MINUTES OF ZONING AND PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARINGS AND REGULAR MEETING CITY OF WEST LAKE HILLS, TEXAS June 21, 2017 6:30 P.M. PRESENT: ZAPCO Chairman Robert Meisel, Vice-Chairman Les Gage, Commissioner Kathy Tullos, Sarah Swanson and Rhett Hoestenbach ABSENT: ZAPCO Commissioner Bill Vandersteel 1. Call to Order. Chairman Robert Meisel. Chairman Meisel calls the meeting to Order at 6:30 p.m. 2. Consent Agenda: The following items are considered to be self-explanatory by the Commission and will be enacted with one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these item/s unless a Commission Member or citizen so requests. a. Approval of the May 17, 2017 Regular Meeting Minutes. b. Request from applicant to postpone. Land Use: Variance to request changing an existing second cut on a driveway at 708 Windsong Trail. (Section 22.03.175 of the West Lake Hills Code.) Applicant Christina Randle. c. Request from applicant to postpone. Land Use: Six variances (cut and fill in a setback; retaining wall in a setback; height of a retaining wall; impervious cover; tree removal; and driveway setback encroachment) for a new residence at 509 Yaupon Valley Road. (Sections 22.03.170, 22.03.281, 22.03.304 and 22.03.175 of the West Lake Hills Code.) Applicant Nadeem Malik. d. Request from applicant to postpone. Land Use: Amendment to the Uniform Sign Agreement to allow two parking signs and a door sign for Twelve Tables Jewelers at 3636 Bee Cave Road, Suite 102. (Section 32.03.008 of the West Lake Hills Code.) Applicant Catherine Franklin. VICE-CHAIRMAN GAGE MOVES TO APPROVE. COMMISSIONER HOESTENBACH SECONDS. UNANIMOUS (4-0) APPROVAL. 3. Land Use: Variance request to construct a propane tank in a building setback at 1420 Redbud Trail. (Section 22.03.276 of the West Lake Hills Code.) Applicants Kristine and Rene Salazar. a. Staff Briefing. City Planner Grundman: The applicant has requested to have their propane tank be allowed in the front setback. It is a corner lot so they do have two front setbacks. The proposed location is 50 from the edge of pavement off of Old Wagon Road and 60 from the edge of payment on Redbud. The proposed location complies with the Redbud Trail front setback but not the Old Wagon Road front setback. There are State requirements that the propane tank driver has to be able to see the tank when they do the pumping and that sort of thing. That s, I think, is factored into the request. Chairman Meisel: If I read this correctly, staff recommends approval?
City Planner Grundman: Yes. Chairman Meisel: Is it my understanding that there is gas service? City Planner Grundman: No, sir. There is not. b. Presentation by applicant. Rene Salazar lives at 1420 Redbud Trail. I was hoping we could get this done so we could, the location of the propane tank where we proposed is really the only place we could put it. With the driver having to see the propane tank from the front of the house. That was the only location we saw fit where it could be. c. Public Hearing: All persons wishing to speak for or against shall be heard. Chairman Meisel closes the Public Hearing and reconvenes the meeting. d. Deliberation and action. Chairman Meisel: Is there solar heating? This is for your swimming pool, right? Rene: A hot tub. Chairman Meisel: Solar panels? You re heating and cooling with electric. This is the first introduction of carbon based fuels on the lot? Have you considered alternatives such as solar? Rene: We ve talked about it but the hot tub is for propane use only. Chairman Meisel: Is this a new addition to your home? Rene: Yes, to a swimming pool. We were kind of pushed that way from the pool builder. City Planner Grundman: Is this above ground or buried? Rene: Above ground and we will be putting screening around it. There has to be something to screen it. Chairman Meisel: The propane driver has to see then tank. Vice-Chairman Gage: When you got the permit for approval, was the tank shown on the plans? Rene: I don t think so. It was an oversight. Commissioner Hoestenbach: You re 60 back from Redbud Trail but inside 50 from Old Wagon? Rene: It would be in the middle of the master bedroom if we put it in the required setback. ZAPCO MEETING MINUTES JUNE 21, 2017 2
Commissioner Hoestenbach: How many feet off are you now is that from Old Wagon? Rene: 50. City Planner Grundman: That s from the pavement, not the property line. Commissioner Hoestenbach: How many feet is it from the property line? Rene: Around 40. Chairman Meisel: This is a structure in a setback but it meets State requirements for the location of a propane tank? City Planner Grundman: Right from the State Department. Chairman Meisel: This is a tough problem. A variance is based on hardship. Some unique circumstance creates the problem. One of the first rules the variance can t be self-created. You can t ask for a variance; there has to be another factor. This is self-created hardship. I m not trying to beat you up. I m frustrated with your pool builder because they didn t look into this. This is the procedural issue we have here. I hope you understand. I m having trouble seeing this as a hardship. I know you built a hot tub and you expect it to be hot. There are electric water heaters, there are solar panels. There are alternatives to the propane. I m hard pressed for a just rationalization. That s the problem we re faced with. I don t vote here; these folks do. Rene: I do understand what you re saying with that. What we felt was a hardship, if we were to follow the rules it would be in the bedroom. We couldn t put it on the other side. I didn t want to go through this. We wanted to follow the rules. The other alternatives I ll have to talk to the pool builder about it. Vice-Chairman Gage: It would have been nice when it was presented at the time it was submitted for a building permit. Commissioner Hoestenbach: How many feet is the tank from the home now? Vice-Chairman Gage: What you are using for heat currently? Rene: We use electric. I m approximating 25 from the house. Commissioner Hoestenbach: It has to be at least 10 from the house. You can t slide it over more toward the house? Commissioner Tullos: Maybe moving it up. Rene: That s an alternative. ZAPCO MEETING MINUTES JUNE 21, 2017 3
