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Minutes P&Z 02/18/2010 TOWN OF TROPHY CLUB PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MINUTES FEBRUARY 18, 2010 The Planning and Zoning Commission of the Town of Trophy Club, Texas met on February 18, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 100 Municipal Drive, Trophy Club, and Texas 76262. COMMISSIONERS ATTENDANCE: Chairman Hill Present Vice Chairman Stephens Present Commissioner Reed Present Commissioner Ashby Present Commissioner Davidson Present Commissioner Forest Present Commissioner Sheridan Present STAFF AND GUESTS PRESENT: Carolyn Huggins Planning & Zoning Manager Tom Rutledge Town Engineer Ray Holiday BRW Architects Matt Faulkner BRW Architects Danny Thomas Fire Chief CALL TO ORDER AND ANNOUNCE A QUORUM. Chairman Hill called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. with a quorum present. 1 REVIEW AND APPROVE MINUTES OF THE FEBRUARY 4, 2010 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING. Commissioner Forest motioned to approve the minutes for the February 4, 2010, Planning & Zoning Commission meeting. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davidson. Ayes: Hill, Reed, Ashby, Davidson, Forest, Sheridan, Stephens Nays: None Action: 7-0, Approved 2 DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION TO TOWN COUNCIL IN REGARD TO GRANTING A SPECIAL PRIVILEGE REQUEST TO THE TROPHY CLUB WOMEN’S CLUB TO HOLD TWO COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE EVENTS IN 2010. APPLICANT: DIANNE RABBE ON BEHALF OF TROPHY CLUB WOMEN’S CLUB. Dianne Rabbe, 2 Ridgewood Dr., President, Trophy Club Women’s Club, stated that the Women’s Club is requesting approval for the dates for the annual Spring and Fall Community Garage Sale Events – Saturday, April 10, 2010 and Saturday, October 9, 2010. There will be no rain dates so the garage sales will be held rain or shine and they request a waiver of the $25 permit fee. Ms. Rabbe stated that she will be happy to answer any questions. There were no questions from the Commissioners and the Chairman called for a motion. Commissioner Davidson made a motion to recommend approval to the Town Council of granting a special privilege to allow the Trophy Club Women’s Club to hold two community garage sales events – one on April 10, 2010 and the other on October 9, 2010. The Commission recommends that the Town Council allow waiver of the permit fees for these events. Commissioner Reed seconded the motion. Ayes: Hill, Reed, Ashby, Davidson, Forest, Sheridan, Stephens Nays: None Action: 7-0, Approved The Town Council will hear this item on March 8, 2010. 3 PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER SITE PLAN APPROVAL FOR A NEW FIRE STATION TO BE BUILT ON THE SITE OF THE EXISTING FIRE STATION, LOCATED AT LOT 1, BLOCK 1, MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT NO. 1 COMPLEX, INCLUDING A LANDSCAPE PLAN AND PLANT LIST, IRRIGATION, AND BUILDING ELEVATIONS. APPLICANT: MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT NO. 1, REPRESENTED BY BRW ARCHITECTS, AND FIRE CHIEF DANNY THOMAS. (SP-09-011) Chairman Hill opened the public hearing. There were none wishing to speak and the public hearing was closed. 4 DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION REGARDING SITE PLAN APPROVAL FOR A NEW FIRE STATION TO BE BUILT ON THE SITE OF THE EXISTING FIRE STATION, LOCATED AT LOT 1, BLOCK 1, MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT NO. 1 COMPLEX, INCLUDING A LANDSCAPE PLAN AND PLANT LIST, IRRIGATION, AND BUILDING ELEVATIONS. APPLICANT: MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT NO. 1, REPRESENTED BY BRW ARCHITECTS, AND FIRE CHIEF DANNY THOMAS. (SP-09-011) Danny Thomas, Fire Chief, stated that they are bringing this project before the Commissioners and that it has been a long time in coming – four years. The drawings before the Commissioners are what are proposed for the present site. The architectural firm of Brown Reynolds Watford is represented by Ray Holiday and Matt Faulkner. Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Holiday came forward. Mr. Holiday gave a PowerPoint Presentation of the proposed new Fire Station which will be located at Trophy Club Drive and Municipal Drive. Mr. Holiday pointed out the visitor parking and employee parking, expanded curb cut along Trophy Club Drive, and a retaining wall between the Fire Station and the residents to the south with a wood fence on top of the retaining wall. He showed renderings of the building. There is a standing seam metal roof with galvanized downspouts which should not require maintenance or painting for years to come. The facility consists of 3 truck bays, 80-ft. long, which allows for various combinations of vehicle stacking within the truck bay. Mr. Holiday pointed out the administration area of the building with a main entrance with vestibule, offices, conference room, restroom and break room. The public area of the building has restrooms and a large conference room that can be used as a training room. The public area is secured from the rest of the Fire Station. There are offices and living areas on the remainder of the first floor with the living areas consisting of a day room with a kitchen and small eating area off of the day room. Upstairs are bedrooms, restrooms and storage areas. Mr. Holiday pointed out the pull-through bays, lighting, and trench drains in the floor. He stated that there is an open kitchen plan