after that. So we'll get this party going. Thank you for being here this evening for the Council meeting Tuesday, March 25th. We're going to start off with a pledge of allegiance led by Council member Daniel Booker. The Texas Pledge will follow that led by our finance director Mike Rogers. And I will lead the invocation before we call this report. So please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Texas, please. I have the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state state under God and in the visible. All right, that was with me in prayer. Here, though, we just come to you today and just enjoy the night spring weather and the things turning green and nice to see some thunderheads and potential rain coming this way. We just pray for rain for our farmers and for our plants and for us in this region. Just continue to walk with us, guide and direct, allow us to be good neighbors and be good stewards of the relationships that we have in the community in which we live. And guide our steps this evening as we deliberate on the behalf of the city. And your name would pray, amen. All right, we will now call our meeting to order at 531 and a little bit. First item on the agenda is public comments. I've got several public comments. Several of them are on agenda items. It looks like I've got two. I'm just going to go an alphabetical order based on first name. And so Adam Adam? Three minutes. Name and address for the record. We'll start on the Adam Wagner. Wagner, 202, Shine Street. Dear members of the city council, my name is Adam Wagner and I'm writing to respectfully urge you to reconsider forward with the proposed rezoning plan which may have unintended consequences that could price many hardworking families out of their homes. While I recognize the importance of fostering growth and development in our community, it is essential that these changes do not come at the cost of displacing long term residents who have built their lives here. rezoning often leads to increased property values, which in turn results with dire property taxes. For non-retired residents, especially working families and individuals on fixed incomes. This financial burden may become unsustainable, and that's my case directly. I'll talk to the numbers at the end. Many of these residents have contributed to their strength and vitality of our community for years, and they deserve to remain in their homes without fear of being forced out due to rising costs. In addition, I'm concerned that this plan represents increased government overreach at the local level, contradicting the clear message sent by voters in the recent national election. The results of the election demonstrated a strong public mandate for less government interference and a greater emphasis on protecting individual freedoms and property rights. Yet despite this call for reduced government intervention, the city seems to be moving the opposite direction by pushing forward a rezoning plan that imposes more control over private property and risk making our city less affordable for the people who live here. Before making a decision that could drastically affect the future of our neighborhoods, I respectfully request that the City Council take time to gather an accurate percentage of residents who genuinely support this plan. It is crucial that the voices of all residents, particularly those who will be most affected are heard and considered. Transparency and community input should guide these important decisions to ensure that we are building a future that benefits everyone. Not just to select few. Please consider the long term impact this point could have on the affordability and diversity of our city. I urge you to prioritize solutions that protect current residents while promoting thoughtful and sustainable growth. Lastly, please stop assuming residents that cannot make meetings or return surveys. Don't care or they are supporting you your plan anonymously. That is disingenuous at best. My mortgage for 2024 has increased $285.76 per month. That's $3,420 annually. That's 5.8% of my salary. And as a teacher, I could assume maybe get 3% if I'm lucky, but typically zero. But zero to three is about the rough increase if we get anything. And I'm asked to pull out a pocket 5.8% of that salary. From 24 to 25, the increase on my mortgage, it went up 16.4%. Now I haven't been able to go to the tax office because they don't have the numbers for me. However, every person in that tax office was not worried about Imagine Belton. They were worried about putting food on the table and paying those property taxes. I felt bad, the last lady getting a car wash built in her backyard. Your time is up I'll be next all right Thank you. Thank you. All right next is Clinton Bailey Name and address for the record Yeah, good evening. My name is Clint Bailey 445 L. Rose first and foremost. I want to thank each of you service for to our community So I'm just here to raise a safety concern and share a positive experience. So the Hubbard Branch Elementary subdivisions, the new subdivision next to the Hubbard Branch Elementary School, they do not have the sidewalks that are, they know have sidewalks in place, preventing the kids have a safe path for school, and they also do not have playgrounds resulting in those kids playing in the streets. So I reached out to the city. The city got me touched with the DPW. We actually had a meeting with DPW today with some of the residents to share that concern. DPW came out. They were very respectful, professional. They surveyed the area. They listened to our concerns. We felt heard, which is important, and they're gonna follow up with us. So one, I just wanna raise the concerns to you that make sure that you're tracking that the kids go on an elementary and that subdivision, they don't have a safe path to school, but also share that positive experience that we had with DPW today. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, last on the public comments is alphabetically is Woody Durbin. Imagine Bill. I would imagine Woody Durbin 308 East, 207 in Middleton, Texas. At some point, I guess we're seeing some of this now. I've lived there in that house for 25 years, suffering some of these same things. It's unique to know that 10% every year, and I've got it on a statement. I can show you my tax increase. You all fight to keep it at whatever state the I understand your hard work there too. Anyway it's concerning to me I can't turn my water meters off. I have two of them. One for the sprinkler system, one for the home. We got new electronic readers and the first one went on my smaker system. It's just funny. Some of the things that go on. I want to know what you're going to do to maintain the existing and quichason, the growth and the greed. It's all I got. All right, thank you, Woody. All right. That's all I have that signed up to speak. If anyone else wishes to address the council on any non-agenda item, now is your chance to do that. If you wish to address on agenda item, we'll get those chances later. So anyone else from the floor that wishes to speak? All right. There being no others wish to speak. We will close public comments and we will go on to the consent agenda. The following items can be enacted by single motion. These are agenda items three through eleven. And the council can pull off any item they wish to address separately. I'll read those for the record. And then we will consider these in a single motion or we will pull them off and break them out. So the item three is approving the minutes of the March 11th council meeting. Item four is adopting a resolution of support for the transition of the central Texas council of governments to a regional 911 emergency communications district. Item five is authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Paragon Sports Construction LLC for the installation of a multipurpose field in the heritage park expansion through the by board purchasing cooperative. Item six is adopting a final plat for capital-way industrial park comprising 40.0986 acres located