Commissioner Hoestenbach: It might be a little more appealing from the street. Rene: We re going to hide it anyway. Chairman Meisel: I m not sure how to scale this is? Did your surveyor locate this tank shown on this map? Rene: That was not surveyed. Commissioner Swanson: You could move it closer to your house and not need a variances, is that correct? Rene: If we can without a variance, I would do that. Commissioner Swanson: Just so I m completely clear on this, you re certain that the only power source that would currently work would be propane? Rene: That s we purchased for the pool. Commissioner Swanson: Have you talked about that with your builder? Rene: No, we haven t. Commissioner Swanson: You might want to have some conversations. Commissioner Tullos: It sounds to me like this might be an opportunity to hit the pause button and go back and talk to the builder and talk about some of these issues. This is what Ashby does. Rene: From the setback, how many feet does this have to be? City Planner Grundman: 50 from the property lines. Commissioner Swanson: And you have two fronts it sounds like? Chairman Meisel: Looking at the survey here, see the 50, this is an electric powerline. Rene: We probably measured with a tape measurer. 60 from here to here. If we could move this over 10 and keep it 10 from the house? City Planner Grundman: You wouldn t need a variance for that. Rene: I didn t understand the setback. My wife did all of this. Chairman Meisel: I don t think you ll get a happy result here. You can go and do some research and come back next month. Rene: 50 from the property line on both sides and 10 from the house. ZAPCO MEETING MINUTES JUNE 21, 2017 4
City Planner Grundman: If you can make that work you won t need a variance. Rene: What if we have a stone deck? Is that considered part of the house? Chairman Meisel: Flatwork is allowed. Decks are not structures for setback purposes. APPLICANT REQUESTS TO POSTPONE TO JULY MEETING. COMMISSIONER HOESENBACH MOVES TO ACCEPT POSTPONEMENT. COMMISSIONER SWANSON SECONDS. UNANIMOUS (4-0) ACCEPTANCE. 4. Land Use: Variance request to construct a garage in a side building setback at 802 Canyon Creek. (Section 22.03.281 of the West Lake Hills Code.) Applicant Jim DeCosmo. a. Staff Briefing. City Planner Grundman: There was an existing carport there. Isn t encroaching any further. They are replacing a non-conforming structure. b. Presentation by applicant. Jim DeCosmo is the owner. I want to thank you for the opportunity to review. I ll cover four things with background. The variance request reason, the hardship and alternatives and comments from the neighbors. We got a building permit in the 4 th quarter of last year. The permit was to remodel to replace a defunct greenhouse with a covered porch. We transitioned a deck and a pool and a retaining wall and drainage system which required variances. There are minimal to the house. We were required to get variances to take out three trees. All the variances were approved by the commission as well as BOA and Council. That s where we are today. The request is 22.03.281 and as Ashby said we are asking for the commissioner s recommendation to reconstruct a carport that is already there and it is included as part of the approved building plans and permit. The issue is how do you get there? The reason for the request, when we started demo there were issues, this carport was in disrepair, the north wall was a footer and upon further inspection, it didn t make it to hard rock. In fact, the storm water drainage when through the footer into the carport. If we remodel and meet code, it s virtually impossible. The other wall is to the west and issues there it was a carport utility on a 4 slab that didn t have reinforcement. That west wall on the outside had soil and moisture and when we took the sheetrock down we had mold and in the utility room we had some stench that I can t describe. From a remodeling perspective there is nowhere to go with this. Let me remind the commission, we want to proceed with the permitted plans that we have. As part of this application we have to look at hardship and alternatives. If we move it forward we are then going to be in the 50 setback from the front which will remove two more trees ZAPCO MEETING MINUTES JUNE 21, 2017 5
