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Liberty Hill City Council
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Michele "Mike" Murphy
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Charles Canady
Mayor Pro Tem, Place 4
Term Expires 2012
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Glen Gavin
Council, Place 1
Term Expires 2011 |
Jack Harkrider
Council, Place 2
Term Expires 2012 |
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Liz Rundzieher
Council, Place 3
Term Expires 2011 |
Wendell McLeod
Council, Place 5
Term Expires 2011 |
Liberty Hill City Park is located on CR 200. The current park sign was contributed to the City by local Girl Scouts.
CITY BULLETIN BOARD
ð Report Water Leaks
Customers of the Liberty Hill Water Supply Corp. are asked to inspect their property for outdoor water leaks. Customers who suspect a leak should contact General Manager Wendell McLeod at 778.5977.
ð Liberty Hill City Council
Regular meetings are at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of each month in the City Council Chamber.
ð Liberty Hill Planning & Zoning Commission
Regular meetings are at 6:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the City Council Chamber.
ð Economic Development Corp. Board of Directors
Regular meetings are at 7 p.m. on the first Monday of each month in the City Council Chamber.
ð Parks & Recreation Board
Regular meetings are at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month in the City Council Chamber.
ð Building Standards Commission
Meets once annually on the first Thursday in October in the City Council Chamber.
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THE RADIO-FREE SUNDAY STORY
Both sides share fault in fee forgiveness flap
(UPDATED: 9 a.m. July 21, 2010 | Original Post: July 17, 2010)
While City Building Inspector Pete McKinney and Mayor Pro Tem Charles Canady continue to disagree about Canady's role in the permit fee forgiveness controversy, the attention turns to the process itself where it appears that both the City and the developer failed to follow the rules.
Two weeks after a revelation by McKinney that $42,000 in building permit fees were waived for the developer of an apartment complex catering to lower income residents, documents were released that map the timeline when records were submitted and processed. The documentation prepared by McKinney at the request of Mayor Michele "Mike" Murphy indicates organizational problems on the City's part may have contributed to delays.
However, the report also shows that the rules, deadlines and fees used by Liberty Hill in its permitting process are no different from those followed in other cities where the developer is doing business. Texas Housing Foundation and its building contractor, Nash Builders Ltd. of Horseshoe Bay, have years of experience dealing with municipal governments in Central Texas, and McKinney says they are accustomed to doing business within the same framework of ordinances put in place by the Liberty Hill City Council.
According to the Texas Housing Foundation's website, the corporation owns properties for lower income residents in Johnson City, Marble Falls, Fredericksburg and Kingsland. In addition to the 76-unit Liberty Hill apartment complex at 155 Hillcrest Lane, other housing projects in development are in Llano and Waco.
In addition to his job for the City of Liberty Hill, McKinney conducts building inspections in Blanco, as well as Johnson City where Texas Housing Foundation has a property. Ordinances in Liberty Hill and the other cities state that if construction doesn't start within 180 days after the original site plans are approved, fees are assessed for renewal and resubmission. He added that the fees adopted by the Liberty Hill City Council are in line with those being charged in other cities.
McKinney said he conducted an email survey in June of building inspectors in other Central Texas cities and found their rules to be consistent with those in Liberty Hill and the other cities where he works. Some of those included inspectors from Taylor, Georgetown, Bee Cave and Round Rock.
The 180-day expiration of the building permit is part of the International Building Code, the industry standard that was adopted by the City after the adoption of the Unified Development Code (UDC). According to the International Building Code, "every permit issued shall become invalid unless the work on the site authorized by such permit is commenced within 180 days after its issuance, or if the work authorized on the site by such permit is suspended or abandoned for a period of 180 days after the time the work is commenced."
Ryan Nash of Nash Builders told the Council on July 12 that he had questions regarding how the City defines "construction activity," the Liberty Hill UDC defines the start of construction as "the placement of slab or footings, piles, columns, or actual placement of a manufactured home."
According to another company representative, workers began surveying the property in April and are now doing dirt work there.
"Moving dirt and putting up silt fences does not require a permit," McKinney said. "It's about establishing a structure."
But McKinney says even before the 180-day rule came into play, the company had already missed an important deadline. The Conditional Use Permit, which by city ordinance has a shelf life of one year, was issued August 13, 2007, and expired 12 days before the City Council approved the original site plan.
"That's the first time everything should have come to a stop," he said. "According to the ordinance (UDC Section 3.04.05 - F), when the permit expired it nullified any further submittals and the entire process was to start all over (UDC Section 3.04.05 - H)."
A Change of Plans
Representatives of Nash Builders Ltd. have attended the past two regular meetings of the City Council where the permits have been discussed at length. Nash Builders is the contractor for the Liberty Hill project and also built the Texas Housing Foundation's project in Johnson City.
