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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4th Quarter (October-December) CITY OF THE COLONY DENTON COUNTY, TEXAS OCTOBER 17,1997 Notice is hereby given of a REGULAR SESSION of the Library Board of the City of The Colony, Texas, to be held on the 23rd day of October, 1997, at 7:00 p.m., at City Hall, 5151 North Colony Blvd., at which meeting the following items will be discussed: 1. Joint Work Session with the Parks & Recreation Board: 1 .1. Receive presentation from the Quality of Life Citizens Study Committee on proposals for funding of capital projects for the improvement of Library and Parks and Recreation services and facilities. 1.2. Receive public input regarding the proposals presented by the Quality of Life Citizens Study Committee. 2. Citizen's Input. This time is set aside for citizens to address the Library Board regarding items that are not posted on the regular agenda. Those persons wishing to address the Board must sign in on the Citizen's Input form prior to the start of the meeting. 3. Consideration of approval of minutes of the board meeting held September 25, 1997. 4. Reports: The following individuals and/or committees will report any items of concern or interest to The Board. 4.1. Quality of Life Committee Representatives 4.2. Chairman 4.3. NTRLS System Representative 4.4. Library Director Persons with disabilities who plan to attend this meeting who may need auxiliary aids of services such as interpreters for persons who are deaf or hearing impaired, readers, large print or *braille, are requested to contact Ruthann Devlin, Deputy City Secretary, at 972- 625-1756 at least two (2) working days prior to the meeting so that appropriate arrangements can be made. *BRAILLE IS NOT AVAILABLE CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the above notice of meeting was posted outside City Hall, by 5:00 p.m. on the 17th day of October, 1997. 4t -(2 'flu k Patti A. Hicks, City Secretary CITY OF THE COLONY DENTON COUNTY, TEXAS NOVEMBER 7, 1997 TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES: Notice is hereby given of a REGULAR SESSION of the Parks & Recreation Board of The City of The Colony, Texas, to be held on November 12th, 1997, at 7:30 p.m. at the Recreation Center, located at 5151 North Colony Boulevard, at which time the following will be discussed: 1. CITIZENS INPUT. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 27TH, SEPTEMBER 10TH, AND SEPTEMBER 18TH, 1997. 3. REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENTS TO THE PARK DEDICATION ORDINANCE. 4. REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF DEVELOPER'S AGREEMENT FOR AUSTIN RANCH. 5. REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF FEES FOR STEWART CREEK PARK AND HIDDEN COVE PARK. 6. RECEIVE DEPARTMENTAL UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR. 7. GENERAL ITEMS OF CONCERN TO THE BOARD. Persons with disabilities who plan to attend this meeting who may need auxiliary aids of services such as interpreters for persons who are deaf or hearing impaired, readers, large print, or *braille, are requested to contact Ruthann Devlin, Deputy City Secretary, at 972-625-1756 at least two (2) working days prior to the meeting so that appropriate arrangements can be made. *BRAILLE IS NOT AVAILABLE. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the City Hall by 5:00 p.m. on outside the front door of MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF THE COLONY HELD ON NOVEMBER 12TH, 1997 A REGULAR SESSION of the Parks & Recreation Board of The City of The Colony, was called to order at 7:35 p.m. with the following Board members present: Donna Baggett Laura Bickerstaff Scott Calabro Jim Cottle Susan King John Sanders Vice Chairman Member Member Member Member Member and with Chairman Lewis absent; however a quorum was established. Also in attendance was Pam Nelson, Parks & Recreation Director, and Sam Fitzgerald, Park Manager for Hidden Cove Park. 1. CITIZENS INPUT. None. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 27TH, SEPTEMBER 10TH, AND SEPTEMBER 18TH, 1997. A motion was made by Member King to approve the minutes of August 27th, 1997. Seconded by Member Sanders, the motion was approved by the following vote: Ayes: Members Bickerstaff, Cottle, King, Sanders, and Vice Chairman Baggett Abstention: Member Calabro Noes: None A motion was made by Member Cottle to approve the minutes of September 10th, 1997. Seconded by Member Calabro, the motion was approved by the following vote: Ayes: All members present voted aye Noes: None A motion was made by Member Sanders to approve the minutes of September 18th. Seconded by Member Bickerstaff, the motion was approved by the following vote: Ayes: Members Bickerstaff, Cottle, King, Sanders, and Vice Chairman Baggett Abstention: Member Calabro Noes: None 3. REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENTS TO THE PARK DEDICATION ORDINANCE. The following changes to the Park Dedication Ordinance were discussed: Under Sec. 6 - Item 2a. Totally rewrite to reflect 5 acres per thousand people in place of 682 square feet. Under Sec. 7 - Item 4 - rewrite to state - Any payments made to the Park Development Fund shall be used for the acquisition, development, expansion or upgrading of parks located within the same planning area as identified on the "Future Parks Plan", or for the acquisition, development, expansion of existing facilities designed to service the City of The