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10-24-1995 PLANNING AND ZONING MINUTES The Schertz Planning and Zoning Commission conducted a public hearing on Tuesday, October 24, 1995 at 7:00 p.m. in the Municipal Complex Conference Room, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. Those present were as follows: PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION CITY STAFF PIA JARMAN, CHAIRWOMAN STEVE SIMONSON, DAVID RICHMOND, VICE-CHAIRMAN ASST. CITY MANAGER MERWIN WILLMAN, SECRETARY DENISE GRANGER, TONY MORENO PLANNING SECRETARY KEITH VAN DINE ERNIE EVANS KEN GREENWALD, COUNCILMAN MEMBERS ABSENT OTHERS PRESENT KEITH VAN DINE, (WORK RELATED) James Brannon, County Commissioner #1 CALL TO ORDER Chairwoman Pia Jarman called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Pia Jarman explained the procedures to be followed at the public hearing and thanked everyone for their concerned interest. The City Council public hearing on this item will be held November 7, 1995. #2 PUBLIC HEARING: To Receive Citizen Input on a Request from James Sagebiel, on behalf of Guadalupe County Court House Annex Offices to rezone approximately five (5) Acres on Elbel Road from R-1 (Single Family Dwelling-District) to Public Use District. (ZC #123) Steve Simonson stated this public hearing was reschueduled due to an error in the announcement in the paper and the notices sent out stating where the property was. Specifically the original notice stated it was bounded by Greenfield Village and FM 3009. This property is not bounded by FM 3009 it is actually west of FM 3009 by about 325', bounded on the north by Greenfield Village and south by Elbel Road. Steve Simonson advised there were 19 letters sent to the property owners within 200' of this property. There were 3 (three) letters returned with 2 (two) in favor and 1 (one) opposed. The opposed letter is from the same gentleman that was opposed last time, not specifically on the County's request but that the property that is left might be rezoned Commercial. The other 2 (two) believe it will be a good thing as the County needs an office in this area. There being no other comments or questions the public hearing was closed. #3 ADJOURNMENT OF PUBLIC HEARING: Chairwoman Pia Jarman adjourned the Public Hearing at 7:05 p.m. The Schertz Planning and Zoning Commission convened in a regular session, after the public hearing. #4 CALL TO ORDER: Chairwoman Pia Jarman called the October 24, 1995 regular meeting to order at 7:06 p.m. #5 APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Regular Session for October 10, 1995. Merwin Willman moved to approve the October 10, 1995 Regular Session minutes. Ernie Evans seconded the motion which carried with a unanimous vote. #6 CITIZENS: INPUT OTHER THAN AGENDA ITEMS There were none. #7 CONSIDER AND MAKE RECOMMENDATION: Request from James Sagebiel, Guadalupe County Court House Annex Offices to rezone approximately five (5) Acres on Elbel Road from R-1 (Single Family Dwelling District) to Public Use District. (ZC #123) Merwin Willman moved to recommend to City Council the request from Guadalupe County Court House Annex Offices to rezone approximately five (5) Acres on Elbel Road from R-1 (Single Family Dwelling District) to Public Use District. David Richmond seconded the motion which carried with a unanimous vote. #8 REVIEW AND UPDATE: Master Road Plan Steve Simonson showed the master road plan map to the Commission. He advised that the map is very outdated due to current construction, the Commission will need to make some changes. Green Valley Road shows it will extend but that is not going to happen. Ashley Place is not building that way, and it was a wish, but it is not going to happen. The location is bad and very narrow. On the secondary road of Oak Street going forward, the zoning has been changed to a mobile home park so the road is not going to go anywhere. Woodland Oaks Drive going through will need to be taken -2- off as it being taken care of by Cibolo. There is a road showing that connects with Deer Creek in Cibolo. It was shown on the Master Plan out through Greenshire. At this time there is alot of discussion. They would like to put a school at the back of Woodland Oaks Drive and Greenshire Subdivision. There is some talk on taking Dietz Road or an alternate road and running it along the back of the City Limits. Steve Simonson advised he informed the School District that he can not talk for the Planning and Zoning Commission and can not make any promises. He advised the School District if they are going to put a road in it will have to be a through road, no driveways, and it will have to connect with Green Valley and Woodland Oaks Drive. If this was to happen the School District would be taking all the land east of Greenshire which could develop one day and come down Green Valley Road, Greenshire Drive and back up Woodlands Oaks Drive to the school. Steve Simonson stated he informed the School District there would be stipulations: there would have to be a 40' to 42' wide road, no driveways. It will be a throughway, must connect with Greenvalley, Woodland Oaks, and either Dietz or an alternate road. It will