with a large food preparation area with food pantries for the different shifts. There are a number of safety elements built into the system such as a fire sprinkler system, alarm system and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. There is a communication room, emergency generator and ATS. The UPS is a battery backup so that if power is lost the building goes to battery for about 30 seconds until the generator gets up enough RPM’s to run the building. Chairman Hill asked for confirmation of the parking, stating that the parking to the east is for public access, i.e., visitor parking and parking on the west side of the building will be for employee parking with the driveway off of the west side parking for the fire trucks to have an entrance to the apparatus bays. Mr. Holiday confirmed that the west side drive doubles as an access to employee parking and an entrance to the vehicle bays. The trucks will exit onto Trophy Club Drive. Chairman Hill asked if there is a new cut in the median on Trophy Club Drive. Mr. Holiday stated that there is an existing cut in the median on Trophy Club Drive, but the cut will be widened. The northern median will be cut back and the southern median will be increased a little bit. Vice Chairman Stephens asked if there is enough room for the fire trucks to turn south onto Trophy Club Drive out of the new drive. Mr. Holiday responded that there is a long driveway and they will swing over on the driveway to exit southbound onto Trophy Club Drive. If the truck pulled straight out there would be a little bit of a problem. Commissioner Sheridan asked if the radius of turn will accommodate vehicles in the future (if they get bigger and longer). Chief Thomas responded that with the existing station they pull out of the far north end of the building with the ladder truck, and the new driveway will make the turning radius to get onto Trophy Club Drive much more accessible. Commissioner Forest and Reed did not have any comments. Commissioner Ashby stated that he likes the design of the building and thinks it looks nice. Commissioner Davidson stated that there is a line drawn on the plans to the left side entrance of the bays. He asked if that is for drainage. Mr. Holiday explained that it is a trench drain since the driveway slopes down to a low point at the truck bays and then rises back up so that there is no possibility of water getting into the truck bays. Commissioner Davidson asked where that water goes. Mr. Faulkner stated that it goes underground and up to the north side of the building and then east along Municipal Drive and ties into the existing storm sewer system that runs along Trophy Club Drive. Commissioner Davidson asked for the size of the drain, stating that the concern is that a fair amount of concrete is being added to that area, plus the roofline, as compared to the existing large lot of trees, so the drainage is going to be fairly significant. Mr. Faulkner stated that it is a 12-inch wide, 12-inch deep trench drain and it ties into a 15- inch diameter underground pipe. There is also an area inlet that picks up some drainage. These flow north to Municipal Drive then east to the existing storm sewer along Trophy Club Drive. Commissioner Davidson asked if there is enough slope to do that. Mr. Faulkner responded that there is a 20-ft. drop from northwest corner to southeast corner. Commissioner Davidson responded that he understands that drop but what about the flow from the trench drain to Municipal Drive. Mr. Faulkner stated that there will be enough height. Commissioner Davidson stated that there is a very large retaining wall along the edge of the property, which he understands is necessary, but any residual water that runs off the building has got to be collected and moved off that wall. Mr. Faulkner agreed and stated that if the water were to build up in any way there is a small swale that runs along the south side of the property that dumps out onto Trophy Club Drive. Commissioner Davidson stated that Mr. Holiday mentioned that there is a UPS inside the building run through an automatic transfer switch (ATS) which means there is a generator. Where is the location of the generator? Mr. Faulkner pointed out the location of the generator which is on a concrete pad on the southwest corner of the site. Commissioner Davidson asked if it has an acoustic housing. Mr. Holiday stated that it is a standalone system and has a muffler system. Commissioner Davidson asked if it will be diesel, gas, natural gas….? Chief Thomas responded that it will be diesel. He stated that there is currently a 100 kilowatt diesel generator serving the building which is fairly quiet. Commissioner Davidson asked if there is an environmental muffler on it. Mr. Holiday stated that it is required. Chairman Hill asked if the public area of the Fire Station will be held exclusively for the Fire Department or if there will be access for other Town functions. Chief Thomas stated that it is could be used for small community service meetings. The conference room seats approximately 35. [Immediate Fire Station parking is limited to 18 spaces, one of which is handicap accessible.] Commissioner Ashby asked if there is a pole. [Lots of laughter] Mr. Holiday stated that question comes up in every project and due to insurance requirements and lawsuits, unfortunately, there is no pole. The grade school kids wish there were poles but in this day and age, unfortunately, there are few