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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 01.11.2011 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor George Garver presiding. Council Present: Patty Eason, Gabe Sansing, Danny Meigs, Pat Berryman, Dale Ross, Tommy Gonzalez Council Absent: Bill Sattler Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Mark Sokolow, City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director; Valerie Kreger, Principal Planner; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Thomas R. Benz, Director of Systems Engineering PolicyDevelopment/Review W• •• r order at 0•i O! PM A Review of the proposed Home -Based Business text of 2008-2009 Unified Development Code (UDC) Amendments -- Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director and Valerie Kreger, AICP, Principal Planner Berryman, Sattler, Meigs absent. Cook said this is a continuation of the workshop that was held last month on the current round of the UDC amendments. She noted the amendments will be coming to council for action at the second meeting in January. She said one area where Council may have more questions is regarding home based businesses. She noted the current version of the UDC does not allow home based businesses with retail sales and services. She listed the types of businesses that could be considered home based and others that could be considered on site retail. She said, in responses to questions and complaints based on that provision of the Code, there were changes proposed to Chapter 5. She said, back when Chapter 5 was created last Spring, the Council asked that staff looked into home based businesses. She said staff went back to the UDC Task Force to look at this issue further. Berryman arrived at the dais. Cook spoke about the discussions that took place at the task force meetings. She said there were a lot of compromises made as some folks wanted no regulation and others wanted a lot of regulation. She said, as a result, the Council will be asked to make decisions about which regulation should apply to this new round of amendments. She noted there was a group of folks that wanted whatever regulations passed to be applied to the whole city instead of just one area of town. She spoke about the common elements in all of the different proposals including that the business use of the dwelling be incidental and does not change the use of the home. She added only people who reside on the premises can work in that business, that there will be no outdoor storage that will affect the residential character or require additions, as well as options on parking, delivery and signage. She noted none of the proposals allow drop in customers without appointments. She said the first option is based on the existing UDC language and will apply to the entire City. She described the types of businesses that would apply to this option. She said, within this option, there are options related to signage including one small sign on the home or no sign. She said there are three options related to parking: no more City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 4 Pages than two parking spaces, only on street parking or on street parking as well as on site pavement parking. She noted the second option would only apply to the Old Town overlay district. She said Council could choose for this to apply to the whole City but, for now, it only applies to that particular area. She said, in that proposed language, there are uses that are not allowed including wholesale retail warehouse activities, onsite retail services, vehicle repair, kennel or veterinary, animal grooming, repair of large appliances, medical or dental office, tanning, nail, barber or beauty salons and other uses that would not be considered compatible with residential uses. She said there are some limits to the area used for the business including 25% of the first floor area or 500 square feet. She said there is no signage allowed or advertising of the address allowed that might result in attracting persons to the home. She noted there is a limit of hazardous materials and no storage of heavy equipment or vehicles not normally associated with residential use. She said this goes and divides into two classes: class one (which has no customers coming to it) or class two (which allows customers at the home by appointment only). She said there will be a two student or customer limit and traffic would not exceed more than ten trips per day. She noted the hours of business would be between 8 AM and 9 PM. She spoke about how, to receive a class two approval, the business owner would need a special use permit. She said, as proposed, all new and existing home based businesses in the Old Town area will be required to be registered with the City. She said staff proposed that there be a fee associated with this registration if Council decides to go with this option. She said the other option is to go with the home based business permit process. She noted the Planning and Zoning Commission discussed this issue and feels that whatever regulations get a adopted, they should apply to the entire city. She said they have recommended option one, which some service uses are allowed and no permitting or registration is required. She continued to describe option one being recommended by the Commission. She said she knows it's complicated and she is happy to go into more detail. She said the schedule is this will be included with the other amendments during the first reading of the Ordinance at the next meeting in January. Sansing asked and Cook said it would be good for staff to get some direction prior to building the Ordinance for Council approval. Sansing said he prefers the Planning and Zoning recommendation. Eason agreed and said she supports that option as well. She said there seems to be a lot of confusion and people are afraid of things they do not understand. She noted, regarding noise and nuisance, there are already ordinances and laws in place that address those issues throughout the entire City. She said, in reviewing this, the recommendation from the planning and zoning commission handles all the concerns people have. She said she also wants to respond to one of the statements made regarding the idea of having a more restrictive section of rules for Old Town