on capital-way in the Grove. Item 7 is adopting a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute agreement with an agreement regarding a water service area, CCN transfer with the Armstrong water supply corporation for water service to the sea-freeed Capital Way Industrial Park Project. Item 8 is authorizing the city manager to execute a license agreement with Dominica Garza for use of an existing city sign frame as a way finding sign for business located on Pearl Street. Item 9 is adopting a resolution authorizing the release of approximately 110.04 acres from the city of Belton's ETJ owned by JT Carothers Holdings LLC, consisting of two tracks of land generally located west of Lark Lane, north of FM 2484 in the east of FM 1670. more specifically described as track one of 40.317 acre track of land situated in the young William survey. I won't read all that, but we've got that written. And track two is in 69.72 acre track of land situated in the young Williams survey abstract. Item 10 is adopting a resolution confirming consent for the proposed bond issue by the Bell County Municipal Utility District Mud number one as provided for in the development agreement between the city the mud and W and B Development to LLC in the amount of $3.54 million for additional public improvements and item 11 is Revising the general development plan for this proposed river farm development located east of 35, I-35, between Shanklin Road, Shanklin and Lampassers River, north of Elmer King Road and east of Tolbridge and containing approximately 480 acres. Item 6 and 7, we will have to vote on those separate because one of our council members, Craig Pearson will be abstaining from those votes. Any others that the council wishes to pull off separately? I move we approve items three through five and eight through 11 as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve those items. Any other discussion before we vote? Those mean no other discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? All right, so item six and seven, I've already read those, but all will go for the vote if anyone wishes to make a motion on six. Move to approve item six. Second. Second. Second. We have a motion to actually approve item six and seven. We have a second to approve both of those items those being in act single motion. The other discussion. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed. Right. Passes unanimously. All right. So we have now moved through the consent agenda with lightning speed. We will now go to item 12. That's well over halfway. Item 12 is hold of public hearing and consider a zoning change from commercial to to plan development, multifamily commercial to commercial one for approximately 16.07 acres located at Southwest corner of I-14 and South Loop-1-21 is more. Thank you Mr. Mayor. How's everyone tonight? Good. Good. This item is a rezoning change for what is going to be considered. It's God view commercial. That is at an intersection of Loop-1-21 and 14. This area includes a segment of text-out right section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section of the section, commercial two, the PDMS two, this will create a cohesive zoning for the area that he wants to include in a subdivision plot. And with this item, this will be a piece of a commercial one that will allow for different potential uses that he's considering, including a car wash, a restaurant, and a convenience store at this intersection. And I believe, I heard you say abandonment. Yes, text-out abandoned that portion of right away that is closer to that intersection. With that, the future land use map has this area as a commercial corridor and that zoning is consistent with that future land use destination. There were no letters we seen from adjacent property owners within 200 feet of that property. The planning and zoning commission heard this at their meeting on the 18th and recommended approval of this zoning change. I will be happy to answer any questions that you have and I don't see an applicant in the audience. So I will be having to adjust to any questions. Thank you. All right. This being a public hearing, we will close the deliberation and open the floor. If anyone wishes to speak in favor or against this item, they may do so. There being no public comments, we will close the floor and reconvene to consider this item. My only comment just, I don't know who controls that section I haven't even go, but we can just get forewarning and signage up before it's shuttered off to prevent. It is being planned. We talked to that applicant about that, up some notices before they actually close out for a way. Now I'm sorry we are we're we've closed the public comments so yeah sorry. The other comments are question. Not the chair would entertain a motion. I'll make a motion to approve, is this? Senator? We have a motion and a second to approve item 12 as presented. Any other comments will vote? They're being none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Passes unanimously. Item 13, lucky 13. Hold the public hearing and consider zoning change from plan development 30 with an SUP specific use permit for used car sales, drive in restaurant and retail zoning to amended plan development retail with a specific use permit for an automatic car wash on approximately 1.6 acres located at 111 Sparta road. more. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This proposal is from Whitewater Express Car Wash. For this property, there is a residential adjacency in the back. There is Greenfire Road that has residential dwellings. The applicant is aware that they're going to have to make some concessions for that buffer along that. Here's a proposed site plan of what the applicant is planning. Access for the site will be from, apologize, let me put this highlighter. This unnamed city roadway will provide access to the site. As you can see at the rear of the property is where the lining of the vehicle's will be so trying to get away from the traffic at the inter exchange of main and spartar road. Cars will go into the car wash and exit and go into the vacuum station on the north side. Because of that residential adjacency, the applicant placed the loudest producing sound on the north side of the property to provide some separation for the residential property owners. For this, the building is going to be over 4,000 square feet. There are 27 vacuum areas and five employee parking spaces on the south side of the building. Landscaping is gonna be mostly along the Sparta Road intersection around the building. And the applicant has agreed to place on tall hedges along the fence line at the rear of the property. Per the city, the plan is owning recommendation. They are recommending a foot tall, Masonary fence at the rear of that property as well. Plan development 30 had some material requirements as part of that. So 50% of the building has to be a Masonary product and the applicant has shown that the entrance to the car wash will be a metal mesh type material. This is an SEP so some of the considerations are compatibility with the surrounding uses and again I've kind of explained that with the site plan looking at the placement of where the vacuum cleaners are going to be the placement of the vehicles to help out with that. A purpose of activities, there are hours of operations, our 730 AM to APM. So that's consistent with other typical businesses in that area. Reasonfulness of use, we thought this is a retail area and this seems like a reasonable use. Mitigation for impact, the applicants has made some possessions during the planning and zoning commission meeting. Some of the complaints were about the fencing, which was addressed. There was also complaints about the lighting. The applicant was agreeable to turn it off the lights after hours of operation. So lights will only be on between the hours that they are operating from 7.30 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. For the future lane you snap this shows us that's the commercial retail area and this complies with that to use. For property owner notification we did receive a couple of letters. Actually one letter is in opposition and then there were two neighbors that spoke during the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. In this book an opposition of the zoning change. With that, the planning and zoning commission recommended approval. And again, their requirements in addition to our typical language for the retail type use of subdivision plan, construction plans are required. They required eight foot tall Masonry fence along the edge with solid hedges, a minimum of six feet in height at the time of planting. And also the exterior lights must be turned off after hours of operation between 7.30 a.m. and no later than 8 p.m. With that, the applicants, there's a couple of representatives here. So if you have any questions for them, I'm sure one of them will be able to answer that question. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have as well. So thank you. All right. Thank you for the detailed explanation. It helps us a lot. This being a public hearing, we will close the council deliberations open the floor. I have two individuals that have signed up again. I'll go out of bed to court and also anyone else who did not sign up will have an opportunity. So the first one I have alphabetical by first name is Greg Murray. So, and then after that will be Will Morris. Thank you. Very, um, 106 vintage park Boulevard, Houston, Texas. I am the VP of Real Estate for Whitewater Express Car Wash, and I'm available for any questions questions. You have anything technical about the operation or how we integrate into the community? I'm here for that. Awesome. All right. Thank you. All right. Will Morris, if you wish to speak, you're okay. Okay. Thank you, Will. All right. Anyone else wish to speak in favor or in opposition to this item? Good evening, my name is Drew Denosky, 1903 Central Drive. Bedford, Texas. I'm the engineer of record. Happy to answer any questions technical about the layout, the site plan, again the operations. We're here to help. All right. Thank you very much Completely just a question not for yes, but as we consider the water strengths for the future Does something like this have a large impact on the water use that we have now and is there a recyclable option or anything like that? Thanks. I'll be happy to answer that question, but we have a full reclaimed water system. So the car wash itself operates on a two-inch water meter, which is no different than any fast food restaurant or retail building. It doesn't demand any additional water beyond a normal retail or commercial use. Beyond that, the used water or the recycled water goes through a series of sand traps, filters out the material, reuses the clean water, and then those are disposed of privately. The staff wanna speak about drought conditions. Yeah, I'll chime in there, Mayor. I'd share this with PNZ also and these folks will be aware. We obviously, from the drought perspective, we control that from a city perspective, the types of businesses that use water like that. And so currently, car washers do feature in our drought plant at stage 4. We've talked about continually revisiting that each year and so there may be a desire as we move forward to amend that but ultimately during drought if we feel that we've entered a stage where we need to conserve water car washes are asked to comply and shut down. It's probably happened a handful of times in the past five years, every time they've been very compliant, no issues, they take the phone call day. This is their business operation, they get it all over the state, and they'll shut it off. So there is that ability for staff to ensure that critical ward supplies being preserved in times of real need. Yep, right, thank you. Any other comments or questions? From the floor. There being none, we will close the public hearing and we will reconvene and discuss and make a motion regarding this item. Let's say you. I'm concerned about traffic volume in and out, lighting which has been addressed a little bit, but then also noise volume. Really concerned about potential traffic flow and entrance and exit from the facility to high volume car. I don't think just really, really can main street has become the overburdened traffic there just continues to enhance part of the intersectionist concern and just thinking for long term best used for the community of the property. Do you have a picture of broader picture to show kind of where the traffic flow is in relation to the entrance and exit from Walmart and Main Street? I'm hoping this will work. So here's an intersection of Main Street. Here's an entrance to Walmart, which aligns to this entrance of that city Broadway. There was an additional. So it showed you yeah, it showed an entrance exit. Oh, I want to ask. Yeah, there's a random map of our packet. I don't know if it applies to that. And I was also going to mention there is an entrance that the applicant is closing off on the western side of the property where the ATM is that current access.'re closing off that one. It looked like they're car wash on your layout. Look like the vacuum cleaner portion had options for east and west entrance and exit. No that close that western side is closed off is just on the the eastern side that the entrance is and also they have an access agreement with adjacent properties including take five and that melts along at the corner. It's coming out to turn left right there. There's I believe only right and left turn at that take five entrance at the main street that it does allow for both ways left or right that intersection Main Street would be right turn only leaving right turn only leaving out of take five But if they go back on as part of the turn left or right or one correct public works. So, if coming north out of that property on the Sparta and turning left creates a traffic problem, do we have the option later to make that a right turn only exit on the Sparta? I'm gonna leave that that to public works. Yeah, yeah, the sure answer that Davis yes. That would be our road, right? That is our part of our road. Yeah, and it is a right turn only on to main from take five. And there is cross access so they can go through the nail place. Can they get over to the exit there next to the You said take five the oil So you could you could waive find and take a right there. You can't take a left But you could go right out. Okay, holy right up This used to be a sonic right It was a big degrees or something like that Like a sonic lot of traffic. It's a lot of traffic. It's a whole lot of traffic. And then yeah, for our storm. Yeah, storm, set, jury. Yeah, I think that the PNZ process did a good job of helping with the screening between this property and the residential stuff to the south with the fence and the shrubs and even the lights that you mentioned. There's always attention, whenever you have retail type uses that are adjacent to residential uses, obviously this neighborhood was developed decades ago. and I think that the city does a good job now in planning to try to anticipate some of this stuff and add some transition zones or something when we talk about a lot now. Certainly I wish that we had a little bit more buffer here, but the nature of Sparta Road is retail and commercial and nature and it's hard to if it's not going to be a car wash it's going to be something else commercial that is going to be tough for backing up to residential. I think at the end of the day this is as good a fit fit as any for some kind of long spartan there in that retail quarter. I agree with you, Dave. I want to give props to the engineer and the planters on this for putting the waiting lane against the residence fence and then the building and then the vacuums on the other side of the building, you know, just for more of a barrier. A lot of time stuff will get to us and we'll ask if they can flip it and we're kind of too late in the game. But excellent job here on the site design and I agree with Dave. It's kind of a, it's a fine balance and I think