have to be set up so there are two lanes with bike and walking lanes to accommodate the children. This will serve the purpose they are talking about and the road can be built in that manner. Steve Simonson commented that the City will not build anything. The school is going to have to build part if not all of the road. The school will need to plat the property with the Commission, change the zoning and apply for a Specific Use Permit and a site plan will be required. Tony Moreno asked how committed the school board is on this property. Steve Simonson advised he does not have that information. Steve Simonson mentioned these are concepts but there are roads that need to be deleted on the map. Merwin Willman commented that when the map was originally done the land in this area was being zoned for residential not a school. Steve Simonson advised it is still showing the road stubbing out south. Steve Simonson stated he will have individual maps for the Commission's review for the next meeting. Pia Jarman asked about Bubbling Springs Road. Steve Simonson advised that it is not a road it is a sewer easement. It was named on a plat Bubbling Springs Road and can not be taken off. #9 INFORMAL REPORT: Short Summerization on Key Issues of Specific Sessions Attended at the TXAPA Conference. Pia Jarman commented that at last years conference four (4) of the Commissioners attend with three (3) going to the short course. Leaving Steve to do the best he could attending the other meetings. -3- This year we were fortunate to be able to have seven (7) attend. There were two (2) in the short course leaving five (5) to be able to attend as many of the different meetings as possible. The City of Schertz is very generous as many of the cities do not send their Commissioners. Pia feels we owe it to the City and to this Commission for everyone to share the different insights and information that they received from the different meetings. Pia Jarman asked for Steve and Merwin and anyone else who attended the legal sessions to give information that will be helpful. Steve Simonson advised that the legal session covered a lot of background about what is around the corner. They commented on two (2) cases that severely impacted cities abilities to extract from developers. One has been in litigation for nine (9) years. The one in Oregon was talked about in length, about cities having a city plan. You can not go out and take land just because you want to build a bike trail. The point is you are taking land from a business for a bike trail. People are not going to go buy car parts by riding a bike to the business. Basically the advice is be consistent for what you do and have a reason for why you are doing it. Unreasonable requests asking for land from developers coming in is not going to hold up. If every developer is asked to supply the same then you will not have any conflicts. Most of the laws this year don't affect our business, they are very minor. Most of the laws that were lost, give the developers the lay of the land. There was some talk about future state law versus the comprehensive plans. In many states the comprehensive plan has as much authority as the zoning ordinance. Texas does not have that at this time. Merwin Willman commented that he has written to Senator Kuemple for copies of the four (4) new laws that just passed. He also requested a copy of the Texas Local Government Code which covers everything that we do. It will be checked out with the new UDC. Pia Jarman asked for Ernne Evan's comments on the short course. Ernie Evans mentioned that from two different sessions in the short course it seems things are handled a lot differently than what we as a Commission do. One of the speakers was a City Attorney and the other was a City Coordinator. They talked about approving plats based on contingencies. This practice was not recommended. There was a City that had gotten in trouble with the contingencies and had to go to court. Either the plat is approved because it is correct or it is turned down and has to be resubmitted with all the corrections being made before it can be approved. It seems that this Commission does a lot of plat approvals based on contingencies with corrections to be made. Pia Jarman commented that was the very reason Merwin had brought up the issue some meetings ago on placing the contingencies on the approvals. It is left hanging. There needs to be some type of closure in the minutes. If what you are saying is what we ought to be doing, then we need to disapprove and have the developers come back with the plats having all the corrections to be able to be -4- approved. Pia Jarman asked Steve if that would be putting too much of a burden on him having the developers resubmitting the plats with the corrections. Steve stated that it would not be a problem with him. Ernie Evans commented the lady that was doing the last session made some very significant points. The fact that the minutes do not reflect the complete handling of the case if you have a contingency. This was a problem legally, having this particular City in question having to rewrite one of their articles about what they would accept or not accept