City Council Preview – Feb 5, 2013
Today’s city council preview is being dedicated to this guy right here – Francis Paul Roden. This cool little man turns 2 years old on Wednesday. We will be taking him and some of his friends on a DCTA bus adventure for his birthday party. Buses, or “Buh” as he calls them, along with bulldozers, diggers, cranes, dump trucks, and garbage trucks, are among his favorite things in the world. He and his four year old sister, Rosemary, like to watch daddy talk about boring things on DTV Channel 26 on select Tuesday nights.
Tuesday’s meeting begins with a Work Session at 3pm followed by a Regular Session at 6:30pm at the main City Hall on McKinney Street in beautiful downtown Denton, TX. Click here to see a full agenda with backup material of this week’s meeting. Here are some things you might find interesting…
DOWNTOWN HICKORY STREET DESIGN – HOW TO PARK?
The Hickory Street corridor stretching from the DCTA Train Station all the way up to the square is scheduled for an overhaul and redesign. The goal is to make this area more walkable, attractive, and with an eye to a more aesthetic and human-centered streetscape. The folks helping with the design have some concepts finished and we will be looking at those and giving direction on whether the plans should include head-in or back-in parking. In order to give you the same presentation I will be seeing, I’m including it right here. Let me know what you think.
35 DENTON GETS LOUD
The 35 Denton music festival is just around the corner – click here to learn more. Among our consent agenda items are a request from them to increase their decibel levels to 75 (this has been approved that last few years) and a request to allow Rooster’s Roadhouse to be the sole seller of alcohol at the festival. This annual festival is a great amenity to downtown, our city, and brings national and international attention to Denton.
BUS SHELTERS FOR DCTA BUS STOPS
Council will have the chance to vote on an Interlocal Agreement with DCTA to allow for the installation of 16 bus shelters throughout our city. DCTA, in working with the city and analyzing ridership data, has identified the locations. As someone who rides the bus often, this is a great step forward to making public transit more user friendly. Below, I’m putting a list of the locations picked for this first round of bus stops…
- Hercules @ Stuart (eastbound)
- Colorado @ San Jacinto (southbound)
- Colorado @ Golden Triangle Mall (southbound)
- McKinney @ Campbell (westbound)
- Oak at I35 (westbound)
- University @ Elm (westbound)
- Windsor @ Olympia (westbound)
- Brinker Road @ 288
- Cardinal Driver @ Oriole Lane (northbound)
- Charlotte @ Ave G (eastbound)
- Elm St @ College (southbound)
- Meadow @ North of I35
- Mingo Street @ Village East (westbound)
- Scripture @ Bonnie Brae (eastbound)
- Teasley @ I35 (southbound)
- Wilson @ Ruddell (westbound)
PUBLIC HEARING FOR MULTIFAMILY DEVELOPMENT NEAR MINGO AND NOTTINGHAM/AUDRA
This area is right next to the railroad tracks and across the street from the Shiloh Fields Community Garden site. I know the area well, as I have led groups of TAMS students to help clean-up abandoned homeless tent sites on this property. A developer is interested in developing the site with multifamily housing. The applicant is requesting approval of an Alternative Environmentally Sensitive Areas Plan to remove an ESA stream buffer designation from an existing drainage channel. We will have to approve the Alternative ESA Plan as one item and then hear a Special Use Permit request as a second item.
As always, if you have any comments or questions, please leave a comment on this site, or contact me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.
Hack the Vote: Denton City Council Elections
UPDATE: A hackathon to tackle some of this has now been scheduled for this Thursday night, Feb 7 at 8:30pm at my house (322 Texas Street). Come if you want in on the fun…
The average voter age in Denton City Council elections is 63. Only 4-7% of registered voters takes the time to vote in local city elections. I’ve discussed these trends in local voting behavior elsewhere and there are certainly many theories as to why this is the case. But one thing is clear: we can be doing a better job helping interested people engage in their local democracy.
That is why, as I head into my second election season running for the District 1 seat on the Denton City Council, I’m calling on civic-minded innovators out there to join me in “hacking the vote” to increase voter participation in this May’s Denton City Council elections. If you can code, design, do web apps or mobile apps, have GIS skills, excel in data visualization, or something equally cool, why not become an instant local rock star by helping to make democracy better for your community.
Below are two problems that are in need of solutions:
PROBLEM #1: WHICH CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT AM I IN?
Every two years, the city council elections are for the four district-specific seats, meaning you are only able to vote for the city council race corresponding to the district you reside in (or are registered in). This is the first step to getting someone interested in this year’s race – they need to know what district race to pay attention to. But how?
