1989-09-11 Public Hearing and Regular Meeting

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• Minutes, Public Hearings and Regular Meeting La Porte City Council September 11, 1989, Page 4 Ayes: Councilpersons Cooper, Matuszak, McLaughlin, Porter, Skelton, Clarke and Mayor Malone Nays: None Abstain: Councilperson Gay 8. The Mayor called Public Hearing A to order. This is a request from International Cargo Network to rezone Blocks 416, 417, 418, and 419, La Porte tract, from General Commercial to Business Industrial. Joel Albrecht, Director of Community Development, reviewed the request. Replies from property owners in the area were all in favor of the rezoning. The Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending that the property be zoned PUD with a commercial/industrial underlying use. Staff concurs with this recommendation. Questions from Council were answered by Mr. Albrecht. Councilperson Skelton addressed six points, which are as follows: (1) Changes in the present zoning and how it will affect the comprehensive plan; (2) Where will the railroad track extension stop; (3) Encroachment on the R-2 residential zone to the west; (4) Stacking of shipping containers; (5) Noise pollution effects on the nearby residential areas; (6) Extra traffic and the cost to upgrade Broadway to take care of the infrastructure and who will pay for it. Mr. Albrecht thanked Councilperson Skelton for his questions and said that they had been addressed by Planning and Zoning Commission. That is why the recommendation from Planning and Zoning had been for a PUD with the commercial/industrial underlying use. He addressed each point mentioned by Councilperson Skelton as follows: (1) Should the zoning change be approved, the Planning and Zoning Commission would, at the time of their review of the Comprehensive Plan, study the plan's intent for the northeastern quadrant of the City; (2) there is a proposed extension for the railroad into the property, just beyond the portion where the second building expansion would be; (3) to the west there is a buffer zone of general commercial between the subject property and the R-2 zone, and there is a need to protect the R-2 residential zone. This will be discussed when the Master Plan review is held. (4) shipping containers will come in through an entrance area and will not be stacked or kept at the site for long periods of time; (5) ICN is talking with the railroad officials to eliminate noise from the neighborhood; (6) Broadway is not on the truck route, and trucks will not be allowed beyond the driveway of ICN. Broadway is on the Harris County road log.