Dateline: September 14, 2001 10:05 AM

The Colleyville Boulevard Corridor Committee presented their recommendations for new development design standards for all property along State Highway 26 (Colleyville Boulevard) at a public meeting September 6th held at the Colleyville Community Center. Local News Only has already reported this event in a news article on September 7th, so I decided I would give you a personal report of the meeting atmosphere rather than a dry news story.

I didn't go to the meeting with the intention of writing my account of what transpired there. I was there representing the First Assembly of God Colleyville church where I am chairman of the Board of Deacons. The church owns approximately 13 acres along Colleyville Boulevard, so it is a significant stakeholder in any changes in the development and design ordinances that the city may make.

When the meeting started I had been visiting with city staff and others I knew so I sat on the front row. Mayor Arp sat down beside me. Mayor Arp asked me why I was there and I jokingly told her I was covering the event for Linda since she couldn't attend. (Linda is LNO's editor and my wife in case you didn't know). All through the meeting Mayor Arp publicly referred to me as the reporter from the newspaper. Since she persisted in this, I told her that if she kept kidding me and egging me on I might take her up on the accusation. So, here I am, writing a special report at 11:30 PM - I should have my head examined.

Surprisingly, I didn't learn of this meeting from the City of Colleyville (as I should have). I learned about it from a letter sent to property owners and tenants along Highway 26 from Butch Wallace, a member of the Corridor Committee and owner and General Manager of Yard Art Patio and Fireplace.

Mr. Wallace sent the letter because he was concerned that the pamphlet prepared by the city describing the results of the Committee's work misrepresented the views of the Committee. There are two major recommendations highlighted in the pamphlet that Mr. Wallace said there was not agreement on. One was a Public Improvement District (PID) that would be used to fund improvements such as landscaping, burying power lines, etc. This PID would be funded by a special tax only on that property within the district. The other controversial item was an Overlay Zone containing new design and development requirements within which all businesses, new and old, would have to conform to by the time the Highway Department completes the improvements on Highway 26.

It didn't take long for me to learn that those weren't the only two items that the business and property owners were concerned about. The church I represented certainly didn’t receive notice of the meeting from the city, nor did many other landowners. I'm thankful that Mr. Wallace sent out his letter or our church would have been oblivious to the significance of what is about to happen.

Before the Committee and city staff presented the Committee's recommendations, Barry LaBaron, Colleyville's Development Director, gave a quick summary of the Texas Highway Department project to widen Highway 26 to a divided six-lane highway. The plans for this redesign are scheduled to be complete by the end of 2001. Drainage and right of way acquisition will be complete by the end of 2004, and construction will start in 2005. The construction is expected to take two and one half years. Because the highway will have a 16' landscaped median, the design of median cuts for turning will be critical to businesses since the median will control access across the highway.

As soon as Barry LaBaron asked for questions, he immediately found out how important medians and median design are to business owners. There was a firestorm of complaints from the citizens in the audience. Everyone was very unhappy about the medians that were recently installed by Realty Capital, developer of Village of Colleyville, on behalf of the city. There was a long list of complaints by the attendees. Mayor Arp immediately took the microphone from Barry to answer this series of questions and complaints.

First, there was no recent notification that the medians were going to be constructed. The only notification sent to business or land owners about the median construction was through a letter sent in January 2000 by Richard Myers, President of Realty Capital, inviting landowners to a meeting in Grapevine. This was a year and eight months before the median was built. At any rate, this meeting was attended by Mr. and Mrs. Norman Gibson (she owns the snowcone stand on the corner of Thompson Terrace and Highway 26) and a representative of the Couch family, who at the time owned the building on the corner of Pleasant Run and Highway 26. This is the building that the city condemned and then leased to Realty Capital for $10 a month to house marketing offices for the Village of Colleyville.

Mr. Gibson said that the raised median was originally going to extend all the way to Thompson Terrace thereby blocking access to his business. He complained to Mr. Myers but claimed Myers wouldn't accept responsibility for trying to make a change. Mr. Gibson then went to the State Highway Department and the median design was changed. However, all other businesses were not so lucky. Applebee's, Chase Bank, the Corvette shop, the florist and others are blocked.