As it stands right now, you can navigate the City of Denton website and try and find the city council district maps. You’d have to know to go to the “Government” link at the top, then select “City Council” and eventually find a link to this page of PDF maps of city districts. After several attempts at increasing the size of the map to see the street names, you will eventually be able to find where you live. But try doing this from your smart phone – you’ll probably give up.
If and when you do discover your district from this method, a problem still exists – just because you happen to currently reside within a particular council district, that doesn’t guarantee you are actually registered to vote in that district. During my last campaign, I found this problematic particularly for poorer and younger populations (under the age of 40) due to the increased likelihood of moving since they were last registered to vote in the city. What makes matters worse, because you must change your registration 30 days before an election, most people don’t discover this problem until it is too late to do anything about it.
In addition to finding out which district you happen to live in, a potentially interested voter also has to double check to make sure that is the same district listed on their voter registration. Keep in mind that the city went through a redistricting process in 2011 (since the last city district-specific council race). And the new voter registration cards issued by the county ahead of last year’s primary election season were not yet updated with the new city council district alignments. You now have to go to the Denton County voter registration database website to check on your registration status to cross-check your city district to make sure your registration corresponds with your current address – there you can find the city council district you are currently registered in near the bottom of the right-hand column. If you’ve moved within Denton since you first registered to vote here, chances are the district you live in is not the district you are registered in.
HOW CAN WE MAKE THIS EASIER? A few hacking hints: the county has voter information readily available through an open records request. You can get access to all the registered voters, their addresses, their districts, their voting history, etc. This would be helpful data to begin the process.
PROBLEM #2: I KNOW MY DISTRICT, BUT WHERE DO I FIND OUT ABOUT THE CANDIDATES?
I don’t know of a single online resource that consolidates this info into one place – just a simple district by district listing of the candidates and a link to their respective web and social media sites. The local newspaper covers the races, but typically in a way that makes pulling all the info together difficult (the stories run on separate days and their site hasn’t in the past kept a static site, accessible through their front page during election season, where such info is available. The city doesn’t put this info on their site either.
Want to help find a solution to one of these problems? Let’s go. I’m on Twitter @KevinRoden or you can email me at kevin@rodenfordenton.com.
HACKING TOOLS:
A Postscript on the Gas Well Ordinance
I wanted to write a post to update you on our recent vote to amend our gas well ordinance. The City Council has been pursuing this latest round of gas well ordinance amendments since the time I came into office in June 2011.
I want to start by thanking the hundreds of citizens who got involved in this process along the way. From the start of this process, I have been committed to making sure citizens had a meaningful voice at the table during these many months of deliberations. With two major universities, a well-educated citizenry committed to sustainability, the existing framework of a city which in many ways is a national leader in environmental initiatives, and a civic-minded creative class, I knew that we needed to hear the ideas coming from the ground up.
I am mindful that certain parts of the process resulted in the unnecessary agitation of many people along the way. Both process and product are crucial to sowing trust in the system and we have many opportunities to improve the former for future issues of this magnitude.
I’ve been quite mindful that while the industry has several avenues and assets by which to address their concerns and grievances in their pursuit of profit, your average citizen has only their government to look to. That fact weighed and continues to weigh heavily on me.
But I can report that to whatever extent you view this as a strong ordinance, or as a stronger one, it is that way precisely because citizens took the time to organize, educate their council members, and frequently suggest ideas for improving this ordinance. The vast majority of our work was taking the list of suggestions from the DAG group, the official Task Force “Minority Report,” and others and working to find creative and legally sound ways to include them in the ordinance. Although many have criticized the process as being overly influenced by industry interests, quite the opposite was true. The DAG group and the Task Force minority members were given extraordinary access and consideration along the way.
These citizens did not get everything they wanted. I didn’t get everything I wanted. Other council members didn’t get everything they wanted. But I am convinced that what has resulted through this inevitably messy process (what in a democracy isn’t?) contains many new and stronger provisions aimed at protecting our citizens, city, and environment from the risks of an industrial activity that is afforded an inordinate amount of legal and political protection in our state and nation. Here are some of the highlights…
INCREASE SETBACK FROM PROTECTED USES TO 1200 FEET
I, along with several of you, had been pushing for an increase to 1500 feet. Legitimate concerns were made along the way by others in favor of keeping the setback at 1000. This is a classic democratic case where no one got what they wanted, but the ball was moving in the right direction. However, when you combine this new setback with the next point…
SIGNIFICANT ADDITIONS TO WHAT COUNTS AS A “PROTECTED USE”
The original list of protected uses included: any residence, church, public park, public library, hospital, or school. To that list, we added the following:
- residence dwelling (this includes apartments, college dormitories, etc.) - a more expansive list of types of schools in order to make sure we included things like pre-K facilities and Kindergarten centers.
