Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-09-06-1:30PM-WORKSHOPys E oF• r oeePyo FILED BRAZOS COUNTY00b SEP ► A 13 BRYAN, TEXAS BRYAN. TEXAS 8f4AL1 6reel" _.DEPUTY NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WORKSHOP SESSION THE COMMISSIONERS COURT OF BRAZOS COUNTY WILL MEET IN A WORKSHOP SESSION ON WEDNESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2006 AT 1:30 P.M. IN THE CITY OF BRYAN COUNCIL CHAMBERS, BRYAN MUNICIPAL BUILDING, 300 S. TEXAS AVENUE, BRYAN, TEXAS. 1. Call to Order 2. Presentation by representatives from Lauth Construction. 3. Discussion regarding the development of property off of Earl Rudder Freeway and Briarcrest Drive. 4. Adjourn The Brazos County Courthouse is wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign interpretive services must be made two business days before the meeting. To make arrangements, call (979) 361-4102. Office of the County Judge . 300 East 26P St. • Suite 114 Bryan, Texas 77803 • Fax: (979) 361-4503 VOL 9~ PAGE 09 COMMISSIONERS' COURT WORKSHOP September 6, 2006 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met in a Workshop Session in the City of Bryan Council Chambers in the Bryan Municipal Building, Brazos County, Texas, beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday September 6, 2006, with the following members of the Court present: Randy Sims, County Judge, Presiding; Lloyd Wassermann, Commissioner of Precinct l; Duane Peters, Commissioner of Precinct 2; Kenny Mallard, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Carey Cauley, Commissioner of Precinct 4: Karen McQueen, County Clerk. Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in attendance. Attached is a transcript of the meeting. Vol $T Page 9-00 2 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Development of Property off Earl Rudder Freeway and Briarcrest Drive September 6th, 2006 Tape begins mid-sentence. Sims: ...license revocations and the Attorney General is sitting in there so...not the real Attorney General but one of his staff. And so we give that up every week on Wednesday. I would like to call this workshop into session; I am the County Judge and I will call it into session on behalf of the Commissioner's Court of Brazos County, and I will call it to order. This is going to be a presentation by representatives from Lauth...? Male: Lauth. Sims: Lauth, ok. Construction. Mike? Gentry: I'm going to talk first so whenever you're ready. Sims: Ok. Ok. And discussion regarding the development of property off Earl Rudder Freeway and Briarcrest Drive. And with that in mind we have Mr. Cauley, Mr. Peters, Mr. Mallard, Commissioner Wassermann, and myself; so the reason we are having this as a workshop session is we do have a quorum here to listen to your presentation and we're interested in looking at your project. Mike if you would like to come up and lead off. Mike, I think everybody knows you; this is Michael Gentry and he is going to lead off here and as people get up and speak would you introduce yourselves please and tell who you are representing. Thank you. Gentry: I'm Mike Gentry, I'm with the law firm of West, Webb, Allbritton and Gentry and I represent the Lauth Group in this development. They told me that the way you remember to pronounce it is it's like what I do...law, like lawyer or the law with a `th:' on the end. So that's the only way I can remember and we just gotta teach them how to pronounce Brazos and we'll be set. Vol 0 Page 610 1 3 The Lauth Group are headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana with offices all over the county including one in Dallas, is the developer on this project and as April pointed out in her article this morning they are under contact to purchase the property. The location is BWM dealership right here and the Brazos Center right so it's pretty easy to see from this overview of what is quite frankly, Phase I...they have an option to purchase a little more than that but that's Phase I that they hope to close on in the near future. I'll go into a little more detail in a minute but just kind of by way of overview, there's a balancing act going on between the retail developers who on one hand have clients that are retail companies that require, if not demand, a high degree of confidentiality. So the ident...I'm going to show you some site plans and so forth, but the identity of who might fit into one of those site plans is not going to be on the sheet. But they have to balance that against the fact that they are in the process of working with the City and County Governments that are public entities and rightfully, because they need the public information, sharing as much information as possible. So the balancing act is at the earliest possible date, how can they share as much information as they are permitted to do so. And they've asked me to share as much as, quite frankly, I know. First time I met with Bob I told him, "Don't tell me who the anchor is. `Cause if I know I might say something