Richardson City Council Meeting January 6th, 2025
OPENING
Six of the seven councilmembers are present as well as City Manager Don Magner. Deputy City Secretary Crystal Brown steps in as secretary tonight. Councilwoman Justice attends virtually.
Councilman Corcoran leads the pledges and reads words from the late President Jimmy Carter’s book, Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis. This book was published in 2005. The message rings true today.
“I believe that anyone can be successful in life, regardless of natural talent or the environment within which we live. This is not based on measuring success by human competitiveness for wealth, possessions, influence, and fame, but adhering to God's standards of truth, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.”
December’s minutes are approved unanimously.
No speakers are present for the visitors forum.
SOLID WASTE MASTER PLAN
The first discussion tonight is on the Solid Waste Master Plan. Allison Eccarius of Burns & McDonnell presents. Tonight will be a presentation of the firm’s short-term and long-term recommendations. Short-term recommendations for residential trash and recycling collection are to remove BABIC from the recycling supervisor’s responsibilities and to even out collection routes by 2026. By 2029, the recommendation is to replace temporary personnel with five full-time trash loaders and seven recycling loaders. Allison states that these recommendations would cost the city roughly 42 cents per household monthly.
Short-term recommendations for BABIC are to increase the target window for pickup to 3 days after a request is placed, to increase outreach on what warrants a BABIC pickup, and to appoint a BABIC supervisor by 2026. These recommendations would cost the city 40 cents per household monthly. By 2029, the recommendations are to add 12 full-time employees and four trucks. These would cost the city $2.28 per household monthly.
Short-term recommendations for a recycling drop-off location are to use existing resources to staff the current drop-off location this year and, if necessary, install security cameras by 2026. This would cost the city 2 cents per household monthly. Long-term recommendations are to close the current location and either open one new central location or multiple smaller locations throughout the city. Costs for this long-term recommendation are not presented at this time.
Short-term recommendations for commercial collection are to hire a dedicated business analyst and to hire one heavy equipment operator by 2026. This would cost the city roughly $2.01 for each commercial customer monthly.
So, the total cost to the city if all of these are implemented amounts to $3.12 per household and $2.01 per the most common commercial customer monthly. Allison presents a table that shows the cost of providing service to each residential household increasing to $40.15 and to $126.72 for commercial customers by 2029. These represent how much it would cost the city to provide these services, not necessarily the customer/resident rate.
Scott Pasternak with Burns & McDonnell continues the presentation. Additionally, they recommend the city provide multifamily and commercial recycling collection and construction and demolition debris collection through an exclusive franchise. Long term, the recommendation is to re-evaluate a potential transition to carts every 3-5 years. Scott clarifies that the city does not currently need to transition to carts. Future factors that could trigger that transition are staffing difficulties, demographic changes, and changes to the recycling processing agreement. Scott presents a table that shows that transitioning to carts right now would be $3-6 more expensive per household monthly than keeping our current bagged collection. So, bagged collection is more affordable for Richardson. Scott states that a final report will be presented to Council at the end of this month.
Councilman Hutchenrider doesn’t want the city to have oversight responsibility for construction and demolition debris collection. He states that implementing a requirement for certain companies would be received negatively by contractors who currently use a company of their choosing. He asks what the benefit would be. Scott explains that this would go through a competitive bidding process if implemented. This would give the city a chance to compare current pricing and determine if there is any cost benefit. Giving a company an exclusive franchise for a region could be a motivator for a more competitive price than what is currently offered to contractors. City Manager Don Magner adds that a level of oversight is necessary because of the NTMWD (Water District) requirement that all construction debris be taken to the Melissa landfill. Some contractors currently are not abiding by the requirement to register with the city.
Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul asks why we have this contract with the NTMWD. Don explains that this contract was agreed to as part of a multi-city contract with several other metroplex cities. And this is one of the district’s more profitable services offered. He further explains that this agreement helps reduce the cost to cities and residents. Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul is concerned that this monopoly could become more expensive down the road.
Councilwoman Justice supports the recommendations but encourages city management to look at ways for the city to absorb some of the cost rather than passing it all onto residents.
Councilman Hutchenrider expresses concern about the BABIC response time increasing to three days. He doesn’t want this to result in debris sitting out for days. Public Services Director Eric Robison answers that increasing response time helps the city to manage resources without stretching themselves too thin. Having some advance notice beyond just the midnight before would help. A 24-hour response time would be an improvement on the current response window.
Councilman Corcoran also supports the recommendations, especially the recommendation to include multifamily in recycling collection.