- public pools
- public transit centers
- senior centers
- public recreation centers
- hotels and motels
The point is this: with an increase in setback combined with a significant increase in the types of protected uses which trigger this greater setback, the available land left for gas drilling has exponentially shrunk, particularly in the denser, more decidely “inner-city” parts of our city.
A CASE STUDY ON SETBACKS AND PROTECTED USES: Rayzor Ranch Wells
Perhaps the most visible and controversial drill site in all of Denton, the drilling right off Bonnie Brae served to raise the public awareness of this issue. Drilled before even the Phase I amendments of this process and before the previous setback of 1000 feet was set by council, the proximity of this drill site to a park, homes, and medical facilities rightfully caused alarm. I’ve put together the following map to show you what would happen if Range Resources came today with an application to drill there in light of our recently-passed ordinance:
The current gas pad site is the rectangle in yellow. The general boundary of the South-of-380 portion of the Rayzor property is outlined in blue. I then dropped a pin at only a few of the protected uses surrounding that area and marked a 1200 foot setback circumference around each one in red to indicate where no drilling site would be approved under our new ordinance. As you can see, the current well site would not be permitted. This would force the operators to move considerably toward the middle of the property – right where the surface owners have the largest stake in their project. I can’t begin to speculate how that tension between surface and mineral rights owners might have resolved. What I hope you can see, is how differently things might have turned out with the new rules we just adopted.
Want some peace of mind? Pull up a map of your neighborhood or your child’s school and do the same. Draw a 1200 foot circle around every house, every apartment, every church, every park, every school, etc. in your neighborhood and see what room that leaves for drilling in your neck of the woods. If you need help, let me know, I’ve got an app for that…
REMOVAL OF OWNER-CONSENT SETBACK VARIANCES
Ever since 2010, even prior to being on the council, I was concerned with the way a variance process was written in the ordinance allowing for owners of protected uses to consent to a reduction of this setback down to 500 feet. If you own a piece of land and live in the house on that land and you willingly accept such a reduction for yourself – fine. But in a town full of apartment complexes and rental houses where residents are often tied into lengthy lease arrangements, the idea of an absentee owner consenting to a reduced setback on behalf of his tenants seemed entirely unjust – especially if the reason for the setback in the first place is to mitigate the nuisance issues associated with drilling. I argued for this and the provision is no longer in the ordinance. Reduced setbacks may still be pursued through a variance process, but that process is now a public one through the Zoning Board of Adjustments. In the case above of an absentee owner, the residents can now get involved in the process and plead their case. It is also important to note: the city staff informs me that since the setbacks were increased to 1000 feet in 2010, there has not been a request or a granting of a setback reduction for any new well sites.
AIR AND WATER MONITORING
Throughout this process, we learned that the city of Denton already has one of the most, if not THE most, robust surface water monitoring programs in the state of Texas. The city already has 80 monitoring stations throughout the city on local streams, creeks, and rivers in order to protect one of our most precious resources. Though not primarily aimed at monitoring problems from drilling sites, it is setup to detect issues resulting from them and has the ability to track the problem to its source. This is an example of other environmental initiatives and programs already taking place in our city that, though not an explicit part of this ordinance, adds to the overall protection of our local environment. We are not bound to this ordinance when it comes to overseeing this issue.
Likewise, the council has directed the staff to immediately begin work on an initiative to monitor air quality and ground water quality within a certain distance from well sites. The fact that we are pursing this apart from the gas well ordinance actually serves to give us greater flexibility in our options. I’ll keep you up to date on the progress, but we are determined to do this as soon as possible.
And it is important to note that we have also directed staff to take a new look at the fee structure for gas well drilling and operation fees and augment them in order to pay for these new monitoring initiatives – the gas operators, not the taxpayers, will be offsetting the cost of this program.