to my wife or do something to give it away." So there's a lot of information that if I don't need to know, I don't know. But the concept is to develop this 50 acre tract. It's a little more than that, it's 60.2 something acres. Which has been the function of some significant negotiation. And to give you a little bit better idea what that looks like, and it may be diffrcult...I'm gonna bring this up closer where some of you can see...there's absolutely nothing in stone about this site plan. Ok? But there are, you'll see, along Briarcrest Drive a curb cut here and then a major curb cut at Wildflower. And a road that goes down the center of the property and then an entrance onto the access road at the bypass. Then over here we have curb cuts into what is currently a private drive owned by Brazos County as part of the Brazos Center and that's one of the things I wanted to mention. But that's generally the layout. There's an anticipated major anchor store in this location and then a second anchor in this location and other stores along this part of the property and other pad sites on this part of the property and a lot of parking to service all that retail. So that is generally what the concept is. The Lauth Group wants to be community friendly and as open as they can be. I'm going to open it up for questions in a minute but I want to kind of summarize some of the reasons that we wanted to talk to the Commissioner's Court and give you an idea of what we are looking for. Before I say that, I Vol 94 Page 610 a 4 want to say to the City Staff; Linda, Kevin, and Joey and others who are here, I think I saw Mark ...the City has been incredibly helpful and co-operative with the developer. Could not ask for any more. Bryan Business Council, Mitch, Dick have been involved with the Lauth Group from the beginning and helping them pave the way through how to put together a development that worked the for City of Bryan. And very appreciative of all that work that's been done on their behalf. Where we think that it may be possible that the Commissioner's Court will need to make some decisions, which obviously you can not do in a workshop session, is...one that's obvious is whether or not it's possible that working together in some fashion on access to that road that's next to the Brazos Center makes sense for the county and for the development. We don't know. It may require ...like I say this is an early plan but there are some aspects of that may make sense; may facilitate the ingress and egress to the Brazos Center, may expand the parking, give that area access to the development, give the development access to the Brazos Center, maybe some co-operative things that can be done. That's one of the issues that we think may come up. Another issue involves the topography in this area. Most of this property back here is owned by the county. Creek bed runs right through here. We think it's possible that that topography may...make some sort of feature with water, either appropriate or necessary. Right now we don't know of any reason why it would be necessary but there has been a lot of discussion about the possible esthetic value of some kind of water feature associated with the Brazos Center, the park area, the green space, the development and so that may be a subject of discussion down the road. Another issue and I think even there was a comment in the article this morning about the possible application for some sort of TIF support. There is an arterial road that goes down the center of the development that, quite frankly, is not necessary for this particular development but it may be that the developer believes it necessary to submit an application for a TIF to support some improvements to the property that would enhance areas beyond this property and would enable development that would be supportive of the City of Bryan's plan for that area. If this road really works well long term, you could basically have a North/South corridor that goes all the way from Briarcrest down to University Drive. Which would significantly facilitate transportation in the area of the City of Bryan. I'll put this up here while I'm still talking. There's another sort of different color approach to what the center would look like with the retail area ...I'm Vol 34' - Page aD3 5 color blind so I have no idea what color that is. Brown. It's different from this color or this color. Mallard: Grass is green and buildings are brown. There you go. Parking lots are kind of gray. Gentry: You just have to remember that the yellow light is the one in the middle. And slow down for all of them because somebody is coming through whether it's red or yellow around here. Anyway, that's kind of what the layout would look like with the arterial road right here and access to the bypass there. Anyway, I don't know if I've missed anything but if you have any questions that you want to discuss, either I'll answer them or somebody else will jump up and answer for me. Mallard: Will