City Council News in Brief

Maybe it was the lack of controversial issues or controversial people, but Tuesday’s City Council meeting went into Executive Session after finishing the Regular Agenda before 11:30 a.m.

Among the issues discussed and voted upon, were zone changes, right of way abandonment, alleyway abandonment, final vote on the moratorium, and a new hire for the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Zone Change

The zone change in question was requested by SKG engineering to change the zone of their property on 17 W 8th S. from two-family residential (RS-2) to General Commercial (CG).

The vacant area is near the access road to the Houston Harte Expressway and Chadbourne Street, in an area that the long-range vision plan recommends General Commercial zoning.

The planning staff and councilman Vardeman recommended the change.

“I drove by it, I don’t have any problem with it. The area is moving towards commercial,” said Vardeman before motioning to approve the change.

The motion carried 5-1 with Councilwoman Farmer voting nay.

Street and Right-of-Way Abandonments

The proposed street and right-of-way abandonments discussed were the section just north of Hughes St. in between the two railroad tracks.

Said streets and right-of-ways have not been maintained by the City for quite some time, and none are any kind of thoroughfare used by the public.

“There’s never been a road there,” explained Kevin Boyd, City Planner.

The abandonment will not change any maintenance, topography, water, sewage, fire access, or any access in general.

Council agreed to the recommendation by the planning staff and voted accordingly, passing 6-0.

Alley Abandonment

The alley in question lies between two buildings on the SAISD property of Carver Learning Center.

Because of this and the trees growing in the alley, it has effectively been closed for years. As SAISD owns all the property surrounding the area, they would automatically get the alleyway.

However the planning staff highly recommended that Council put stipulation upon the abandonment that nothing can be built on that land as the water and sewage lines lie underneath the alley, and it should remain open for access.

This irked no one in the Council, and they passed a motion 6-0 to approve the abandonment.

Moratorium

It was unanimously decided that the moratorium was adequately discussed at last meeting and the motion to approve the moratorium passed 5-0.

Zoning Board Hire

Before entering Executive Session, Council voted to approve John Hayden as the SMD2 to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, term to begin January 2015.