Kevin Roden – 07.20.10

This is as exciting as it gets for local politics.  Tonight, the Denton City Council is scheduled to decide on three issues that have been a consistent source of controversy for several months.  For anyone interested in learning more about the issues, the players, and the rhetoric of Denton city politics, there’s no better meeting than this one to get properly schooled.  Here’s a primer for the evening to give you some context and to help you navigate the issues.  Get yourself a date, grab an early margarita and dinner at Sweetwater, and take a stroll over to City Hall in time for the fireworks to begin at 6:30pm…

GAS DRILLING ORDINANCES
It took a controversial natural gas drilling project at Rayzor Ranch – right next to a city park, right next to a hospital and other medical care facilities, and right across the street from an established neighborhood – to make city leaders realize that our municipal gas drilling ordinances were insufficient.  Since then, the council has called for an examination and overhaul of these ordinances.  This was a frequent topic during the run up to the May 2010 city council elections and continues to be a hot topic for state and national candidates.  The natural gas boom taking place all over the Barnett Shale region is pitting big oil and gas companies and the landowners who stand to make huge profits against neighborhoods and concerned citizens who worry about the health and environmental impact of the drilling process.  This issue is no longer relegated to unincorporated ranch land far from dense populations – drilling is now taking place right in the middle of cities.

At issue on Tuesday night is a series of temporary regulations designed to protect citizens from bad drilling operations while the city has a chance to give a more in depth look at permanent ordinances to bring our code up to date.  Unlike some nearby cities, such as Corinth and Flower Mound who have opted for moratoriums on new drilling applications while they research the best possible ordinances, Denton city council is taking a decidedly more conservative approach.

The Planning and Zoning Commission got the first shot at the proposed temporary ordinances last Wednesday evening.  These regulations address such things as setback (how far a drill site must be from certain structures or places), sound levels,  possibilities for applying for variances, and fees associated with drilling and well maintenance.  As the Denton RC reported and discussed in an editorial, that meeting brought out concerns from both sides of the issue.  Many residents called for stricter regulations or an all-out moratorium, while several representatives from oil and gas companies called several of the proposed ordinances confusing, unnecessary, or just outright illegal.

What to look for on Tuesday night…
There will be heated rhetoric on both sides during the public hearing section of this discussion.  You’ll see concerned citizens looking after the well being of their families and properties on the one side.  On the other side, you’ll see a bunch of suit-wearing, fine-talking lawyers getting up in order to represent one of the many oil and gas companies with significant mineral interests in the area.  You won’t see many actual property owners with the courage to stand in front of their fellow citizens and argue why their desire to make money is more important than the health of their neighbors – no, they’ll be hiding behind outsiders with suits.  And listen carefully to these oil and gas men – they’ll come off polite and will even offer their services in order to aid the city in coming up with reasonable drilling policies.  But almost without exception, every single one of them will offer some sort of subtle threat of lawsuit – and some will even go so far as to ridicule our city and its concerned citizens.  The council has a chance to decide who they will listen to…

You will also likely hear some sort of statement along these lines coming from someone on the council or the city staff: “These ordinances are designed to help protect our city while we look into more permanent options.  If we deny these tonight, we will be left with the ordinances we have right now – and those aren’t very protective.”  That is true to a certain extent, but there is another option: declare a moratorium on new drilling applications for a period of time that allows the city to implement new and tougher ordinances.

It’s time for some political courage to come from the council on this one.  They were able to shift the blame from them onto existing ordinances and state regulations when they approved gas drilling operations across the street from where our children play at a city park.  And in so doing, they earned the reputation among many in town that they were more worried about lawsuits from gas companies than they were about the health of the citizens they are charged to protect.  Now it’s their turn to act aggressively and show that this image is undeserved.  The city staff has come to the table with ordinances that, in most cases, go no further than a selection of cities that were identified for comparison.  Denton, a city that prides itself for its green initiatives, a city that is home to a world-renown Environmental Ethics program at UNT, and a city that thinks of itself as North of Ordinary, has the chance to lead the state on this issue.  Instead we are merely looking at what cities like Lewisville are doing and modeling our codes accordingly.

If there is one thing that our nation has learned from the oil spill disaster in the Gulf, it’s that our technological pursuits of energy often extend beyond our understanding or ability to protect our health or our environment.  It’s a good time to slow things down a bit.

The big question to be asked during all this: will the proposed regulations give the council the power to avoid another Rayzor Ranch-style drilling fiasco?

Some advice to the council: stop being led around by the city attorneys on this issue.  At times during the P&Z discussion last Wednesday night, it looked as if Denton’s Planning Attorney Jerry Drake was leading the meeting (even inappropriately addressing the audience – they are there to advise the commissioners and staff, not to lecture the citizens), thus showing who was guiding the ship.  Instead, demonstrate some political courage on this issue and make Denton’s regulations the toughest in the state.  The complaints by the oil and gas folks that we are moving too hastily with these temporary regulations provides an easy path toward a moratorium – “We have listened closely to the experts in the industry who are concerned that our proposal needs more work.  We agree and thank you for your contribution.  We’ll now suspend all drilling operations until we can figure this out.  Thanks for the good advice, oil and gas folks!”

If we get sued, so be it – sometimes a noble fight is just what the citizens want and need.

Denton RC has put together a helpful site with a collection of their stories on this topic, led mostly by the masterful reporting of Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe.  For some perspective on how this issue plays out in national politics, local environmentalist Ed Soph penned this guest column on US Rep. Michael Burgess’ environmental record.  And you might be interested in watching the stunning documentary, Gas Land, which was screened during Denton’s own Thin Line Film Fest and is currently in regular rotation on HBO.

