Richardson City Council Meeting November 11th, 2024
FINAL PUBLIC HEARING – COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
All councilmembers are present as well as City Manager Don Magner and City Secretary Aimee Nemer.
Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul leads a prayer and the pledges.
Minutes of seven meetings, spanning from Sep. 23rd – Nov. 4th, are approved unanimously.
One public written comment is acknowledged from a McKinney resident in support of approving the comprehensive plan update.
Now, Council holds the final public hearing on the Envision Richardson Comprehensive Plan Update before considering adoption. City Manager Don Magner acknowledges that Council has received online comments regarding the comprehensive plan update, but he does not read the names of those commenters. Consultant Mark Bowers of the Kimley-Horn firm presents. Mark again reviews the public engagement process and content structure of the plan document. This same final presentation was also covered at the Oct. 29th CPC meeting.
The public hearing now opens. The first speaker compliments the plan’s inclusion of community feedback and the city’s prioritization of pedestrian and cyclist safety. She asks that plans to widen roads to move traffic along quicker be removed from this document. Instead, she says we should implement the active transportation plan and increase mixed-use development to reduce the need to rely on vehicle travel. She asks the city to follow their own plans. She also asks for drive-thru restaurant use to be removed from the Neighborhood Mixed-Use placetype. She also asks that the text match the placetype charts. For the Regional Employment placetype, the chart allows restaurants and retail, but the text does not include these uses. This is just one example she provides but there are more instances where text does not include all uses on the placetype charts. She also asks for the same type of review for the entire document. She notes that the text also doesn’t match the missing middle housing charts. She agrees that it’s a good plan, especially after these suggested revisions for consistency take place.
The second speaker encourages the inclusion of reduction of parking minimums in the plan. This speaker also compliments the plan and states that it will encourage people to continue living in Richardson. The third speaker, president of UTD-based Comets for Better Transit, asks that UTD be seen as an integrated part of Richardson. She wishes that a community summit would’ve been held at the UTD campus. She wants students at UTD to feel connected to and a part of the city.
City Manager Don Magner acknowledges that the first speaker’s remarks are accurate. The placetypes chart includes some mismarked items. He also agrees with her suggestion to allow staff to make edits for consistency and accuracy. He suggests an amendment to allow staff to correct scrivener’s errors or other minor edits that don’t change the meaning of any content. Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul agrees with the suggestion. Councilman Barrios asks how notification of corrections or edits would be provided to the public. Don answers that they could keep a log of changes and keep that updated on the website. Council unanimously adopts the Envision Richardson Comprehensive Plan with an amendment to allow for minor edits to be made and published on the website.
CONSENT AGENDA & CLOSING
The consent agenda is approved unanimously. It includes an ordinance codifying the approval of ZF 24-22 (BirdieBay Golf), an ordinance codifying the approval of ZF 24-26 (Eastside Master Sign Plan Allowance), and an ordinance correcting a scrivener’s error for the Park Hollow Townhomes (ZF 24-06) regulating ordinance. It also includes a resolution adopting minor edits to the city’s investment policy. Nine bid awards are also included: $1.1M to Muniz Construction for waterline replacements on Dalhart Dr. and Portsmouth Dr., a $60K annual requirements contract to Fannin Tree Farm Southwest for trees and installation, $3.2M to Urban Infraconstruction for the Phase 2 Main Street project, $65K to Advantage Trailer for a communication trailer, a 5-year $4.8M contract to Axon Enterprise for equipment and services, a $100K annual requirements contract to Grainger for building maintenance and equipment, $85K to Roll-Offs USA for 64 solid waste containers, $52K to GTS Technology Solutions for batteries for Emergency Management, and $162K to Spectrum Gulf Coast to relocate overhead fiber lines to make way for the relocation of Miss Belle’s house.
Council discusses the recent boil water notice, the Eisemann Center volunteer appreciation dinner, a presentation by Collin College to the Council Education Committee, a Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony, the opening of a new building at the Richland College campus, and Veterans Day, and the meeting adjourns.