Colony. Item 5 - Strike entire paragraph. Sec. 7 - Item la - change the last sentence to read: The acquisition price for land shall be equal to the appraised value of the land based at the time of platting. Sec. 6 - Item 3a - change to read - The gift was made prior to five years of the effective date of this ordinance. A motion was then made by Member King to recommend approval of amendments to the Park Dedication Ordinance as discussed. Seconded by Member Sanders, the motion was approved by the following vote: -2- Ayes: Noes: All members present voted aye None 4. REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF DEVELOPER'S AGREEMENT FOR AUSTIN RANCH. Citizen Richard Kamen presented a letter to the Board concerning this item which is attached to the minutes. The Board had the following concerns and comments on the Developer's Agreement for Austin Ranch: 1. Asked when the $1,000,000 agreement will be made with the Board _ prior to or after the Developer's Agreement is finalized. 2. Concerned with the second payment of $300,000 not being due until December 31st of the year following the completion of the water tower. It was suggested it be made due on the anniversary date of the first payment. 3. Concerned with the dollar amount for the water tower construction and terms for paying back to the park fund. 4. Asked if the amendments to the Park Dedication Ordinance will precede the Developer's Agreement. 5. The Board would like to see a conceptual drawing or development plan showing recreational amenities within Austin Ranch. 6. The Board wants to see interest on the balance of $1,700,000 added to the Developer's Agreement. 7. The Board wants to see the City released from obligation of providing city owned and operated recreational facilities in Austin Ranch if he gives money in lieu of land. 8. Under Article II, Section 2.1 - Park Land Dedication - Board wants the words "as follows" to be deleted from the end of the first paragraph. 9. Under Article II, Section 2.1 - Park Land Dedication, Sec. a, No.3 - Board wants the whole paragraph to be deleted. 10. Board wants written into Developer's Agreement to release the City to sue funds at their discretion. 11. Board wants written into Developer's Agreement to be able to acquire land in that area at the same acquisition price. 12. Board would like to see redlined copy of Developer's Agreement again prior to final approval. A motion was then made by Member Cottle to recommend to City Council approval of the above written amendments to the Developer's Agreement for Austin Ranch. Seconded by Member Calabro, the motion was approved by the following vote: Ayes: Noes: All members present voted aye None 5. REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF FEES FOR STEWART CREEK PARK AND HIDDEN COVE PARK. Ms. Nelson, Parks & Rec. Director, stated the revenue has been down for the past two years at Stewart Creek Park, and that Hidden Cove Park is still in the hole. Members then discussed setting up the following fee schedule for Stewart Creek Park and Hidden Cove Park: Stewart Creek Park $20.00 - Resident fee - 1st annual permit fee $25.00 - Non-resident fee - 1st annual permit fee $10.00 - one additional permit only Hidden Cove Park $30.00 - 1st annual permit fee $10.00 - one additional permit only Combination Permit $40.00 - 1st combination permit fee $15.00 - one additional permit only -3 - A motion was then made by Member King to recommend approval of the proposed changes to the fees for Stewart Creek Park and Hidden Cove Park. Seconded by Member Sanders, the motion was approved by the following vote: Ayes: Members King, Sanders, Bickerstaff, Calabro, and Vice Chairman Baggett Abstention: Member Cottle Noes: None 6. RECEIVE DEPARTMENTAL UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR. Sam Fitzgerald gave the following update on Hidden Cove Park: 1) Halloween - over 850 people participated in the Hay Ride event for the two nights it was held. The best organized scare at the event was the Fire Truck provided by Jim Cottle, and Mr. Fitzgerald expressed his thanks to him. Over $3,200 was made at this event. 2) Held two Cross Country meets this years with good turnouts at both meets. Ms. Nelson gave the following update on the Parks & Rec. Department. 1) Youth Basketball registration has been going on with over 550 kids registered. 2) Chairman Lewis had an emergency appendectomy on Sunday, Nov. 9th and don't know how long he'll be out. 3) Ice Cream Social planned for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 13th. A presentation on the proposed Sales Tax will be given at this time. 4) Four Board Members applied for the 4B Board. 5) The Colony Flyers are being displaced from Wynnewood Park and are wanting to move to Hidden Cove Park across the street from the camping area. Board members do not feel this would be a good location. 6) The Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting will take place on Sunday, December 7th. The Parade will be at 2:00 p.m. and the Tree Lighting at 7:00 p.m. 7) There will be no meeting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 7. GENERAL ITEMS OF CONCERN TO THE BOARD. Member King asked since the revenue was down at Stewart Creek Park, had the option of letting the fulltime Gate Attendant go and put part time people back on the gate. Ms. Nelson stated that wasn't necessary at this time. Member Bickerstaff stated she liked the idea of charging $3.00 for a daily pass to the park and eliminating annual passes. She asked if the fees would be reviewed again in a year. Member Sanders stated he noticed there was a lot of graffiti at some of the parks. Vice Chairman Baggett stated she would like to see Board meetings be held more consistently. She would like the meetings to be held twice a month regardless of anything on the agenda but a departmental update. There being no further discussion, it was unanimously decided to adjourn the meeting at 10:15 p.m. ~~ Beverly N p, Recording Secretary .