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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPZ 1991-08-08 Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS AUGUST 8, 1991 - 7:30 P. M. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Vice Chairman David Barfield at 7:30 P.M. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Vice Chairman Secretary Members David Barfield Don Bowen Ron Lueck Don Collins Pat Marin Wayne Moody Barry LeBaron Wanda Calvert Alt. Member Dir. Community Dev. P & Z Coordinator ABSENT: James Brock Paul Miller CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF JULY 25, 1991 Ms. Marin made the motion to approve the minutes as written. This motion was seconded by Mr. Moody and the motion carried 3-0 with Barfield, Lueck, and Collins abstaining since they were not present at the meeting. 1. PZ 91-18 Public Hearing for request of J. Michael Stephens with JMC Properties to rezone Lots llR thru 22R, Block 7, and Lots 27R thru 36R, Block 14, Smithfield Acres Addition, from their present classification of R-2 Single Family Residential to R-3 Single Family Residential. This property is located on both sides of Timberlane Drive, west of Davis Boulevard and north of Turner Drive. Vice Chairman Barfield opened the Public Hearing and called for those wishing to speak in favor of this request to please come forward. Vice Chairman Barfield said there had been a petition filed with the city in opposition to this request. Page 2 p & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 Mike Stephens with JMC Properties came forward. He stated this property was originally zoned R-2 with a minimum of 1600 square foot homes. He said the zoning ordinance was changed in January of this year to a minimum of 1800 square feet for R-2 and all he wants to do is to go back to the 1600 square foot minimum. Mr. Stephens said the 1600 square foot minimum has been in existence since the subdivision was developed in 1985. He said all the existing houses were built during the time it was under the 1600 square foot minimum. Mr. Stephens said there were a total of 48 lots and 15 of those houses were built under the old guidelines. He said there are 33 vacant lots left, but he is only asking for this change on the 22 lots on Timberlane which abutts on the west 20 to 22 year old homes that are from 1100 to 1300 square feet. He said some have the garage converted to make them 1300 square feet. Mr. Stephens said on Cox Lane, directly across the street on the south, the houses are 19 to 26 years old and are 1100 to 1300 square feet also. He said it would be hard to get someone to want an 1800 square foot house which abutts 1100 square feet homes that are 25 years old. Mr. Stephens stated he is not asking for any lots to be replatted; all he wants is for the square footage to go back to what it has been for the last 6 years. He said this property has been used for a dumping ground for couches, TV's, washers, and anything you can think of, and he has spent several thousand dollars to clean it up. Vice Chairman Barfield called for anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this request to please come forward. Page 3 p & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 There being no one, the Vice Chairman called for those wishing to speak in opposition to please come forward. Kenneth Gantos, 7108 Cook Circle, came forward. He said he is representing the homeowners affected by this request. Mr. Gantos said they had submitted a petition in opposition to this rezoning. He said they do not see any advantages for them. He said they realize the market hasn't been excellent, but it is getting better, homes are selling. Mr. Gantos said the homes built in the area do come up to the current zoning. He said if the zoning is changed, it will hurt their property value. He said they usually purchase property to make money on it, but he feels with the smaller priced homes in that area will hurt their property values. Mr. Gantos said the builder does not live there so he really does not have an interest there; his interest is to build homes and sell them. He said that maybe the lower priced homes are selling now and that is a better deal for him. Mr. Gantos said they hope the city would be in their favor because a larger home would require more taxes. He said he felt the smaller homes would bring in lower income families. He said they might not could afford to maintain their property as they do. Mr. Gantos asked how much it costs to file for rezoning; what sort of impact does it have on the builder as to what impact it would be on them. Ms. Calvert said the fee is $300.00. Mr. Gantos asked, if approved, then they could just start building. Vice Chairman Barfield said the P & Z Commission is only a recommending body to the City Council. He said the City Council makes the final decision. Page 4 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 Mr. Gantos said he had not seen a lot of rezoning going on. He said he felt there would be opposition if you go into a neighborhood of larger homes and request smaller homes. He said there would be no advantage to having mixed sizes of homes. Mr. Gantos said they do not feel this rezoning is to their best interest. Vice Chairman Barfield asked what his address was. Mr. Gantos said he lives at 7108 Cook Circle. Vice Chairman Barfield asked how many houses on Cook Circle were over the 1600 square feet. Mr. Gantos said to his knowledge, the smallest is 1750 sq. feet with the largest being 2100 to 2200 sq. feet. Vice Chairman Barfield asked about the street to the west of this property, Lowery; what size homes are there. Mr. Gantos said he could not address that. Mr. Lueck asked the price