HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 05.28.2013 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: Council Absent:
Tommy Gonzalez, Patty Eason, Troy Hellmann, Rachael Jonrowe
John Hesser, Steve Fought, Jerry Hammerlun
Staff Present:
Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City
Secretary; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Dave Hall,
Chief Building Official; John Sullivan, Fire Chief; Valerie Kreger, Principal Planner; Andrew Spurgin,
Planning Director; Mike Peters, Information Technology Director; Robyn Rye, Records Coordinator
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A Bed and Breakfast Establishments -- Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Dave Hall, Chief Building Official
and Fire Chief, John Sullivan
Jonrowe absent. Mayor called the meeting to order at 3:01 PM.
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Brewer gave a brief introduction and provided the definition of bed and
breakfast (B&B) as identified in the City's Unified Development Code. She said the City's current B&B is at San
Gabriel House, 1008 E. University Avenue and there are more short term/vacation rentals of homes, but they
are not considered B&Bs because they do not serve the breakfast or have the owner on premise. She spoke
about the type of people who use bed and breakfasts.She said staff has gotten together to discuss issues and
considerations regarding bed and breakfasts. She said we want to make sure the buildings and architecture of
the B&Bs are conserved. She said they also want to make sure they are considering turnover, building layout,
safety issues as well as the environment.She said, if someone wanted to come in and newly construct a bed
and breakfast, they would need to follow the UDC guidelines and current building codes. She said there is
currently no purpose-built B&Bs in the City, although they have had people express interest in the construction
of a bed and breakfast. She said they are considering the conversion process of moving residential property to
the new B&B use. She listed the rules regulating B&Bs. She said, in the City of Georgetown, they require a
special use permit for the establishment of a bed and breakfast. She spoke about building modifications
needed to allow for a bed and breakfast. She said, this use in permitted under the city code as a home based
business. She said a special use permit is required and there should be no more than eight guestrooms, no
food preparation within guestrooms, no parking in front yard and it would require the operator to be a full time
resident. She said they have an additional requirement for bed and breakfasts with events. She said in those
cases, the owner shall attend all events, the events can be held Sunday through Thursday from gam to 9pm,
Friday through Saturday,9 am- 11 pm and the outdoor area must be screened from view.She said, the City has
adopted the 2003 international building code, which sets out the minimum standards for life and safety. She
said in the code, changing the use from single family dwelling to a commercial occupancy types, turns it into a
commercial building. She continue to describe how the international building code applies to B&B standards.
She said we have a Building Standards Commission that does not meet frequently. She said the City has not
adopted the 2013 residential building code. She said this is being reviewed by staff and Council will be seeing
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this in the next six to twelve months. She briefly reviewed some of the challenges of a bed and breakfast. She
said they are doing a bed and breakfast survey and added some cities accept liability by amending building
codes to permit reduced fire protection if certain standards are met. She said, in most cities, they do not amend
their building codes. She reviewed the current incentives/assistance for bed and breakfasts. She listed some
additional incentives and considerations they have been discussing as staff. She said one is the possibility of
safety grants and sharing in the cost of fire sprinkler systems. She said other incentives include expedited
review/permitting, fee waivers and/or reductions, marketing grants, ensure HOT is collected and community
outreach prior to issuance of special use permits.
Mayor asked and Brewer said they are looking to see if any of the Council direction has changed since these
codes were adopted. She said they are also looking for feedback regarding possible incentives as well. Mayor
asked and Brewer spoke about how Georgetown compares to what she has found in the survey. Gonzalez
asked and Brewer said money for incentives would come from HOT tax funds, facade grants or fundraisers or
from the general fund. There was much discussion regarding incentives. Hammerlun thanked Brewer and said
she is doing a great job. Hammerlun asked and Brewer said, at the peak, Georgetown has four or five B&B
establishments. Brewer explained why most of those establishments have gone out of business. She spoke
about the requests the city receives for bed and breakfast establishments. Fought said he likes the idea of
people staying downtown near the square. He said he is open minded regarding incentives and shared
investments. Hesser said the city needs to answer the question regarding whether or not they want hotels
downtown and how to evaluate that payback. He asked if there is a process for having the neighbors involved.