~ November II, 1997 To: The Park and Recreation 130ardl\t1embers City of The Colony, Texas r;rom: Richard Kamen Subject: Park Land dedication provisions of the City of The Colony, Texas and proposed changes to the Park and Recreation Ordinance of the City of The Colony, Texas. Pursuant to the above captioned subject, I request you consider the foUowing _ when discussing the proposed developers agreement between Austin Ranch (Crow/Billingsly Developer) and the City of The Colony. CUlTently, our ordinance allows only developers the right to choose between dedicating land or providing money in lieu of land donation. We are the only' city that I know of that has given sole control over their (the City's) future parks to the desecration of the developers. The cities of PIano, Lewisville, C~ollton, and Frisco do not allow the developers in their respective cities the sole authority to decide to donate land or in lieu of land money. Respectively, in their prosperous cities there must be a mutual meeting of the Ininds. If a mutual agreement can not be reached then the developer must, by ordinance, donate the required land. As expressed to me, the reason is simple, their cities feel that without muh~al consent, all developers would most likely never dedicate any land and-would always, due to pure economics of the matter, pay money in lieu of land. Please consider the following, developed land is of more value per acre than undeveloped land. Commercially developed land is of more value than land developed as single family residential ie: an acre of land in doWntown Dallas is of more value than an single family acre of developed land even in the most expensive part of north Dallas. Therefore I request that you change our ordinance to reflect the same wisdom our sister cities employ regarding mutual agreement on whether land, money in lieu of land or a combination of either is to be employed by any developer. I believe that it is only exercising simple prudence to have some control in . what developers do in our city. If not, we could well be loosing in the Austin Ranch Development alone $18, I 00,000.00 (Eighteen million one hundred thousand dollars) Our ordinance requires that the Austin Ranch developer donate 104 acres or 2.7 million dollars in lieu of land. SilIingsly has decided to donate 2.7 million dollars in lieu of land. One hundred four acres valued at 2.7 million breaks down to (rowlded) 26,000 per acre. Because we cUlTently have no developed multi family commercial property for comparative evaluation but do have single family residential established land evaluations I used the latter to base the following: Assume average lot value is for single family residential in the City of The Colony to be $50,000. We currently allow at least 4 single family residential lots per acre, consequently, an acre of single family residential property is worth $200,000. If you then multiply l04 acres times the CUlTent market value of a single acre in the colony, it generates the value of $2Q,800~000.00 (Twenty million, eight hundred thousand dollars) Even assuming the lowest lot single family values in The Colony are in the Eastvale Subdivision and that on~,acre lots are appraised at $26,000. you can readily see that using the lowest case scenario and applying the same fonnula as above, it would generate approximately $10,000,000. (Ten Million) Today you (we the people of The Colony) are considering selling 104 acres of land for 2.7 million dollars. Using the examples provided above, we are providing somewhere between $7,300,009.00 and $18,100,000.00 as a nice gift to Henry and the friends of Henry. - I believe that that type of gift is in excess of what we need to do to be considered developer friendly. Therefore I suggest the following: We change our Ordin~ce and require mutual agreement between City and Developer considering park land dedication.- If no mutual agreement can be reached, we then should require developer to donate the land. Specifically regarding the Austin Ranch, I suggest we accept no money, take the land, keep ownership of all the land until the Austin Ranch Development is substantially completed. Then, if we need a few million dollars for park development, water towers and perhaps even a water park, etc, sell a few acres to fund the city's needs, not Heruy's profits. At a time when we, the citizens of The Colony, are about to be asked to vote on a proposed "Penny for Prosperity" proposition, I believe that it is bad timing to be giving away $7.3 million to $18. I million of our CUlTent prosperity. It seems to me to be a eontradictionin tenns for the city to hold out its tin cup asking for its "Penny for Prosperity" and at the same time allow the city's pocket to be picked for millions upon millions of dollars. Under this "Penny for Prosperity" proposal, how many pennies do we need to replace $7,300,000. to $18,100,000. that we are currently considering conceding to Henry and the friends of Henry. How long will it take to replace those pennies??? In fact, wouldn't it be better to just keep the millions we have now and just not raise our taxes at all???? A penny saved is a penny earned. As om Mayor Mary Watts likes to say, "JUST DO IT RIGHT". CC: City Council Members City Manager Colony Courier Colony Leader pallas Morning News/Denton Bureau CITY OF THE COLONY DENTON COUNTY, TEXAS DECEMBER 5, 1997 TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES: Notice is hereby given of a REGULAR SESSION of the Parks & Recreation Board of The City of The Colony, Texas, to be held on December 10th, 1997, at 7:30 p.m. at the Recreation Center, located at 5151 North Colony Boulevard, at which time the following will be discussed: 1. CITIZENS INPUT. