Dateline Colleyville, Texas October 5, 2001  7:45 AM

MEDIAN DESIGN SHOULD HAVE BEEN NO MYSTERY TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS….by Linda Newton

While the concept of adding medians to State Highway 26 has been around since at least early 1999, the design of the recently installed temporary medians should have come as no surprise to the Colleyville City Council. Developer agreements approved by the council in June, 2000, and again in July, 2001, between the City and Village Monticello Partners, Ltd, Village Management, LLC (developers of The Village at Colleyville) contained the design and approval of the medians.

LNO originally requested under the Open Records Act all documents pertaining to the medians almost two months ago. However, not all documents were provided initially, and in fact, additional documentation was received as recently as this week. The developer agreements were not provided as a result of the original request, in spite of the fact that those are the critical documents outlining the design and approval of the medians.

A separate request specifically listing the developer agreements was submitted to the city by former Mayor Richard Newton, who in turn provided LNO with copies. Item #9 on the June agreement and line item #11 in the City-Developer Agreement dated July, 2001 reads: "City agrees to recommend approval to the Texas Department of Transportation ("TxDoT") of the Highway 26 median improvements as shown on the attached Exhibit "B" titled "Proposed Median Treatment Colleyville Boulevard (SH 26) Glade Road to Thompson Terrace" prepared by Parsons Transportation Group." The attached concept drawing for the proposed median treatment is dated 10/99.

The original City-Developer Agreement was signed by Mayor Donna Arp on June 20, 2000. A revised developer agreement was again executed by Mayor Arp on July 17, 2001. The execution of these documents officially approved the design of the medians on behalf of the city.

To see median line item #9 on June 20, 2000 Agreement Click Here
To see Signature Page on June 20, 2000 Agreement Click Here
To see ENTIRE June 20, 2000 AGREEMENT Click Here

To see median line item #11 on July 17, 2001 Agreement Click Here
To see Signature Page on July 27, 2001 Agreement Click Here
To see ENTIRE July 17, 2001 AGREEMENT Click Here

To see Median Design on both June 20, 2000 and July 17, 2001 Agreement Click Here

The revised agreement was part of the June 19, 2001 city council agenda where it received the first of two public readings. The developer’s agreement was included in the public copy of the agenda, but Attachment B showing the median design was missing. The second reading of the ordinance was scheduled for July 2, 2001, but that meeting was cancelled due to the lack of a quorum.

The council approved the amendment to the developer’s agreement on July 17, 2001. However, in the public copy of that agenda packet, not only was the exhibit showing the median design again missing, the entire developer’s agreement was missing. The developer’s agreement for a different development (The Bridges of Riverwalk) was substituted in its place.

State Representative Vicki Truitt recently intervened with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) on behalf of Colleyville businesses negatively impacted by the installation of these medians. Click here to see Rep. Truitt’s comments. LNO is continuing to research the history of this issue and will provide additional information as it becomes available.

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