parking for their businesses so yeah but they have different ways to do that yeah

[1:43:51] I think we all agree on that as, again, economic development, protect the neighborhoods.

[1:43:56] I know that's kind of a goal.

[1:43:57] Yeah.

[1:43:58] Is there any other cities that you're kind of looking at that are similar?

[1:44:03] It would be a similar situation.

[1:44:05] I know that you, a lot of times you're trying to get best practices from other cities and you do a lot of work.

[1:44:11] What other kind of a city would you imagine that you're trying to live for?

[1:44:15] I don't have a single answer.

[1:44:16] It's it just looking at the collection of cities. You know, we looked at Westview. We looked at what Houston does

[1:44:21] You know low-regulation Houston has all kinds of provisions to micromanage if you have valet

[1:44:28] I think the attitude here is like with enateca's if it's working go for it

[1:44:34] You've got to provide for your parking, but do we care if the valet is the cars are going a thousand feet who know?

[1:44:42] You know or even like a like I was thinking about it the other like across the street. There's that

[1:44:46] Um, more to wear your whatever. I mean, like, obviously, they're not in that parking lot at night. I mean, they could easily park cars over there. But I think that the problem was it was too restrictive and they weren't able to run across the street or whatever.

[1:45:05] The other thing that I think might be, just, this is just a thought. I know that you had said that businesses, like, for example, if there's a business that's on a small lot, and we have a number, and let's just say it's a dog grooming place or a pet grooming, like just throwing it out there, right? And so like, they literally need, like, maybe a space or two.

[1:45:29] kind of thing. You drop your dog off, you go pick your dog up kind of thing. Just an easy way that

[1:45:35] they can appeal it. Like obviously the business owners know their business is best. If we were able

[1:45:41] to have a situation like just a pretty basic easy appeal system where you know if you had a smaller

[1:45:48] business whatever number we came up with right that a business has to have so many parking spaces.

[1:45:54] And then it ends up that the business is like yeah we really don't need this many can you know if

[1:45:58] It could be kind of a more simplistic kind of process to allow them to appeal it to you know decrease the number of parking

[1:46:06] I think that that also may kind of loosen things up a little bit just throwing this out as a thought

[1:46:11] I don't know if that's even a possibility but that they can come you know business and come and say like I really don't need five spaces

[1:46:17] I only need two you know kind of thing maybe maybe yeah

[1:46:20] Yeah, that would go well the if you would like a change to the parking requirements

[1:46:25] The property owner can go to the board of adjustment.

[1:46:27] Now the board of adjustment or the code does provide that they can go through a special exception for

[1:46:33] a specifically parking, which has a lower standard than a hardship, which has a much higher standard.

[1:46:39] The hardship, I mean, the standard for a special exception looks more at, does it impact negatively?

[1:46:45] The neighboring properties versus the hardship looks at, is there something particularly about this property?

[1:46:51] Yeah, that is different from all of the properties that impacts the development, which is a much higher standard than just this is negatively impacting surrounding

[1:46:59] Yeah, I think I was talking more special exception kind of thing. I think that that would fall into that. Yeah

[1:47:03] So I the current code does provide that a parking or a I guess a non-conformity related solely to parking

[1:47:11] So if you if they comply with everything of the code except for parking they can apply for a special exception to the point of adjustment

[1:47:18] Is it a pain in the neck to do? Is it a pretty easy process to do that?

[1:47:22] It takes about six weeks from the date of application to the date of the public hearing.

[1:47:27] So it would be a public hearing process, just like a variance appeal, but just the standards for getting approval is just much lower.

[1:47:35] Do we get many of those? Have we had a lot of those? I mean, do businesses don't know about that?

[1:47:40] parking. I want to say it's maybe come up once or twice in 10 years. Do you think it's because it's not it's not something that's really either not really necessary because businesses are pretty right on about the number of parking spaces or do you think it's a situation that people just don't really know about it. I don't know that would be a staff question.

[1:48:02] I would say partly they don't really know about it, you know, the questions that we get

[1:48:08] is just like, hey, if I wanted to build this or develop here, how many parking spaces

[1:48:13] can I use or, you know, so it never really gets to that point.

[1:48:18] Okay.

[1:48:19] Roger.