there be a need to change the drive there at Briarcrest? It appears that you're main thoroughfare is going to intersect with Wildflower as opposed to there at the entrance of the Brazos Center so it may be a good connect but may not need to be to change that main drive into the Brazos Center. Gentry: Well I think the thoroughfare plan and the TXDOT and the City have all indicated that this particular intersection would be best because Wildflower goes around and connects into... Russell: The access drive for the Brazos Center is plenty big, it's 28-foot wide. So as far as any modifications to it on width, it won't be necessary. Gentry: Yeah, Wildflower connects up here. FM 158, so that would enable a North/South corridor all the way from 158 down to University Drive in this layout that's shown here. So that's kind of why that would be-I'm presuming without me having knowledge they'd be a signal at that intersection of Briarcrest and Wildflower. And the next entrance, ingress and egress at the Brazos Center would remain. Well, that's kind of one of the discussion, Kenny, is would it make sense to plat that piece of road and make it a public road that services both the Brazos Center and this development rather than continuing to maintain it as a private drive for the county. We can think of reasons why that makes sense but the County may say that makes sense or doesn't make sense, we don't know. But that... Mallard: Well, we understand maintenance of roads, so... Gentry: Well, if we divide it... Vol Page a 0 ~ 6 Mallard: I think the City's idea to take that road in is probably a great idea. Gentry: If the City ...and, of course, I don't know whether it's built to city standards or whether we'd have to widen it but if you could do that appropriately and plat it then that becomes a city road and not a county private drive. Sims: And maintained by the City. Gentry: Exactly. Mallard: Don't tell him everything, Judge. Gentry: We've actually discussed that with Linda and others at the City. And if it makes sense, it may work out just fine. Mallard: I don't know what the tenets are but to me it would be a nice fix if there was an opportunity for a hotel to go in there to be developed on the property where they could somehow utilize the Brazos Center space and then to co-op with that. I remember some people talking about that in the past. Gentry: Right. And the discussion of a hotel, I think, the developers concept there is if a hotel developer finds a location on the site that makes sense for them, it would be great as far as the developer is concerned. It's not something that they'd block, it's whether or not it meets the criteria for a hotel. Those developers say that they want... Mallard: I'm not trying to talk anybody into anything, I just wanted to mention that. Gentry: Well, from a public standing, I can see where it's made sense to have a hotel near the Brazos Center to enhance the Brazos Center and enhance the hotel, might enhance the retail development. Mallard: Sure. Gentry: That's just Mike Gentry talking, I don't know. McBeth: Mike, could you go back to the plat before this one? Gentry: Sure. McBeth: The land that you mentioned off to the back; how much is that land? It's not included in this 50 some-odd acres, is it? Vole Page aos 7 Gentry: No... McBeth: So, how many acres ...do you have any idea how many acres that is? Gentry: Do you know how much land the County owns back there? You can go on the GIS site and count them. But the County's land goes along their boarder and I think it goes all the way to this creek bed. I think that's their boundary. Sims: That's pretty close, yeah. Gentry: So the County owns everything between Green Valley and the creek and this side of this particular tract of land. As you go further south, its private owned. But I don't know how much land it is. Male: I think the fold-up map more defines the county property boundaries. Gentry: The one we were just looking at? The geometry makes it not quite 50 acres but it's not as big as the piece we're looking at buying. Male: I believe that yellow line that runs through that is the property boundary I believe. Sims: That's correct. Male: This yellow line here. Mallard: Ok. Gentry: Ok. So their map cuts over there. But I don't remember... Mallard: I guess that's probably the center of the creek line that's on the outside of the green edge and then the property line. Gentry: Yeah, this is the center of the creek. Mallard: Small creek. Gentry: Down that way. You had another question John? McBeth: No, that's it. Gentry: Any other questions? Vol Page, o'Z b[P Arison: Is there any sort of time line on the project? Gentry: Is there a time line? Arison: A time line, like when will we expect to hear a proposal, or rezoning, or what happens next? Gentry: The next thing probably will happen is a rezoning request. This is all zoned AO and as soon as we finish a few details I think I'll be submitting a rezoning application with the City of Bryan. Arison: We