The Brownwood City Council met Tuesday morning, December 15, at City Hall. A portion of the meeting was a joint session with the City of Brownwood Planning and Zoning Commission. The reason for the joint meeting was to hold a public hearing regarding an amendment to the City’s Zoning Ordinance permitting certain concrete batch plants in M-1 restricted industrial district zones
Background:
City staff recently became aware that concrete batch plants are not adequately addressed in the City of Brownwood Zoning Ordinance. To address this issue, staff is proposing to amend the ordinance to include concrete batch plants in M1 zones with conditions and M2 zone without conditions (except those conditions currently in Section 98-591(a) – (c)). According to the City, with new technology available to concrete batch plants, it is appropriate to provide options to accommodate these advances for concrete batch plants and modern operational techniques.
The proposed conditions for the M1 zoning for concrete batch plants would be as follows:
(1) must be a low-profile plant, with no stacks or buildings extending over 24 feet high on the site;
(2) must construct a noise barrier around the plant site, using cement blocks or similar material to help reduce operating noise;
(3) must reduce noise from the plant and truck traffic at the site by disconnecting any backup tones on trucks and vehicles and any whistles or other warning tones on plant equipment;
(4) must not crush rock or other material on site; and
(5) must install a dust recovery system to minimize dust and air pollution.
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the amendment to the ordinance followed by approval by the City Council.
IN OTHER BUSINESS:
The City Council approved ratification of the Brownwood Municipal Development District Board action for an incentive to Steven McCrane to reimburse up to $18,027 for parking lot development located at 508 N. Center to be used as public parking for no less than 20 years.
Background:
The BMDD Board approved a Building Improvement Incentive Program grant in October. Steven and Matthew McCrane have requested assistance in paving of an empty lot that they own adjacent to the building for parking. Staff informed the McCranes that if the BMDD were to participate, the parking lot would have to be available for parking by the general public. The area around the Courthouse square has been problematic for years for businesses located nearby. This new parking lot would greatly help alleviate some of the parking issues and benefit multiple businesses in the area as well as the Brown County Museum of History. It is expected that the parking lot will open up 15 to 17 parking spaces.
The McCranes received a quote to pave the parking lot from Martin Earthworks for $36,054. Since much of the parking issues in the area are created by vehicles parking for Courthouse business, staff has requested that Brown County participate in this request by splitting the cost of the public parking development.
Steven and Matthew McCrane recently purchased the old Shaw Laundry building located at 508 N. Center. They plan to redevelop this property into something called Shaw Marketplace in keeping with the history of the building. The business plan is a blended model of a small business incubator and an indoor/outdoor market. Potential tenants could rent a small space inside the facility to have regular hours of operations. It would work as a transition from some home-based businesses or smaller businesses in other towns that want to have an easy entry point into the Brownwood market.