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 12TH, 1997. 3. RECEIVE PRESENTATION FROM QUALITY OF LIFE COMMITTEE REGARDING 1~ SALES TAX ELECTION. 4. DISCUSSION OF PLANS FOR FUTURE ATHLETIC FACILITIES. 5. RECEIVE DEPARTMENTAL UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR. 6. GENERAL ITEMS OF CONCERN TO THE BOARD. Persons with disabilities who plan to attend this meeting who may need auxiliary aids of services such as interpreters for persons who are deaf or hearing impaired, readers, large print, or *braille, are requested to contact Ruthann Devlin, Deputy City Secretary, at 972-625-1756 at least two (2) working days prior to the meeting so that appropriate arrangements can be made. *BRAILLE IS NOT AVAILABLE. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the City Hall by 5:00 p.m. on / notice of meeting was posted outside the front door of h day of December, 1997. ~~~ MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF THE COLONY HELD ON DECEMBER 10, 1997 A REGULAR SESSION of the Parks & Recreation Board of The City of The Colony, was called to order at 7:38 p.m. with the following Board members present: Rich Lewis Jim Cottle John Sanders Donna Baggett Laura Bickerstaff Susan King Chairman Member Member Member Mwmber - 7:45 p.m. Member - 8:25 p.m. And with Member Calabro absent; however a quorum was established. Also in attendance was Pam Nelson, Parks & Recreation Director. 1. CITIZENS INPUT. None. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 12TH, 1997. A motion was made by Member Cottle to approve the minutes of November 12th, 1997. Seconded by Member Baggett the motion was approved by the following vote: Ayes: Members Cottle, Sanders, Baggett, Bickerstaff Abstention: Chairman Lewis Noes: None 3. RECEIVE PRESENTATION FROM QUALITY OF LIFE COMMITTEE REGARDING 1 SALES TAX ELECTION. Jorge Diaz, representing the Quality of Life Committee, gave a presentation on the 1 Sales Tax Election to the Board, and answered all questions Board members had pertaining to the Election. 4. DISCUSSION OF PLANS FOR FUTURE ATHLETIC FACILITIES. Ms. Nelson addressed the Board about future athletic facilities. She stated the Board needs to keep the following in mind for future athletic facilities -location and what kind of facilities are going to be placed in that location, and what are we going to do with facilities we currently have. The location currently being looked at is adjacent to the Tri West Property which runs along Paige Road to South Colony Boulevard which is about a 100 acre tract. Board members then discussed separating adult and youth athletic facilities or trying to have everything all in one area. It was decided to set up a work session and invite all the Presidents of the Youth Sports Organization to attend to work on this further. 5. RECEIVE DEPARTMENTAL UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR. Ms. Nelson gave the following departmental update: 1) A list of items was approved for funding at the City Council meeting. Councilman Henville-Shannon brought up ADA sidewalks for the Little League Complex and $35,000 was approved for this project. 2) The Christmas Parade was cancelled due to rain and rescheduled for December 14th. 3) The Tree Lighting Ceremony was held on December 7th. 4) The gym divider has been ordered. 5) The Board needs to work on a rental policy for future use of fields. 6) The Board needs to work on a rental policy for renting Rec. Center facilities. 7) The ping pong table was destroyed at Saturday Nite Out. 8) Asked the Board for feedback on putting in a pool table in Rec. Center. 9) Handed out the latest copy of the Developer's Agreement. 10. GENERAL ITEMS OF CONCERN TO THE BOARD. Member Baggett asked about posts in the parking area at Lions Club Park. Member Cottle stated the $35,000 approved by the Council for ADA sidewalks concerns him since there are other priorities the Parks & Recreation Department has. Chairman Lewis stated a lot of time was spent on a letter addressed to the City Council back in September, but after holding a discussion with Ms. Nelson, he decided against presenting it to City Council. He went on to say after hearing about the $35,000 approved for ADA sidewalks, it has upset him again. Member Cottle suggested to maybe write a letter of a review of the past year to City Council. Chairman Lewis stated he would also like to have Councilman Henville-Shannon invited to the work session and to set it for January 7th. The Presidents of the Youth Sports Organizations will also be invited to this work session which will be on future athletic fields and a rental policy for the Rec. Center. There being no further discussion, it was unanimously decided to adjourn the meeting at 10:25 p.m. ~L,~ Ji./\~ _Beverly Nopp, Recording Secretary