OTHER NOTABLE ADDITIONS:
- Require EPA Green Completion Standards 2 years before Federal rules go into effect requiring them
- Compressor Stations now will have to abide by the same setback and well site standards as typical gas drilling operations
- Vapor Recovery Unit requirements
- New noise mitigation requirements
- Water conservation plans and site reclamation plans
- New soil sampling requirements
- increased insurance requirements
STILL TO COME…
And we are not done – during last week’s meeting, we developed a list of topics to continue to pursue to strengthen our approach to gas drilling in Denton. What we will now begin to pursue:
- a specific air and ground water monitoring plan, as referenced above
- research new zoning options for compressor stations, specifically with an eye to zoning them out of residential zoning categories
- reexamine our zoning categories as they relate to gas drilling activities. Because the zoning categories are merely referenced in this ordinance and defined in another part of the Denton Development Code, it makes sense to pursue this as a separate issue. I’ve already offered the following proposal (for those who don’t speak in zoning terms, ‘N’ means prohibited, ‘L’ means allowed by right under certain standard conditions, and ‘SUP’ means allowed, subject to a Special Use Permit):
- finally, we need to immediately pursue the creation of a robust Incentive Program targeting old well sites and new drilling operations that might be vested under older regulations. We might also find ways to encourage new drilling operations coming in under our new rules to go even further in their use of best practices. This is important – Denton already has around 260 well sites in our city limits and many speculate that the majority of our future drilling activity will take place at existing sites. Finding creative ways to work with the industry to encourage better practices might be one of the most important steps we can take from here on out.
As always, if you have thoughts, comments, or questions, contact me at 940-206-5239 or kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com.
MLK Celebrations in Denton
There are several ways you, your friends and family can celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend right here in Denton, TX.
SATURDAY, Jan 19 – Community Service Project and Reflection
Join the SE Denton neighborhood for a community clean-up at 10am at Fred Moore Park. After that, we’ll head down to the MLK Recreation Center at noon for a time of reflection, complete with music and a special talk by long-time community leader Ms. Alma Clark. Things will wrap up there at 1pm.
MONDAY, Jan 21 – MLK Jr Day of Service
The Denton Faith Alliance is hosting a day of service giving members of faith groups from our County an opportunity to work together. This year’s project is at Fred Moore Day Nursery School, the only sliding scale childcare center in Denton that offers care for newborns, toddlers and young children coming from low-income families. Volunteers are needed between 9:00am and noon where there will be projects including relocating a large play structure, installing a sandbox, laying groundcover, installing edging, sanding and varnishing furniture, painting, yard work and deep cleaning the interior. Check out their Facebook page for more info.
MONDAY, Jan 21 – MLK March and Community Celebration
Students from UNT will begin with a rally at 3pm at the UNT Union and will march to SE Denton. The community will begin their march at 5pm at Fred Moore Park and walk to the MLK Recreation Center for the annual community celebration.
In addition to these events, may I recommend some reading material for you and your family?
– Learn about the struggle of early Denton African-Americans by reading the account of Quakertown and the injustices of early 20th century Denton.
– Fred Moore isn’t just a park in town. He was an early African-American leader and educator in Denton who also happens to have a school named after him. Read an account of his life here.
– Read these accounts about the history of integration at UNT.
City Council Preview – January 15, 2013 – Gas Well Ordinance Edition
Why is there a big image of Rusty Taco at the beginning of this preview? You’ll see…
Tuesday’s meeting begins as a Work Session at 3pm, followed by our Regular Session at 6:30pm at City Hall on McKinney Street. Go here for the full agenda with backup material. I say that a lot, here’s what I mean: in addition to seeing what is on our official agenda, any citizen can, simply by clicking on the appropriate link, be connected to hundreds of pages of “backup” material for each item on the agenda. You will see exactly what every city council member sees as part of that item. It is certainly a bunch of reading, but if you are ever interested in a particular item, you can find more information about it there.
Most people will be interested in what I have to say about the scheduled vote on our gas drilling ordinance, but I should point out a couple of other important items on Tuesday’s agenda.
MORE PRESSURE ON PAYDAY LENDERS and TITLE LOAN BUSINESSES
The council is set to pass the second resolution in less than a month since a citizen presentation on this topic. We added a section to our State Legislative Agenda during our last meeting in December asking state leaders to move quickly to more effectively regulate these predatory lending practices. Since then we have been in the process of reviewing our options of regulating this industry through city ordinances. While we are continuing to do just that, we will vote on another resolution Tuesday calling on the Governor and Legislators to do the right thing.
NEIGHBORHOOD GRANT PROGRAM
I am very happy to announce that the council will vote on a new and improved Neighborhood Grant Program aimed at providing micro loans to neighborhoods interested in bettering life in their community. After tomorrow, neighborhoods will be able to apply for grants ranging from $100 to $10,000 for projects meant to bring neighbors together for a common purpose. Projects can be pitched in one of four broad categories: physical improvements, public safety programs or initiatives, cultural, educational, and recreation programs, and neighborhood master plan or comparable studies. Get your neighborhood together for a BBQ and begin brainstorming ways to make your neighborhood a better place to live. We have budgeted $50,000 for this year toward these grants – let’s have so many proposals that we will want to increase that amount next year. I’ll be getting out more information on the specifics of this grant once it becomes available on the city website. Please help and spread the word!
DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT – RUSTY TACO AND OUTDOOR PATIO
Those of you with an interest in following the latest trend in restaurants in the downtown area, pay attention. During our consent agenda portion of the meeting, we are set to approve a lease of city land just to the West of the old Ramen Republic. You know that grassy area between the parking lot and the building? The new tenants, apparently a Rusty Taco, want to put outdoor seating in that area. More tacos and more outdoor seating in the heart of downtown never hurt anyone.
VILLAGES OF CARMEL: BUILD UP THAT WALL!
This might not be of interest to you unless you live in the Villages of Carmel development down on the Southern end of town just East of I35 near the Shady Shores exit. These good folks live in District 1 and have struggled with a defunct and absentee developer. The result is an under-developed project with vacant lots and unfinished neighborhood amenities, including a masonry wall on the perimeter of the subdivision. There’s a new developer in town to the rescue and a new development agreement with the city that is meant to result in the completion of this wall.
GAS DRILLING ORDINANCE
We are scheduled for a vote Tuesday night on this ordinance following a Public Hearing on the topic. We continue to be in the midst of a moratorium (one that has now been extended multiple times by the city council) on new gas drilling permits. This is no doubt a divisive issue due to the fact that it hits squarely at everyone’s sense of justice, regardless of what side you find yourself on. I am quite sure that no matter what is decided in this matter, most people will remain unsatisfied with the results. This is not an issue that tends to lend itself to compromise.
During this debate, I’ve been accused of pandering to liberal college students. Some of those college students I’m apparently pandering to have compared me to the Newtown elementary school mass murderer and other unnamed terrorists. I’m told by some that I lack leadership and am allowing for a weak ordinance. I’m told by others that I lack responsibility and am set to pass the strictest ordinance in the Barnett Shale. The former threaten to throw me out of office, the latter threaten to sue me. Thus the enviable life of a public servant.
I am sure everyone is tired of hearing this, but this is a profoundly complex issue. One would think from the rhetoric of most public hearings that your local city council is determining the direction of the present and future energy policy for the entire country. In fact, we find ourselves in a country where both candidates for President, during their town hall-style debate, fought over each other as to who was more friendly to the oil, gas, and coal industry. Despite what it might seem from the perspective of communities facing the prospect of natural gas drilling, the nation as a whole has overwhelmingly given its approval to pursue and exploit our natural gas resources. Our current struggle is within this context of a decided-upon national energy policy that favors more drilling for natural gas. Furthermore, we happen to live in Texas where “drill, baby, drill” is an apparent state rallying cry. We exist within a state legal environment that has split mineral interests from surface interests and has given priority to the mineral owners. We live in a city that already has nearly 300 wells drilled within our city limits – much more than most cities our size in the Barnett Shale, meaning there is much more at stake for operators already existing in our midst. We have limited jurisdiction on many issues as defined by state law and ambiguous jurisdiction on some of those due to the constantly developing case law. We have a conservative state legislature being lobbied hourly to strip what limited jurisdiction cities do have in this area.
Yet despite these parameters, despite this context that has been dealt us as a city, the angst of a concerned citizenry will be aimed at us.
[I get it. There's an accessibility factor here and a chance for citizens to engage in real democratic expression in a way that no other level of government makes possible. Democracy also provides the opportunity for our expression to be met with the expression of others. At its best, democracy moderates us precisely because it forces us to encounter the other side, another perspective, other claims of rights, and confronts us with ideas that we don't agree with. Political fundamentalists don't like this about democracy. Instead, they harbor tyrannical attitudes and actually want nothing to do with democracy. This tends to come out in statements such as: "I will not stand for anything other than you voting for my particular perspective," or "I will not back down," or even "If you do this I will sue you." This is the symptom of a citizenry whose understanding of the political world has been reared through the lens of national politics. I still hold out hope that a return to robust local democracy can turn this around.]