On June 28, Steve Nash told the Council that his building plan had not changed, but the site plan was changed to make adjustments for a water line. When Councilman Jack Harkrider said he recalled some discussion in 2008 about a playground, Nash said it, too, had been added.
According to documents compiled by McKinney into a report titled "San Gabriel Crossing Report" and submitted to the City Council, site plans changed to allow for the playground after the City Council approved them on August 25, 2008 -- 12 days after the expiration of the Conditional Use Permit. In an email conversation on August 27-29, 2008, between then City Administrator Mel Yantis, JoEllen Smith of McIver & Associates (the project's first co-developer), and Kathy Canady of the City's Planning & Zoning Commission, Ms. Smith writes that she was not aware of the playground request. She noted that the Council expressed only one condition, which was a letter from the adjacent homeowner. Minutes from the August 25, 2008, Council meeting confirm that.
In response to Ms. Smith, Yantis wrote, "There appears to be a problem with the perception of what would be included in the project." Yantis said the Planning & Zoning Commission "was under the assumption" that a playground would be included, and if it was not included, the developer would be responsible for a parkland dedication fee under the Liberty Hill parkland dedication ordinance. After informing her that the fee was 8 percent of the appraised value or purchase price, Ms. Smith wrote that a playground would be added to the site plan.
Records show the revised plans were received at City Hall on Sept. 9, 2008, but McKinney said he discovered in recent weeks that no action was taken on them.
"I found all three sets of the plans in the file, but none had been stamped or signed indicating an approval," McKinney said, adding that was not part of his job.
According to city ordinance, those plans also had a one-year shelf life and expired expired Sept. 9, 2009. Yet on Nov. 12, an email from Yantis to a representative of McIver states, "Everything is filed and approved. No additional review fees will be required if no changes are made from the original plans."
Ryan Nash said he picked up the approved building plans and permit from the City on Dec. 8, 2009, but he never received an approved set of civil drawings. He added that in addition to the adjustments for the water line, changes at the building site will be made to protect century-old trees. The location of some buildings had to be adjusted to avoid bulldozing the trees, he said.
McKinney said the building permit expired on June 8, 2010 -- 180 days after it was issued in December -- because construction as defined by ordinance had not begun.
If city ordinance had been followed as written, the corporation would have been required to pay an additional $42,000 on June 8 to resubmit the building plans that its representatives admitted in public meetings had been changed since they were first approved by the Council two years ago.
Footing the Bill
"I understand there has been a lot of confusion," Ryan Nash told the Council on July 12. "We don't want to upset the City. We're willing to meet with the City Manager to decide what we need to do to go forward."
If the developer is required to pay all fees owed according to ordinance, the City could see an additional $84,000 in revenue.
But Council Member Jack Harkrider, who placed the fee forgiveness issue on the past two Council agendas for discussion and originally thought the developer was at fault, said he isn't sure about that anymore. He said in his mind, both sides appear to be at fault and there may be room to negotiate a solution that would still benefit taxpayers.
Rather than require the company to pay the waived permit fees as proposed by Council Member Wendell McLeod and rejected in a 4-1 vote (McLeod cast the lone yes vote), Harkrider won approval to arrange a meeting to reach a deal. Some Council members (not named), McKinney, Yantis, and Nash Builders will meet soon to discuss the matter further and negotiate the fees in question. Liberty Hill does not have a city manager or a city administrator. Yantis, who is not a full-time employee, currently holds the title of City Planner.
McKinney said the City Council as a whole has the authority to waive permit fees. In fact, it has waived fees at times for churches.
"That's pretty common for cities, but they have to request it," he said.
A boost for City coffers?
At a time when officials claim the City is short on cash and a tax increase may be in order in 2010, the unpaid fees could make a difference.
At a budget workshop in June, Canady said cash was so short that the City might have trouble meeting payroll in July. In fact, it was Canady's revelation of a cash-strapped city government that led to subsequent revelations about the forgiven fees.
As Council members perused budget documents and were alerted to the anticipated 2010 shortfall by local accountant Carole TenEyck, Canady suggested one way to save personnel costs in the new budget was to turn the position of Building Inspector into a contract job where McKinney would be "on call" to conduct inspections. ( Read the Story)
He said McKinney's position had been created on the premise that the fee income generated would offset the expenses of having him on staff. Budget documents provided to Council at the workshop showed $29,500 in permit fee revenue compared to budgeted expenditures of $53,200, which included salary, training and expenses.
McKinney told Radio Free Liberty Hill that he felt compelled to report the fee income that he claims Canady instructed him to waive. Had those fees not been waived, he said he would have exceeded the $100,500 budgeted as revenue from permit fees with three months remaining in the fiscal year.
The City Council will have a second budget workshop prior to July 30.
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