Recap September 27, 2023 City Council Meeting, Submitted by Council Member Debra Hines and approved by Mayor Jeff Rasco
Received by City Staff on November 1, 2023
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City Council meeting recaps are unofficial summaries of Council meetings. They are not minutes of the meetings, which can be found on the city's website along with video recordings of the meetings. The recaps have been very popular with citizens – they contain more information than official minutes and are less time consuming than watching the videos. Councilmember Debra Hines has generously given her time to produce the recaps since taking office in 2021.
This Recap submitted by Councilmember Debra Hines and approved for distribution by Mayor Jeff Rasco
Recap Sept 27th 2023 City Council Meeting
Mayor Rasco was out of the country and absent for this meeting.
Mayor Pro Tem Pulley was acting “chairperson” in his place. He retains his voting powers and abilities to make motions while serving temporarily in this role.
Items in this meeting were taken out of order. That will be reflected below.
Item 11 under New Business occurred first. This was an Executive Session with the new City Attorney Charles Zech concerning Short-Term Rentals within the City of Woodcreek. No action was taken during the session.
Consent Calendar:
Items 1 & 2 were unanimously approved.
Item 3 was removed for discussion and appeared later in the meeting.
Reports:
Planning and Zoning: They discussed rainwater collection with no action taken in their last meeting and reviewed the STR moratorium item prior to and in preparation for the joint hearing with Council on the matter.
Ordinance Review Committee: Formed subcommittees to work on the topics of parking and electric fences.
Parks and Recreation Board: The gazebo should be done in a week. Pallets of playground equipment will be held at the Creekside Park. Parks Board member Cody Abney volunteered time to work on the area utilizing some heavy machinery to prep the ground for installation. Level’d up will be conducting site work at Augusta Park for the ping-pong table and cornhole game which have been ordered. Becky Denton is working with residents on getting a portion of Augusta Park declared a wildlife habitat with native plants, rain garden, and water feature to collect rainwater and provide it for the animals.
Platinum Roads Panel: Linnea Bailey offered positive commentary praising the efforts of all involved in the Bond and road improvements projects stating it was once thought to be wild to do all at the same time and yet here we are with some of our worst roads looking so much better.
Tree Board: They are recommending waiting on an updated tree survey as the trees are experiencing significant stress this year. It can be hard to tell if a tree is impacted by Oak Wilt, the drought, or something else at this time. They would like the City to prioritize hiring an arborist and move the listing on the website to “job openings” in addition to its other location. They would like to stress again that no trees on City land should be removed without consulting with them.
Mayor: Mayor Rasco is due back on September 29th from his travels.
Manager: Road work continues. We have two to three more weeks. Please sign up for the email blast to stay informed. City Hall will be closed October 9th.
Items taken out of order
Item 6 from New Business: Council discussed the need to go out for a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the engineering judgment on 5 speed cushions to be placed on Woodcreek Drive (two), Brookhollow (two), and Augusta Drive (one). Mayor Pro Tem Pulley explained that despite the previous confirmation from a K.Friese employee that the company could proceed with this reduced scope of work request, K.Friese ultimately declined the work and wanted the City to conduct a larger $74,000 study instead. Thus, if Council wished to proceed on this item then a new engineering firm must be selected through appropriate procurement policy procedures. Legal Counsel advised that no new motion was necessary as it was understood by staff what was needed at this time to follow through with Council’s original direction. Staff did ask that Mayor Pro Tem Pulley provide information on approximate locations for the proposed first five speed cushions using a range of addresses for consideration and select the type of device. Councilmember Hines asked about the additional traffic calming measures discussed in the previous meeting and was advised by legal Counsel that those would need to come later and be a part of a separate, larger package of work for consideration and should not be part of this specific RFP.
It should be noted that Mayor Pro Tem Pulley did reach out to EMS Director Ken Strange about the speed cushions being proposed and received confirmation that they were acceptable for emergency response vehicles.
Item 3 from Consent Agenda: Councilmember Grummert checked on waiving the fee for the Special Event permit for the Tree Board since it was not noted on the application. Staff mentioned there would be no fee to waive as this was a City sponsored event. Council unanimously approved the permit.
Unfinished Business:
Item 4: Councilmember Hambrick is moving forward with putting together groups of people in Neighbor-to-Neighbor to look out for each other. One of the goals will be to create QR codes and materials for new citizens in addition to existing ones. This would link to helpful phone numbers and important ordinances and provide personal contact methods during important events and times when they need help. Program rollout and more info coming in the next 3-4 weeks. To promote safety and community.
Item 5: Council approved applying for the LCRA grant for rainwater harvesting for City Hall. Councilmember Hines and Mayor Rasco were nominated to take on this project as they have already been working on similar items to address incentivizing rainwater collection and promoting water conservation. It was discussed that this aligned with the existing Cypress Creek Watershed Protection plan as this was already an item listed for the City of Woodcreek to accomplish some years ago. Councilmember Bailey thanked Councilmember Grummert for always seeking out additional funding for the City.
Item 7: Council discussed but ultimately declined waiving the fee for Todd Mackenzie's fence request. Mayor Pro Tem Pulley, Councilmember Bailey and Councilmember Grummert voted “aye” to reduce the refund total to $200. Councilmember Hambrick voted “no” and Councilmember Hines abstained. This passed, but then the original motion to waive the fee at the now adjusted amount failed with Councilmembers Grummert and Hines voting “aye” and Mayor Pro Tem Pulley and Councilmembers Hambrick and Bailey voted “nay.” Staff advocated that time and effort had been spent to process the variance and this should be taken into account.
Item 8: Council voted to send a request to Planning and Zoning that they review Chapter 156.057 fences to consider amending it to allow side and back fence heights to be increased to eight (8) feet. Councilmember Bailey voted “nay” and all others “aye.” Councilmember Bailey expressed concerns over visual consistency along the golf course in particular. Councilmember Grummert offered the following reasons as justification for this consideration and review by P&Z: the hill country terrain makes for a lack of privacy for many houses, the noise along RR12 and Jacob’s Well, and the cost of the variance. Council unanimously approved sending the convenance on record with the City, as noted by the City Secretary, regarding this issue to P&Z for review and recommendation along with all the packet documents.
Item 9: Council unanimously approved moving the Brookmeadow street designation sign at the corner of Brookmeadow and RR12 to the stop sign located there rather than its current location where it is set back from the intersection on a speed limit sign. Councilmember Hines noted that this came at the request of the businesses located there at the intersections whose clientele is dependent on these road signs to locate their business. Additionally, it was noted that this is already a dangerous intersection, and this sign is not very visible from the North bound direction which could create traffic hazards. and would follow the National best practices listed in the code. She also noted that according to our ordinances this stop sign is under the jurisdiction of the City. Staff intends to confirm that before moving the sign to ensure there is no conflict with the County.
Item 10: The drought response flier was in the process of distribution with only a couple streets left for deliveries. All residences in the City were to receive the flyer in an effort to improve communication and awareness of the drought restrictions and critical burn ban in place at the time. The efforts had been somewhat delayed due to the roadwork. The purchase of the flyers cost $130 to the City of Woodcreek for the printing and they were distributed by a team of four volunteers.
Item 12: Related to the executive session and served as a placeholder should Council desire to take action after the session. No action was taken.