I am proud of my approach to this issue from my first days in office. The DAG group has emerged as an important public educator, community researcher, voice of conscience, and advocate for a strong ordinance throughout this process. I am proud to have initiated the idea for this group. It began with conversations with professors in university offices and among concerned citizens in my living room. My goal was to leverage the vast amount of expertise existing within our university communities and ensure that there was a meaningful path for citizen involvement in the process. I also helped make the case for public task force meetings and continued to advocate for a better process. I was one of three council members who first publicly called for a moratorium on new gas well permits. I championed the Minority Report of two task force members. I’ve publicly criticized the process when the situation warranted it. I’ve advocated for many, if not all, of the positions so many of you seek in this ordinance. I’ve put forward a proposal calling for three things: 1) a 1500 foot setback, 2) the protection of dwellers in rental units from reduction in setbacks, and 3) a reexamination of our zoning categories and a call to prohibit drilling in areas now allowed by SUP. The first is still a live discussion, the provision that allowed for the possibility of #2 has now been removed from the ordinance, and we will continue to look at #3 as we examine the Denton Development Code (this ordinance merely references it, a change in this would require a different, additional process). I’ve also asked that we look into the creation of a Incentive Program for operators to willingly subject themselves to higher standards than we might be able to require by law. We will very likely be taking that up immediately after this ordinance is complete. I have also given Denton citizens access to information and insights through my use of this website, Facebook, Twitter, and the hosting of public forums. Whether you ultimately agree with my vote or not, I hope I have helped you engage your city and understand this process.
But I haven’t gotten everything I wanted. Despite how some have been characterizing this council’s approach to this issue, I can honestly say that all of my colleagues are trying to do what is right. We disagree on certain approaches, we have different takes on legal strategy and acceptable legal risk, we have different opinions on what we think ensures the safety of our community, yet we are seven different individuals acutely aware of our limitations of policy-making trying to come together under difficult circumstances and context. I may disagree with different council members from time to time, but I have a great deal of respect for them and their viewpoints.
We’ll soon find out how we land this thing. Tomorrow we will have a work session, executive session, public hearing, and possible action on this item. This, lengthy as it is, is merely my preview of tomorrow’s discussion. I’m sure I’ll have a few things to say in a postscript later this week.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, contact me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.
City Council Preview – January 8, 2013
Here is information for the first city council meeting of 2013. We get started with a Work Session at 4:30pm, followed by a closed meeting, and then a special called session to consider three consent agenda items. The full agenda with backup can be found here. We will be discussing two main issues during our Work Session…
NEIGHBORHOOD EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM
You might recall that I advocated for the inclusion of a neighborhood grant program in this year’s budget – see this post from August which references it. When we adopted this year’s budget, we approved the allocation of $50,000 to go toward a neighborhood grant program. Since that time, I have been involved with discussing the details of this program with several staff members and in my capacity as chair of the Council Committee for Citizen Engagement, where we recommended approval of a new plan to the entire council. The Council will be hearing the recommendations at today’s meeting and it seems this program will roll out very soon. Stay tuned for more info on this great program for Denton’s neighborhoods.
GAS DRILLING IN DENTON
In case you were already engaged in travels or extensive consumption of egg nog during our last meeting on December 18, you may have missed that the council once again extended the moratorium for gas drilling activities in Denton in order to give us additional time to complete work on the new gas drilling rules. At this point, we are set to have a vote on the new regulations at our January 15 meeting (a week from now). To see the latest draft ordinance draft, go to the Gas Well Inspections website. We’ll be having a work session on this topic as well as an executive session to consult with our legal team regarding legal strategies relating to this issue. Please send in your thoughts now in advance of the January 15 meeting.
PREDATORY LENDING – PAYDAY LOANS and TITLE LOANS
Also during our December 18 meeting, we heard from several concerned members of our faith-based and non-profit organizations in town worried about the proliferation and effect of predatory lending businesses in the city of Denton. I posted about their presentation here. We’ll be huddling with our legal team in an executive session to discuss the legal issues surrounding possible regulations and ordinances addressing this issue. More soon on this important issue…
As always, please let me know if you have comments or questions about all this. I can be reached at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.
Predatory Lending in Denton
For months now, I’ve been raising awareness to what seems to be the speedy proliferation of predatory lending establishments in Denton. It turns out I’m not alone…
During last evening’s City Council meeting, concerned citizens from our city’s non-profit, banking, and faith community put together a presentation raising awareness of the growing problems with Payday Lending and Title Loan businesses in town. Click here to check out their Prezi presentation. You can also click here to download a PDF of their handout on predatory lending in Denton which I have also posted here below:
At the conclusion of last night’s meeting, council directed city staff to provide us with more information as to our options of dealing with this problematic issue in Denton. I am also happy to announce that the first action step requested of council has already been accomplished – predatory lending has been added to our legislative agenda and we passed that agenda unanimously last night.
Please pass this along to your friends in Denton and join the Denton for Fair Lending Facebook page to stay on top of the latest developments.
