Houston: Regular Scheduled Planning & Zoning Meeting 09.24.2026

And being able to meet the quorum.

Uh, the DOT, um, primarily will be coming to speak to us about roads and different things like that. We have some additional, uh, information I guess we would put to light at that point.

We applied for some property a couple years ago up at Zero Lake and Parks Highway. That is finally coming around. I think we should, at the next borough meeting— it's either the next borough meeting or the one after it— we should receive that final approval on that. That'll let us have, um, the facility for, uh, or the property for to actually put a train depot in that area at some point, or cargo facility. If you were here last night, the work session with the hemp growers group there, or manufacturing group, that could also be another place that, uh, that that all comes together.

So there's a lot of that stuff in the making right now that, uh, will take you guys' involvement in. So we really definitely need to be able to have, uh, meetings every month, and you may even have to have a special meeting once in a while. Um, we would like to have the Planning and Zoning pick up the, uh, some of the zoning issues that we're running into around the city and look at the holding districts and what to actually do with that. I've made a few recommendations already, but that is definitely something that the Public Works Department would like to see Planning and Zoning forward to the council.

And I don't think I've missed anything at this point, but the next, next month will be a pretty busy month for you folks. Awesome. Thanks.

You have any questions of me?

Um, I was just curious if when you spoke with DOT, if they gave us Well, we're going to bring them to you guys, and you guys can ask them all the questions you want at that time. And then I would really like to see, uh, it originated planning and zoning, but the kind of the theme and some of the ideas that you guys think we would need when they do that, improvements as they come through. I've already given them a list of things as far as for undercrossings that we would the city needs. But it would be if you guys— I know everybody's time's short, but if you guys take a look at our section of highway that runs through and improvements that you know we need to do, they'll have their ideas, which is for safety, but look at as you're driving through the city, hey, this area definitely needs to be fixed. And one come— I mean, the Sherry Lake area through that intersection there is, is dangerous, and that's got to be fixed.

But any place that, that you know, or, or at least, um, needs to be taken a look at when they do start to design. I think they're going to be doing the north section first and then the south second section, but we'll let them come address all that stuff with you. But it would be a good, good time to start, you know, looking at that as for planning and zoning.

Awesome.

Okay, thanks.

Is that the 3 minutes per person public participation?

My name is Sandy McDonald and, um, I have been a past council member and here in regards to Resolution 26-PC-05, and I do have land that is within a holding district. And so it was nice to see this come up on the agenda last month. And of course, I would be interested in Applying for zoning change, and I think this is helpful to actually have the city kind of also come forward and request the need for change. We've been in our house, we bought it and it was already built and had been built for— they had probably lived there for about 25 years and we've lived there for 20. And it's still in a holding district.

So, um, I would imagine that you would probably like us to claim a zoning district for it. Um, also in looking at this, um, I know it's— it was delayed, it was put on last month's agenda, and I'm looking at the deadline that you have on line 35 and line 42, which is to only continue offering, um, the, the reclassification at waiving the fee until January 1st. I would ask that you would consider amending that, and it would not change anything if you would do it to the end of this fiscal year, which would be June, right? The end of June.

So the money would still all fall in the same fiscal calendar. There are people that I know, I will call them my neighbors, we all hold large parcels of land out there and Lots of them don't live here in the city, so I don't think that, first of all, they know that this is even on the agenda. And I'm not sure how something like this would be made known to them. Excuse me, I have not been feeling well, so I'm having a difficult time talking. So whether there would be a mailing going out to them or whether it just would be word of mouth.

But if something would be available to send out to them as a notification that this is available to them as well, it would encourage people because $1,000 is a lot of money to rezone. And some people don't live there, so they may not at this point know what they were gonna plan on doing with it.

The only other concern that I have is not in regards to anything on the agenda, but just I have— not only am I sick, but I have allergies, and when candles are burned in this public space, it gives me a really bad headache. So the fragrance. So I would just ask that in the future that any sort of fragrance from candles or anything like that would just not be allowed to be burned. But thank you. Thank you for your service.

Thank you.

All right, well, uh, no, there's no public hearing today.

Audience comments?

Yeah, for the minutes. Yeah, motion for approval of minutes of previous meeting, July 23rd, 2026. Anybody want to second that?

Awesome. All right, we'll take a vote on that.

Uh, Kevin Adams?

Uh, John Savola? Yes. Gary Kimby? Yes. Was that a yes?

Yes, affirm. All right, perfect. The amendments have been approved for July 23rd.

Any unfinished business? No, there's not.

All right, new business. Um, so new business is Resolution Number 26-PC05, a resolution of the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of Houston, Alaska, recommending a limited-time opportunity for property owners within the Holding District H to request reclassification of their property to another zoning district with a waiver of the standard land use amendment fee.

Any more comments?

Oh, um, hold on.

Um, we got a motion. We got a motion to approve them like that, unless anybody has any changes or anything. Um, I would say add in a fiscal year when we deal with this because we got to delay a little bit.

Um, so do you want to make a motion to—. I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 26-ET-05.

Now discussion. Yeah, so, uh, yeah, you guys can discuss this.

Anything from you, Gary? Yes, I have a couple of comments about that. I also do agree with Sandy that the, uh, time frame allowed for the response is too short. Um, I would, I would like to see 6 months or maybe even this fiscal year. For the city of Houston would be fine.