Mr. Gibson went on to complain that the Texas Department of Highways told him in writing that the City of Colleyville was required to notify all impacted businesses before the median was constructed and get their sign-off on the design of the median. At that point Mayor Arp turned the microphone back to Barry LaBaron. However, it didn't take long for several in the audience to blurt out that they hadn't been notified at all. Mayor Arp decided she should take the microphone back and jumped to the front. Mayor Arp also took the opportunity to point me out and refer to me as "my reporter in training" from the Internet news agency. I think she was nervous that I was going to report what was happening.

It got fairly boisterous and at one point a business owner yelled out "the businesses don’t want the median, let me see a show of hands of who wants the median". When no hands went up he was satisfied that he had made his point. However, Mr. Gibson had one more question. He said since the city did not notify the business owners, then the median is illegal and should be removed. At that point Mayor Arp called a truce and told the audience that the city would set up a meeting with the business owners and discuss what can be done.

I'll keep track of that meeting and report on it later. That is if I receive notification.

When the Mayor finally sat back down, she leaned over to me and said, "I guess Mr. Gibson will write a letter about this to LNO". I just smiled. Then she said, "the next time I'll have Keith Fisher here". Keith is a city engineer responsible for road projects and is the acting Director of Engineering for the City of Colleyville. I understood what she meant. I've been in tough meetings as Mayor also. However, I told Mayor Arp that the medians went in way too early since the streets in the Village of Colleyville aren't finished, as they should have been to provide access around the median. She then said something about the state being responsible for the hold-up. I didn't understand that comment (it must have gone over my head). Mayor Arp then asked if LNO was going to quote her. Well….I guess so. Then the Mayor said, "it's a shame the Village has been so politicized". I agree, and I was thinking - it was your actions and decisions that have created the controversy, that's why it's a shame.

After everyone settled down about the "Big Bird" median, Barry LaBaron could finally get down to the business for which everyone had gathered - to present the Corridor Committee's report. His presentation was rather lengthy and was not near as much fun as the Mayor's comments, so I'll just hit some of the highlights.

New building design guidelines will allow for three story buildings up to 45' high, external material must be at least 75% masonry with a limit of 10% stucco and no plain concrete or cement blocks. Existing buildings will be classified nonconforming and will be forced to upgrade to the new guidelines under the following conditions: 1) when a renovation whose value is 50% or more of the appraised value of the building without the land is planned, 2) when a building addition of 25% or more of the square footage of the existing building is planned, or 3) when the Highway 26 widening project is finished.

One of the most controversial items was the new set back requirement for buildings. The new guidelines propose that a 20' landscaped greenbelt be provided with 3" diameter trees every 40'. The landscaping wasn’t controversial, but the set back was. One owner with a small lot said that the new set back guidelines would only leave 20' on his property on which to build a building. This would mean that small lots may have to be aggregated to create a larger lot in order to develop.

The most controversial item was the presentation of the Public Improvement District (PID) that would generate funds within the Overlay Zone. Barry LaBaron said, "this would be an additional tax for specific projects such as relocating utility lines….". This created another firestorm from the audience since this tax would only be applied to land within the overlay area. So not only would businesses have to pay for conforming to the new guidelines, they would also have to pay a tax that no one else in Colleyville would have to pay.

The obvious objection was raised through a question that was blurted out,"why not tax the entire city and not just the business owners?". At this point Mayor Arp once more frantically jumped up and said - and I quote "the city council is not considering this, unless we are petitioned by business owners." Donna pointed me out to the audience, referred to me as a reporter in training and said, "I want to make sure the newspaper gets this right". I know this is the right quote because when she sat down she said, " If I wanted to make a stink I would report this." I said, "I would too". She said, "what are you going to say?" I said I'm going to say what you said - that "the city council will not consider that" - meaning a PID. She said no, I said "the city council is not considering that" and then added "unless petitioned by the business owners".

I don’t think the city has to worry. There were no business owners in that meeting that were going to petition to have a tax placed on themselves. However, I guess you never know who may come along.

While this conversation was going on between Mayor Arp and myself, the presentation was droning on. (I'm not criticizing Barry. He himself admitted that there was a lot of material and that it wasn't very exciting.) Then came the next surprise. Mr. Robert Caldwell, who lives in Arlington, was there representing his elderly father-in-law, Mr. Browder (a citizen who was also at the meeting). Mr. Caldwell walked up to Barry LaBaron, said he had something to say and asked for the microphone. To my surprise, Barry handed him the microphone. Mr. Caldwell said that his father-in-law had owned the land at the northeast corner of Cheek Sparger and Highway 26 since 1953. He said that they've had two or three good buyers for that land, but because of Colleyville's zoning ordinances nobody will buy it.