and the septic drain field. Another would be to move it back. Backwards the Northwest corner would be hanging over the cliff and lengthen the driveway which will increase impervious cover. Logic would reveal and reconstruction what was there and bring it to code. That is our recommendation. The fourth item we have kept our neighbors informed every step of the way. You received letters of support from neighbors. Both have served as council members. We want to reconstruction where it was. c. Public Hearing: All persons wishing to speak for or against shall be heard. Chairman Meisel closes the Public Hearing and reconvenes the meeting. d. Deliberation and action. Vice-Chairman Gage: Your roofline is not being changed? Jim: No. Chairman Meisel: It appears your eastern end is well in the setback of the lot. What do we do about that? City Planner Grundman: That didn t change. Existing non-conforming. They replaced the entire structure. Jim: 80% of the house is there. Chairman Meisel: You re not changing roofline or footprint? VICE-CHAIRMAN GAGE MOVES TO RECOMMEND APPROVAL. COMMISSIONER SWANSON SECONDS. UNANIMOUS (4-0) APPROVAL. 5. Land Use: Variance request to construct a driveway in a front driveway setback at 915 Terrace Mountain Drive. (Section 22.03.175 of the West Lake Hills Code.) Applicant Lora Reynolds. a. Staff Briefing. City Planner Grundman: This is a driveway encroachment. This takes access off of Calithea. It was a private drive at some point. The actual road dead ends into this property. Where the access point is hits where it would require driveway encroachments and I don t know if there is a way to shift it over based on where the roadway hits. It s a city road. b. Presentation by applicant. Davin Fillpot is representing the homeowners who asked me to represent her. Plans are handed out at the dais. As Ashby said, Calithea is a narrow public street. It s about 12-13 wide where it abuts this property. On the existing plan, there is a home there now. The driveway exists they are wanting to come in and raise the existing house and use the footprint. Where the driveway dives into the property, the property lines on either ZAPCO MEETING MINUTES JUNE 21, 2017 6
side are just right off of this already narrow drive. As part of the plan to redevelop this property, there are non-conforming issues on this site. The goal with the proposal which is on the second page, it essentially to take the drive, give one car length distance in and sweeping the driveway down to get it out of the driveway setback maintaining the 12 width and you can see the two dimensions that are the plan. One comes from once you get to the 10 driveway setback from that point, takes 35 to sweep out down to get out of that setback to get down to the house. All of the old driveway and pavement will be removed out and providing a more conforming driveway but the orientation where Calithea die into the property does not give the new driveway the opportunity to avoid it. The goal was to give one car spot to pull out and then sweep it down to the house location. The hardship is a pre-existing non-conforming city street that doesn t give the property the ability to have a conforming driveway entrance. c. Public Hearing: All persons wishing to speak for or against shall be heard. Chairman Meisel closes the Public Hearing and reconvenes the meeting. d. Deliberation and action. COMMISSIONER HOESTENBACH MOVES TO RECOMMEND APPROVAL BASED ON HARDSHIP OF PRE-EXISTING NON- CONFORMING CONFIGURATION. COMMISSIONER SWANSON SECONDS. UNANIMOUS (4-0) APPROVAL. 6. Land Use: Commercial Monument Sign for Baylor Scott & White Clinic at 1001 Westbank Drive. (Section 32.03.007 and 32.03.008 of the West Lake Hills Code.) Applicant Jennifer Garcia. a. Staff Briefing. City Planner Grundman: At the dais you have the actual dimensions of the signs. Mr. Chairman, you saw this at BDC. Nothing has changed. It meets code. Chairman Meisel: Additional signage was an issue at BDC. The only subject before us is the monument sign? City Planner Grundman: The second picture in your packet. Enforcement is dealing with the other signs. b. Presentation by applicant. Jennifer Garcia is with Liberty Signs. We are just wanting to replace the existing monument sign. The other signs have been removed after the last meeting. We apologize for that. They were unaware we hadn t gotten a permit yet. The only thing is the monument sign. c. Public Hearing: All persons wishing to speak for or against shall be heard. Chairman Meisel closes the Public Hearing and reconvenes the meeting. ZAPCO MEETING MINUTES JUNE 21, 2017 7
d. Deliberation and action. Commissioner Swanson: My only question is. Has the banner been taken down? Jennifer: Yes. Commissioner Swanson: After 30 days it will be down? COMMISSIONER TULLOS MOVES TO APPROVE. COMMISSIONER SWANSON SECONDS. UNANIMOUS (4-0) APPROVAL. Commissioner Swanson: Yes, I have one small thing. I didn t want to take up the time of the people who were here for hearings to do it. Tell me if I need to say this afterwards? Chairman Meisel: I will say we won t take action but we can hear it. Commissioner Swanson: Okay. I have a request which is that sometimes, or often, the minutes are hard for me to understand what actually occurred. And sometimes it s just some typos, etc., but for example, in this set, the section when I was talking about the code and moving sections, I couldn t possibly have understood what I had said about how we needed to re-letter, etc. and as someone who used to write minutes for a professional association it s not that hard. Even if somebody kind of diverges here and there to get the gist out clearly so that any reader could easily understand it. I m hoping we can see that happen in the future and maybe that will take a little rereading by a second set of eyes or something, but I would just like it to be error or grammatical especially that any average reader could understand what really had occurred. I would like to request that. Respectfully. Chairman Meisel: Duly noted. City Planner Grundman: We ll make that happen. Chairman Meisel: I will also comment that I personally am ever grateful for City staff. Commissioner Tullos: Agreed; absolutely. 7. Adjournment by Chairman Robert Meisel. Chairman Meisel adjourns the meeting at 7:10 p.m. ZAPCO MEETING MINUTES JUNE 21, 2017 8