can we expect to see improvement on the ground? Gentry: I don't really know the real answer but there has been some discussion of ..I think it would be fair to say we wouldn't have a grand opening before '08 sometime. It may be even further back. I don't think there's going to be a door to walk through before the end of '07. I wouldn't say that it's earlier by any stretch. No sooner than sometime in '08. There may be dirt movement, obviously there'll be dirt movement long before that time but no door to go into. No place to shop. Fullhart: Mike, when would the announcements be made as far as what business are going ...I mean are the deals close? Gentry: They are very close and, in fact, I believe the Laugh Group has some written commitments from some retailers but those commitments prohibited disclosure at this time. And as soon as they are free to disclose ...I don't even know when that date is...they will make a public announcement of who it's going to be. Fulhart: How many total are going to go in there ...at this time, at least or what's the though as far as how many businesses will go in there? Gentry: The way these retail developments go is typically the developer will want to line up one or two anchors first and then the other retail locations that support that anchor kind of follow. And of course, they are not coming along unless the anchor comes in first. This site plan shows a major anchor, a big but minor anchor, and then one, two, three, four, five, five smaller locations over here. Another location on this corner, two here, and then some outer parcels, known development out there. But all of that is...you know if somebody came in and said, "We want both of those spots." And they were willing to pay for it and have the right marketing mask then at the end of the day, the retailers have a significant amount of control over what is done in that area. Fairly said? Vol Page 0-6-7 9 Moorehead: Mike is there any way you can put a dollar amount on the real property value (inaudible)? Gentry: Oh, Mitch. The question is can I put a dollar amount on the real property values from Phase I. I don't know. We are working on those calculations right now and anything that I say today... Moorehead: Let me say it this way; as far as what you have actually penciled in, (inaudible) how many square feet (inaudible)? Gentry: Can we do that? Wild guess? Lauth Rep 1: It's a moving target but currently we're looking at somewhere between 300,000,000... more like 300,000,000 square feet. Lauth Rep 2: And that doesn't include the pad sites? Lauth Rep 1: No, that doesn't include that. Lauth Rep 2: Ok. Lauth Rep 1: That's just this area over here? Lauth Rep 2: Yeah. Gentry: Ok, north of 300,000,000 square feet of retail space on the east side. That does not include these pad sites. I mean the site plan just put into effect... there's 959 parking spaces, 677 parking spaces so it's anticipated that it's significant number of people would use those, they're not small by any measurement. Mallard: In the mention of the TIF, you mentioned it was mainly for the boulevard roadway. Are there any other...? Vol 94 Page a08 10 Gentry: Kenny, we have begun working on calculations that would tell us what, if anything, a TIF could support. What the property values would look like if the property was fully developed, what different Phases would look like. But you know some of the challenges to this development are...I suppose anybody could come build something right on Briarcrest Drive but building something that facilitates long-term future Southern growth down that corridor will have cost that are in excess of what just this area would support. And so when I say a corridor road, it may mean the cost of a portion of that road or locating utilities to support that road or...those sorts of matters. But that's a whole different cost to build a road with an eighty-foot right of way... Mallard: Right. Gentry: ...than a thirty foot driveway. Mallard: I'm not opposed to it, I'm just curious what any other items would be looked at. Gentry: Don't have (inaudible). Arison: How man Phases do you anticipate... you keep referring to the first Phase? Or will there be... Gentry: April, they have this 60 acres under contract and then there's more land that's owned by the same family immediately to the south. They have some contractual options on the land to the south. So when I talk about phases, even these 60 acres will be built in different phases but I'm thinking of this whole area as Phase I and the possible subsequent acquisition of real estate and development of that property as Phase II. But it may be that this area gets developed first and then this area gets developed and there may be some out parcels. There could be significant phasing in the 60 acres. Miller: We have Wheeler Ridge back there. A concern of mine would be with all this concrete being laid and the development between Green Valley and 158 it looks like they'll knock down a lot of trees and lay a