City council: no action on rezoning, paving
About 20 people packed the city council chambers for Monday's regular council meeting. The attendance was due to two public hearings concerning street repaving on Virginia and rezoning to allow two new bays at the Kendrick Fast Stop Truck Wash.
All council members were present as were city manager Patricia Phipps and city attorney Marcus Norris. The first public hearing was about the abandonment/closing of a portion of Virginia Street. Kendrick proposed to close about 140' feet of Virginia from Highway 60 south in order to repave it with cement. The repaving cost would be borne by Kendrick Oil.
An issue that came up was concern that abandoning the portion of the street meant the city gave up ownership and that Kendrick would have the right to keep the street closed. Danny Kendrick explained that was not the intention of the repaving and the street would be reopened.
Attorney Norris told council members that the term 'abandonment' meant the city would no longer have control of the repaved street. The council voted to revisit and restructure the ordinance agreement with Kendrick in order to maintain ownership of the city street.
The second public hearing concerned a rezoning request on Maple Street to allow Kendrick to build two additional wash and lube bays with truck traffic exiting onto Maple, turning left to Highway 60. Home owners along Maple objected to the request, citing additional traffic and child safety issues.
One homeowner told the council that four houses along Maple have a total of 17 children ages 8 and under and they were worried that they might be injured by the turning trucks. Kendrick replied the business has a 20-year safety record at the location.
The additional two bays would line up with the driveway of the Chico residence across Maple Street and create road surface and safety problems residents say. Other homeowners in the area expressed similar concerns for their properties. The two requested bays would be longer than the existing ones. Kendrick is working with the city to extend the bays to the west instead of toward Maple. This will require an easement into an existing alley.
The council took no action on the zoning request, choosing to do more research into zoning requirements before making a decision. The matter will be rescheduled to a later meeting.
The third public hearing was to annex the new Friona Federal Credit Union building on Austin Street into the city. After a brief discussion the annexation was approved.
Before entering into executive session the council heard a report from Police Chief Jimenez, discussed the January payables and financial statement, and awarded the sealcoat contract to G&G Operators.
The closed executive session was to consult with city attorney Norris about procedures to annex those portions of land in the city not considered in the city limits. No further action was taken when the council returned to regular session.
The next regular meeting of the city council will be Monday March 14 at 6:30 p.m. at 619 Main St. All council meetings are open to the public.