Mayor Dubey asks what the useful life of the recommended new vehicles is and if they would need bond funds to acquire. Eric answers that these vehicles have a 6–8-year life and they would evaluate a possible rate structure to include the costs of new vehicles.
NEW CITY HALL UPDATE
Now, Council receives an update on the new city hall and municipal campus. Asst. City Manager Charles Goff presents. Balfour Beatty has now completed the pre-construction work. They will continue to focus on the library renovation project, but a competitive sealed proposal process was determined to be the best way to select a company to construct city hall. McCownGordon was selected as they provided the lowest price and highest quality according to the assessment. This is an employee-owned construction company headquartered in Kansas City, MO with an office in Plano. Charles reports that the project is on budget and the total project cost remains at $91M.
Charles presents six potential project alternates that were considered last summer. These include rooftop solar panels, plaza and Leadership Grove enhancements, a parking lot refresh, an expanded second-floor patio, relocating the site transformer, and a rainwater harvesting system. Bids for these alternates have now been received. Leadership Grove enhancements would cost $714K. These enhancements include benches made from recycled material, enhanced lighting, and enhanced drainage. Repairs to the parking lot have now been included in the base construction bid. The alternate bid for a parking lot refresh now just includes restriping paved areas that aren’t repaired for $4,700. Doubling the size of the second-floor patio would cost $330K. Relocating the transformer to an area that would not require a utility easement would cost $301K.
For a rainwater harvesting system, an underground 10,000-gallon tank was determined to be the best option. This would supply irrigation needs for the green and plaza areas for roughly two days. This is estimated to cost roughly $500K without accounting for ongoing operational and maintenance costs. Charles explains that the system would have a useful life of roughly 40 years and wouldn’t see a return on investment for 100 years. Rooftop solar panels would cost $1.25M. These would provide roughly 10% of the electrical supply for the building. These would have a useful life of 30 years and a return on investment wouldn’t be achieved for 75 years.
Charles recommends approving McCownGordon’s base construction bid of $65M which includes $3M of contingency. He also recommends approving four of the alternate bids: plaza and Leadership Grove enhancements for $714K, expanding the second-floor patio for $330K, relocating the site transformer for $301K, and the parking lot refresh for $4,700. These total $849,700. Charles states that the budget still has $1.8M of contingency set aside. Approving these four alternates would mean that $950K of contingency funds remain on top of the $3M included in the base bid. Council will vote to approve the construction contract on Jan. 13th with construction set to begin in February.
Councilman Barrios asks what sort of assessment was used to determine that McCownGordon was the highest quality bid. Charles answers that city leadership ranked bids based on background, experience, and reputation. Councilman Barrios also asks if they could at least explore solar power for outdoor lighting. Charles answers that the aesthetics for the lighting plan do not have a solar power option. Councilman Barrios is hesitant to support the expanded second-floor patio. He asks if this would be allowed to be rented by the public. City Manager Don Magner answers that they wouldn’t rent it but could allow city partners to use the space for events and gatherings. Councilman Barrios, though still hesitant, agrees to support the recommendation.
Councilman Dorian still wants a rainwater harvest system. He likes the aesthetics of an above-ground tank and acknowledges that this would only be used for irrigation. He asks that they explore this option. He supports the other recommendations. He also supports solar-powered exterior lighting.
Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul encourages the landscape design to direct rainwater through irrigation areas before running off into the drainage system. He also supports a small-scale rainwater harvesting system that would show citizens how these systems work rather than a larger one to meet irrigation needs. This could be a more affordable option and would allow outreach and education.
Councilwoman Justice encourages grant funding to be explored for a rainwater harvesting system. She also asks what happened to the mural in the Council chambers. Charles answers that it didn’t look as nice as a solid muted blue background. (Hmm…) Charles adds that a historical mural will still be included outside the Richardson Room.
Mayor Dubey stumps Charles when he asks about slide 13. This is the slide that shows the plaza and Leadership Grove enhancements. This slide lists nine areas of enhancements and shows a map with correlating numbers for where the enhancements will be. Except, the legend skips #6. Mayor Dubey asks what #6 is. Charles doesn’t seem sure but thinks that #6 is the label for additional seating areas.
PUBLIC HEARING CONT’D – HARAZ COFFEE
Next is a continuation of the public hearing on ZF 24-25. As a reminder, this is a special permit request for a drive-thru coffee shop, Haraz Coffee, at 508 Centennial Blvd. This area has four other drive-thrus already and drive-thrus are only deemed appropriate as a secondary use by the Future Land Use Plan. The CPC heard this item on Nov. 19th where they recommended approval 6-1 with Chair Marsh opposed. Two public speakers were also opposed that day. Council considered this item on Dec. 9th. I submitted my opposition to Council that day. Some councilmembers were hesitant to support the request that day but agreed to continue the item until tonight.