stations with them. Commissioner Forest asked for the purpose of the tower. Mr. Holiday stated that the design of the station draws from the historic fire stations of years past. Many stations, before the turn of the century, had towers which were used to dry hoses. In today’s technology the hoses are synthetic and don’t need to be dried like they used to, but the tower is retained as a symbolic element of a fire station and gives a quick icon of recognition to the public that the building is a fire facility. Commissioner Forest asked what will be in the tower. Mr. Holiday responded that the first floor of the tower is part of the administration area and the second floor is storage. There is an access stair ladder in the tower that ascends to a platform and there are lights in that part of the tower to light the tower as a beacon. Chief Thomas stated that there will also be communication antennas in that area of the tower along with weather instruments. Commissioner Sheridan stated that he emailed questions regarding energy efficiency of the site plan to Ms. Huggins and would the architect answer those questions. The architect asked for help in recalling the specific questions. Commissioner Sheridan stated that he asked if any consideration was given to using a pervious material for the parking areas to not force the storm water off the property using big pipes, as currently proposed, but detain the water for water conservation onsite as much as possible. Mr. Holiday stated that they tend to do that with large parking areas, but with the weight of the trucks the civil engineer usually does not advise that. Commissioner Sheridan stated that he would agree with the civil engineer regarding driveways and that’s why he specifically asked about the parking but not the driveways. Commissioner Sheridan asked if there has been any conscious movement toward trying to conserve energy and follow any of the green building codes. The Town has not upgraded their codes because there isn’t a need – the Town is too small – but that doesn’t mean that the energy codes are not good codes. They should at least be considered. Mr. Holiday responded that ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), which is a society that governs codes – mechanical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning – sets a minimum standard that must be met on commercial and residential buildings. This building is not the bare minimum of those codes nor the very top because of budget and economy. This project is not a LEED (Leadership in Environmental Energy Design). There are many elements that were incorporated into the building – R30 insulation in the roofs, 19 in the walls -- a low coefficient of heat gain and loss in the windows with a very good glass product that reduces any heat gain or loss. LEED was not pursued because of the expense, but there are elements of this building that are cost effective and give a good value to the building. There are different levels of LEED. Commissioner Sheridan stopped Mr. Holiday to state that he didn’t expect the building to be LEED qualified but he was interested to know if there was an attempt to use LEED guidelines towards doing some energy efficiency. Commissioner Sheridan stated that in his email he also asked about a wind sensor for the sprinkler system so that in a high wind the sprinklers wouldn’t go off and water the street. He stated that his questions were specifically based on the site plan, since that is the agenda item being considered this evening and that he wanted to see addressed some of the newer products coming into vogue for conservation such as rain and temperature gauges more so than the building. Commissioner Sheridan stated that he had forwarded the email to Ms. Huggins a couple of days ahead of time to give the architect time to address his questions and he stated that he is upset that the architect didn’t even mention it. Mr. Holiday responded that he got it and reviewed it but they were unsure of the format of how to address the questions. Mr. Holiday stated that in regard to sensors, he is a licensed irrigator in Texas and the way that the rain sensors work is that if a certain amount of rain occurs the irrigation system will kick off so that sprinklers aren’t going when it is raining. Temperature sensors usually turn off the irrigation system when the temperature falls below a certain degree – Mr. Holiday believed it was 48 degrees. A wind sensor is normally set to 5 a.m. – which is usually a time when wind is not occurring – and it is usually not an issue. Commissioner Sheridan stated that he is upset that his questions were disregarded but doesn’t want to pursue this discussion further at this time. Chairman Hill asked the Town Engineer, Tom Rutledge, if he had any comments. Mr. Rutledge stated that he went through several reviews with the architect and they have addressed all outstanding comments. There was no further discussion or comments and Chairman Hill called for a motion. Commissioner Ashby motioned to recommend approval to the Town Council of the Site Plan, Landscape Plan and Plant List, Irrigation, and Building Elevations. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davidson. Ayes: Hill, Reed, Ashby, Davidson, Forest, Sheridan, Stephens Nays: None Action: 7-0, Approved This item will be heard by the Town Council on Monday, March 8, 2010. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Hill adjourned the meeting at 7:34 p.m.