Brewer said the City does not necessarily do a return on investment but it does do other measures including the
preservation of the historic buildings. She said the special use permit process does require proper notification
and a hearing process to neighbors. Hellmann asked and Brewer said the survey shows many communities
either do not have the sprinkler system requirement or are not enforcing it. Hellmann spoke about why
Georgetown is the perfect place for a B&B. Eason said she assumes we will always require smoke detectors.
She asked about the sprinkler systems. Brewer said her understanding is that, when someone is in an
unfamiliar area, the sprinkler system gives them more time to get out and reduces the fire to the point where
they can more easily exit. Chief Sullivan spoke about the current requirements for sprinkler systems in the
homes.Eason spoke about Fredericksburg and said their bed and breakfasts are all managed through one
company. She asked if the City works with that management company to oversee the establishments. She
spoke about advertising and marketing strategies to bring people in with bed and breakfasts. There were many
comments. Gonzalez spoke about going out to homeowners to see if homeowners who would be interested in
doing this. She said we can easily do a community coordination outreach workshop and see where that goes.
Eason said she hopes we will be strict with our definition of bed and breakfatss so tourists can have a happy
time visiting Georgetown. Mayor asked and Brewer said they will come back within the next three to four months
with more information.
B Workshop presentation and discussion regarding revisions to the current amendment process for the Unified
Development Code (UDC) -- Valerie Kreger, AICP, Principal Planner and Andrew Spurgin, AICP, Planning
Director
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Kreger said we will be talking about the UDC amendment process and the
possibility of changing that. She reviewed the history of the Unified Development Code and said it was adopted
in 2003, regulated land development in Georgetown. She said it has been amended each year since its
adoption. She reviewed the existing amendment process and said the annual process was created in 2004 to
establish approval of an annual list of amendments. She said staff would schedule and hold two public
workshops prior to P&Z and City Council consideration. She said the process was revised in 2008 to include a
Task Force to participate in list creation and generation of language. She noted it took two years to complete the
review process for those amendments. She said participants in these meetings changed from meeting to
meeting as well. She said, last May, they did have a Council workshop on UDC and the amendment processes
up to this point. She said the May 2012 Council direction on the UDC process was to revise the process, have
less frequent code amendments, create council appointed committee with diverse membership and encourage
more involvement of the P&Z commissions. She said, on May 16, there was a pubic meeting to get feedback
from the public on this. She said there were mixed opinions on the creation of a committee. She said the public
wanted to limit formality as much as possible to avoid discouraging public involvement, maintain open public
discussion opportunities and provide increased public notice. She provided Council with a proposed committee
structure. She said one thing that came up are non committee amendments which are nondiscretionary,
mandatory or legally required changes, Director determinations or Council emergency amendments. She said
these are posted on the internet for 30 days before it goes to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. She said these
can be held on an as needed base as determined by City Attorney or Council. She said the committee
amendments will be done using a UDC amendment list. She noted, instead of an annual list, it would be an
ongoing list that the committee would be in charge of. She noted there will be a public call for items every two
years. She reviewed the process for general amendments and off -cycle amendments. She said Council can
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declare any item an emergency which would make it out of cycle. She spoke about topics needing special
public input, greater research or additional expertise. She said, currently, staff will meet with experts or hold
special public outreach meetings as needed. She said this would be based on public input from the meeting.
She noted staff suggests continuing same process, with the Committee able to attend or provide direction as
needed. She provided a summary of what staff is proposing for revisions of this process.