Staff presents a background of the request. The concept plan has been updated to show only one menu board with a speaker. Staff states that one additional comment in opposition was received today. The applicant now steps forward to provide an update on their request. The applicant explains that he reached out to the president of the Townes of Buckingham HOA and was successful in meeting with them. The applicant states that the neighbors are mostly concerned about noise. The HOA is still officially opposed.
Two speakers are present. The first speaker is the current president of the Townes of Buckingham HOA. He communicates the HOA’s official opposition to the request. He explains that they are only opposed to the drive-thru use. They are not opposed to a coffee shop. He verifies that the major concern is noise. They do not want the area to become saturated with drive-thrus. (Neither does the Future Land Use Plan.) The second speaker is opposed to the request. He also opposes the drive-thru use only, not the coffee shop.
The applicant returns to rebut the speakers’ concerns. He restates that they were unaware that a drive-thru would not be allowed by right.
Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul is concerned that if they don’t approve this, a use that he deems undesirable could come in by right, such as a smoke shop. (I disagree with the assertion that a smoke shop is an undesirable use. If current smoke shops are contributing to illegal activity, that is an enforcement issue, not a use issue. Smoke shops are retail uses that generate tax revenue. I wouldn’t mind seeing a special tax assessed for these types of products to produce even more tax revenue, but that is a state issue according to my understanding.) He encourages the applicant to consider closing the drive-thru around 7 p.m. He thinks that limiting the use to one drive-thru lane is enough to approve the request.
Councilman Barrios is hesitant to support the request. He doesn’t like drive-thru uses in general, but states that this could be an appropriate location for an exception.
Councilman Corcoran acknowledges that this drive-thru being developed only a few years ago makes it unlikely that this property would get redeveloped without a drive-thru. He supports the request.
Councilwoman Justice states that she was previously opposed but is now reconsidering. She supports limiting the hours of the drive-thru. She acknowledges that the area has a few drive-thrus already.
Mayor Dubey supports the request after seeing that the applicant reached out to the neighboring HOA and reduced the drive-thru to one speaker.
Councilman Hutchenrider is also on the fence. He asks that the applicant consider drive-thru hours of 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. He asks if there is a way to monitor for noise for the first couple months to verify that this does not negatively impact neighbors. City Manager Don Magner answers that the current noise ordinance applies. If decibel levels are measured over the allowed limit, the city has ways to address the issue. Councilman Hutchenrider encourages proactive monitoring rather than reactive monitoring to avoid any negative impact due to noise.
Don offers to provide a report to Council in six months or a year to understand how the use is impacting the neighbors. He encourages Council to not place additional restrictions due to the difficulty that comes with enforcing drive-thru hours.
Councilman Barrios asks what would be required for Council to call up the special permit. Don answers that his six-month or one-year report could be used as a reason to call the special permit back for consideration if issues were recorded. Residents could call the non-emergency police line to report noise complaints. RPD is equipped with monitoring equipment. Citations could be issued for ongoing complaints. Fines for zoning ordinance violations could be assessed up to $2,000 per day if a violation takes place.
Councilman Barrios now supports the request with the promise of a one-year report to monitor for any issues.
Councilman Dorian also now supports the request given the extenuating circumstances and promises to monitor for issues.
Councilman Corcoran ensures the public that his support of this request does not indicate a general support for new drive-thrus.
Council unanimously approves the request with the added conditions of limiting the drive-thru to only one menu board with a Delphi or equivalent speaker system technology and a requirement to review the impact in one year.
CONSENT AGENDA & CLOSING
The consent agenda is approved unanimously. It includes a $175K annual requirements contract to Amundson Plumbing for plumbing services and a change order (increase) to the contract with Tegrity Contactors for developing the Interurban Park. (Whoops, I thought we weren’t calling it a park because we are leasing the land from DART, but that’s what the agenda item says.) This is a $167K increase because a large quantity of river rock was discovered several inches below the grade. This was apparently missed in the geo-tech report. This rocky soil will have to be taken out and replaced with soil conducive for sod and landscaping. This discovery is actually costing $227K, but $60K of contingency funding was still left. This will cause a 53-day delay. The park (Commons?) is now estimated to be completed in late March.
Council discusses a Cops & Kids event, the UTD Hannukah celebration at Cityline, Santa’s Village, an upcoming Eisemann Center performance, the New Orleans and Las Vegas terrorist attacks, and the passing of President Jimmy Carter. Council then convenes into executive session to discuss economic development negotiations for a commercial development in the W. Renner/Alma Rd. area. The footage stops here.