lot of concrete, will be the drainage in that area and protecting the homes in the subdivision. A lot of that stuff is already on the flood plain. Gentry: Drainage off of this development? Miller: Yeah. Vol R 4 Page i~Z 0 9 11 Gentry: Part of this whole development process is planning for drainage issues. I'm not an engineer, I can't speak to it specifically but there are a number of things that affect that. Number one, the creek bed that is right here flows away from Wheeler Ridge. But as a general rule, the drainage off of any development has to be controlled so that it won't affect adjacent properties. I know this; that the engineers and the city have been working many hours to make sure that the water flow off of this property is managed so that it won't affect not just the neighborhood but any of this area. I mean they can't even affect the property immediately to their south that they may have an option on. It's got to be controlled. And whatever the engineering rules are. But any other questions about the neighborhood? Miller: (inaudible) Huff: You want a little help? Gentry: Sure. Huff: I'm Linda Huff and I'm the City Engineer to Bryan and I guess about eight or nine months ago the City Council awarded a contract to do the flood study in Carter's Creek. And one of the reasons we did that was that we had a lot of old data and we were concerned about potential development affecting the flood plain. So what we have now is an accurately mapped and hydraulic models so that we can, we feel very comfortable, very assured that we're going to be able to double check as development occurs that we're not going to adversely affect any property. So I understand your concern and I appreciate it but I also want to advise you that we're on top of this. Miller: (inaudible) Huff: Absolutely. I's (inaudible). Thank you. Sims: I'm assuming there is going to be a series of retention ponds out there. Huff: Not necessarily. The property is right on the flood plain. And because we have the accurate hydraulic models, what you could model is sometimes if you hold that water back, you're actually holding it back until the peak flow gets in the creek. And so sometimes what you find is that retention is not necessarily a Vol positive thing, it's actually a negative thing `cause sometimes it will hold those flows back until the peak flows rise up to the trees. So I believe in this one it's going to be better to let that water out before the peak flows rise in the creek. 0 page a I O 12 Sims: Huff: Sims: Ok. I know there is a lot of concrete in there... Yes. It don't absorb anything and with that in mind, it looks like there is going to have to be some retention ponds somewhere. Huff: Well, again, I've got a hydraulic model that will be able to verify ...my opinion and what I've understood from our consultants is that a retention would hurt the whole flow of the creek. Now we modeled all the way down to Highway 30 in College Station so we have a huge area that we have models but we are going to make sure and assure that there will not be any adverse effects on the downstream flood plain. Gentry: Let me put that in plain English, if I understand it. You gotta get the water in there before the flood waters hit the creek... Huff: Yes. Gentry: ...so you gotta get the water off of here into the creek downstream before the water from the neighborhood and other upstream areas fills up the creek. So you're actually wanting to speed up getting this water downstream. Huff: Sims: Huff: Sims: Huff: Sims: Huff: Sims: Gentry: Vol You got it. I'm impressed. I completely understand that but have you ever see the Navasota River stack up down there? Uh-huh. (positive) It stacks Carter Creek all the way back ...I've seen it over that bridge there on 1179. Ok. I'll sit down with you and with my engineer who can really explain it, ok? Ok. I appreciate that. Ok. Thank you. As I mentioned earlier, Judge, this area right here ...if the studies and evaluations of the development necessitate some sort of water feature, it may 84' Page o'l I I 13 be that that would help facilitate that. As anybody here knows, if you put a pond on a flowing creek it silts in pretty quick, so we can't do that. But there may be some possible water feature there that would help. Right now it's not necessary. Any other questions from the neighborhood? Male: (inaudible) Gentry: One of the things that the developers wanted to make sure is that the neighborhood and the people who live there; if they have any concerns they can call and get answers. We invite you to do so and if any of your neighbors have questions, I'm in the phone book ...just tell them to give us a call. Anything else? I do want ...all these guys are here from out of town and I'm going to have them stand up and introduce themselves. They asked me if I would talk. I know most of you are familiar with the project and they're not afraid of communicating. You can ask any of the Bryan staff or (inaudible) they are more than happy