range of the homes on his street. Mr. Gantos said when he moved into the area, the houses were going from $98,000 to $125,000 depending on the model you wanted to buy. He said the builder went under and the homes were purchased by Nowlin Savings and were sold at a lower price which he thinks were in the 80's or 90's. Toni McWilliams, 7125 Cook Circle, came forward. She said she was the one who did the petition. She said she went up and down on Lowery Street. She said the homes on Lowery Street begin larger on the south end of the street. Ms. McWilliams said she Page 5 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 would assume they were 2100 or 2200 square feet and the others are probably 1400 or 1500. Vice Chairman Barfield asked if she was saying the houses on Lowery were as large as the ones on Cook Circle. Ms. McWilliams said some of them are. She said her home is 3200 square feet. Mr. Gantos said even though they are not within 200 feet of this property, there are people who signed the petition and are here and would like to speak. Vice Chairman Barfield said anyone in the city can speak. Jim Koss, 7105 Carolenna Court, came forward. He said he lives east of the property in question. He said his house is 2800 square feet of living space and his next door neighbor is equal or more. He said he has a basement living area which adds to the square footage and is finished out very nice. Mr. Koss said he has one neighbor that is thinking of selling his house and it has been appraised way down already. He said he has invested $175,000 in the house or more; it is a very nice house, but the appraisals are coming back very low, and if the other houses in the area are made smaller, he does not know what it would do. Mr. Koss said they take good care of their property. He said 2 years ago he was awarded by the City Council the yard of the month. He said they take a lot of pride in their neighborhood and would like to keep the same feel, the same income people. Mary Ann Welborn, 7109 Carolenna Court, came forward. She said they are not within the 200 feet, but they feel they would be impacted with the Page 6 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 smaller lots. She said in many ways, they feel North Richland Hills is responsible to us as homeowners to uphold the existing zoning that was in place when they purchased their homes. Ms. Welborn said they feel the smaller lot size would depreciate their property. Vice Chairman Barfield said this is not a replatting, the lot size will not change. Ms. Welborn said she meant the living space. Vice Chairman Barfield said the zoning was restricted to 1600 square feet and the applicant is not requesting to change it from what it was when you bought your home. He said the City of North Richland arbitrarily changed the square footage requirement to 1800 square feet in January of this year. Vice Chairman Barfield said the applicant is requesting to go back to what it was before it was changed. Mr. Lueck asked when they bought their house. Ms. Welborn said about a year ago. Vice Chairman Barfield said then it was a requirement of 1600 square feet when she bought her home. Ms. Welborn said that is right, but since it has been upped to 1800, she feels it should stay 1800. Ms. McWilliams came forward. She said her husband had called and spoke to someone, maybe Wanda, and said they were going to take the lots from 9,000 square feet to 7500 square feet. Ms. Calvert stated that in R-3 zoning, the allowable lot size is 7500 square feet, but he does not plan to replat and change the lot size. Page 7 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 Ms. McWilliams said, if this is approved, they could have the smaller lots. Mr. Bowen said they could if they desired. He said after the zoning is approved, they could replat and change the lot size if they so desired. Ms. McWilliams said it doesn't matter if the zoning was 1600 square feet prior to January, it is 1800 square feet now and we would like to keep it 1800 square feet. Vice Chairman Barfield called for anyone else wishing to speak in opposition to this request to please come forward. There being no one, the Vice Chairman closed the Public Hearing. Vice Chairman Barfield asked Mr. Stephens to come forward. He asked Mr. Stephens if he would be agreeable to R-2-1600 square foot minimum; he would have all the requirements for R-2 but would be allowed to build 1600 square foot houses. Mr. Stephens asked if he would be able to build front entry garages. Vice Chairman Barfield said yes, the requirement in R-2 now for rear entry garages does not apply because it was platted prior to this requirement. Mr. Stephens said the R-2-1600 is what he would like to have; there would be no platting. Mr. Lueck asked if Mr. Stephens started building today, when does he plan to have it built out. Mr. Stephens said he would like to have it built out the first quarter of next year. He said he was not saying Page 8 p & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 he plans to build all 1600 square feet houses, some will be larger. Mr. Stephens said as far as the price range, he looked up the value of every house in that area and his homes will be well in line with the others in the area. Mr. Lueck asked if he meant an average of the houses on Lowery and Cook Circle. Mr. Stephens said he has two new ones built that are 1800 square feet that are in the price range of $100,000 to $105,000. He said a 1600 square foot house sells for $55 a square foot and their house has been selling for $30 a square foot, the more new homes, the more it is going to bring the value up. Vice Chairman Barfield asked if he had been out and checked the sizes of the houses