FRY STREET DEVELOPMENT
This issue has come a long way from 2007 when United Equities bought up the historical buildings on Fry Street in order to tear them down and replace them with a CVS.  The public outcry united elderly homeowners, college students, alumni, and transient punk kids alike, only to climax with the famed burning of the iconic Tomato building.  When the Dinerstein Company submitted their plans to the city last December to build student apartments, the initial reaction was one of distrust.

Since then, however, Josh Vasbinder from Dinerstein has made sure that he’s not confused with the former developer – read an early thinkdenton.com account of the progress here.  After urging from the city’s planning office, economic development team, and citizens, the plan morphed from being a block full of apartments to a mixed-use, “new urban” concept where retail space will take up key areas of the first floor fronting Hickory and some of Fry.  In fact, Vasbinder set a new standard in developer-community relations, hosting a series of public forums to gauge public input, working closely with local neighborhood and business leaders, and collaborating with local retail experts in hopes of attracting local businesses.  Heck, Vasbinder even gave out his personal email and cell phone number to the public in hopes of creating an open dialogue on the project.  The result has been a relatively smooth path through the planning process with little significant public concern.

And add political savvy to the equation.  News was passed to the Denton RC of the possible return of The Tomato as part of the development – all in time for a Sunday front page article the week before the city council votes on the issue.  The most visible victim of the earlier Fry Street debacle is now rising from the ashes, all thanks to the Dinerstein Corporation.  Genius, politically speaking – well played.

The only reason that the plan has to appear before city council is that they are asking for variances in the form of amendments to the Fry Street Overlay District.  They want to build higher than the current overlay allows.  The council has not raised any significant objection to this plan as it has been vetted through the process thus far.  Given the neighborliness of the developer in this instance, it is a good chance for the council to use this as an example of how to do business in Denton.  There might be a few concerned citizens and you will no doubt hear from Bob Clifton or some of his disciples on their petition drive to turn that area into a park, but expect a vote of approval for these plans on Tuesday evening.

ZONING CHANGE NEAR WEST OAK HISTORIC DISTRICT
Contrast the neighborly virtues of the Dinerstein folks with the vices displayed by Mr. Tjandramulia, owner of a bunch of properties on the edge of the West Oak Historic District.  Tjandramulia, speaking through his representative Larry Reichhart of Spring Brook Planning Group, wants to rezone a series of properties from single family status to Downtown Residential Mixed Use – all in the hopes of eventually selling the properties to someone else to develop.  In other words, Tjandramulia and Reichhart have no vision for the property – they merely want to upzone it so they can sell it at commercial prices.

The problem for them is that they have run against the feisty West Oak folks who are battle-scarred and savvy from past fights for their neighborhood.  Their fear is that a change in zoning here represents a commercial expansion into their neighborhood.  They are hoping to appeal to the long standing “stated” policy of the city that it fight vigorously to protect the integrity of neighborhoods.  The stability of this neighborhood has been compromised by bad zoning decisions over the years (see all the apartments on the West end of the street).  By banning together and ultimately earning Historic District status, these neighbors have displayed the best of civic virtues in fighting to protect a beautiful part of town.  Read our earlier account of this issue here.

This will be the second time this request has come before council.  Last month, after a suggestion brought forward by Mayor Burroughs and ultimately formulated by Councilman Chris Watts that the request be approved on the condition that every single development on the property be subject to a Special Use Permit (which would require further council approval), Reichhart stood to oppose the suggestion.  His fear?  The value of the property would decrease with such stringent oversight of the possibilities of development.  The council backed away and voted to continue the discussion to this week.  What Reichhart promised was some sort of specific site plan that would give more specifics on how the site would be developed.  From the backup agenda items for this meeting, however, it doesn’t appear that something along these lines will be proposed.

During the last meeting, council members seemed convinced that commercial development along Bonnie Brae in that area was inevitable – “we’re going to have to be realistic – Bonnie Brae is turning from single family to commerical” was the mantra of the evening.  Unfortunately for them, they found themselves singing another tune later in the evening when the Rayzor Ranch development was on the table.  During that discussion, concern was raised about the impact of multi-family apartments ACROSS THE STREET from existing neighborhoods to the East of Bonnie Brae.  The conclusion was that single family dwellings were required in order to serve as a buffer to the existing neighborhoods on the other side of Bonnie Brae.  This is good thinking, but it unfortunately contradicts their thinking earlier in the night where they displayed a fatalist perspective toward commercial development ON THE SAME SIDE of Bonnie Brae as an existing neighborhood.  We need single family buffers on the opposite side of Bonnie Brae in order to protect neighborhoods in one instance, but we can’t expect single family buffers on the same side of Bonnie Brae in order to protect the West Oak neighborhood?

All this points to what Councilman Jim Engelbrecht, who represents that part of town, called planning on the fly.  He argued the need to take a comprehensive look at development issues along the Bonnie Brae corridor so as to avoid this piecemeal approach to planning.

This would be a good chance for the council to demonstrate their commitment to Denton’s neighborhoods.  The plan is a bad one.  It’s a clear cut case of encouraging the civic virtues of the West Oak neighborhood while discouraging the self-serving interests of folks like Tjandramulia, whose interests in this case extend no further than his pocketbook.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING – Tuesday, July 20 at 6:30pm
City Hall
215 E. McKinney
Denton, TX 76201