ccswks 05-30-01
SPECIAL WORKSHOP SESSION OF THE SCHERTZ CITY COUNCIL
MAY 30, 2001
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session on Wednesday, May
30, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. in the Municipal Complex Conference Room, 1400 Schertz
Parkway, Schertz, Texas. Those present were as follows: Mayor Pro Tern Ken
Greenwald, presiding; Councilmembers Norma Head; Reginna Agee; and Tim Swinney.
Those absent: Mayor Hal Baldwin. Staff present were as follows: City Manager Dewey
Cashwell; Comptroller Vijay Jain; Inspector Leonard Truitt; Public Works Director
Johnny Bierschwale; and Dolores Butler, Deputy City Secretary.
Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and welcomed
everyone to the special workshop session.
With consent from City Council, item #5 was moved up on the agenda.
#5 Discuss potential rezoning at the corner of Elbel Road and FM 3009.
Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald introduced Mr. Roger Nichols who had signed up to speak to
the issue.
Mr. Nichols stated that a lot of meetings have been held with residents most eminently
affected in that area but this is a concern of many residents who will be affected. In
talking with the developer and/or his representatives, they are talking about a massive
development, including cut-ins from FM 3009. There is already a lot of (vehicle) traffic
as well as pedestrian traffic there, and with the new schools coming, there will be even
more. One thing in the summary sheet of the Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) directed by
City Council that has been a bone of contention is, not only are they (developers) looking
to rezone that to Neighborhood Services, but the TIA was predicated on a drive-through
restaurant on the lot right behind Webster on the comer.
The concern is that with a drive-through restaurant, strip mall, parking lot, gas station,
another small strip mall-type facility, and then the two apartment complexes and possibly
Albertson's we are going to have the same problems as we have at FM 3009 and IH-35.
That said, it seems a more studied approach is needed. We have a strong tax base. Do
we have to put the character, integrity and safety in that part of Schertz at risk just for
development? We are without exception, with the people with whom we've met, in favor
of Office Professional development immediately, if the developer should wish, on the
property behind from Webster on back and then from Elbel all the way down.
Mr. Nichols said this is a corporation from Houston and the desire to make money is
understood, but he doesn't think we need the tax base urgently and he doesn't think we
need to bend to his desires at the risk of impacting our city in such a negative fashion.
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Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald brought to Mr. Nichols' attention that the developer has a
major drainage problem he has to fix and is going to lose a sizeable piece of land. The
drainage easement across the street by Silvertree has to match coming across the road.
Obviously, one of the things a developer looks at is cost versus profit.
Mr. Nichols said he understood that; however, he (developer) as a businessman opted to
purchase this from Edgar Yon Scheele Corporation and if he doesn't make a lot of
money, he is sorry, but .... oh, well.
Ms. Agee said she has some real concerns about the traffic impact analysis on page 2,
where it talks about trip generation and peak-hours. She doesn't know who selected the
peak-hours but she can't imagine that they know what goes on at that comer if they
picked the hours of 7-9 a.m. weekday mornings and 4-6 p.m. weekday evenings.
Evidently they were not out there between 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. when school breaks for
lunch and there are 1,000 students from Clemens that have the possibility of traveling
that road because of off-campus for juniors and seniors. Her window looks out at that
driveway and there are a lot of cars that leave that campus. At 2:30 p.m. when fourth
period breaks, a vast number of seniors are going off-campus. School breaks at 3:43 p.m.
with another major evacuation of Clemens to the point that a school officer is out
directing traffic in the afternoon just to get the buses out. The peak-hour trips in the TIA
are certainly not peak hours for Elbel Road and FM 3009. In essence, the whole thing
(TIA) is kind of skewed. Also, the bus barn is located at 1060 Elbel so you have a major
thoroughfare up and down Elbel through 3009 for buses leaving out of the bus barn going
to Wiederstein, Jordan, Dobie, Watts and there will be another high school and another
elementary school over there.
Mr. Nichols asked if the survey took into account the railroad at FM 78 with long trains
backing the traffic up. It just seems that all the things that went wrong at H-E-B would
be compounded down there.
Mr. Swinney said he was in full agreement - that the mess at H-E-B could occur easily if
this situation is allowed to develop the way it possibly could here, compounded with all
the students driving and pedestrian traffic.
Mr. Nichols asked if the flood plain was changed (after the big flood a couple of years
ago) from a 500 to a 100-year flood plain and if so, how that will impact the area. Who
makes that determination.
Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald said part of the problem is that the drainage is not carried
through, there is no way for the water to get out. We know what the problems are and
only $5 million will fix it.
The gentleman on Mr. Swinney's right commented that once FM 78 is finished with four
lanes of traffic, there is going to be even more traffic.
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Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald noted that even though we put restrictions on the businesses
on FM 3009, the State Highway Department just voided all of them and set their own, so
no matter what we want, we have no say as far as driveway cuts.
Mr. Nichols said from the research he has been able to do, the only real latitude we have
is at the rezoning point. Once rezoned we have a hard time keeping them from doing
whatever they want that falls within the purview of those zoning codes; so if we were to
go ahead with the rezoning request that corporation has now, we will have no recourse
down the line.
