June 1, 2020 Newsletter

Home ============ June 1, 2020 ========== May 25, 2020 ============ May 18, 2020 ============ May 11, 2020 =========== Arlington City CouncilGrades ============= May 2, 2020 Election ============= Jeff Williams, ====Mayor==== ============= =D1 Helen Moise, ===District1=== Sheri Capehart, ===District2=== Marvin Sutton, ===District3=== Andrew Piel, ===District4=== Ignacio Nunez, ===District5=== Robert Shepard, ===District6=== Victoria Farrar-Myers, ===District7==== Barbara Odom-Wesley, ===District8=== VIA - by the numbers ============ J.J. Fenceroy, Candidate for ===District1====== ============= =D2 Raul Gonzalez, Candidate for ===District2=== JoAnna Cordoza, Candidate for ===District2====== ============= =D6 John Hibbs, Candidate for ===District6=== Ruby Woolridge, Candidate for ====District6===== ============= =D7 Antoine Lane, Candidate for ===District7=== Hunter Crow, Candidate for ===District7=== Chris Dobson, Candidate for ===District7====== Kennedale Observer Homepage =========== Kennedale City CouncilGrades ==========

TxDOT Public Hearing on Southeast Connector This Thursday

On Thursday, June 4, 6:00 p.m., TxDOT will host a virtual public hearing meeting on the I-820/ I-20/ Hwy 287 project (also known as the Southeast Connector Project). The public can watch the virtual meeting at www.txdot.gov and use keywords “Southeast Connector”. Public comment will be received from the start of the meeting through 5:00 p.m. on June 22 by calling (817) 887-6150 and verbally providing official testimony.

Arlington is a city where citizens are relegated to being spectators rather than players. The SPECTATOR helps citizens know what is happening on the field. Only the few on the in-house team are allowed to play ball in Arlington. The SPECTATOR helps citizens understand the game.

June 1, 2020 – Volume 13 Number 22

GAME SCHEDULE:

Wednesday, June 3: P&Z meeting, 5:30pm. (The 3:45pm work session can be viewed on the city website.) The 5:30pm meeting can be viewed on the city website; register to speak on items at (817)459-6652 or (817)459-6667.

Thursday, June 4: AISD Board meeting, 4:00pm. (must be registered to speak by 3:00pm)

Thursday, June 4: TxDOT Public Hearing on the Southeast Connector Project, 6:00 p.m. The virtual meeting will be at www.txdot.gov and use keywords “Southeast Connector”.

Tuesday, June 9: City Council meetings. Times TBD.

Wednesday, June 17: P&Z meeting, 5:30pm. (The 3:45pm work session can be viewed on the city website.) The 5:30pm meeting can be viewed on the city website; register to speak on items at (817)459-6652 or (817)459-6667.

Sunday, June 21: Fathers' Day.

The Arlington Spectator can now be found on Facebook.

From THE LOCKER ROOM

Arlington City Council Update

The city council did not meet this past week. The next meetings will be Tuesday, June 9.

Upcoming Public Hearings

On May 20, the P&Z continued until June 3 the public hearing for more townhomes at Sublett Road near Matlock Road. The city council will hold its public hearing on June 23.

On Wednesday, May 6, the .P&Z held a public hearing for PD-MF12 (planned development - multi-family) for townhomes at 6300 & 6301 S. Collins Street (PD19-21). The P&Z was not impressed, and the public hearing was continued. It will go to P&Z again on June 3 and to the city council on June 23.

At the May 6 P&Z meeting they approved PD-LI (planned development - light industrial) at 211 Osler Drive (PD20-9). This is scheduled to go to the city council on Tuesday, June 9.

P&Z passed modifications to change parking requirements and square footage requirements for multi-family two-bedrooms in the Unified Development Code (UDC). The city council has established this as a work session item for this Tuesday’s meeting. The public hearing for the city council will be June 9.

At the Tuesday, June 9, 6:30pm city council meeting there will be a public hearing for a gas drilling special use permit for 2000 S. Watson Road.

On Monday, June 15, 6:00pm, the Zoning Board of Adjustments will have a setback variance public hearing for 3515 Hollow Creek Road.

On Wednesday, June 17, P&Z will have a public hearing for a special use permit for an automotive service center at 2011 Duval Drive.

On Wednesday, June 17, P&Z will have a public hearing to change the zoning at 2015-2025 S. Cooper Street from commercial to multi-family apartments. This is scheduled to go to the city council on Tuesday, August 4.

On Tuesday, May 5, there was a city council public hearing on a planned development (PD) including MF-22 (380 units) and community commercial zoning for 39 acres at 8224 Webb Ferrell Road (north of Debbie Lane). It was continued until June 23.

The city council will have a public hearing for a car wash at 4442 & 4462 on S. Collins Street on June 23. This passed P&Z, 8-1.

