City Council Preview – December 2, 2014
The Denton Holiday Lighting Festival is this Friday – there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the country. Bring the family out for a distinctively Denton dive into this holiday season. Find out more here.
Another long day of council discussions begins with a Work Session at 1pm at City Hall. Click here for the entire agenda and keep reading for my take on what to expect at the meeting.
CONTINUED REVIEW OF THE FINAL DRAFT OF THE 2030 COMP PLAN
The council has been reviewing the update to the comp plan in pieces. This week we will look at the following sections:
- Community Health, Safety, and Services
- Infrastructure and Utilities
- Implementation and Monitoring
If you are interested in reviewing the final draft of the plan, you can do so here. The council is scheduled to hold a Public Hearing on the plan prior to voting to adopt it on December 16.
KINGS ROW SUBSTATION (and other substations)
Under Council direction, Denton Municipal Utilities has been embarking on an ambitious and needed update to our transmission and substation system. Being among one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, we must plan ahead for the electrical needs of a booming population. Re-routing transmission lines, upgrading and re-siting large substations inevitably involve growing pains as citizens rightfully concerned with the integrity of their neighborhood get engaged in the process.
You might recall the controversy surrounding transmission line routing in the Summer of 2011 in Central and NE Denton that ultimately resulted in nearly 6 months of very public discussions and changes both to those transmission plans and policies of how we handle public involvement in such projects moving forward. I sure do – this issue was on the agenda at my very first meeting in June of 2011.
While the discussion that summer centered around where to route transmission lines, the placement of the new Kings Row substation was still very much a part of that 6 month public conversation. As an example, here’s an article from November 2011 including it as part of the public discussion.
Nevertheless, I anticipate we will see some people from the surrounding neighborhood addressing the council on this issue and I look forward to their comments.
I also look forward to a discussion of how we might be able to shrink the timeline of site selection and the process of officially approving such sites. In this case, following the public process involved in the transmission line routing, council provided direction to move forward with the proposed substation location. But because that process requires a separate public process working through our development process and public hearings at both Planning and Zoning and City Council, the initial site selection and final approval process became separated by nearly 3 years. We must find a way to tighten this process up. The public involvement process pursued by DME following the initial controversy of the Summer of 2011 has been outstanding and malleable to adjust to changing conditions and circumstances. I am confident we can find a way to make this process even better as we move forward.
STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
In the wake of the November vote to ban fracking in Denton, the City Council’s 2015 State Legislative Agenda has become a much more interesting item to many in our city. This is the document that outlines the city’s position on a number of issues likely to come before the Texas Legislature during the 84th Session. You can see the most up-to-date agenda here.
BODY CAMERAS FOR THE DENTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
In the wake of Ferguson, the issue of body cameras for police has become a national conversation. Just this week, President Obama called for significant federal spending to put more of these in the hands of local police departments around the country as a way to bring more transparency to interactions and altercations involving the police and the individuals they encounter in the course of their often dangerous day-to-day job.
As is often the case, Denton is ahead of the curve and leading the rest of the nation. Our Consent Agenda includes the approval of nearly half a million dollars on the purchase of body cameras from TASER International for use by “all officers currently working in the field,” according to a memo by Chief Lee Howell.
Denton’s Collective Impact Initiatives
The Denton City Council and Denton ISD School Board met today in a joint meeting – something that happens quarterly in our city. This fact alone is something that makes most communities marvel. The collaborative spirit is alive and well in the city of Denton. We met today to hear an update from the President and CEO of United Way of Denton County, Gary Henderson, to the 2011 Community Needs Assessment. It was at such a joint meeting back in 2011 when a similar presentation sparked an enormous amount of collective impact initiatives aimed at tackling many of these issues.
Here’s an illustration to show the many community players that have come together to solve some of these issues:
In the last three years, the Denton community has come together in the following ways to begin the process of solving our communities most pressing problems:
PRE-K COALITION - increases kindergarten readiness and promotes lifelong learning and success to individuals in poverty.
MENTOR DENTON - matches adults with at-risk/economically disadvantaged students one hour per week to increase the probability of high school graduation and preparation for college or career.
SCHOOL-BASED COMMUNITY CENTERS - leverages the neighborhood school to eliminate barriers to community resources and help.
DENTON COUNTY WORKS - is a private/public partnership that provides training for students that will immediately enter the work force after graduation with job search, interview preparation and interviewing skills to increase their access to a living wage job.