they've done as good as job as anybody can ask them to do for it. Sit back on the rear and side sit back requirements. It's 20. It's 20. They're exceeding that with the first structure. Structure not like TV. Does the drive the entrance structure like the paint that took up all the told us does that structure count as a setback or no? It does not. Only the building has a setback, not a parking or the circulation. Any other comments or questions? In the low, I'll make a motion to approve, as presented. Second. We have a motion and second to approve this SUP for the car wash as presented. Any other comments or questions before we move? I'll make my comment. So my parents moved to town and our house was two or four Montrose. So the north side of Belton, they just, Montrose and Greenbrier were new subdivisions. There was a horse field where now Sitcog is located. There was a big pond, where now Turtle Creek apartments were. And there was a small white house on the north side about where Sparta Road is and a big field there. so everything was just like horses and cows, that whole area. There was no sparta. There was, and then it was a small lane to get back to the lake and it was houses all up and down main with chain link or hurricane fences and saying yeah, yeah, yeah or no offense. Yeah. So anyway, so I do, I do understand the concern of those. That was 40 plus years ago, and we've seen a lot of changes. And now Lake Road is primarily commercial, and Sparta Road is now primarily commercial. And so I appreciate the developers' understanding that we do have some legacy subdivisions that are also in transition. I would expect that it's kind of the front end of those, as they already did on Montrose, but I'm sure on Greenbriot somebody, somebody will probably buy those homes and turn that to commercial at some point. So we understand neighborhoods in Transition are hard, it's hard to navigate. And so again, appreciate everyone, it's comments. And I do agree I think turning left out of there is gonna be a non starter for two hours a day. You're just not gonna turn left. You're gonna have to turn right on Main Street and find another way to get where you need to go. So with that being said, we'll now entertain a vote. So all in favor, we already have a motion to say, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed. Aye. So we have 5 to 2 split vote. All right. All right. That's item 13. Item 14. Hold the public hearing and consider. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you. Hold the public hearing and consider the repeal of ordinance 2025-14 and a zoning change from retail to retail with an SUP a package store located at 2150 North Main Street for proposed Longhorn Liquor as submitted by the applicant OPIT LLC, DVA Longhorn Liquor. Seems like we talked about this in the last time. Yeah, a little bit of deja vu. What happened is the applicant and the landlord got the location a little incorrect. The furniture is, the store is not moving out at their location and the applicant is. I'm not gonna sell liquor. No, they're not gonna sell liquor at the furniture store. I'm not sure if they ain't going to sell it. Sorry, can't lay in the ladies' houses. I'm a lazy chair here, Jack. How late can you? So this is actually going into a vacant store on the north side of that furniture store. So this is a correction. All of the notices have been sent out again to all the Jason property owners to let them know what is going on. But this also includes the repelling of the furniture store location so that there's only one liquor store approved in this area. As stated before, there's plenty of parking spaces. There's plenty of exterior lighting, and there's a traffic light for circulation out of this shopping pause, which is my favorite part. Other than that, we receive one letter of support. No mitigations, there's nothing within 300 feet of the property. It meets with the future land use map requirements, and the Platinum andoning Commission recommended approval of the item that they're meeting on the 18th. I'll be having answered any questions you guys have and also the applicant Mr. Dennis is here and I can't remember your last day for the moment. Should you have any questions for him? All right. Well welcome back. We will close the deliberations. We'll open the floor for any comments Pro or con regarding this development There being no comments from the floor will reconvene the council and Chair would entertain a motion I hope the incorrect address was in our air but moved to approve this present Second we a second to approve this, again, next door and repeal at the same time. Any other comments or questions before we vote? All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed. Passes unanimously. Sorry for the long drive, but we got it done. All right, next march to the spot. On the 15th, hold a public hearing and consider zoning changes related to the imagined built in standards. A, a zoning change from central business district, light industrial, retail, commercial one, various specific use permits, and various planned development districts to the central downtown zone, generally located west of IHA-35, north and east of Nolan Creek, and south of Second Avenue. And item B is zoning change from light industrial retail, multi-family commercial one, and two single-family one, two and three, neighborhood services office one, various SUPs, and various planned development districts to the uptown zone generally located between Shine Street and I-35 north of Second Avenue and south of ninth. All right, Bob. Thank you, sir. Good evening. I'll just take a few moments to go through this project with you. And the purpose of this item is to conduct a public hearing and to consider rezoning the areas in the uptown and the central downtown areas. When the city adopted the Imagine Belt and Standards, the ordinance included these items. The second step is where we're at right now. To begin the process to rezone the property within the Imagine Belt and area. First, the uptown zone and the central, as you know, there's five zones, and so we're starting with these two and we'll rezone the rest of them later. This is the geography that we're talking about. The pink is the Uptown Zone, which extends north of second, to past six and west, cross Main Street Street and then the central downtown zone is south the second down to the river just across the Main Street area. And I wanted to take a quick or a short moment to talk a little bit about grandfathering or nonconforming uses because when we rezone property there's invariably gonna to be some non-conforming uses or a grandfathering in these areas and just quick definition, not conforming uses or grandfathering is a piece of property that is currently allowable in the zoning area but when the zoning changes it may not be allowable anymore and so the bottom line is is if the use continues on without any changes whether it's a change of occupancy or an expansion of the use and the new code in this area allows for a 10% expansion a physical expansion then the grandfather is is protected. So we have that clearly articulated in the code. Hopefully that makes sense to you all. This evening is set aside to conduct a public hearing. We do recommend that you approve the ordinance that will change the zoning of this property to the uptown and the central downtown area. The Planning and Zoning Commission met on the 18th. They also held the public hearing and they've recommended well they forwarded a recommendation to y'all to approve the rezoning of this area. So I will step back mayor and let you do your thing and then I can answer any questions that y'all may have. Thank you. All right, so we will make sure this is item A and B or that was just A. A and B. That's A and B. Okay, I just want to make sure, so keep it all. Yep, we'll do that just but for the public hearing this will be for both A and B. All right, so we will stop our deliberation and we will open the floor. We've already had one comment generally about this. Any other person wants to speak in favor or gets this item? They're welcome to do so. Three minute time. All right, name and address for the record one more time. Yeah. Clem Bailey for Fahabalaros. Hey. So I've done a lot of time in the neighborhoods, particularly in this region. I met a lot of people that's forward, and I met a lot of people that us against it. One of the recurring themes that questions they ask me is, as these zoning's change, how's that going to affect their property tax? and if the zoning is forced, a saying quotation on those residences, is there any plan? These zoning's change, how is that going to affect their property tax? And if the zoning is forced, I'm saying quotation, on those residences, are any planning the future to provide any sort of property tax relief? They're like, yeah, I lived here a long time, the city's changing it, but that's one of the big issues for and again. So I just want to relay that question. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? We'll probably address that when we debate the item. All right, Cynthia. I'll be brief, Cynthia Hernandez and Belt and Economic Development Corporation were housed at 412 East Central Avenue and a quick comment of appreciation for the city's efforts of implementing Imagine Zoning. Imagine Belt and another rezoning as a big undertaking, but it takes this area that's comprised of like 15 different zones and it streams lines process, and it makes it very clear on what the intended uses or allowable uses are within the zones. Furthermore, just a comment to state that the intent of Imagine Beltan is not for immediate development to bulldoze neighborhoods or anything like that. This is just preparing Beltan for the growth that we're seeing. And as the market starts to support this type of development, it just positions the city and clearly states what's allowable in certain areas of Belton. So thank you for your support and as we are housed in the downtown district we are supportive of the resounding. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments for or against this item? Always heard lean into the awkward pause because there's always a- Alright, awkward pause was long enough. Alright, we will close the floor and we will consider these two items separately but from a discussion standpoint open a discussion for both and then we can go and make the motions individually. So, does council have any comments or questions, any statements that they would like to make? Whether Chair would entertain a motion. Bob, any discussion or insight into the change in a praise value or taxation from a zoning change? Short answer is zoning does not affect tax values. It's slightly longer, more nuanced as many variables that go into that equation. And it's usually the use of the property, the age of the structure, et cetera, et cetera, all these things. But zoning does not affect the tax value of the property. Thank you. The other comments from questions? Should a citizen be concerned over the zoning challenge? No, sir. Would it impact their ability to live in their home or any changes to their residents or any concern whatsoever over this zoning change. No sir, they should not and they won't primarily because of that concept, that legal concept of grandfathering that protects them through this whole process. How many Saturday meetings do we have Bob? A couple. What are some Saturday and evening meetings? I don't know well, certainly evening meetings, we certainly did. had probably eight or nine meetings That led up to the adoption of the standards. I think this is almost year two of this process How did we have been working all that's been debated at the planning zoning and setback? I think a couple of times so economic developments input Nothing that's happened over. Several subcommittees as well. Reviewed it. We have encouraged involvement in participation. We aren't trying to force anything on anybody. We don't want to impact anybody's ability to live in their home or to impact their taxable value. We want to try to plan long-term for growth, especially in neighborhoods that may be attractive. Five, ten, fifteen years out, make the zoning process and planning process easy for development and have specific uses in certain areas. Correct? My pleasure. That's correct., sir. And I think it's important to note that within the imagined built in plan and zoning, there are specific uses for residential. So those are protected in a way in the plan and in the zoning itself. And one of the problems that we have now is you've got this sort of polka dot polka dot version of spot zoning where when something comes up and we look at it and we go, I guess that's reasonable, you know, but it's right in between two incompatible zone properties, but we think, well, maybe this is going next and this creates a vision and a plan and a path forward for development as it occurs while also protecting the existing use of the properties that we have. That also had significant community input as it moved forward. I just a couple of quick comments. This has been a long time in the process. And I too have been around here for a really, really long time going on 25 years and community development in Belton. And if you don't plan well, your community goes out. It gets out of hand. And that's exactly what's happened all of these years. We're standing on the shoulders of a lot of great planners, in my opinion, to have kept Belton the town that it is today. And if we don't continue on with that planning, in a well-thought out and visionary manner, we're going to lose control of what makes it special. So I'm grateful for the process. I'm grateful for the input that we've received from so many community members as we were brought this to us and how we move forward with it. And I'll make a motion that we approve item A of 15 is presented. Second. We have a motion a second to prove the zoning change for the central business district as presented. Any other comments or questions before we vote? Is this present, prevent anyone from debating or contesting their taxes with the tax assessor? No, sir, it does not. Good, thanks. I'll try to answer a few of the questions that were proposed and statements that were made from the floor during public comments. I think number one, when it comes to, I think the phrase was government overreach on how we're stepping beyond, that one of the things that cities do is they have to work with the property owners to have a plan so you know that when you build a house, that your house can be a house and you're not going to be next door to something else. And so that is planned. If you look at the pictures of downtown Belton from the 1800s, you had smelting plants and you had tanneries and you had horse-shoeing and you had all this stuff. Like all where now we have residences or buildings or businesses. So I think that one of the things that this does is it recognizes that we've got a centuries old city and we're in a centuries old buildings like so we're from 1800s we've got buildings in this area and it allows people to do things by right. That means they can do these list of things by right. They don't have to go to the government and ask for permission. So if you want to have a house and then you decide I'm going to prepare taxes and have a business there, you don't have to go and get a zoning change anymore. If you want to then sell it and they want to do a bed and breakfast, they can now do that there in these areas because it allows this list of things. And it really helps people plan as they buy into an area that these are things that we can do by right and it makes it easier. So I think it's the opposite. I guess we could probably claim it's a leads to maybe a little anarchy because now you have a lot more freedom, but it's freedom within a boundary. And we've had I think probably more than a hundred individuals that have been like invited into the process. So they're either a member of a subcommittee, they're on staff, they're on council, they're on planning and zoning, whatever they're in the Chamber of