to talk to any of them, any time. But I would like yall to go ahead and introduce yourselves. Barkes: My name is Dan Barkes, with Lauth out of Indianapolis and I am the film and operations director for this project. I think it's a great project and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm very excited about it. Olivin: My name is Bob Olivin, I'm the Vice President of Retail for Lauth out of the Denver office. And I just want to thank the City for helping us work through this and the BBC and the plan that we've pulled out a few times came from the BBC about a year or so ago. We've been working ...a lot of the features that you see on our development plan, and this is a working plan, reflect what we saw in this plan. And so we're trying as best we can to bring about the features that the BBC had worked so hard to put on their plans. Gentry: I've been hard at work at this many months if not years and spent lots of time with the people there in the City of Bryan. So again, the lead person, up to now the way Lauth works is Bob's role will never go away but Dan's will pick and get more active and they kind of progress (inaudible) guys. And then we have engineers (inaudible). Hurt: I'm Aaron Hurt, with Lauth. I'm a Senior Manager of Site Engineering out of Indianapolis. Happy to be here. I've been working on the project since early spring. I want to compliment the city on all their hard work and the county as well. You guys are a step above a lot of other communities with similar sites and I want to stress that to you guys. Your technology is excellent, it's better than the City of Indianapolis even. So, it's really, really, nice. So appreciate Vol Page oZ I A 14 all of your kind words and hard work and we're going to continue to push forward on this. Mallard: If you want to move your headquarters down, we'll make room for you. Lauth Rep: One thing I do want to say; what Linda was talking about a little bit with the calculations ...I think they had part of their team up 'til 4:00 o'clock in the morning, this morning making sure that their calculations were correct so that she could make that statement about the water and flood issues. So that's the kind of partnership that we don't see a lot around the county so we're very impressed with that kind of hard work. Parkan: My name is Keith Parkan with Lawrence A. Cates & Associates out of Austin. I'm the civil engineer for Laugh on this project and I'll be there for this whole thing to come together during the construction, plans, and working with Mr. Gentry to facilitate the necessary documents to go to the city for approval. Gentry: I haven't seen Keith's curriculum, but I know that he's well qualified for the job and I think they chose him because he has an Aggie ring on. He never has missed a chance to come over to College Station, he lives in Austin but we forgive him for that. All right. Any other questions? Well, we'll hang around for a while afterwards but that is all we had on the presentation. Thanks for your time. Sims: Thank you. Commissioners, do you have anything you would like to add or ask or questions you'd like to pose? Please do. I think it looks like a good project. I like that area out there, it's a start of a very good retail corridor out there, if you will. I'm glad to see it started. Anybody else? Yes sir, Mitch. Morehead: I will say one thing ...the Bryan Business Council is very encouraged by the folks at Laugh in that we really feel like that main road, the turn about, needs to be there to facilitate (inaudible) south on to the property. Just make that comment. Sims: Anything else? Dennis? Anything? Goehing: Looking forward to the project. Sims: Bill? Vol 84 Page a13 IS Lero: No sir. Sims: You're just observing, huh? Ok. Well with that in mind, I'm going to have to adjourn this meeting of this workshop of the Commissioner's Court and thank you all for coming and, of course you guys can stay around and visit and ask questions about this if you'd like. Thank yall for coming. I appreciate it. Appreciate Bryan putting this together. End of tape. Vol 9 ~ Page a 14 16 of 16 The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Workshop held September 6th 2006, have been examined and approved in open Court this the qJ4-- day of _N&gnbeiI _LAa__, in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. 20- (,lIG.GQrt~yu2e.y~.J Lloyd Wassermann Commissioner, Precinct No. 1 0~C-K _ Duane Peters Commissioner, Precinct No. 2 Kenny Mal a d Commissioner, Precinct No. 3 arey uley, Jr. Commis ioner, Precinct 4 Attest: C aren McQueen County Clerk Vol 8q Page oZ 1 5 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT DAY OF , 20 v6, AT 36 -,Am/PM Name Organization ilrLl~ o 79 19 /f clyv ~ 13 ~tia~ LITAIJ w K3 x1--1y -:i> 14, l~~ ~'IlJ ~F~~ / f✓L~,Sa~ 6C Q O p +6 C O 6-!> ~t-- /~/J1~~ / J~ Q~S BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT DAY OF 20 AT '.3 ~~4:skoj Name ~t7 At rug- Ida ~ 44~ I/PM Organization R „ Lqu4.[, - C~~(tiPi~~J 4 s k a17