BANK ON DENTON COUNTY COALITION - increases financial capabilities for individuals in poverty through education and access to mainstream financial services at over 20 area institutions.
VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE (VITA) - provides free tax preparation services to low income (below $50,000 in total household income) to maximize tax refund dollars returning to Denton County.
DENTON COUNTY CITIZENS’ COUNCIL ON MENTAL HEALTH – with goals to increase mental health access, services, and cohesive and complete treatments in Denton County.
Click here to see the slides for today’s meeting. A special thanks goes out to United Way of Denton County for serving as the hub of all of these collaborative projects.
City Council Preview – November 18, 2014
It’s another long day at City Hall as your City Council kicks off it’s Works Session at 1:00pm, followed by a 6:30pm Regular Session. It’s a packed agenda, so go here to see the entire list of topics. Here are some items of interest on today’s schedule of discussions and decisions:
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
We’ll continue our discussion and review of the final draft of the Comprehensive Plan. If you haven’t yet taken a look at the latest document, go here to read it and learn more.
DOWNTOWN PARKING CHANGES (or “Back it Up, Back it In”)
You might recall last February the council made the decision to make “back-in” parking a part of the Hickory Street redesign. Click here for a great refresher on the entire project, including concept designs and several slides on the topic of parking options in downtown Denton. The benefits of back-in parking include a great number of parking spaces along the street, easier and safer return back on the street for car drivers, and greater protection for pedestrians and cyclists, a population that is already plentiful in this area. As construction has already headed in this direction and spots will soon become available, we are being asked to put back-in parking as part of our downtown parking ordinance. While we are at it, we’ll be cleaning up some language relating to compact cars to better be able to enforce our ordinance.
On this note, while there is much construction activity going on down there and it can look uninviting, all the businesses along East Hickory and Industrial remain open for business and many have great deals to bring you in during this construction phase. Already this week I’ve eaten at Andaman’s and Rusty’s for lunch – go give them your business!
SETTING OUR LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
The 84th Texas Legislature is kicking off and we’ll be discussing our legislative agenda, highlighting issues and topics of importance to our city and citizens. We’ll be headed to Austin in February along with representatives from the county, Denton ISD School Board, and Denton Chamber of Commerce to jointly lobby the legislators on behalf of the city’s interests. Go here for a draft copy of our legislative program and chime in on any of these issues or other issues that you think ought to be included.
We have yet to fully elucidate the city’s position on oil and gas development as it relates to this legislative session. No doubt, due to recent events and votes, that topic will be at the center of Denton discussions in Austin, so some of our discussion today will involve hammering that out. I have posted some of my own ideas on how the state might fix some of the issues relating to fracking in this article.
CANVASSING ELECTION RESULTS
The council will officially canvass the results of the November 4 election at tonight’s meeting. If you haven’t yet seen some of my analyses of the November 4 election results, check out the following.
- How Denton Voted on November 4 by Council District
- Did a College Town Ban Fracking?
- The Final Word on Demographics of the Frack Ban Vote
- Early Voting Analysis
SEVERAL ZONING CHANGE ITEMS
There are 6 Public Hearings tonight relating to zoning issues/changes, including changes that impact distance requirements for liquor stores, an SUP for a electrical substation, and an application to turn 1108 Congress into a Denton Historic Landmark.
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at 940-206-5239 or email me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com.
Four Policy Suggestions for the Texas Legislature on Fracking
This is a time for robust policy suggestions. The problems associated with urban drilling will only intensify. The lesson from Denton on November 4 is that a reliably conservative city who has had to put up with the consequences of natural gas production in its city limits has said enough is enough. Any state leader serious about continuing the Texas “energy revolution” must learn something from this. The rules of the game must change.
Briefly, here are a few of my suggestions:
FIX THE GRANDFATHERING PROBLEM – VESTING
As I pointed out a year prior to this vote, the problem moving forward with cities like Denton isn’t how to regulate new well operations, it’s dealing with existing well sites. Currently state laws allow such sites to be vested in whatever rules applied at the time they first started some sort of activity or permit process for that site. The site could be 30 years old, but claim that new rules and regulations (including recently adopted setback requirements) don’t apply. The state can and should fix this in this legislative session and adopt provisions that set timelines and deadlines on activities at drill sites and prevent vesting in perpetuity.