Commerce, they're on Belt and Economic Development Corporation. We've had tons of people specifically asked and we've modified the plan from the beginning to this. So I think that's one, is I think that from a government standpoint, we're really trying to work with that. The second one is, what can we do to alleviate taxes? I think people are very concerned about the increase to praise that, especially on shine. We're really trying to work with that. The second one is, what can we do to alleviate taxes? I think people are very concerned about the increase to praise that, especially on Shines Street. You can look, I looked up your property, I was able to see what the property taxes in the front's from a year to year. So just because you brought that up. For the city of Belton, it went up, I think last year, like $150, I think it was flat over two or three years and it gone up maybe $100 a year before. It was flat for two or three years. So the city of Belton, which is one component of your tax bill It's not the whole thing The biggest concern is appraised values have gone through the roof my house Double they tried to double my praise value on my home because I've been able to successfully appeal it And so I was able to appeal it again So I would suggest anyone who homes at home don't just to take appraisals Praise the appraiser for for what they say I had a structure in the academy That was appraised at 400 sold it for 250. They don't give me a refund Because they were wrong. I have to pay for it And so again, I think for I think we see we see the pressure. And how do you get the tax burden off of the homeowner? And the way we've done it over the last 25 years plus, and it's been hard work, there was no retail or commercial really in Beltan. All the downtown Beltan were like, oh, bail bonds and money stuff whatever, or empty buildings. And now what happens is we've seen our sales tax revenue increase significantly. We've seen that the burden of ad valorm is now being shared with companies like Walmart or Car Wash, right? That these things are now contributing. And so it's less burden on the individual property owner. So we've actually seen the percentage share of the advolomate tax base go away from rooftops and towards other entities, which has been good. And so I think we're trying to continue to do that measured plan growth. We have currently the lowest municipal tax rate in our region because this team is very conservative. We all live here. We have to pay taxes and we get a dollar a year. So if we can do things to help influence that we do, we have. And so, you know, I just wanted to answer that some of those questions that were brought up. If you guys have any more questions, you're welcome to talk to staff or us afterwards. This is going to be a process. Zoning changes happen. We look at ordinances. And so we may not get it right. We may get 90% there, 80% there. But that's why we elect people to sit here. Because if it's gone too far, then you elect new people. And you go back a different direction. But right now, this has been very much a grassroots effort is not been a staff directed effort. This has been something that was really brought forward by some members of our, I think, economic development corporation was the one who brought it. So, hey, this is a way that we can do it. So citizens within the economic. Absolutely. Yeah, not staff. It was citizens. Yeah, these were commissioning the manager. I'd add to echo David's point too. I always like the fun fact, you know, our neighbors across the river, one sin in their tax value, brings in 750,000 plus in revenue. Whereas one sin on our tax role is maybe 180,000. It used to be 30,000. Yeah, it used to be way this. And so to his point, you know, that commercial development, this is something that adds to that mix. And then two, I feel you, man, I don't know any other businesses. I don't want home, my wife and I have two incomes. I get it. I encourage you to reach out and join a board with us. Help us be that input for people that live near you and like you. And I always encourage that volunteerism is where it begins. And then who knows? Might be a peer one day. So. And I appreciate that. Could I, I don't know, make a comment on it? And I don't know. Find us after. Find us after. Yeah, we'll talk afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just, yeah. All right. We, we already have an emotion, a second for item A, any last discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? All right, that passes unanimously. And item B is the zoning change from line industrial and all those others and various planning to the up zone uptown zone So again the zoning change for uptown zone move to approve 15 B We have motion a second for 15 B, which is the uptown zone any other comments or questions on this All right all paper say aye. All right. All right. Those opposed? All right, passes unanimously. All right, item 16, last public hearing is hold of public hearing and consider resolution adopting an amendment to the 2030 comprehensive plan related to the updated Feudend Use map plan for the city of Belton. All right, Bob, part two. Thank you very much. Before I dive into this one, I just want to thank you to the Travis and the Covey team who helped us through this process both on the long-range plan for the plan itself and then through This rezoning activity. They've been with us the whole way and they'll continue to be with us. We implement the standards I don't think they're with us this evening, but I wanted to say thank you. Thank you Bob. Oh yeah, we appreciate it. I was afraid you might not have got the problem. Okay, good. No. It's more like a second what Bob just said because they were at the very inception of all this planning and we've had lots of citizen input since that time, but we had some great professional input from Covean Associates Travis and his group were just great to work with and bringing that to BEDC and then eventually through the long process of having all the citizen input. So I want to give them credit from the get go. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we love Belton and can't wait to see where it leads and maintain its awesome charm. I think it's really what we want to do. It has to read the culture, everything like that. It's really important to us. So thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. You're good. All right, let's talk about the future land use plan update. I'll take a few moments to just go through this project with you, Gantley, you've seen this on a couple occasions. But again, the purpose of this item is to conduct a public hearing on the update of the plan, and the associated policy statements. So the goals of the update are to increase the flexibility and guidance for the decision makers in our community when we make land use decisions, especially during the rezoning process. And that's most of the time where you will intersect with the future land use plan. It avoids land use decisions being made in isolation. This plan does. It helps implement the strategic plan that you guys update on an annual basis. It helps with that. And other plans that we have in the community, whether it's utilities or other land use based plans, like parks and recreation, things like that. It addresses the need for housing and housing protection. And we also talked about the addition of industrial properties on the map because that was not really represented in the current plan. And it provides a more user-friendly interface for the development community, for the public, and for city staff. And I'll talk about that some more in a minute. So let's start with the plan itself. There's numerous components to the plan. It's the map and then the policy statements, as you all see. So we have the map there. It's a little bit different than what we may have seen before. The key thing on this map is, and it may, it may not mean anything to you, that it's GIS base, which means geographic information system, it's electronic, it's changeable, it's updatable, and all