because Old Town does not have an Homeowners Association. She said that is not true in that there are people who are seeing clients at their home all over the City and not just in Old Town. She noted she wanted to also clarify the issue of the sale of Arbonne, Tupperware or Mary Kay products from a person's home. Cook said, the way the Ordinance is written today, you can not sell those type of products in your home. Eason asked and Cook said the proposed Ordinance will allow a person to do some of those incidental sales. Ross asked if there will be any additional costs to the City if this is passed. Cook said, if they adopt option one, this will be minimal impact to the City financially. She said she does not anticipate much change from where the City is today with that option. She said, if the City starts doing permitting and registration, she thinks there is a huge amount of people in Georgetown that have home based businesses that will need to register. She said the City would have a difficult time getting the word out to those people and have them come in to register unless a complaint is made. She said there is a cost in staff time for the permitting or registration process. She said she is talking to Finance about the possibility of them being able to do part of the registration online. She described what the registration fee will contribute to including administrative cost, publication of captions and notice to property owners. She said she is not sure the registration fee would cover those costs. She noted she feels the City will still have a lot of people who will have home based businesses without registering. Ross asked and Cook said the regulations would be enforced only if the City receives a complaint. Ross asked and Cook said, if there is a complaint, it will go through the normal code enforcement and court system. Ross asked and Cook said, in the past, this has always been a complaint driven enforcement. Ross said he sees a lot of inequities if this is a complaint driven process. He said that would be selective enforcement. Ross said one of the more important things to him is to know who is operating a home based business in a particular neighborhood. He said, when buying a home, it would be helpful to know who has a home based business in the area. Cook said this could be possible if this City has a registration system. Ross asked and Cook said there could be a consequence for not registering as long as the City knows a business is taking place in a home. Cook said, if there is no signage or not a lot of traffic, you wouldn't know whether or not they are having a business in their home. Ross suggested that the City have a kiosk somewhere on the website where people can register easily. Eason said her problem with a fee is whether or not it is good idea to have someone like a little old lady who sews to have to pay a fee of $100. Gonzalez said it is important to remember that most home based businesses as they stand today are illegal. He said this will allow a huge amount of businesses to have a legal right so, if someone complains, that person would have to have a good reason to complain. Gonzalez said this City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 4 Pages would make it better for home based businesses because, after they register, it would make it legal for them to have a business in their home. Gonzalez said someone who buys in a residential neighborhood expects that people will be living in their homes and not necessarily doing business out of them. He noted if he has his kids playing in the yard, he does not want a bunch of strangers coming and going from a home that is doing business. He noted people have a right to know what is going on in their neighborhood. He would agree with Brandenburg in that the fee could be reduced over time but it is never going to change it from being a complaint driven process. He said the registration process should be as easy and as seamless as possible. Berryman said it bothers her that the City has this on the books to this extent. She noted, the way it is written now, no one in the City can have a home based business and she thinks that is absurd. She said she happens to believe less is more and she knows a lot of people who do consulting work and other similar businesses out of their homes. She said for those people to register for $100 is silly. She noted someone should only have to register if they have traffic coming to their homes. She said the government needs to stop getting into other people's business. She said this is getting extreme and, for her, less is more. Ross said some of the neighborhood HOA rules may have more restrictive regulations regarding home based businesses than the City does. Cook agreed and said the City is not involved with those rules and some of those rules may be much more restrictive than the City's law. Ross said Old Town is different in that the rest of the neighborhoods in the community have homeowner's associations. Sansing said there are a few other subdivisions do not have HOA's. Ross said the City could look at this relative to whether or not areas have homeowner's associations or not. Eason said this has turned into a witch hunt and noted this stemmed from the fact that a lot of people all over town are seeing clients for many reasons. She said the only reason this change was brought forth is because everyone all over town were not in compliance with the City's code. Eason said she spoke with the proponents of having a lot of regulations and added they said there is no massive number of traffic problems or other problems, but there may be in the future. Eason said people doing business in their home is a protection to the neighborhoods in that those people are in their homes all day. She added, when people are away from their homes, they have the homes that are broken into. She said those houses that have home based businesses look much better as well. She noted the homes with offices, spaces and studios for people to do businesses are of higher value. She said she spoke to real estate agents and was told that those type of spaces are a perk. She said the whole issue with this amendment is to bring people who have home based business in the community into compliance. Gonzalez said the only reason why someone would not want to