on Lowery. Mr. Stephens said he has the exact square footage of the houses from Tarrant Appraisal. He said the one on the corner is 1656, 7012 Lowery is 1315, 7016 is 1125, then 1125, 1315, 1078, 1137, 1892 with garage enclosure and room addition, 1100 with garage enclosure, 1241, 1100. He said these are the houses that abut the property, not on the west side of Lowery. Mr. Stephens said these houses are from 19 to 26 years old. Vice Chairman Barfield said he knows when they were built, he knew the builder and that is about right. Mr. Stephens said some are operating a business out of them. Ms. Marin asked with R-2-1600, it would end all speculation that they might replat. Page 9 p & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 Vice Chairman Barfield said that is correct. He said when the Commission was discussing the change in the requirement for R-2 to 1800 square feet, this question did arise, what are we going to do when we have a single street in a subdivision that is already developed, and they said they would address them issue by issue, and this is one of those situations. He said each Commission member would have to weigh it out in their own mind as to what would be best. Vice Chairman Barfield said we are in a transition area, we are trying to upgrade the north end of the city to larger homes. Mr. Lueck asked if the west side of Timberlane would be where he would build the 1600 square foot homes. Mr. Stephens said it would be hard to tell at this time. Vice Chairman Barfield asked about putting 1600 on the west side and 1800 on the east side. Mr. Stephens said he felt they should be proud that he was cleaning up the area and it wouldn't be used as a dump ground. He said there are people in the area running businesses out of their house, washer and dryer repair business, and these same homeowners here haven't said anything about that. Ms. McWilliams came forward. She said she would like to know who is working out of their home. She said their homes are very well kept. She said she did not think he should have said that. Mr. Lueck said that is on a different street from where she lives. Vice Chairman Barfield said the Commission is not looking at that, they are looking at what size the Page 10 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 homes are. He said he knows the houses in the area to the west are about 1,000 square feet; they were built by Bill Giles about 20 years ago and have one car garages; they are much smaller than her's. Vice Chairman Barfield said this property lies between small homes on the west and larger homes on the east. He said the question is, can we grant him a transition zoning. Ms. McWilliams asked what advantage the city has in rezoning just one street. Vice Chairman Barfield said they do that quite frequently. He said R-3 zoning is used as a transition zoning; it is used as a buffer. Mr. Lueck said when they changed the ordinance from 1600 to 1800, we knew we would have to take these on a case by case basis. PZ 91-18 APPROVED Ms. Marin made the motion to approve PZ 91-18 and recommend the zoning be R-2-1600 square foot minimum. This motion was seconded by Mr. Moody and the motion carried 4-2 with Marin, Collins, Lueck, and Moody voting for and Barfield and Bowen voting against. The motion passed. 2. PZ 91-19 Public Hearing for request of Wayne Herndon to rezone Lot 11, Edgley Addition, from its present classification of LR Local Retail to C-l Commercial. This property is located at 4174 Willman Avenue. Mr. LeBaron said this is an area that was originally single family dwellings but has since been changed to Local Retail and adjacent to Grapevine Highway is C-l. He said the applicant is asking to extend the C-l zoning to include an additional lot. Page 11 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 Vice Chairman Barfield opened the Public Hearing and called for those wishing to speak in favor of this request to please come forward. Wayne Herndon came forward. He said he owns and operates Cool Air Airconditioning on Grapevine Highway. He said this property is about 120 yards from the current facility. Mr. Herndon said he has owned the operation for 7 years, but it has been in operation for 12 years. He said they are growing and have a good retail location; they have 12 bays; have a very limited storage area; a very small administrative office space. Mr. Herndon said the reason to rezone this C-l is to allow us 3 things, a showroom, a 2-car garage and room for inventory. He said there would be more parking, he has 13 employees. He said there would be no retail sales. Vice Chairman Barfield asked if this was going to be used for parking and storage. Mr. Herndon said it would be used primarily for office and storage and there is a parking lot in the front. He said right now, he has about a 12 by 12 foot office at his current facility which makes it very cramped for them. He said this would give them 2~ times the office space. Vice Chairman Barfield asked what kind of materials would he be storing there. Mr. Herndon said they are in the auto airconditioning business and have support parts, dryer, expansion valves, automotive related parts. Vice Chairman Barfield asked how they would be delivered to the site, by semi trucks, with fork lifts. Page 12 p & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 Mr. Herndon said no, most of our stuff is picked up from suppliers in half ton pickups. He said they do not have a fork lift. Mr. Herndon said they might receive 2 deliveries a month by a bob tail truck. He said most of their supplies are picked up from suppliers within a 20 mile radius. Vice Chairman Barfield called for anyone wishing to speak in opposition to please come