that kind of stuff, and can be republished when appropriate. And that's good for us because we will keep up with this as land uses come before you and those changes are made. We can analyze data on a parcel level and the current plan is more bubble map and that has its strengths and weaknesses but we run more into the weaknesses that we do the strengths primarily because we like to zoom down on a piece of property and let you know where that is. It talks about it includes the city infrastructure as an embedded layer and of course it includes areas that are industrial for use and we're also introducing a few new land use categories which are mixed use one and mixed use two. They're the green and darker green there. and the mixed use one is slightly more densely designed than mixed use two, which is more office, excuse me, commercial one, two, and light industrial. All right. You move on. So the first policy statement that I'll talk about is the primary and secondary land use categories. We wanted to introduce that concept to you so that there will be a way to focus on the primary desired land use. And then there's also a secondary land use that is pre- kind of baked into the decision making process. So for instance, if it were a office use type area on the future of the land use plan, they wanted to do in a retail, then with there be that kind of, we know it ahead of time that it would fit. We just need to get approval to do that kind of thing. And this also ties into later sections in the plan that talk about the infill criteria and the transition zones, which protects or establishes policies that address the adjacency of different types of land uses. Okay, and this just kind of shows I just want to kind of like on the mechanics of it, just very quickly, for instance, on office use, for instance, I'm going to circle that right there. It's office and these type of work environments. But the secondary use is mixed use too, which is commercial and industrial and institutional. That's an example of how we've structured it. So each land use has a subset of things that will go along with the major land use. So I believe that will provide some flexibility and predictability in the development process. When we talk about this section here, this is infield development. We wanted to have a section that also ties in with the transition area that you may read about in the plan. And this area talks about infield and neighborhoods that are filling out in certain areas. You may have some vacant lots that may be mostly residential or mostly something, and they may attract retail or some other kind of commercial use or vise versa. And so when we have that particular situation, the policies in the plan are talking about an alternative compatibility use application where we look to the policies that we'll talk about here in a second and we say, okay, how are you protecting what's there today? And this also deals with the residential neighborhoods and things like that. And this particular application, the alternative compatibility use application is sent through the decision making process. It'll come to planning and zoning and then ultimately to the city council. So you have a way to look at how they're protecting the neighborhoods. And the plan that we have here provides some guidance in there and that'll be a beginning point for the PNZ and the Council. Okay, the next thing is the light industrial component or the industrial component. This is important, A, because we're actually setting aside property on the future land use plan that are dedicated to industrial uses. But it also provides some policy statements in terms of some aesthetic criteria. Let me explain that, for instance. They may talk about the height and the depth and the massing of the buildings and things like that. So you're not looking at big box boxes that kind of look the same and everything like that. We want to make sure that every land use in that community has some design component to it that makes it attractive and compatible with the adjacent properties, if it's even appropriate in that particular case. Okay, so that's the industrial areas. So in the other point of this thing is the transition zone which I talked about when we were speaking about the infield component. So we'll have some criteria here and I'll give some examples between residential, multifamily residential, non non-residential, industrial, to commercial and things like that. So you'll see things like, let's see, let me circle this just very quickly. I'll waste a lot of your time, which I'm about to do anyway. So we have these component items. right, let me do it like this Does that work? Nope Do you see this? No All right laser pointer there we go right here right here does that look right here? All right right in the middle of the screen We got these thing called and you've probably seen it in the file compatibility buffer at enhanced edges. And so depending on the intensity of the land use, we'll depend on whether we talk about the compatibility buffer, which could be anything from walls to planting to setbacks to all kinds of different things. Okay. And then the enhanced edge is more of a softer edge between residential, non-residential things like that. So we identify these options so that when we do this compatibility application, we know what we're, not we, but the applicant knows what they're faced with. And that's all about that transparency, that predictability, and that kind of a very big deal, a very big deal in terms of dealing with the development community. Okay, I think the almost the last thing I wanted to talk about is that we added this component into the plan and that's, you know, dealing with residential area parking challenges and we use this area off of Layla Lane as an example. And here I'll take a moment to say thank you to Brent and his team for helping us kind of step through this whole process But they came up with several options to begin with not as solutions, but to begin with as to say okay Well if you have these parking problems and we use this as kind of like the You know kind of ground zero if you want to call it that but gives us option to consider as as we look at, and this is a future work item that comes out of the plan to say, you know, we have challenges with parking. We need to look at residential parking ratios. And so through the thinking process, and I think we've touched on this before with you all, is that there's several options that they talked about. You know, head in parking with garages and tree islands. Let's see, option two is something a little different. You know, head in parking with no garages with street trees and parallel parking on the street and all this kind of stuff. So what we will do is use this as a beginning point. We'll analyze and compare and think and come up with some solutions that deal with residential parking issues and we'll bring something to you. This is the springboard item that kind of kicks it all off. So there's not much policy here other than to say, let's get this problem's hold. After the public hearing that we had on the 18th, we did have some feedback from the EDC in terms of, excuse me, land use. Oh, I'm kind of reluctant to use that pointer. But I got to go. Let's see. Oh, I know. Matt showed me this. Let's start here. And so this is the way it is today. And so I got a, well I can't, I don't know if they're looking that way. But so this is what we're going to change it to. It'll be a mixed use too instead of the industrial primarily because of the topography. And so, okay, you know we're okay with that. And this is great. Look at that. And this area that the EDC is considering Ores and Processes of Purchasing, it's done on Amity Road west of 35. We originally had to slate it as residential. They asked that we consider making it more of an industrial use. So we slated it as the MU2, which is the mix used to, which includes the commercial one and two and then light industrial. I know there's been some other conversations about maybe just turning that into