City Council Preview – December 18, 2012
If you think local politics is boring, this is the week for you to head down to City Hall.
Politics, at its core, is about justice and it is for that reason that we often get so worked up over the issues our government grapples with. For our sense of justice is the well from which our concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, and rights and their infringements spring forth. It is perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of our humanity. In imagining a city that corresponds to the parts of the human soul, Socrates situates the Republic’s Guardians, those who are self-sacrificial to their own yet ruthless to the enemy, within the city where our sense of justice is in the soul. Remember the first time you watched Braveheart and, immediately upon witnessing William Wallace yell “FREEDOM!” instead of acquiescing to his torturers, determined to find a cause greater than yourself to live for? That was your sense of justice.
National politics is filled with such Braveheart issues – war and peace, poverty, questions of health care, taxation, abortion, gay marriage, gun control… It is for this reason that the attention of the American citizenry so easily turns to issues being discussed at the national level. After all, justice is at stake.
Meanwhile, at the local level, we are typically discussing things like potholes and street signs…
Yet at this week’s council meeting, the last of the year, we are sure to bring out the Braveheart in all of you. We kick things off with a Work Session at 3pm followed by our Regular Session at 6:30pm at City Hall on McKinney Street. Click here for a full agenda and backup material. Here are some of the hot topics that might interest you the most…
SMOKING ORDINANCE
We will be continuing our discussion from last week and considering recommendations from a citizen committee on how far to extend a comprehensive smoking ban within the city limits. I posted more specifics on this issue here. Since then, the city council has received several emails and phone calls and I anticipate several citizens will be in attendance on Tuesday looking to share their thoughts. I’ve heard from many of you over Facebook and Twitter, even provoking D Magazine to post this on the topic. As I mentioned in my earlier post, there is considerable discussion centered around whether to apply the ban to all bars. The committee recommends allowing bars to continue to allow smoking if they restrict patrons and employees to those 18 and older. Most who have pushed for a comprehensive ban have bars, and our music venues in particular, in mind. I think it is important that we at least give an up or down vote on that particular issue.
GAS DRILLING ORDINANCE
Perhaps the most controversial issue to face city council as of late has been our work amending the city’s ordinance relating to natural gas drilling. If you are just now tuning into this topic, I struggle to know how to fill you in meaningfully, as this has been in the works for close to two years. Denton sits on top of a natural gas-rich shale formation that, because of the development of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques, has been accessible in recent years in a way that it wasn’t before. That has brought about the situation where drilling is taking place just about anywhere in the city. Whatever you think about it, gas drilling is clearly an industrial use and is most certainly incompatible with neighborhoods, schools, parks, and most places people live, work, and play (in much the same way we would think about any other industrial site). Yet we live in a nation which has been increasingly convinced that natural gas plays an important role in securing our energy independence. We live in a nation where the two recent candidates for President of the US, in their town hall debate, were fighting over who had the friendlier policies for the oil, gas, and coal industries. We live in a state which is the most welcoming and has the least regulations on the oil and gas industries. We live in a state where the rights of surface owners are secondary to the rights of mineral owners (and are separate owners in most cases). We live in a state where the state regulatory bodies claim exclusive jurisdiction over most of the oil and gas development rules for operators. It is important to realize the small and shrinking space within which the city approaches this issue.
Nevertheless, we have worked and are continuing to work to find ways to protect our city and citizens from the negative impacts of natural gas drilling in our urban environment. Check out the Gas Well Inspections page for more info on this ordinance and the process up to this point.
You might also note that we have posted an action item to consider an extension to our current gas drilling moratorium. We did this to give the council the full range of options come Tuesday night. This ordinance has been changing constantly and rapidly in an effort to meet the December deadline we set earlier this Fall. In the event we feel more work needs to be done to do it right, we have the option to extend the moratorium. We are also set to vote on a resolution asking the state legislators to pass legislation giving municipalities more local control over these issues.
PREDATORY LENDERS – PAYDAY LOANS and TITLE LOAN
Though not an item for the council to discuss or take action, the agenda shows 6 citizens signed-up to give Citizen Reports on the topic of “Predatory Lending.” On University Drive alone, I recently counted 8 payday and title loan establishments. I have heard that Denton may have as many as 45 such businesses operating in our city limit. I have been hearing from several segments of our citizenry concerned about the growth of this industry in our city. From the social justice side, we should be concerned that they often charge up to 700% APR on loans and require loan terms seemingly written to ensure that they can never be paid back. From the land use perspective, I can’t think of a better way to ensure the decline of neighborhoods and a retreat from quality development then to set up one of these places. The cities of Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio have already passed city ordinances aimed at regulating such businesses. I look forward to hearing from our speakers and the chance to ask for a follow-up discussion with the council at a future meeting.