Eason said she is not happy with this process. She said her concern is that we need to do something about the
time frame. She noted the process had become a continuous one throughout the year and the city had trouble
keeping people involved. She said she was hesitant in supporting the idea of a task force but noted it eventually
became advantageous to the process. She noted it seems staff has gone away from the original plan of a task
force. She said the process was supposed to continue as a collaboration between City Council, the task force,
Planning and Zoning, staff and other entities. She continued to speak about what she thinks the process should
look like. She said she prefers to stay with the Task Force structure. She said she thinks this should remain with
the Planning and Zoning Commission and not a subcommittee. Hellmann said he agrees with Eason that this is
redundant but notes he thinks that's a good thing. He said redundancy gives citizens the opportunity to vet
things before they come to Council. Hellmann said the UDC is something a lot of people care about and it
makes sense to him that it has its own committee. He said this seems like a reasonable solution and is a
pattern that has worked well in the past. Hesser said he likes the idea of what has been presented. He said he
thinks all views should be considered and they should be filtered out by someone long before it gets to Council.
He said there is some work to be done but he thinks staff is headed in the right direction. Fought said he has
concerns on the developer builder end that needs predictability. He said a constantly changing UDC is a
problem and this new process seems to address that issue. He spoke about his dislike of the three minutes
speaker policy. He noted he is happy this process will encourage free flowing dialogue. He said, fundamentally,
he is happy with this. Hammerlun said he agrees with Fought that less change is better. He said he is a bit
confused about the definitive nature of the City Council in this process. He said he does like the every two year
thought process and noted he thinks this process has been a little out of control. Gonzalez spoke about
emergency issues and how that should be a very rare occurrence in this process. He said he would prefer to
see more technical qualified people on the subcommittee rather than pulling members from geographical areas.
He spoke about how the City's committtees and volunteer community makes it a better place.
Mayor asked and Kreger spoke about the next steps in the process. Brandenburg said this has become a full
time job for staff. He noted being about to change the process and go back to what it was originally intended for
will be beneficial. Eason spoke about how the citizens are being left out of the process.
C Presentation of Information Technology (IT) major project status for the current fiscal year and the IT Master
Plan update for FY2014 -- Mike Peters, Information Technology Director
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Peters said he comes in once a year to provide an update on IT planned
projects for the coming years. He provided Council with a list of projects already in the 2013 fiscal year. He
reviewed some of the major projects that are underway right now. He said they are working on introducing more
tablet computers into the environment in order to provide accessibility to desktops when employees are away
from their desks. She spoke about the virtual desktop implementation that is currently underway. He described
the Laserfiche Records Management system as well as the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system. He
said they are getting rid of the Lotus Notes system. He described the EAM system and what it will provide to the
City. He spoke about the public safety facility data center design and the timeline for that project. He said the
customer information system project is the next major project after the EAM system. He spoke about some of
the other projects occurring in fiscal year 2014 and projects on the horizon in the near future.
D Records Management Update -- Robyn Rye, Records Coordinator and Jessica Brettle, City Secretary
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Rye gave an overview of Records Management in the City. She said the City
ships their files and documents offsite to a facility called Iron Mountain. She said they allow staff to search for
items and documents that can be destroyed remotely.. She spoke about the Records Management newsletter
that is being sent to staff each month. She described the newly implemented Open Records Request policy to
the City Council. She said Rachel Saucier in the Legal Department handles all Police related requests and the
City Secretary's Office logs the rest. She spoke about Laserfiche and how it is an electronic records
management program. She noted it is able to read the document and enhances its search ability. She described
how this program will be used for sharing and finding documents between department. She listed some of the
documents currently in the program. She said the City Secretary's Office, the Legal Department and now
Purchasing are all on the program. She added they sent all of the current contracts to Laserfiche to be scanned
and those should be done relatively soon. She showed Council the Open Records website and listed some of
the information available on that site, including frequently requested documents and the Laserfiche web portal.
She spoke about some of the efforts being made to promote Records Management throughout the City. She
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described some of the future goals for Records Management, including continued expansion of the Laserfiche
system and the possible addition of a Records Management assistant on City staff. She said efforts have been
made toward historic preservation of City documents and added she sent the very first City records off to be
preserved. She showed the Council the historic book and described hte preservation process. She thanked the
City Council for their time.
Meeting recessed to Executive Session under Section 551.071 -- 5:14PM
Meeting returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:36PM
A7%:et
Mayor Geole Garver
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,adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 06:36 PM.
.,_
Brettle