REMOVE DOMINANCE OF MINERAL ESTATE OVER SURFACE ESTATE
The severance of mineral and surface rights has resulted in a situation where only about 2% of our city’s mineral owners actual reside in the city – yet the state allows their rights to be the dominant rights in disputes with surface owners in our city. The future of surface development in Denton (or any city for that matter), therefore, is largely in the hands of out-of-town mineral owners and their out-of-town operators. A city’s interest in the orderly development of the land within its limits is threatened by this. The Texas Legislature should commence a review of this policy and consider an equalization of rights within cities of a certain population or greater, if not state-wide.
GIVE EXPLICIT AUTHORITY FOR CITIES TO LIMIT OIL/GAS DEVELOPMENT TO INDUSTRIAL ZONED LAND
A provision that allows for oil/gas development is present in every zoning category in the city of Denton. There are significant legal questions as to whether or not the city is preempted from zoning oil/gas production as it would any other major industrial activity. But just as no homeowner has to worry about whether or not a major manufacturing facility will show up in their residentially zoned neighborhood, no homeowner should worry about whether or not a major petro-chemical extraction operation can show up 300 feet from their home. That’s the entire reason we have zoning categories. The Texas Legislature should work on a fix that would provide explicit authority for home rule cities to restrict oil/gas production activities to industrial-use zoning categories.
FIX THE ECONOMICS OF FRACKING – LET CITIES KEEP THE BULK OF SEVERANCE TAXES
There is no question that oil and gas exploration is an economic boon for the Texas economy. Oil and gas extraction brought in nearly $4.5 billion to the state coffers through severance taxes alone in 2013. 27 of the state’s top 50 public companies are oil/gas companies. In 2009 when the state’s revenue stream plummeted nearly $3 billion in the wake of a national economic recession, the oil and gas industry nearly matched the shortfall with $2.2 billion in production taxes. Consider the following chart showing oil and gas severance taxes over the last several years:
If you ever wondered why the elected state policy makers and their regulatory agencies are so committed to keeping this industry alive and well in Texas, this is certainly a big part of the answer – revenue for the state government. Keep this in mind along with the previous stat of the number of big oil and gas companies in Texas when you see this next table:
Briefly, there’s a lot of money to be made for the Texas state government and there’s a whole lot of money to be made by some of our biggest companies who just so happen to help fund the campaigns of those making all the decisions on just what counts as “responsible drilling” in the state of Texas. Policy making tends to be influenced by such things.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers and industry folk keep telling us that this is good for our local economy as well despite the fact that the numbers tell a very different story. What you have is the very strange economic dynamic whereby the economic health of the state of Texas is dependent upon robust oil and gas drilling operations in cities like Denton, TX without any meaningful economic benefit to those locales. And worse, we are given very little tools to regulate the situation ourselves. We become a sort of sacrifice city for the betterment of the collective whole.
I seriously wonder whether the November 4 election results would be different if there really was a meaningful economic benefit to the presence of so much gas production in our city. How might things have turned out differently if a city’s roads, schools, neighborhoods, parks, and overall infrastructure were significantly better in cities with such activity than in cities without it? Instead just about all of the economic benefits from this activity go to out-of-town mineral rights holders, out-of-town companies with their out-of-town workers, and out-of-town state governments who take 100% of the production taxes and distribute it evenly across the state. Why wouldn’t the citizens in such a situation move to ban such activity from their city?
This is easy to fix. The state legislature should consider returning at least 50% of the oil and gas production taxes to the jurisdictions where the minerals were developed. This will accomplish two things. First, it will make the state less dependent on this revenue from the industry, thus loosening its interest in maintaining such dominant regulatory control over the industry. Second, this will result in more robust legal authority for cities to regulate how they see fit. And, perhaps more importantly, such regulation can take place in an environment where the citizens can weigh meaningful economic benefits with the risks associated with with the very activity that brings it to their city.
How Denton Voted on Nov 4 by Council District
Taking four different items Denton citizens voted for on November 4, I curated the voting information by council district – something we rarely get a glimpse of in these November elections.
A few notes – red cells indicate precincts who voted against the frack ban. The totals on the other three items include totals from other people/items on that particular ballot item, yet I intentionally display only the Republican and Democratic candidate/option for each of these.
Click on each District image for a larger view of the data.
DISTRICT 1
DISTRICT 2
DISTRICT 3
DISTRICT 4