As always, if you have comments or questions, you may leave them here below or contact me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.
Denton Startup Weekend – Jan 18-20
“Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.”
Denton will be host to our very first Startup Weekend on the weekend of January 18 to 20. Already taking place in many cities throughout the nation, this is exactly the type of event that takes place in communities serious about fostering an entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem. This event is being brought to us thanks to the vision of recent UNT alum Kyle Taylor from leveltendesign.com and the new UNT Innovation Center. Because this is right in line with the momentum begun at the Denton Creatives Mixer, the team from CreateDenton.com has also agreed to get involved.
This is coming up fast and there are many ways to get involved as a participant, mentor, expert, or sponsor. This is how you can be part of this great weekend:
PITCH AN IDEA and/or JOIN A TEAM: Individuals of all backgrounds are needed to pitch, develop, and take ideas forward through the weekend. Individual registration at: http://swdenton-jan2013.eventbrite.com/ . Early bird registration saves $24 and ends December 24th.
MENTOR TEAMS: Volunteer mentors use their skills and expertise to guide startup teams during the weekend competition. If you’re an expert with only a small amount of time, this is the best way to engage. Limited spots are available. If interested in mentoring, individuals should fill in the volunteer form at http://bit.ly/X4CqDt
SPONSOR THE EVENT: Start-up Weekend sponsors have direct access to budding companies at their earliest stages. Companies with services for such teams are often event sponsors. Standard sponsorship options starting at $100 are outlined at: http://startupweekend.org/sponsor, although they may be customized to meet the needs of a potential sponsor. Various levels allow companies to market their services, hand out swag, hold competitions/raffles, and get free event passes. Questions or inquiries about customized sponsorship or gifts-in-kind should be emailed to kyle@gotaylored.com.
LEAD AN “ASK AN EXPERT” SESSION: To provide professional development opportunities to attendees, Denton Startup Weekend will host eight 30-minute “Ask an Expert” sessions for registered participants. Experts are needed to lead these sessions. Categories of particular interest are specific tech skills, marketing, graphic design, and business strategy. If interested in leading one, fill in the volunteer form at: http://bit.ly/X4CqDt.
Please pass this info along to your friends and on social media. It is events like this that show that Denton is a serious place for startups and entrepreneurs.
Will Denton Go Non-smoking or Stay Status Quo?
Nearly a year ago, the Denton City Council began pursuing the possibility of a comprehensive smoking ban at the request of several concerned citizens. We put together a committee of citizens and concerned stakeholders this Fall and they recently finished their work and provided a series of recommendations. The council heard those recommendations and discussed them this past Tuesday during a Work Session meeting of the council. We are scheduled to vote on the committee-proposed ordinance this coming Tuesday, December 18.
If the committee recommendations are voted for by the council, here is what the proposed smoking ban will and will not include…
SMOKING WILL BE PROHIBITED IN THE FOLLOWING:
- Restaurants
- Bars – if they allow people under the age of 18 to enter
- Bowling Alleys
- Hotel Common Areas
- Workplaces – indoor
SMOKING WILL BE ALLOWED IN THE FOLLOWING:
- Bars – if they restrict attendance to people 18 or older
- Outdoor patios of restaurants
- Outdoor patios of bars
- Anywhere near the entrance to stores, restaurants, and bars
- Bus Stops and Train Stops
- Bingo facilities
- Tobacco shops, tobacco and cigar bars
- Private clubs
- Private Nursing Home rooms
- Fraternal Organizations
As I speak to people about the possibility of a smoking ban in Denton, most people have bars and music venues in mind (most of which are classified as bars). It is important to note that the proposed recommendations for bars allows for an exemption if they restrict admittance to people 18 or older. At the height of most bar and music venue activity in Denton, many bars already have such a restriction and those who don’t could simply impose one if they desire to continue to allow smoking. I don’t imagine much money is made from minors in bar environments anyway.
Therefore it is important to recognize this: the area of concern for most patrons and bar employees I speak with – smoking in bars – will be virtually untouched by this proposed ordinance.
Council members are hearing from several people who are arguing for these exceptions, yet a recent poll placed on EngageDenton.com reveals another picture, an apparent overwhelming desire for a comprehensive smoking ban:
What do you think? I’d like to hear from more people on this topic and I’m sure council would as well. Here’s a quick and easy way to contact all the council members at once – click here and fill out this online form.