The Brownfield City Council met on Thursday morning, August 6 in a regularly scheduled meeting with two zoning change requests on the agenda.
The first involved a building located at 605 West Main. This building is just west of The Square, and directly behind the Lynn Brisendine Community Plaza. Rosa Molina made the request to change from a C-2 Zone to a C-2 Zone with a conditional use to allow a residence.
Building Inspector Israel Limon spoke to the Council regarding this change. “The building will have to be brought up to code and meet the minimum before being approved as a residence.”
There was plenty of discussion regarding this property. The building would be a residence only and not a business. City Manager Jeff Davis stated that utilities have not been on in this building since 2014. Davis stated, “There is going to have to be a lot of work done to make this livable at all. The back three buildings will have to have a roof replacement. (Buildings added on and in the alleyway, currently.)
Davis also stated there are delinquent taxes on the building, as well as delinquent utility fees. “All these will have to be brought current.”
The Planning and Zoning Board did recommend that if the change was approved, Ms. Molina must have all improvements made within one year.
Ms. Molina stated, “I am getting a loan to get the work done, but the loan is on hold until I get the approval from the Council.”
Ms. Molina stated she did have verbal permission from the owners of the other buildings to reroof the entire alleyway portion.
Mayor Geronimo Gonzales stated, “I feel like we may be just leading her on here. She may invest and invest and we may still decide to not allow it.”
Councilwoman Michelle Cooper stated, “I have a concern with that whole area becoming residential. We are trying to rebuild our downtown for business. That is just a big concern of mine. I am going to make a motion that we deny the request. I just don’t feel like that is the direction that property needs to go. And with the funding required for Ms. Molina. I just feel like we are opening a bigger can of worms.” The motion did carry and the request was denied.
The next request was from Eugene Gentry regarding a lot located at 1005 Old Lamesa Road. The change requested is from a C-1 Zone to a C-1 Zone with a residential septic tank.
Davis stated that Gentry had purchased that lot and has a trailer house coming in soon. “The issue is the sewer system is 24-25 feet deep in that area and it will cost him a lot of money to get down there and tap into the sewer main. So his request is to put in a septic tank.”
No other property in town has a separate septic tank. This property is one of the closest properties to the sewer system of the City.
Davis stated, “If you dig deeper than four feet, you have to have shoring for it. The cost is going to be very high. The city would have to open up the street 75 feet for a sewer line to be put in.”
Mr. Gentry stated, “In the process of this, we do not want to do anything to aggravate a policy. But, this quickly went from $5,000 to $30,000. The plumbers I have spoken to have said to try to do this would just be a death trap.”
Jame Nix, Superintendent of the City Water and Sewer Department stated, “The line that runs here is a trunk line. All the sewers that run on the east side drain into this trunk line. In the event that they did choose to spend the money and get down to this line and accidentally broke it, the cost would just be huge to the City of Brownfield to repair this and clean it up.”
Nix also wanted to add some conditions to this variance in order to not set a precedence. “I want to include that the operation needed to conduct a tap has to be deeper than 20 feet. The lot in question has to be large enough of a space for the drain field which would be at least 125 feet. Only one domicile can be connected to the septic system. The owner would have to comply with all rules set up by TCEQ. It would have to be installed by a licensed installer and have to be checked by the state.”
Mr. Gentry would have to hold all records and be ready to provide them if an inspection requested them.
Cooper asked, “From the City standpoint, we would be better off allowing the septic tank than by requiring them to tie into our sewer system?” Davis agreed that this was the case in this specific situation.
The Council did vote to approve this variance in the City Zoning.
The Council heard an update from the Davis and Assistant City Manager Kelly Burris on the Utility Payment Assistance program for residential customers. Burris stated, “Since we began this program we have given out 63 applications and all but five have qualified for assistance. Right now we are ready to give out around $11,000 in utility assistance.”
The Council also voted to host a Grand Opening of the Brownfield Sports Complex on September 1.
The City also extended the Emergency Declaration for another two week period.