P&Z Commission

The P&Z will meet this coming Wednesday, June 3. There will be three public hearings-- two for zoning cases and one for a special use permit. The special use permit case for an automotive center is expected to be continued until June 17.

The first zoning case, PD19-21, Arlington Rose Development (design plans created by the mayor's firm), was continued from a prior P&Z meeting, where the continuance was approved prior to a vote that would have resulted in the commissioners turning it down. [Our opinion: It looks as bad as it did before.]

It proposes to change 15.890 acres of commercially zoned property to a planned development (PD) for RM-12 (residential medium density, 180 townhomes for the properties at 6700 & 6701 S. Collins Street near East Sublett Road. The planned development will fail to meet the UDC (Unified Development Code) on several standards, including lot size and depth. [The staff report: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/605585/FINAL_PD19-21_Arlington_Rose_Development_Staff_Report.pdf].

The second zoning case, PD20-1, Blue Bonnet Trails, proposes to change 11.407 acres of commercially zoned property to a planned development (PD) for RM-12 (residential medium density, 125 townhomes for several properties along the 700-800 blocks on West Sublett Road, west of Matlock Road. The planned development will fail to meet the UDC (Unified Development Code) on several standards, including lot size, depth, and setbacks. Note: this project is also done by the mayor's cram-them-in-there firm. [The staff report: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/605674/FINAL_PD20-1_Blue_Bonnet_Trails_Staff_Report.pdf].

AISD Update

The board will meet on this coming Thursday, June 4. The agenda will probably be posted on Monday.

Press Box

May 2 Election

The May 2 Elections have been postponed. Our Election Information has been put on hold until closer to election time.

Southeast Connector Project

TxDOT will conduct a virtual public hearing on Thursday, June 4. See the Public Hearing Section of this newsletter for more details.

VIA by the Numbers

On December 11, 2019, the VIA pilot program began its third year.

The program is heavily subsidized by the Arlington taxpayer (53%) while the riders only cover about 16% of the costs. [percentages based on the last contract, December 3, 2019. Staff report: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/481268/Staff_Report_-___MF__RK__-_FINAL.pdf].

VIA's August 2019 Service Update to the city council shows that over 1/3 (37%) of the survey participants thought their experience was POOR or NEEDS IMPROVEMENT!!! [https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/403687/Presentation_-_Via_Rideshare_Update_080619.pdf#page=11].

Outdoor Pools Scheduled to Open June 12

Both of the family aquatic centers opened Saturday, May 30. The other outdoor pools are scheduled to open on Friday, June 12.

[https://www.arlingtontx.gov/news/my_arlington_t_x/news_stories/aquatic_centers_reopen].

High Density

In this era of social distancing and the relationship between Population Density and the spread of COVID-19, high density housing is a major issue; yet a majority of this current city council has approved many more apartments in the already apartment-saturated area of southeast Arlington.

Prop 1—City Council Greed

The Arlington Spectator hopes all citizens strongly oppose the sales tax increase (Proposition 1) on the November 3, 2020 ballot.

According to the city manager's presentations, Dallas does not have an Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Plano's EDC is funded by a couple of cents of the property tax rate. Both these cities are in DART and do not have available sales tax for an EDC.

So, Arlington's “greedy” leadership is admitting they are not as good as Plano and Dallas. They need more dollars to compete with those cities. Having equal dollars does not cut it.

Instead of funding the EDC with the sales tax, they could have been funding a “property tax relief” option with the sales tax, stating they would take the equivalent of two cents of the tax rate (like Plano) to fund the EDC. That would mean COVID-19 revenue shortfalls in the future budget could be covered, the property tax rate could drop, and funding of the EDC with two cents of the tax rate could occur. (The $17 million estimate generated by the 1/4-cent of sales tax is currently equivalent to 6.5 cents of the tax rate.)

Unfortunately, Mayor Jeff Williams and this city council have NO interest in the taxpayers. It is all about greed and dollar signs for them.

Of course, there was no time for citizen input. The council had to rush this through. They had to set up an additional meeting to get the readings done in time. There was also no consideration of alternate options/plans. They feel funds of the taxpayers must be taken now to feed the mayor’s and council's spending addiction.

Every taxpayer should STRONGLY OPPOSE the ballot item of funding an EDC (Proposition 1).

HELPFUL CONTACTS

The Spectator . ...ArlSpectator@yahoo.com

www.ArlSpectator.mysite.com

The Arlington Voice (online newspaper covering Arlington) www.arlingtonvoice.com

Opinion Arlington (comment on issues of Arlington) www.opinionarlington.com

City of Arlington website www.arlingtontx.gov

e-mails of mayor and council

.............................. first.last@arlingtontx.gov

mayor = jeff.williams

district 1 (north) = helen.moise

district 2 (sw) = sheri.capehart