in terms of the plat. With this, if all the blocks were not checked in the positive then it was no longer an acceptable plat. As things begin to grow with our City could this not happen to us in time? What they were saying made sense when the documents are in front of you they should be correct or disapproved and sent back with the corrections. Ernie Evans felt this was a reasonable thing to think about. Merwin Willman commented there is so much to do, to ask our staff to try and remember all the contingencies it is asking a lot. It would be better off, for the professionals to make the changes and resubmit the corrected plat to the Commission. Most of the developers we are dealing with now have worked in the City many years and they are aware what needs to be on a plat to be approved. David Richmond mentioned the same thing applies to the Engineers. Steve Simonson mentioned a lot of times, the developers come in he may have checked everything but 1 or 2 items on the preliminary plat. Then the Commission makes additional requests and the developers may miss 1 or 2. We remind them and they state it will be corrected on the final. Steve advised he does not have a problem with the developers having to come back with all the corrections. We have a check list that they must follow and there is a time limit on the requests being in the office to be on the agenda, which is part of our policy. It is in our ordinance if everything is not done they will not get final approval. Tony Moreno commented as things get backed up, a developer may have the building permits ready and they are just waiting for the Commission's approval. Steve Simonson advised he has no problem with that. It has happened before. There have been developers who come in with a Master Plan for an informal talk with the Commission and they are told to have a drawing for such occasions. They are then given a check list to follow for approval of a plat. Ernie Evans mentioned he enjoyed the short course very much. There were several sessions that could have had more detail and been a little bit longer. The comments on a Public Hearing should be very formal, it should be conducted like a court hearing. There should be no side discussions and should be moved in accordance to a rule of order. It was mentioned on what could happen if a City does not -5- follow certain rules of order, as a protection for the City, in case it was to go to court. The City of Schertz did receive a positive comment in one of the sessions based on the fact that we had under taken the rewriting of our UDC and had accomplished this on our own. Merwin Willman stated for clarification: the approval or disapproval is on final plats. On preliminary plats we can either disapprove or conditionally approve it. Conditionally approve, it with modifications being made prior to submission of the final plat. Pia Jarman commented that preliminary and final plat could not be schudeled on the same night. David Richmond mentioned that this would not preclude the developers from not wanting a request to be put on the agenda. The developers will be told if there is a problem it will need to be brought back before the Commission and corrected to be approved. Steve Simonson explained that he would be informing the developers unless what the Commission has stated needs to be on the plat if it is not on the plat it will not be brought before the Commission until it is corrected. Merwin Willman commented this is why the Commission agreed on a check list so that the staff would not have to be held responsible if items were missing that were required. David Richmond commented that in the last two (2) years he has attend the short course they have been very interesting with good presenters. It was nice this year to have had the opportunity to be more flexible to be able to attend the other sessions. In particular he thought, among the sessions he attended a large majority focused on tourism as it applied to small cities and towns. There was focus on the hill country and other places. David advised he attended three (3) sessions that tied together. The session on heritage, tourism, and packaging tourism, and economic assistance (Raising Dough for Your City). Millie Bruner was a very interesting presenter. She is a program specialist in the Texas Comptroller's Office in the Dallas Economic Assistance Office. The interesting thing was that she made a point that the whole idea behind her office is to provide cities and the local government with assistance in receiving grants. They are easy to find if you know where to look for them but there are many grants that go unclaimed because cities do not know how to find them. There is money available. It is almost like loans for colleges for kids. Many go unclaimed because the children and parents do not know where to go or who to talk with about them. For example the Texas leverage fund available from the Texas Department of Commerce will issue low interest loans. The motel/hotel tax advantages, with the City of Schertz soon to have a Ramada Inn on IH 35, it is going to provide our city with this tax. Millie Bruner had very positive things to say her willingness