Uh, also with that, the next city council meeting that can hear this is in October, so that would only allow approximately 2 months for residents to respond. Doesn't seem to be enough time for me in that manner as well. And then to the application for the residents of Houston, I would like to see added in the, uh, current— in the zoning district, each zoning district is labeled out there under number 2, property information. I would like to see a small description from the Houston code describing what each zone is, make it easy for the public to see what zone they want to choose rather than having to fumble through the whole code book online somewhere.

Did that come across okay?

Yeah, you have to make a motion. If you're going to amend it, you have to make a motion. Do we have to vote on this current one? I thought we made a motion already. All right, so you're making a motion to amend Resolution Number 26 PC05?

Yes. All right, and do we have a second? I'll second. You have to make sure you know what his motion is and write it in there, how he's wanting to do it.

All right, Gary, will you go over that, uh, one more time real quick so we can write this down? It's a little hard to hear you, so if you can pull phone away from just a little bit. Uh, try to see what I can do. I'm on my earpods.

Um, I would like to amend the motion to change the response date to March, end of March, or the end of the fiscal year for the City of Houston. Whichever is best. This will allow the residents more time to respond in a timely manner, uh, and also it'll allow the City of Houston to get the information out to the residents of the City of Houston.

I would also like to see, uh, added to the request form a description of each of these zoning districts, um, on that form.

Okay, so you have to pick one or the other. You can't put the two dates, March or end of fiscal year. Pick one. Well, let's go into discussion and talk about this.

So Gary, which one do you want to pick for, uh, do you want end of March or end of the fiscal year?

End of March allows approximately 6 months. End of fiscal year would be about, what, 8, 9 months? I think 6 months would be fine. End of March. End of March.

Okay, so We have a, um, an amendment to, uh, Resolution Number 26-PC05, uh, amendment to change the response date, uh, to the end of March for the, uh, the form that, uh, land use amendment form that, uh, the citizens will be filling out.

Um, also we are going With that, add to the request form an explanation of each zoning district so that the residents can further know which district they're in, the regulations.

Do we have a second? I'll second. Okay. All right, we will do a roll call vote. Kevin Adams.

Yes. Gary Quimby? Yes. John Sabola? Yes.

All right, the amendment has passed.

Now we have to vote on the main motion.

Okay, any other amendments anybody has? All right, now we will take a roll call vote on the amended On the main motion as amended. All right, John Savola? Yes. Kevin Adams?

Yes. Gary Quimby? Yes. All right, the amendment has passed.

And now we're, uh, audience comments.

I just have one, um, thing of clarification, maybe, uh, since our Public Works will be sending this out. Is the code, as we put it into the property owners, if we add that section, which I think is a good idea, as far as for putting the definitions of each district in it.

Is it okay just to include it in the mailer, or do you want it— when you say public, since it's really only affecting the owners that have holding districts, or are you thinking of putting it— I guess I'd like a little more clarification on the public aspect of it. From. We, we definitely want to do what you guys want, but we just— I'd like a little more clarification what that would entitle, or, you know. Yeah, um, well, we can def— we can definitely send them, uh, everybody a mailer that lives in that area. We're already accumulating a list of every, uh, property in the zoning— the, the holding district.

So we we can do that. We can definitely send them, uh, all this stuff. I, I think that would be what, what you're, what you're trying to accomplish, would I? Yeah. Okay.

I just want to make sure. Thanks. You can come on up.

Well, first I'd like to say thank you. I appreciate that. Um, the other concern that I think the Planning and Zoning should consider when passing your resolutions or ordinances is always to consider that your decision isn't final and that it goes on to the council. And so that's like line 56 and 57 on this. And so it's, it's duly constituted the core— the duly passed and approved by a duly constituted quorum of the Planning and Zoning Commission, but it goes on in Section 6 first, next to the council.

So the concern that I have, and I appreciate Gary had said that it gives 6 months, but by the time it gets onto the next agenda, that it actually does subtract time, so it isn't going to be as long as you may have thought when you passed it. So just consider that it's going— it always takes longer. So if you have dates that you are going to be setting as restrictions, that you add the time for it to actually get passed by the council as well, and add that time into your working and planning. So it does— your amendment, um, still is— it's longer, and I appreciate that, but it's still not as long as maybe Gary had, um, thought. And so just keeping that in mind for the future would be helpful.

And, um, also amendments can still be made at the city council level, and so It's like what I will do is I will still, I will write to the city council and I will just ask if they would consider it once again to just change the date to the end of the fiscal year. And it wouldn't be, you know, against what you've done. I greatly appreciate the extension, but it would just add that extra time. So thank you for your service. Appreciate it.

Anybody else? All right, any comments?

Yes, Gary, do you have any comments?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear Mr. Adams well at all, but thank you for your comments, Mr. Adams. I'd also like to thank Sandy for coming in with your comments today. It is always very important to have information and comments from the public. We take that to granted and to heart. So thank you, Sandy.

I think this would be a great improvement for our zoning opportunities in Houston. So, Thank you.

Well, I'd like to welcome you, Kevin, Mr. Adams, and, uh, yeah, I guess we just call it to a German 627.

Hey.