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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Landmark Commission - 02/22/2001 V 02ygZ1 MINUTES LANDMARK COMMISSION MEETING CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS FEBRAURY 22, 2001 V 9� MEMBERS PRESENT: Ms. Deborah Douglas, Chairman Ms.Sharon Brower M .Michael Cleary Mr. Thomas Kreneck Ms.Grandis Lenken Mr.Mark Luddeke Mr.Terry Orf Mr.Elmon Phillips Mr.Tom Stewart MEMBERS ABSENT: Mr.Alan Belcher (Excused) Ms.Betsy Chapman (Excused) Mr. Kevin Maraist (Excused) STAFF PRESENT: Ms. Faryce Goode-Macon, City Planner Ms. Linda Williams, Recording Secretary Ms. Deborah Douglas, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 4:35 p.m. The roll was called and a quorum was declared. ACTION ITEM: Approval of January 25, 2001 Minutes: The minutes for the January 25, 2001 meeting were approved as distributed. DISCUSSION ITEM: Park and Street Ordinance Review: Ms. Faryce Goode-Macon, Staff Liaison, addressed the commission. Ms. Macon stated that at the January 25, 2001 meeting, the commission discussed the application submitted by Dusty Durrill requesting City Council to change the name of Belden Street to Concrete Street. Ms. Macon continued that after a lengthy discussion by commission members, several members recommended they review the existing City ordinance and have staff from the appropriate departments give a presentation on the process used in reviewing requests for street and park name changes. Ms. Macon continued that after the February meeting, she contacted David Seiler, City Traffic Engineer Division, and Tony Cisneros, Director of Park and Recreation, to see if they would be available to give a presentation at today's meeting. Ms. Macon stated that Mr. Cisneros could not attend today's meeting due to another scheduled meeting, but he did provide information for review later in the meeting, and Mr. Seiler will address the commission on street name changes. At this point,the floor was turned over to Mr. Seiler. Before Mr. Seiler began his presentation, Mr. Phillips distributed a handout listing origins of street names located in the downtown area of the city. Mr. Phillips stated he compiled the list about two years ago. Mr. Seiler introduced himself to the commission and stated he was the City Traffic Engineer for the city and he was glad to be at today's meeting. Mr. Seiler clarified that, by City Ordinance, the application request for street name changes are submitted to the City SCANNED Landmark Commission Meetin! February 22,2001 Page 2 Secretary's office and not to Traffic Engineering. Mr.Seiler continued that the application is forwarded to Traffic Engineering to help facilitate the request and also to receive comments by effected city departments. The city does not handle street name changes often, but the last two that submitted to City Council were the most recent, changing Belden Street to Concrete Street and changing Highway 44 to the Cesar Chavez Memorial Parkway. In each case, the application pointed out some weaknesses in our review process. Mr. Seiler continued that the first part of the process is to submit an application to the City Secretary's office. The ordinance that establishes this process is very old and outdated. Mr. Seiler went on to say that the same ordinance has been in effect since the 19705 and it has not been updated. The process provides an opportunity for any business owner or resident that has a business address or residence on a street to submit an application for a street name change. The intention of the ordinance is for the applicant to include a list of names of all residents and property owners on the street that will be affected by the name change proposal. Mr. Seiler continued that typically this part of the process was not done. The City now requires a non-refundable deposit of 525 in order for the City to do the research and processing and contact the property owners that are not shown on the application to be in approval of the proposal. Mr. Seiler stated that for the street name change proposal for Cesar Chavez, there were no property owner names attached to the application. City staff had to do a tremendous amount of research to determine the affected property owners and and sent out notices prior to the public hearing. The process also identifies certain city departments and agencies that the proposal is circulated to for comments. The departments involved are Traffic Engineering, Director of Engineering, Planning Department Director, Utilities Office Manager, City Manager, Post Master, Fire and Police Chiefs. There are no time limits on the application, but usually all comments are received from the departments within a thirty-day period. The comments identify whether or not any of the departments or agencies support or oppose the application. The information is also forwarded to the Texas Department of Transportation District Engineer for review to see if the street name change will affect a state maintained roadway within the city. The practice has been that the City Manager sets a public hearing date before City