Ms. Agee said she talked to the Mayor about this. At the strategic planning retreat Steve
(Simonson) pitched out the idea that we desperately need a new post office. Mayor
Baldwin did talk to Sharon Ricketts, Postmaster and was of the impression that she would
get in touch with the developer about the possibility of a facility that the postal service
could lease long term. That might prompt the developer to go with Professional Services.
Mr. Cashwell wondered how the folks in the neighborhood might characterize the impact
from the commercial development already there.
Mr. Nichols said it changed a lot when FM 3009 went to five lanes. There have been
some awful bad accidents, one involved a school bus.
Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald said he would recommend taking no action tonight, but ask
City staff to run a count at various times, not just the peak times used in the TIA, but
what the actual count is. Do we want to set specific hours to include with the numbers
Johnny Bierschwale already has?
Ms. Agee said she would like to see something with the school time hours at peak-times
students are leaving campus as stated earlier. This item needs to be put on the next
workshop agenda for discussion because we talked about some of the things in the
strategic planning session as to where the City is going. The question is how hard are
these people pushing to get it rezoned, has the City heard from them? They didn't even
show up when Planning & Zoning sent it to Council to set a public hearing on it. They
have been communicating with Mr. Nichols.
Mr. Cashwell said he has not heard from them but it would surprise him if these folks
aren't pretty intense about wanting to do something as this property has tremendous value
as commercial venture property. There is no secret that Schertz is growing and there is a
heck of a lot of traffic and traffic is what folks look for when trying to site a business. It
would surprise him if they didn't come with great proclamation of their interest.
Mr. Nichols said he thinks they are hoping we will come to you and say everything is
peachy, jump right in. This guy bought this property zoned R-I. Nobody told him the
property is zoned R-I but we promise such and such. It is a business venture. If this
were un-zoned it would be one issue. It is R-I and he knew it when he bought it and had
no guarantees, presumably. Life is that way sometimes.
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Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald said if we aren't satisfied we have enough information to go
forward, we can still wait two weeks.
Mr. Cashwell said he hasn't heard from these folks and doesn't get the sense there is a
big push. That is not to say their antenna might not go out once they've heard what has
transpired here this evening.
Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald said if they do call, Council has asked for additional
information based on the traffic impact analysis and it is going to take two weeks to get it
and we will place this on the next workshop agenda for further discussion.
Ms. Head said she would like to see the response to the post office proposal.
Mr. Swinney said that would be a real win, win situation if we could be proactive and
offer something positive to the community and acceptable to everybody including the
developer.
#2 Consider and take action appointing applicants to the following:
a. Economic Development Commission
b. Transportation Safety Advisory Committee
Mr. Cashwell said he was having some difficulty distinguishing between the EDC and the
TSAC applicants based on what he had been given.
Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald suggested tabling this item until such time as the original
applications could be located and place this on the June 5, 2001 agenda.
#3 Discuss public hearing (scheduled June 5, 2001) regarding junked vehicle.
Leonard Truitt, Building Official explained a junked van was found at 438 River Road.
When the public hearing was originally requested, the previous owner of the vehicle was
requesting the hearing. The Inspection Department has since requested to keep it on the
table because the current owner of the vehicle has not gotten rid of the vehicle. It has
been moved to the side of the house, making it more exposed and it is stilI not in
compliance. State law and our new ordinance requires the Inspection Department, in the
intent to take the vehicle still have the public hearing. We have been in contact with the
current owner and he has failed to comply. We are requesting placing a public hearing
on the June 5, 2001 agenda.
#4 Discuss budget schedule.
Mr. Cashwell noted the proposed schedule included in Council packets, pretty much in
keeping with what has been done in the past. There are four (4) workshop opportunities
to hear presentations of City staff. The first public hearing for tax purposes is scheduled
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for September 12 and the budget hearing and ordinance passage on September 18th. and
the effective budget date on October 1, 2001.
Mayor Pro Tern noted Mr. Cashwell had found the applications for the Economic
Development Commission (EDC) and Transportation Safety Advisory Committee
(TSAC). For information, applicants for the TSAC are: Dominguez - 5 votes; McDow -
4 votes; Gignac - 3 votes; Pellerin - 3 votes; Allen - 3 votes and Piller - 2 votes.
Applicants for the EDC are: Brown - 2 votes; Gonzalez - 2 votes; and Douglas - 2
votes. We will vote on these positions at the June 5, 2001 regular meeting.
#6 EXECUTIVE SESSION: Called under Chapter 551 Texas Government Code
A. Sub-Section 552.071, Pending or contemplated litigation:
Wastewater Permit renewal
B. Sub-Section 551.072, Deliberation regarding real property"
1. Annexation
2. ETJ
3. Creation of Public Facilities Corporation
C. Sub-Section 551.074, Personnel Matters:
Retirement of Employee
#7 Action, if any, on above Executive Session.
No action to be taken at this time.
#8 ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business to discuss, Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald adjourned the
meeting at 9:43 p.m.
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ATTEST:
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City Secretary, City of Schertz
180
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Mayor, City of Schertz, Texas