To: Mark Hafner, City Manager
From: Julie Smith, Community Development Director
Subject:
Title
Consider a resolution approving a Final Plat with a variance for the Mountain Blue Addition, a proposed one lot, single-family residential subdivision on 6.15 acres of land generally located on the northeast corner of Lambert Lane and Lambert Lane East, being Lots 1-4, Block 1, Cuny Addition, and Tracts 8B01A, 8B01A1 and 8C02A, located in the Jesse Gibson Survey, abstract number 592, zoned Single-Family Residential 36,000 square-foot minimum lot size or greater (SF-36), and addressed as 5951, 5953, 5957 and 5955 Lambert Lane East and 13492 Lambert Lane in the City of Keller, Tarrant County, Texas.
Action Requested:
Consider approval of a Final Plat with a variance for the Mountain Blue Addition.
Zoning:
Single-Family Residential 36,000 square-foot minimum
Background and Analysis:
In this unique situation, this plat is being submitted directly to the City Council without review from the Planning and Zoning Commission (Commission) in order to ensure compliance with the State’s recently adopted shot clock rules regarding the approval of plats. According to the City Attorney, City Council’s review of the plat is timely and legitimate.
In 2019, the Texas Legislature amended Local Government Code § 212.009, which placed strict limitations on the deadline for a city to approve a plat once submitted. Section 212.009 provides that the City “shall approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove a plan or plat within 30 days after the date the plan or plat is filed.” That section further provides that “A plan or plat is approved by the municipal authority unless it is disapproved within that period and in accordance with Section 212.0091.” This plat is being presented directly to Council in an abundance of caution in response to a claim that the plat is deemed automatically approved.
Pursuant to Local Government Code § 212.0065 and UDC Sec. 4.07, city staff is authorized to approve minor plats. However, during staff review of the subject plat, it became apparent that § 212.009 has made administrative approval impractical. According to § 212.0065, staff is not permitted to disapprove a plat. Instead, staff must forward the plat to the Commission. That process worked well before the enactment of the newly adopted restrictions in § 212.009. Under the current law, Staff is not permitted to disapprove a plat according to § 212.0065, but at the same time, § 212.009 requires that the City approve or disapprove a plat within 30 days of submission. In other words, with the amendment to § 212.009, the Legislature seems to have created a situation where all minor plats should go directly to the Commission in order to circumvent an argument that an improperly submitted minor plat is deemed approved.
Since § 212.009 was enacted in 2019, staff’s review process for minor plats has not been problematic. However, because of a current claim that the subject plat is deemed approved, it became apparent that the City will need to amend its procedures, which may include the proposal of amendments to the UDC in the near future. In this case, the plat was fully submitted on July 11, 2022. After review of the minor plat, staff determined that they could not approve the plat because the plat proposed a dead-end street without a cul-de-sac, which is prohibited by the UDC. The Applicant was informed of staff’s decision in a letter dated August 4, 2022. The applicant, in a series of communications through legal counsel with staff and the City Attorney, made a claim that the plat should be deemed approved because it was not approved or disapproved in a timely manner.
Because the application for the minor plat failed to include a list of variances, there is an argument that the applicant did not submit a complete application for a minor plat. However, as a means to move forward with the applicant’s claim that the plat is deemed approved and to protect the City’s interest in the approval of plats, staff’s legal counsel recommends noting that the Commission’s inaction on the plat was deemed an approval of the Commission as of August 10, 2022. Making that assumption protects the City’s interest because the UDC provides that the final decision on a plat requesting variances still must come from the City Council. See UDC Sec. 4.07.
Section 212.009 of the Texas Local Government Code provides that the City Council “shall approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove the plan or plat within 30 days after the date the plan or plat is approved by the planning commission or is approved by the inaction of the commission.” Therefore, the Commission’s inaction within 30 days of the July 11th submission is not deemed a final decision, but rather, it is considered a recommendation of approval to the City Council. In accordance with §212.009, the plat is being presented to the City Council within 30 days of the date of the Commission’s deemed approval.
Surrounding Land Uses & Zoning:
The proposed plat is surrounded on all sides by residential uses zoned SF-36.
Supporting Documents:
- Exhibit A: Submitted Plat
Variance Requested:
1. A variance to allow a dead end or stub street (without a cul-de-sac) without the provision of future access to adjacent vacant land areas.
Citizen Input:
Final Plats, even with a variance, do not require a public hearing, so not public hearing notices were sent out. The public will have an opportunity to speak on this item during “Persons to be Heard”.
Alternatives:
The City Council has the following options when considering a Final Plat with variances:
- Approve as submitted
- Approve with conditions
- Disapprove