and that of her staff to -6- make themselves available to help cities. The thing that struck David was he had never heard of this before and it sounded as if they have a branch located in most large cities that should serve the surrounding areas in the Metrocom. It might be worth having someone contact them. Councilman Ken Greenwald stated that someone about two (2) years ago did come and explain the program to the City. Steve Simonson agreed that someone did come and talk to the city about two (2) years ago and Mark Marquez, the Economic Development Coordinator for the City is very involved. There are more opportunities out there for the City. The one in particular that Steve is interested in, is what is going to happen to FM 78 to make it the show case coming into the City. There may possibly be grants that will be able to help us. Steve informed the Commission he is in charge of FM 78, so he is going to look into what is available. David Richmond mentioned that the impression is that the money is there and the people are there to help cities get the money. The other two presentations were on heritage tourism and packaging tourism. David commented he sat there and visualized downtown Schertz, Main Street. The main question was "What does your City have to sell". These are questions that you have to ask yourself. Schertz's stand point we would not be interested so much in tourism as such because we are not going to go out and build a water park in our area. But we are next to a major Air Force base that will probably be the last base to close, being on the corridor, and being in an area with significant German heritage. The City does not advertise for example on why Schertz is named Schertz. New Braunfels, a city of larger size, has the same type of German Heritage we have in Schertz, does a very good job in advertising and also a good job focusing on the downtown areas through the preservation of some older buildings. And they market it well. The point was made that Texas is the second most visited state. The question is who is interested in visiting the state today. Our population and demographics are changing. We have two groups of people to focus on, the baby boomers who are growing up and the seniors. The baby boomers are going to be seniors before you know it. We as a City need to ask ourselves what do we have to offer, who is interested in coming and what can we do. We have a heritage here that we can talk about and build on. They talked about Corpus Christi having a heritage park right off the ocean about midway. They had some land available off the bay front. They extended the road perpendicular to the bay front road, went out around Corpus and found the nine (9) oldest residences about 1857. These were not restored in place but brought to this central location and they put them on amain street configuration, put in a cobble stone street, a gazebo to be used as a band stand etc. They then went after some private money to restore the nine (9) old houses. It turned out to be an appealing draw to the tourist because great -7- numbers have visited. After several requests they have granted leases on some to specialty shops, tea rooms etc. so people can come in to help keep the restored building up and operate a little business at the same time. What do we have today along main street. We have old appearing buildings that could certainly be looked at for possible restoration to enhance the main street on either side of the railroad tracks. The other presentation was on packaging tourism. It focused on little towns in the hill country. The focus was on a "sense of place". A lot of these places are in little towns with apparently not much to offer. When they as consultants went around to these little cities they tried to make the cities have a sense of place and show them that they do have something to offer. It may be the simplest thing. There was one town that thought they had nothing to offer because their town was split in half by a railroad track. They were informed to stop and think about the railroads today. Number one this country is losing them soon. People turn out to ride the train because they know in a few years there may not be a train to ride or see. There have been times David mentioned that he and his wife have gone to Sonic or Dairy Queen and have sat outside and listened to the trains going by. There aren't too many rural towns that you can do this in. We have it right here in Schertz. You need to develop your natural features. What are we going to do with FM 78 across the creek? That creek area is a mess but there may be money available after we get a nice road with leveled bridge across, to spruce up the area and to provide a nice creek bed. Instead of the way it is today. Again that is the entry into our City. We may have the nicest looking road in the world but if you still have the creek bed that has trash in it all the time, it is not very presentable. The speakers also talked about unique construction, and we do have some of that available. We may even have some of our local business people that would be very happy to join in an effort to help beautify a 1, 2, 3 or 4 square block