forward. There being no one wishing to speak, the Vice Chairman closed the Public Hearing. Mr. LeBaron said the property is presently zoned Local Retail and he is requesting it be zoned C-l Commercial. He said, if zoned C-l, they could have an office there and some storage, but the concern he has is if it comes to a warehousing use, that zoning would not be appropriate. He said warehousing must have an industrial zoning. Vice Chairman Barfield asked Mr. Herndon to address the storage area. Mr. Herndon stated this is a pier and beam structure; one bedroom is still in tact and could use it for office files; the area in the front would be for display with a desk and work area. He said the garage is 24 by 20 with a 20 by 30 addition on the back with all concrete flooring, and there is an enclosure of a breezeway which is on a slab. Mr. LeBaron asked if he would be doing any of the work there. Mr. Herndon said no. He said they would have some packing and would pull parts there, the packing or unpacking. Page 13 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 PZ 91-19 APPROVED Mr. Bowen made the motion to approve PZ 91-19. This motion was seconded by Mr. Collins and the motion carried 6-0. 3. PZ 91-20 Public Hearing for request of Leroy Nikirk to rezone Lots 3 & 4, Block 1, Henry Addition, from their present classification of R-7-MF Multi-Family to R-3 Single Family Residential. This property is located on the west side of Scruggs Drive, south of Glenview Drive. Vice Chairman Barfield opened the Public Hearing and called for those wishing to speak in favor of this request to please come forward. Leroy Nikirk came forward. He said he is the executor of the estate of B.A. Nikirk, his Father. Mr. Nikirk said he grew up on this property. He said they moved there in 1947, and his Father passed away last fall. Mr. Nikirk said the four heirs feel it best to dispose of the property. He said he had talked with two real estate people and they said that multi-family is a dead issue and commercial development in this area is several years away. Mr. Nikirk said the real estate people suggested he sell it for residential. He said lenders will not loan money on the single family residences because of the zoning. Mr. Nikirk said he has two neighbors who's property is also zoned multi-family and they would like their property rezoned also. He stated he has a letter from one of the neighbors, Mr. Russell, which stated he is not opposed to this rezoning. Mr. Nikirk said in 10 years, it may go commercial in this area, but he feels that R-3 zoning is the best use of the property now. He said it has been used as single family for the past 45 years. He said there are two houses Page 14 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 on the property, one was built in the 1950's and the other one was built in 1982. Don Nikirk, one of the heirs, came forward. He said his father built a new home next to the old home. He said it is a 1200 square foot brick home with a two car garage, air conditioned and very nice, and the chance if it being torn down and apartments built is not very likely. Vice Chairman Barfield asked if they were aware that if zoned R-3 and the house were destroyed by fire or wind storm, they would have to build a 1400 square foot minimum house there to meet the R-3 requirement. Mr. Collins asked if Mr. Nikirk would describe the other house. Mr. Nikirk said the old house where they originally lived is about 1,000 square feet, 3 bedroom frame house with what used to be a 2-story garage apartment. He said several years ago, it was reduced to one level and a standard roof put on it. He said the frame house was built in 1954, pier and beam construction with siding. Vice Chairman Barfield called for anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this request to please come forward. There being no one, the Vice Chairman called for those wishing to speak in opposition to this request to please come forward. There being no one wishing to speak, Vice Chairman Barfield closed the Public Hearing. Mr. Lueck asked if they actually tried to sell the house and a lender said they would not loan the money because of the zoning. Page 15 P & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 Mr. Nikirk said the real estate people handled it, but FHA said they could not loan with the present zoning. Mr. Bowen said he felt Mr. Nikirk is correct in saying this area is years away from a redevelopment. He said someone would have to come in and purchase the whole area for redevelopment and he does not think that is going to happen right away. Mr. Bowen said he has no problem with this rezoning. Vice Chairman Barfield said he feels the same way. He said someday it will probably go commercial or industrial, but that will probably be several years away. Mr. Nikirk said his two neighbors would also like to have their property rezoned. Vice Chairman Barfield said they would have to apply just as he did. PZ 91-20 APPROVED Mr. Lueck made the motion to approve PZ 91-20. This motion was seconded by Ms. Marin and the motion carried 6-0. 4. STAFF REPORT Mr. LeBaron announced the Sector Meeting for the Master Plan for Tuesday, August 13th at 7:00 P.M. for the area inside and south of Loop 820. He said when this meeting is completed, the consultant will take the input from the meetings and begin preparing the proposed Comprehensive Plan for the City and will bring it back the the Planning and Zoning Commission sometime later this fall. Page 16 p & Z Minutes August 8, 1991 5 . CITIZEN COMMENTS ADJOURNMENT ~Ii Don Bowen, Secretary Planning & Zoning Commission None. The meeting adjourned at 8:25 P.M. ~~ David Barfield, Vice Chairman Planning & Zoning Commission