[1:48:20] As a quick example, the current ordinance, the director can, through the shared parking

[1:48:26] method reduce, allow the parking to come down up to 25%, the quarter of your parking

[1:48:32] could be reduced just at a staff level. In Houston, there's some language that the director

[1:48:38] can go an additional 10%. If they demonstrate that it won't overflow into neighborhoods,

[1:48:44] and it won't affect neighboring properties. Now, a little fuzzy, maybe, but it gives some

[1:48:50] flexibility. And then, you know, the whole idea is at some point you're stretching the

[1:48:55] standards are ordered in so much that you need to go through more of a process like special

[1:49:00] exception, ZBA, or come to planning commission.

[1:49:05] So it's how far, how much tolerance there

[1:49:08] is for administrative flexibility until you come to a more formal process.

[1:49:13] Okay. Well, that's, I'm sorry. The point of putting those words on paper is that gives the

[1:49:19] director an enforcement basis to say, well, nope, it didn't work. You're overflowing into

[1:49:23] neighborhood, you've got to provide that extra parking. Yeah. So we can kind of draft a relief mechanism

[1:49:28] into the ordinance to a point to a certain point that we feel comfortable with. Okay. And I've

[1:49:33] seen that in other city's ordinances as well. Okay. That's great. And then also just pay attention

[1:49:37] also when you guys are drafting up some proposed language on that 25% reduction for sharing parking

[1:49:44] because it seems to me like just to me and not having any sort of any experience like you guys do

[1:49:51] or knowledge like y'all do, but maybe we could drop that more,

[1:49:56] like have more of a reduction for them.

[1:49:59] I want to say the last city I worked in had shared parking

[1:50:01] and it didn't have a cap on how much you could reduce it.

[1:50:05] It either worked or it didn't according to the businesses

[1:50:08] and their traffic hours and so forth.

[1:50:11] Yeah, and then again, like you said,

[1:50:13] the enforcement kind of thing like, you know,

[1:50:16] if somebody like, for example, if we went with the shared

[1:50:18] and we didn't like, let's just say it ended up

[1:50:21] that we didn't have that they had to have a certain number of parking spaces if they'd went

[1:50:25] to share it like later on. It ended up, nope, this isn't working. At least, you know, staff could

[1:50:31] go back and be like, yeah, yeah, we got to redo this because this isn't working because you guys

[1:50:34] are spilling over in the neighborhoods and on the streets. Like, parking is clogging up bisonette

[1:50:38] or whatever's going on. Like, just an ability that we can come back and review and I think would be

[1:50:43] also be really good. Maybe. So, anyway, those are just kind of my thoughts. But I had a question

[1:50:51] question. Travis, you made mention of the economic development consultant. Who is that?

[1:50:56] It's HR and A. So we budgeted the city budgeted for an economic development consultant to

[1:51:03] begin looking at things that we can do to improve development of our commercial areas instead

[1:51:07] of just waiting for proposals to come and denying them or approving them kind of being in the

[1:51:12] driver's seat as to what we want and then trying to get what we want. So we budgeted for that

[1:51:17] project we went through an RFP and interviews and hired HRNA back in August to do it. So we've

[1:51:24] been working with them. They came down here. They did stakeholder interviews with business stakeholders.

[1:51:30] Did a tour of the city. They did a market analysis of the city. So now they're coming up with

[1:51:35] recommendations. And one of the things that they have mentioned is parking and other things like

[1:51:40] that. Because there's so many challenges here already with the zoning and floodplain

[1:51:45] issues in Bel Air. They're trying to think outside the box that other things we can do to help get the best utilization of commercial properties in Bel Air.

[1:51:54] So that's kind of what they're doing and they had a workshop with City Council on Monday night, really just to share that information.

[1:52:01] And they'll be finalizing their report in the coming weeks.

[1:52:05] So the the workshop with city council was that in council chambers?

[1:52:10] No, it was in the B life room.

[1:52:11] That's where the workshops generally are these days because it was an informal discussion.

[1:52:16] They're basically providing information to council.

[1:52:18] There was no deliberate or there was no, you know, decisions made or anything like that.

[1:52:22] It's not like this won't be an ordinance or a plan that gets approved by council.

[1:52:27] It's we're contracting with them to provide this report and strategies and it was really kind of a menu.

[1:52:32] you, you know, they give us a dozen things, or they'll be giving us a dozen things, give

[1:52:36] or take that we can do, and as I told Council on Monday, you know, we might decide to

[1:52:41] do three of them, or 12 of them, or seven. It's kind of up to the city to what, it's kind

[1:52:47] of a legislative decision, how much we invest into the strategies, but they're giving us

[1:52:52] the tools to hopefully be able to do it.

[1:52:53] H-R-N-A.

[1:52:56] H-R-N-A.