area down on FM 78. David said he had never seen Gruene before 1975. But since then he has seen a lot happening. You can walk the whole area in about 30 minutes at a slow pace. The presenters also talked about signage and showed some interesting slides. You need to sell your City by having a good welcome sign. It needs to be placed in the appropriate place. There are ways to do a sign by raising it, bermming it etc. The sign we have down on FM 78 with a red border has to have been there for 50 years. That is not much of a welcome sign into Schertz. There were quite a few suggestions. For example a visitors center. You don't need a visitors' center to be some grand fancy place. It can be put in a restored building. David stated he was very impressed with all the comments that were made, given how much recently we have talked about FM 78 and what we can be allowed to do with our city. We obviously have businesses that are concerned. Burch Roofing in the last few years -8- has improved the building. There still is a lot that needs to be done. Obviously with talking about FM 78 with the improvements with the ROW, maybe replacing the standard street lighting with some old gas looking type lamps. You could berm up in front of Beck's concrete to keep the dust and the trucks from being so visible from the street. It wouldn't cost that much to do some of these improvements and with a good group of interested people it could happen. This would give citizens a good feeling to come downtown and to want visitors to come through the downtown area. David commented that he was really pleased with the conference this year and hopes that San Antonio next year will focus on the small cities. When you look around you will notice at the sessions most representatives are from the little towns around Texas. Mervin Willman mentioned that they talked about membership at the conference and most of the membership of professional is limited. So they are out to get the people like us, but then they don't have the resources to help us out as a small city. He has given everyone a copy of what we have done in the past so you can review what has been done. We can continue on with this or change things. Tony Moreno said he attended the same sessions as David. David did a marvelous reiteration on what was said. Tony was very impressed that they did bring up the small communities and elaborated on it. As far as any .additional comments he had none. Pia Jarman stated the three different sessions she attended did tie into what David mentioned. One was "New Markets for Old Downtowns", "Shopping as Tourism", and a very interesting one "The Business of Nature Tourism". The interesting thing is that things are changing. Trends have changed from what they used to be. Compared to 1973 leisure time has gone down 37~. We would think in this very technical age with computers and such, that we would have more time. Actually studies have shown that it is the opposite. Many businesses are allowing people to stay at home and work on their computers. But they are staying on their computers doing their own work plus what they have to do for their own jobs. They are having less time to spend outside and they are isolated. What is happening is these people are going out and doing different things such as; ecotourism, avitourism, and wild life watching. These people are not exactly your "roughing it" people. They do not want to camp outside in a tent, go hunting, or fishing. They do need nature and they do need relaxation. The point is we have all this right here in Schertz. All the green areas for hiking trails, and bird watching. The presenters talked about the increase of retail space, increasing 18 square feet per American. That too has become a past-time, to go to the mall as a family. The discussion on the shopping as tourism was about factory outlets. One would think that they are taking away business from towns actually they are saying this is what gives a kind of a resurgence to downtowns. Most of your outlet malls are far away at least 50 miles from the city. Downtown you need businesses that are going to complement -9- those types of big factory outlets. Like antique shops and quaint restaurants in old buildings the kind of buildings we have in our city. On the ecotourism session they mentioned you don't have a large stretch of land but small pockets. Perhaps a little restaurant outside with a few plants, and some bird feeders and you will have people coming because that is part of something they don't have in cities. It does not cost a lot of money just to have little spots for people to enjoy nature. Tourism is the largest industry in the world. In Texas it is the third largest. By the turn of the century, it will be the number one industry. There is on going work of restoring the coastal areas of Texas, artificially recreating what has been taken away and destroyed by man. Texas State Task Force on Texas Nature Tourism has reported on research and information on the use of land as it is, including its plant, animal and water resources for recreational uses from backpacking to hiking to wildlife watching and photography. Nature - related tourism is