register is because they are doing something they should not be doing. He said, if people have not had complaints until now, they should not be afraid of this. Cook said the issue is if these people must register and, if they are doing something they should not be doing, they must make sure they get themselves right with the Ordinance by applying for extra permits, paying additional fees or changing the business. She said the department has had many issues with people who are not wanting to share what they do from their homes or where they live. Berryman said the residents do not want to be infringed upon to have to register and have a pound of paperwork and have to pay $100. She is saying there needs to be a trigger that brings the City into the situation. She added there should be home based provisions but the trigger should be if someone does something disruptive that infringes upon the neighbors. She noted people who run businesses out of their home would never do anything that is harmful to themselves or their property. Sansing said the City has way too much control of development and businesses. Gonzalez said if someone has a nail tech place or hair salon in their home, would you not want to know that those people are doing business there while using those type of chemicals. He said everyone who buys a place in a residential neighborhood should have an expectation of what will be going on in the area. Mayor asked and Cook said in the UDC process, all options that were recommended by three or more task force members are being brought to council. Cook said one of the attachments of the Ordinance coming to council at the next meeting will be the home based business section. She said council will be provided with a sheet outlining the options to consider for adoption. She noted staff will need direction at the first reading of the Ordinance to determine what the final version will look like. Eason said she is supporting the Planning and Zoning recommendation because all of the concerns brought up tonight is covered in that option. Cook said option one does make the person maintain the residential character, that the business be incidental to the residential use, it addresses noise issues, parking restrictions, signage restrictions as well as delivery restrictions. She said staff feels there are enough regulations in option one so that, if problems arise, the City will be able to handle them. Cook said, if there is an issue in the future, staff can come back to Council with an Ordinance change or addition to address that problem. She said Council can change the Ordinance on a fairly quick basis if they want to do so. Gonzalez said it seems the registration process and the charging of fees is the point of the most disagreement and added it would be good if Council can come to and agreement on that issue. Cook said she could come back with several registration options for both registration and fees. Mayor asked if Council would be at liberty to enter a motion for option one. Cook said option one has three internal options related to signage, parking and uses. Mayor asked and Cook said, if option one was adopted, Council must also look into the three internal options. Eason said she is supporting Planning and Zoning's City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 4 Pages recommendation in that the group has already gone through this process and chosen the options they felt were in the City's best interest. Motion by Berryman that the City looks at option two but also to look at the option of registration. Sansing said option one, the planning and zoning recommendation, does not include registration. Cook agreed. Berryman withdrew her motion. Gonzalez suggested they just vote on the item when the Ordinance comes to Council at the next meeting. Mayor said there is an agreement that staff look into the Planning and Zoning recommendation and bring it back for a formal motion from Council. B Discussion to approve a list of "pre -qualified" professional services providers which submitted Statements of Qualifications and Proposed Selection Process -- Thomas R. Benz, P.E., Director of Systems Engineering, and Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager Benz spoke about professional engineering services, when it is required and the process the city must use to hire those engineers and surveyors. He described the pre qualification list for professional service providers and how it will be used. He said this was taken to both the GUS and GTAB Board and staff incorporated their comments into this recommendation to Council. He described when it is necessary for the City to hire an engineer and he outlined the professional services procurement process. He explained why the City pre qualifies engineers. He said the main reason is to save time and added this process was presented in December 2009. He spoke about the process they used to develop the pre qualification lists. He said they had a pre -submittal meeting and received 60 statements of qualifications from engineers and surveyors in the area. He spoke about the evaluation process and said the evaluation team consisted of two members from each the GTAB and GUS board as well city staff from Georgetown Utility System. He described the general evaluation criteria included in the process and how the scoring works. He showed Council the list of qualified firms that ended up on the list being presented to Council tonight. He spoke about how the City will be able to use this list going forward. Meigs arrived at the dais. Benz said one of the biggest concerns with this from the GUS Board is the question of how new firms get added on. He said new firms will submit statements of qualifications, they will score those statements and add them to the list for future use. Ross asked and Benz said they can insert a new column to the list showing where they companies are from. Ross asked and Benz said there are three certificate engineers on staff. Benz said this is on the regular agenda for Council's consideration. Recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071 and 551.087 -- 5:15 PM Returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:05 PM City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 4 of 4 Pages The meeting was adjourned at 06:05 PM. Secretary Jessica Brettle