[1:52:59] And the contract is for, like, a set period?

[1:53:06] Yes, it's just for, it expires during this fiscal year, but they really are pretty

[1:53:12] close to the finish line.

[1:53:15] Okay.

[1:53:16] I guess I can talk to him more about it.

[1:53:17] Sure.

[1:53:18] Offline that I just picked my interest.

[1:53:20] Yeah, Laura, I was there on Monday and I'd mad because y'all will probably have like minutes or

[1:53:27] You'll have minutes so it could you provide that to the PNZ when it does come out that way because again

[1:53:35] Yes, y'all are trying to guide

[1:53:37] things that

[1:53:39] PNZ probably needs to know and I thought it was really good. It really was a good meeting and

[1:53:46] And I want to try and help make sure that that's the desire for the city and those are the recommendations that PNC knows kind of what some of those things are.

[1:53:56] And it is a good meeting. The minutes are really that we had a healthy discussion back and forth, you know, with the consultant providing information and getting feedback from council.

[1:54:05] The really the best information to look at is that agenda packet from Monday night. So their presentation is in there as well as like the detailed market analysis and other information.

[1:54:14] So, I mean, it's a lot of information, but it's good, and they also, they're portions of it where they really kind of summarize the main points, which is good for people like me.

[1:54:24] So, you're the development director, but what else is in your title or within your scope?

[1:54:32] Other duties as assigned.

[1:54:34] Okay. So, um, development director, do you go out and recruit businesses to come to the city?

[1:54:43] That's not any job description.

[1:54:46] You know, regulate new development. That's the, that's our main job description.

[1:54:49] So, we oversee permits, inspections, plan reviews, code enforcement, planning and zoning.

[1:54:57] But the city has not historically invested in an economic development director or department or program or coordinator, whatever.

[1:55:04] And so I was asked or I, you know, we agreed I'd be in charge of sort of handling this consultant project and then deciding what the next steps would be after that.

[1:55:15] If the city needs to look long term at investing more and every other city I've worked at has a department and economic development department.

[1:55:23] However, there's different circumstances that, you know, here we have Metro situation and so the city doesn't retain the maximum, you know, sales tax allocation compared to other cities.

[1:55:34] I know Missouri City is similar to us. So it just depends on where you are.

[1:55:37] So I've worked in different kinds of cities in the past where economic development is more of a program or department.

[1:55:43] They have an economic development corporation or 4B as it's called.

[1:55:47] We're not doing that here yet, but it could be something that's the city wants to try to do five years from now.

[1:55:52] I don't know, that's really not up to me, but we're trying to position ourselves to do whatever the city wants to do from an economic development perspective, if there's other possibilities out there in the future, because we haven't really restart full potential on that.

[1:56:05] And honestly, because we're predominantly residential.

[1:56:08] So that's a big part of it too, but we do have commercial areas that we're trying to get the best utilization out of.

[1:56:16] Okay, make a plug for the comp plan that a number of you worked on, there's basically

[1:56:22] a language in the comp plan that says, go get what you want in your city, don't just

[1:56:26] swat away, things you don't want.

[1:56:29] So this is following through on that.

[1:56:30] How can Bill Erick be more proactive to bring restaurants and types of retail you'd like

[1:56:35] to see?

[1:56:36] So I know Paralleland actually has an economic development position and I think the person

[1:56:43] that have been here went there to do that.

[1:56:45] They probably have five people doing that in parent land,

[1:56:48] as my guess.

[1:56:48] Because there's so much bigger than we are.

[1:56:51] Yeah.

[1:56:52] The city I came from had four or five people in that capacity.

[1:56:55] The city I was in before that had two or three.

[1:56:59] Yeah, so it can be kind of a thing in a lot of these cities

[1:57:03] around here.

[1:57:07] Thanks.

[1:57:07] I have heard really good things about them.

[1:57:11] This consult, this economic development consultant

[1:57:14] great ideas I've heard and things have been going well are they yeah yeah they're

[1:57:20] good and they're honest with us too you know they're they's I mean not that

[1:57:22] anyone else isn't but they're just like you know these are ideas but you're

[1:57:27] gonna have to go do this you know yeah so well good yeah that's great that's good

[1:57:32] to hear so all right anything else do we have anything else for the workshop

[1:57:37] up are we good? Do you have a motion? Motion to adjourn. All in favor? Aye aye.

[1:57:45] We're adjourned. Thanks you guys. Sorry for such a long one tonight.

Planning & Zoning Commission - Feb 12 2026

Agenda

Transcript