the fastest growing of the travel industry. The Texas Nature Tourism Association was established to combine the creature comforts of the hotel/motel tourism group with the natural and environmental activities. The bottom line of the presentations was: The communities that protect their natural areas will attract not only wildlife, but money in the form of nature tourism. The City of Schertz is fortunate with all the natural land and green areas it has. The parkland in Greenshire being left the way it is, in its natural state, seems to be the ideal. If and when the xeriscape park is finished, the City will be a model for other cities, showing what can be done with a little plot of land. Merwin Willman commented that in past years they have tried to get the convention to have sessions more for small cities. Copies of past recommendations were given to the Commissioners to see what has been done. If the Commission would like to follow up and give ideas back to the conference hosts. It is just some information for the Commission. The information did help before this was done, it was geared for big cities and was very hard to expand to a little city. All the speakers come from big cities. If they want to increase their membership they are going to have to come to people like us, little cities. They are going to have to offer the small cities something to come to the conferences and to join the chapters. David Richmond mentioned with not knowing how far along San Antonio is with next year's conference or how involved Steve is with the committee the one thing that struck him is he would hope that next year if they could provide good speakers from other cities in the area just a stone throw away like Boerne, Fredricksburg, and others on IH 10 West. Have the planners come speak on how they have developed from a small city and how they have expanded. San Antonio is the heart of tourism and everything they have done downtown with the River Walk is to focus and refocus on the downtown heart of San Antonio, go to the River Walk the Alamo, the -10- King William district. This being the focus, bring in the planners from around the area from the small towns on what they have done from the historic stand point, and heritage stand point, they could have a super agenda. Merwin Willman commented that he would like before the conference gets underway to send letters to all the surrounding cities asking them what type of problems they are experiencing and what they need help on so that a session could be set up to help other small cities. Pia Jarman mentioned it would be nice to be able to share with other cities what we have learned. Steve Simonson stated he is on the committee for San Antonio. They have received quite a response on the questionaire that was handed out at the conference. The response for small cities was mentioned considerably on the questionaire. The City of Schertz is on the agenda for what small cities can do in technology. Ford Engineering has been asked to make a presentation. You need a very good map system and our intent is to show maps visually on a 19" monitor computer. We are going to take our map, and, with layers, show what can be done. There is talk about visiting the King William District, and other sites in the area. Based upon what has been talked upon this evening, Steve will bring it up on how much is needed to help small cities. The theme for the conference will be color coded and ecology is going to be a part of the agenda. There is very high emphasis on the ecology. The one meeting that Steve and Merwin did attend at one of the conferences in the past, was labeled small cities and they asked what do they consider a small city. They were informed that anything under 50,000. Steve and Merwin stated that 90~ of the Texas cities are under 10,000. The thing that Steve will need from the Commission is for the Commissioners to get more involved in the planning of the conference. Steve Simonson advised that Schertz has a reputation and cities are being told to be careful what you say around Schertz because they have done it themselves or they will try. Steve mentioned that the xeriscape park is coming along. The bid opening for the sidewalks will be held on November 2, 1995. Pia mentioned it would be nice if the park could be done by the conference date. X10 GENERAL DISCUSSION: Tonv Moreno• Tony Moreno stated he had no comments. Ernie Evans• Ernie Evans commented at the conference Steve advised he was going to look for some documentation on the peripherals out there. -11- Steve Simonson stated it should be available at the next meeting. Pia Jarman advised at the next meeting the interviews for a new Commissioner will be on the agenda. Pia Jarman• Pia Jarman stated she had no further comments. Merwin Willman• Merwin Willman commented the Planning and Zoning Commission is the City's impact fee Committee. Any time there is a meeting for the impact fee Committee, we will have to attend. And there is word a meeting is being scheduled. Also they are in need of a Realtor on such a committee. With Bob Andrews not available any longer, they will need to find another source. Merwin Willman mentioned that in