purple, you know industrial, that kind of thing. I think EDC was helping that would be labeled purple learning test really used. That's the way it was around. And this is the time to do it perfect, exactly. All right, so I'm very grateful for the Zoom-in feature. And so the last slide, we did take this to the Planning and Zoning Commission. They recommended approval after the public hearing and mayor I'll step back and we can have the public hearing and we can talk about it some more after that. Thank you. All right, thank you Bob. All right, I'll just say this for those in the audience who not seen the future land use map. This is an idea of the future, the fact is, especially in areas of transition, it rarely goes exactly like we thought it would, but it's generally in the neighborhood. So this is not a rezoning of the whole area, it's just a guidance to allow for us to work with staff to get a general idea so when people come and knock on the door and they look at where the road is they can at least know generally this is what the council and the citizens expect and then that starts the process. So I just wanted to say that before we open the public hearing we will stop our deliberations open the floor if anyone wishes to speak in favor or against this future land used map and plan. Now is the time to do so. Well, there being no comments from the floor. We will close the floor and reconvene and now is the time to discuss or adopt the resolution. I just feel glad Stephanie has her day. Future land use. I know. I was not going to jump right in, but I'll go in. Great tool, great guideline. Excited about buffer and transition areas. And also would like to see the change out in the road for that to be more industrial. Is what what we, the EDC, didn't plan for that. So, I think to that point, I was beginning my volunteers in in Belton whenever the first future menu you, you, SMAP, was developed. And as great as it was, it was immediately outdated. As soon as we adopted it, because Belton continued to grow, And then we were having to work with a PDF to say, well, I know that's what this is, but we already know there's something else going on there. So everybody just kind of understand that that's different now. And so with the flip of the switch, we can change what's happening based on development as it occurs. And it's an interactive engaging map that we can adjust as we move forward. I think it's fantastic. That was kind of my f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***, you know, it's transformative as you go to EKID? If we have a zoning case, for instance, that is inconsistent with the future land use plan, which I'll agree that it's a good thing for the town, then we change the future land use map at the same time as we do the zoning. So it keeps up with things and that's something we were not able to do before. So with this is our full comprehensive plan up to date, take a picture quick. Does it change tomorrow? Isn't that the case? You certainly were able to do that. Remember, a month or so ago you had a request for somebody who had a zoning change and wanted to come back. Exactly. Amin the land use plan to be consistent with that. And so we kind of did it backwards that way, that time. Right. Now we'll be in a position to do it consistently, consistently as we go through a rezoning request. Keep in mind also that every time we bring a rezoning to you, this team that comes up, she'll talk about the comprehensive plan, reference, that's the base for your consideration for rezoning. In fact, legally, rezoning doesn't operate in a vacuum. You have to have a comprehensive plan to re-zone a piece of property or to zone a piece of property. So that's the basis for it. It has that framework and basis. So really important, the digital component makes it a ability to keep it current. And I know, House member, Urbanion has been talking about updating the future language for a long time. I think the effort has been outstanding to get us to this point. As Mayor said, it's rarely perfect. And they'll certainly be changes, but we have a much better, more flexible document to use now. And the additional alternatives for mixed use 1 and 2 help us with a lot of rezoning that the council has dealt with where we were kind of constrained by the plan. We didn't, it was difficult to make a rezoning decision on that basis. So, thank you again, it was a great effort to staff and to try to help with the consultant. So, really, really important document. In just a reminder, months of planning, outside consultant, multiple committee meetings, public input, we just didn't come up with this overnight. Yeah, that's true. I was reading back through and it looked like, of course, we've been talking about before then, but really since early 2023, did we really start looking at knowing that we needed to update this land use map. And I think to your point, Sam, and thank you for the work you have done. It's, I think it's very good. And it was getting to a point where we were locked in by this land use map that just wasn't making sense. And it was frustrating to not be able to navigate a change that made the right decision for the community. So I appreciate this. I'm excited about the flexibility. I love the secondary uses. You know, if this doesn't work, there's a secondary, there's already built-in flexibility right now that also opens us up for further if we develop to address that as it happens. So I would love, is this going to need emotion for approval? I would love to make emotion to approve the federal government. Nobody wanted to take it from you. As presented. Stephanie's been encouraging us on a regular basis. That thing going so we have a motion by Stephanie. A second by Wayne to adopt the future land use map and again for those in the audience. In a community you've got individual property rights but then you also have community responsibility for those property rights and so there's a much more tension or close knit and so somebody has to lead at least in the vision and so what this does is at least leads in the vision of what the community could look like. And then it's a dance. And then we take the lead and then we listen to our private ownership partners to tell us where we really need to go. And that's what really drives it. We just kind of paint the picture based on community development. And then let everyone else take it. And to your point, it's not something we just, this is what we'd like to see. This was driven by what's happening. And what may happen in the future based on where we are. So it's a rhythm. It's not a fixed thing. It's a living breathing organization that will morph and change over time. So. True. All right. We have a motion of second-hand comments. All right. say aye. All right. Post. Passes you down. All right. Thank you, Albert. All right. All right. We have motion a second. Any other comments? All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Pass as unanimous. All right. Thank you. We'll put that back on the wall. All right. Item 17 and 18 are executive sessions. For anyone who wanted to speak to any council member or staff, we have our emails and phone numbers. I think on the website you're welcome to do that. We will be convening into executive session, which will have no one in here. We will not be taking any action afterwards. So if you want to take a break, I'll just go and read this in the record for Amy and we'll come back. So we'll take five, if you all want. Just take a break. Right, item 17 executive session pursuant to the provision in the Open Meetings Law Chapter1 government code to Vernon's Texas code Annotated in accordance with authority contained in section 551 dot close to Deliberation regarding real property and item 18 executive session pursuant of the provision of open meetings law chapter 551 government code Vernon's Texas code annotated in accordance with the Authority in section 5 by point dot, curious of one, consults in consultation with attorney. There we go. In the room. Any other questions? Any other questions?