COUNCIL APPROVES REZONING OF SECTION ALONG TIADEN LANE
A section of land along Tiaden Lane is being rezoned from residential to industrial use. Brenham City Council approved the second reading of an ordinance that will rezone the 8 acre tract. Del Sol Foods is looking to purchase the property contingent on the zoning change. They said that it would be for future growth of their plant located on the adjacent Blue Bell Road.
Both at the December 7th meeting and today’s (Thursday’s) City Council meeting, residents from Tiaden Lane objected to the rezoning, saying that the plant expansion would bring increased traffic, increased drainage problems, and raise their property taxes. City Engineer Lori Lakatos said that Del Sol Foods would not be allowed to use Tiaden Lane unless they paid to have it upgraded and that there would be a sizable setback between any structure built on the property and the residential area.
Council voted to approve the rezoning on the second reading with Councilmember Weldon Williams voting against the amendment.
Truth is, this business expansion will not add any good salaried positions of any great extent. It will however add further problems for city sewage processing and the residents will pay that BIG bill. The business on the other hand, will get more tax breaks. The rest of us pay sewage rates based on our water usage during a winter month. This business gets their water from a city approved well, while it dumps even more gallons of oily dirty sewage into the treatment plant. So what determines their sewage bill?
And another business is asking the Texas Air Qualty agency if it okay for them to dump more carcinogenic pollution into our air. This agency is as useless as council when it comes to protecting quality of life for residents.
Big business wins over the little folks again. Good try Tiaden Lane residents. We tried oh so many years ago when PI Components came to town and you can see that we got the same result! Eventually all the land that we love to look at and admire will be covered in homes or businesses.
I hope the city does not take these zoning issues lightly or is short-sighted in their deliberations. The nature of some businesses that the city has granted ordinances and abatements to in the recent past, equate to properties being un-kept (Longwood Drive) and some are extremely noisy early in the morning and late in the evening (Hwy 36N). While the city may not have been able to foresee some of these issues, there should be some considerations for the people that have to live adjacent to these areas and stricter enforcement. The citizens should not have to file a complaint for the city to act! These areas not only affect city residents but also county. There seems to be little consideration to the taxpayers of this county on these type of issues.
The City of Brenham cannot take care of there existing Industrisl Property. Has this Engineer Lakatoes and City Commissioners recently strolled down Indystrual Blvd? It is cluttered with old ice bins and muddy streets when it rains. So, this is what the surrounding farms get to look forward to in the future. My farm has just went to hell!
It seems very clear in the articles here on KWHI that the city will not purchase this property. Del Sol will be the owner and will be responsible for maintaining the property, just as the owner of the ice machines property is responsible for the appearance of his property. If you have a complaint about a condition on a property within the city limits, or within the ETJ, you are invited as always to make a complaint to the city. As someone who has received 3 ‘letters’ from the City of Brenham in the last year concerning the condition/visual appearance of my property, I can assure you that they are quite responsive to said complaints.
The city picks and chooses what the city wants to enforce and picks and chooses the property owners that they want to enforce the rules on. There is no rhyme or reason. I got a threatning notice for parking my boat in my driveway for only a week. It is pick and choose citizen harassment or citizen favoritism program. That is my experience.
I don’t know about favoritism, but my experience with the city’s property maintenance program has been wishy-washy at best. I own numerous rental properties, so I understand that sometimes some can start looking bad, but the response by the city ordinance employee to myself and my tenants makes it all worse. The man is rude and condescending. I hope this changes before I start losing tenants.
By Brenham standards I really don’t qualify to make comments on the radio since I am new in the city, but on this one I will. When my new fence was being built, in a residential neighborhood, someone told my builder that the lumber trailer could not be on the street. It was only there when he was working and he could not even do that. About three weeks later I pulled up my personal RV trailer legally parked and it was hooked on to me truck, and the same little man stopped by and told my wife it had to be moved. My Brenham lifetime neighbor who always sits on his porch, told me that Commissioner Goss on each occasion drove by minutes before we were notified on each occasion. I have never lived in a community where the city was so nit picky and had surplus money to fund a commissioners project like this.
I have had a similar experience with councilman Goss and city ordinances. I had a city employee tell me that I couldn’t park my camper in my own driveway and that councilman Goss sent him to my house. Does the man have anything better to do? If Goss runs for mayor, you can bet his platform won’t be property rights!
There is a reason, someone complained to the city.