the packets there was some information from chapters out of the handbook "Small Town Planning" on the comprehensive plan. Three years ago in 1993 when the comprehensive plan was done Merwin purchased this book from the APA Library. The chapters were give out at that time. So again he has made copies for the Commission's review before the comprehensive plan is reviewed again. The chapter Capital Improvements is a very important chapter that needs to be really looked at. The City of Schertz does not have a Capital Improvement Plan and it is up to City Council to do this. There are areas in the City that need planning for the future. There was an area that was mentioned tonight. Green Valley Road will need to be upgraded. There is more information available if anyone is interested. David Richmond: David Richmond asked about HEB. Steve stated no word yet. David Richmond thanked Pia for following up on his comments at the last meeting and writing a letter on the article in the Express News "A Way of Life on the Go". He also thanked Kerry Sweatt for his response to the chief editor that we felt left out and thought it was inappropriate for Schertz to be left out. Kerry raised some very good points. When this happens the City of Schertz needs to stand up and be counted as we are in the corridor and we need to be counted. Councilman Ken Greenwald: Councilman Ken Greenwald commented that the letter from Kerry was sent as the Council also thought it was appropriate. The Council felt they should have looked at all the areas that are in the corridor. There is supposed to be more articles to this effect in future issues. Steve Simonson: -12- Steve Simonson mentioned that he has a copy of a letter about the map that was in the Sun on Cibolo with their vast areas of growth. Kerry Sweatt wrote a letter to Chuck Balcar formally advising him that part of the area on the map is in the City of Schertz ETJ and service area. Steve Simonson handed out information that he had requested from Fulbright and Jaworski on their opinion on gated communities. This is for the futur. One of the items Steve specifically talked with them about was how do we control and make sure the homeowners associations are doing what they are supposed to be doing and have the money that they are supposed to have. This gives the Commission some ideas on what to work with. On the last page in particular, they give some specific A,B,C,D and 1,2,3,4,5,6 things that we may include in something we may want to do. It is something that we need to work on to have ready at some point of time. Steve mentioned he wanted to give a copy to the Commission now so they would have time to review it. Tony Moreno commented as a cursory look there are some avenues that can be binding. Steve Simonson advised you have to have an ordinance and it has to be handled very carefully. If you do not have a mechanism in place like we are talking about, the old theory of "if it is private, it is private, we don't have to worry about it holds". This is true legally but not necessarily politically. This is what is happening in San Antonio. "I'm paying City taxes, come fix my road" on what's a private road. "I'm paying the same taxes as the person living outside of this gated community." The legal side is that the community wanted to be gated and private, now you fix your own roads. Merwin Willman commented there is another question we need to keep in mind, do we want a gated community in our City? Ernie Evans asked if this would be a problem if we decided we didn't want gated communities. Steve Simonson advised, not necessarily, you are not zoning out any kind of specific homes or zoning out any kind of specific people. All you are saying is you do not want this type of development. There is an area already in the City. There is one across the creek in David's area and one across the street in an open field area. They can not say that we are restricting their right to build their style home. We are stating that it can not be gated. They can still take you to court and try to sue you. We don't have a large development that is a gated community in our City limits. Because we did not have any zoning authority in North Cliff we could no stop them from developing that area. We could only make them build to our specifications. The only gated community that is really in the City of Schertz is Roy Richard's and that is a very specific nine acre lot surrounded on two sides by flood plain area. Steve Simonson advised there is an official notice from the City Secretary dated October 13, 1995 that the City Council voted on October 11, 1995 to renew the terms for two years for Pia Jarman -13- and David Richmond. The recording secretary mentioned that both individuals need to be sworn in. This is a new procedure. #19 ADJOURNMENT: David Richmond moved to adjourn the meeting. Tony Moreno seconded the motion, which carried with a unanimous vote. Chairwoman Pia Jarman adjourned the meeting at 9:00 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting is November 14, 1995 at 7:00 p.m. Chairma , Planning and Zoning Commission City of Schertz, Texas ATTEST: Planning Se retary City of Schertz, Texas -14-