Mr. Caldwell then said to Barry LaBaron, "I've been listening to you for 45 minutes and I can't figure out if I'm in Germany or the US. I see only one man on the Committee that is a property owner - why? You want a beautiful town, but you won't have any businesses left, we have had businesses tell us they won't come here. I think you're acting like you live in Mayberry, RFD. You won't have a business tax base 10 years from now, the citizens will have to pay all the taxes!". Apparently the audience agreed with Mr. Caldwell's sentiment because applause broke out spontaneously for his willingness to share his concerns.

Mayor Arp jumped up again to recover the meeting. She said, "I guess we need to talk about the process, but this committee has worked hard for the last year and deserves a lot of credit." Someone then said if the committee has worked for a year, why is this the first time that they have solicited input from the businesses that will be impacted by these changes? At that point it became convenient for Mayor Arp to point me out again, but this time she referred to me as the former mayor. She said she understood why the former mayor didn't go get $30 million dollars to upgrade Highway 26 - because this is so hard. I just smiled. (The NCTCOG Regional Transportation Committee finally prioritized Highway 26 real high so the state approved the money. Mayors don't have that kind of authority or voice, even though Mayor Arp would like you to think so.)

At any rate, a gentleman in the audience distraught over the lack of representation said "the Committee has spent one year developing these guidelines, but the people in this room will be impacted more emotionally, financially and personally than anyone and we haven't been asked." Mayor Arp then appealed to the audience by telling them that she was a businesswoman, that she's built grocery stores and that she doesn't want them to go out of business. Mayor Arp said that this is just the beginning of the process. If you don’t want the things presented, just say so. Mayor Arp said, "I understand that we need to hit more on the process, but we need to hear from you." Someone mentioned that at least they could do a survey to determine what the businesses wanted. The new city manager, Bill Lindley, said that he liked the idea of a survey.

Greg Foreman, the owner of Foreman's, a long time Colleyville business, asked about the impact on his property. He said his property will be so far out of compliance that you will have to drill under the building to bury the power lines. He asked how would situations like this be handled? Mayor Arp told him that she understood that his business was a major tax generator for Colleyville and that they will "make sure you are protected". Other business owners with special cases then asked about their property. Mayor Arp said, " I know where your businesses are and we may have to micromanage to take care of these special cases." The notes I made at that point were - "promise them anything".

The Mayor then went on to discuss how the Tax Increment Financing District (TIF) could be used to generate money to pay for utilities, extra landscaping and perhaps assistance to businesses to conform to the new ordinances. The Mayor allowed as to how a cash flow of about $300,000 per year could finance a bond to fund the $4.5 million dollars needed to bury the utilities. This all sounded like she was thinking out loud to me. I think she was trying to divert attention from the flap over the PID idea.

A lady in the audience whose name I didn’t get finally made another key point. She said that the schedule only calls for one more meeting of the committee and then this will go to the city council for a vote to approve. The Mayor said there will be additional meetings, but this was another question that the Mayor wanted Barry on the firing line for and called for him to answer. Barry then said that the city's schedule was to have one meeting with the public and business owners (which is this meeting), for the Committee to have one more meeting to digest the input from this meeting, and to then take it to the council for a vote (which is exactly what the lady in the audience had said). There was protest because that would mean that there would be no other opportunity for the business owners to input.

By this time everyone was tired and the meeting was winding down. Mayor Arp leaned over to me again and said with self-satisfaction, "I guess I did a good job of discrediting the paper." The Mayor made other public comments about the paper (LNO) that I have chosen not to repeat since they were unnecessary and disparaging. I think you would agree with me that her comments about me being a reporter were calculated to also discredit any opinions I might choose to share with those attending the meeting or with citizens.

The Committee said they would digest all they learned in this meeting and decide what to do next. However, remember that the schedule is to take this to the city council after the next meeting of the Committee. So, if you are concerned about the impact of the Colleyville Boulevard Corridor Committee recommendations, you had better pay attention. I wouldn't count on too much notification from the city. That's one reason I applied for the vacant council seat. Since I wasn't appointed I guess I'll have to decide if I want to continue to be a roving reporter or go for the six month council term that is up for grabs in November.

Stay tuned……….

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