Council to hear the proposal at which time the hearing is opened for public comments. In that same public hearing, the Council normally renders a decision. Mr. Seiler continued that as he stated earlier, there are some weaknesses in the current process and the commission's concern is not only appropriate, but very timely. Following the Cesar Chavez name change proposal,which was controversial, a middle-of-the-road agreement was made to designate Agnes Street as Cesar Chavez Memorial Parkway without changing the name officially. Mr. Seiler added that as far as the Concrete Street name change proposal, staff found out there were some historical implications involved, but were not aware of them until late in the process. Inquiries were made and an amendment was made to the applicants application and only the one-block section west of North Tancahua Street was changed to Concrete Street. Mr. Seiler stated he did not know if the Landmark Commission had any input on the proposal. The City Secretary's office, as well as City Council, did receive considerable comment from the Nueces County Historical Society as well as the Nueces County Historical Commission. The comments provided important historical background information on Belden Street. Mr. Seiler stated the reason the commission's concern is appropriate at this time is because the City Manager has seen the weakness in the current process. To help refine and facilitate the process, Staff will take a discussion item to City Council on ways the process can be improved. One of the proposed recommendations will be include more comprehensive research. A research fee will be included to compensate for staff time used in performing the research. This fee will be part of the application fee ranging from $100 to $500. The research would include property owners' support and opposition. Staff would consult with the applicant and advise the applicant on the property owners' position and whether or not to proceed further with the request. Mr. Seiler continued that the research process would be expanded to Include the Landmark commission and the Nueces County Historical Landmark Commission MeetinW V February 22,2001 Page 3 Commission to ensure that comments and input are received for any Street name changes. The two boards would become part of the process officially. After all is said and done and there are no problems with the application, the same process would follow with a public hearing before the council. Mr. Seiler continued that the main thing staff wants to do is make sure that as much input is received from all affected property owners on the proposal as well as all the historical information be obtained before a public hearing is scheduled. Mr. Seiler stated that in early 1990, a policy passed that basically discouraged street name changes unless there were extenuating circumstances and there has not been a lot of definition to "extenuating circumstance." Mr. Seiler went on to say that this policy has not been refined since that time. There have been very few requests where state-maintained streets were involved. About two years ago, F.M. 624 was renamed to Northwest Boulevard at the request of the Northwest Business Association. Mr.Seiler concluded his presentation by stating that the Landmark Commission's input would be very important to inform City Council of the affect any street name changes would be that had some historical implications behind it. After Mr. Seiler's presentation, the floor was opened for comments and questions. Mr.Stewart asked if the discussion item on street name changes pending before Council Will result in a complete overhaul of the existing ordinance and Mr. Seiler answered yes it would. Mr. Seiler continued that the discussion with Council would not include submittal of an ordinance at that time. Items to be discussed would be the current process, the weaknesses and loopholes, responsibilities of the applicants in providing all requested information, and establishing fees that would be commiserate with staff's time in performing follow-up research in the process. The follow-up research would also include notification to affected property owners and notification to the public through the newspaper. Mr.Seiler continued that the current fee of 525 is unrealistic. Mr. Stewart asked how could the Landmark Commission become a part of the process and Mr. Seiler answered the ordinance could be amended to include the Landmark Commission as well as the Nueces County Historical Society as points of contact, just like the city departments were written into the ordinance. Mr. Phillips asked that the Nueces County Historical Commission also be added as a point of contact. Mr. Stewart continued that he would like to suggest that all streets listed on the 1852 directory map be exempted from any street name change. Mr. Seiler stated if the Landmark Commission would like to take action and submit any recommendations, the recommendations could be included in the discussion process. Mr. Seiler stated he hoped that after the meeting, staff would be directed to prepare a draft of the proposed