05-16-1985 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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w ~Mr. Bill Osborn 'Porter & Clements 1/4/85 Page 2 Southern Pacific Railroad. Since the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of La. Porte failed to make a final report to the City Council of the City of La Porte after it initially voted to deny Southern Pacific Railroad's application at its meeting on December 2, 1982, the City Council of the City of La Porte is incapable of proceeding to consider the above referenced actions until such a re- port is received from the commission. I base this analysis on Vernon's Annotated Texas Civil Statutes, Article lOllf (b), which provides that "... such commission (Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of La Porte) shall make a pre- liminary report and hold public hearing ..." on an application for zoning re-classification "... before submitting its final report...", and the City Council of the City of La Porte, a legislative body of a home rule city ( see Vernon's Annotated Texas Civil Statutes, Article lOllf (a)) "...shall not hold its public hearings or take action until it has received the final report of such commission...". (Paraphrasing added). Article 17, Section 17-104 of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of La Porte is in comity with the above quoted state law provision. In addition, in the case of Smart v. Lloyd, 370 S. W. 2d 245 (Ct. Civ. App., Texarkana, August 13, 1963), a remarkably similar fact situation was presented to the Court, with the Court stating that where a comprehensive zoning ordinance authorizes city government to amend, supplement, or change zoning districts or regulations, but states also, that any proposed amendment, supplement, or change shall first be submitted to the City Planning and Zoning Commission for its recommendation and report, and where, the City Planning and Zoning Commission makes no recommendation disposing'of an application to change zonning, the City Council is powerless to grant the change requested. Further, cursory review of the law in this matter indicates no con- trary authority, even under basic principles of statutory construction. Therefore, the path to be followed to obtain a determination on the Southern Pacific Railroad zoning re-classification request should parallel an initial application for a zoning re-classification request. First, the Southern Pacific Railroad should be prepared to attend a series of workshop meetings in which the re-zoning applications are discussed, prior to the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of La Porte establishing a public hearing date or dates on the application. Due to the crowded nature of Planning and Zoning Commission's docket at this point in time, but assuming that the Planning and Zoning Commission would undertake to conduct said workshop meetings at as early a date as possible, a fair time estimate for completion of_ the workshop meetin:~s would be by the end of April, 1985. Next, the applications would need to proceed to public hearing, would he held only after notice provisions of Section 17-102 of Porte. Essentially, and to be is posted and mailed according the Zoning ordinance ~~f the City safe, notice of a Planning and - :J which to the o f T.a 7.oning