City Council begins its meeting today in a Work Session at 1pm. Our Regular Session, beginning at 6:30pm, will be rather unique. The Council and Planning and Zoning Commission will convene in a joint session to hold a joint Public Hearing on proposed amendments to our gas well ordinance. Click here to see the full agenda with backup.
UPDATE TO GAS WELL ORDINANCE
We released proposed amendments to the Gas Drilling and Production Ordinance on Friday and will be discussing those and hearing from the public in a joint Public Hearing with the Planning and Zoning Commission this evening at 6:30pm in Council Chambers. The following table breaks down the highlights of these changes:
The Gas Well Inspection Division has also released the latest updates to their website, designed to give our citizens access to significant data, interactive maps, information on inspections, and a way to track legal and legislative updates regarding the fracking ban.
At this point, the schedule has us taking action on these changes in early January, but we could likely push that date back in order to make sure the proposed amendments have a thorough public vetting.
In case you missed the town hall meeting last night where city staff presented the new changes in a Q and A format, you can watch the video online.
STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
The Council is expected to take final action passing a resolution in support of our city’s State Legislative Agenda. We had a great amount of public feedback during our last council meeting and decided to gather more information and bring it back this week for further discussion.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INCENTIVES FOR RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS
A question we will be discussing during our Work Session today is this: how can Denton attract the kind of residential development that it wants to see in our city? Whether or not to use economic development incentives, which ones, and with what strings attached will be some of the policy questions related to this issue. Click here to see the PowerPoint presentation Council will see during this discussion.
BILLBOARDS AND I35 EXPANSION
One consequence to the widening of I35 is the necessary removal of a number of highway billboards in our city. The city’s policy has been to not allow any new billboards in the city. Existing billboards remain permitted under certain specific conditions and there is apparently a provision in our ordinance pertaining to the relocation of these signs in the event that eminent domain forces them down (as in the case of the widening project). We’ll be looking at the issues relating to this today.
RECENT TRAGIC DEATHS IN MY DISTRICT
Finally, may of you have heard the news about two tragic deaths this week in the heart of District 1 – here’s more info and a brief statement from me regarding these heartbreaking developments.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know – kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.