amendments. At that point in time, staff would meet with the Landmark Commission, Nueces County Historical Commission, and Society to receive input that would be included in the ordinance. After all comments had been received and questions answered,the following action was taken: IT WAS MOVED BY MR. STEWART AND SECONDED BY MS. LENKEN THAT THE LANDMARK COMMISSION RECOMMEND TO STAFF AND CITY COUNCIL THAT THE ORDINANCE PERTAINING TO STREET NAME CHANGES HAVE A PROCESS THAT EXEMPTS THE STANDING STREET NAMES CONTAINED IN THE 1852 PLAN OF CORPUS CHRISTI AND THAT THOSE STREET NAMES NOT BE SUBJECT TO CHANCE. MOTION PASSED. Mr. Seiler asked if the handout provided by Mr. Phillips was different from the reference Mr. Stewart referred to and Mr. Phillips answered yes. Mr. Phillips continued that he compiled the information for handout that was distributed and it was based on a Bird's Eye Landmark Commission Meetib 1111. February 22,2001 Page 4 View of the City. This item was part of a display in the Centennial House that showed the street names and where they were located. M . Phillips continued that from the 1887 document and the 1852 map, some of the spellings were changed. Mr. Seiler apologized for staff's oversight that the Landmark Commission was not included in the review process for the Belden Street name change proposal. Mr. Seiler continued he was glad to be at today's meeting to receive input and comments and to assure commission members that the commission would be included in the process as a point of contact for future proposals and he looked forward to working the commission. Mr. Phillips commented that he was traveling down Williams Drive and he noticed that on side of the street there is a street sign for Blanche Moore, but once you cross over, there is no sign for Betty Jean. The only reference to Betty Jean is at the overhead sign at the red light. Mr. Seiler stated he would look into the situation. After all comments and discussion concluded, thanks were expressed to Mr. Seiler for attending today's meeting and reviewing the process for street name changes with the commission. OTHER MATTERS A brief discussion ensued regarding the policy on park name changes. Ms. Macon briefly reviewed the policy on naming of city parks and recreational facilities. Ms. Macon stated that since Mr. Cisneros was unable to attend today's meeting, he provided the wording for the city policy that starts on page 139. Ms. Macon continued there is a process for park name changes and it is very general. The policy basically states that the names would not be changed unless for extreme circumstances," which is a broad term. The Park and Recreation Department is looking into ways to redefine "extreme circumstances." Ms. Macon continued that Mr. Cisneros wanted the commission to know that there is a 60-day waiting period once the application has been submitted and at what point does the commission want to be notified of the proposal for a park name change. Ms. Macon went on to say that after reading the policy, she felt the commission would want to be included in the beginning of the process during the 60-day waiting period. Ms. Macon continued that there is an issue regarding renaming of the Nueces River Park to the LaBonte Park. At this time, an application is pending before Council requesting the name change. Mr. Cisneros indicated that he wanted to ensure that the appropriate groups will be involved in any future proposed amendments to renaming parks. Ms. Macon asked if the commission wanted to take action as to how they wanted to be included in the process for future proposals to rename city parks. After further discussion,the following action was taken: IT WAS MOVED BY MR. PHILLIPS AND SECONDED BY MR. CLEARY THAT THE LANDMARK COMMISSION NOTIFY MR. TONY CISNEROS, DIRECTOR OF PARK AND RECREATION, TO INFORM HIM THAT THE LANDMARK COMMISSION, NUECES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION, AND NUECES COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY WANT TO RECEIVE AN APPLICATION WITHIN ONE WEEK OF ITS SUBMITTAL FOR NAME CHANGES TO ANY CITY PARK OR RECREATIONAL FACILITIES. MOTION PASSED. Ms. Macon stated the web site is almost completed. They are still trying to link the maps and hopefully, we will review it at the next meeting. Mr. Phillips stated at the January meeting, the commission was informed about the number of vacancies that have to be filled. Mr. Phillips continued that he spoke with Geraldine McGloin and she is very interested in serving on the commission. Landmark Commission Meetin� tio February 22,2001 Page 5 Mr. Phillips informed the commission that the Nueces County Historical Commission prepared a booklet on all the historical markers in the county totaling approximately eighty-seven and he will bring a copy to the next meeting. These booklets have been distributed to the library and school as part of their"reach out"to the community effort. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:40 p.m. in 4 LI a Williams Faryce coo -Macon, City Planner Recording Secretary Staff Liaisorkto Landmark Commission IH:W ORD\LANDMARI(\FESMINS01l