What Did We (Not) Learn from the Boil Water Notice

Source: 5 NBC DFW.

Richardson City Manager Don Magner read a memorandum to the City Council on December 16 titled "Boil Water Notice: Summary of Findings and Recommendations." I have three takeaways:

1. To his credit, Magner admitted that individuals on City Staff made errors in judgment on the day of the event and he disciplined four individuals.
2. Magner failed to assign blame for all of the "gaps in training and operational oversight" that contributed to the need for a BWN.
3. There is still a five hour period in the timeline that deserves more investigation.

City Charter: Single-Member Districts

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years to review and suggest changes to Richardson's City Charter. I will be presenting my own suggestions.

The City of Dallas just completed its own once-a-decade review of its City Charter. As homework, the Richardson Charter Review Commission ought to review the City of Dallas's work, certainly before concluding that no significant changes are needed to Richardson's Charter.

Council Recap: 7 Brew Drive-Thru Coffee

Corporate website: "7 Brew is so much more than just a coffee stand." What is the "so much more?" It isn't food. It isn't a sit-down restaurant. It's "service, speed, quality, energy and atmosphere." In other words, it's still a coffee stand, but one that customers allegedly love.

Yet on December 9, 2024, the Richardson City Council denied a request by 7 Brew to build a coffee stand on the south side of East Belt Line Rd between Plano Rd and Glenville Ave. The vote to deny was 5-2, with only Mayor Bob Dubey and Mayor Pro Tem voting to grant the permit. If this were a parliamentary democracy, I might say the leaders have lost the confidence of the body. But it's not a parliamentary system and a vote for a drive-thru is hardly consequential enough to be considered a "vote of no confidence" in the leaders. No need for any resignations, but there's a message there somewhere.

Council Recap: Charter Review Commission

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years. Details on the 2014 amendments can be read in "Charter Amendments: Vote Yes AND No".

Let's examine the new commission members for 2024.

Replanting Richardson, Again

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
— Proverb.

I always thought this proverb said something about old men knowing they won't live long enough for a newly planted tree to mature. Now I have to think of the possibility it's about men who rip up trees and replant over and over, never giving the trees a chance to grow old.

Replanting Richardson on the Down-Low

Someone informed me of some landscaping changes on Main Street in downtown Richardson. The trees in the median were reportedly ripped out and replaced by shrubs. Someone said it's the second time. That can't be, I thought. The trees were just planted. The Main Street redevelopment project was just celebrated in October, 2021. Sad to say, the news appears to be true, as the photo above shows.

Water, Water, Everywhere

"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink." — Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The City of Richardson's Holly Water Tower lost all pressure on Thursday, triggering an alert on the City's website, on social media, and elsewhere (we'll come back to that) to boil water before usage. City staff and volunteers quickly moved into action acquiring truckloads of bottled water for distribution to affected residents. All well and good. Triage before post-mortem, you know. There'll be time enough for questions later. First things first. The City is testing water and hopes to have results back Friday, November 8. When it's deemed safe to drink again, the City will spread the word...somehow.

When that day comes, there are some questions that I'd like the City to publish answers for.

Council Recap: Review of Almost Final Comp Plan

On October 21, 2024, the Richardson City Council and City Plan Commission (CPC) reviewed a close-to-final draft of a new Comprehensive Plan.

My own feedback can be found here:

• Point North...Park?
• Grading Richardson's Comprehensive Plan
• Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

I'll add that the best thing about this draft Comp Plan isn't the plan. It's the list of 77 action items. It's a better list than the list the Council came up with during their own goal-setting retreat at the beginning of their term. But there's too much latitude in it. They shouldn't leave it to City Manager Don Magner to prioritize and schedule, not if they care about what gets done and what gets kicked down the road.

Salvage Yard: Gateway to Richardson IQ

At the Richardson City Council meeting of October 14, 2024, the Council approved yet another car dealer to locate in Richardson. And not just any car dealer. This was a request by AutoSavvy. Does Richardson benefit from yet another auto dealer? Especially AutoSavvy? I say no. No City Councilmember could offer a reason to say yes, except maybe as a placeholder for five years, the length of the special use permit under consideration. But they unanimously voted for it anyway.

Council Recap: Cars & Signs, Ad Infinitum

At the Richardson City Council meeting of October 14, 2024, the Council approved yet another car dealer and, in a separate action, amended the existing planned development for the Eastside development to allow the applicant to develop a "master sign plan" for the development. A master sign plan is a way of getting approval for signs that are currently prohibited by ordinance. Because of course they did. They know better, just listen to them during deliberations. But when it comes time to vote, they can't help themselves. They vote yes.

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker.
Resident, Employer, Landowner, Developer.
Renter, ..., wait, where are the Renters?

The City of Richardson has published a draft of its long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the first since 2009. I noticed words like residents, citizens, stakeholders, etc., used in different contexts. Are the distinctions significant? Dunno. The Plan doesn't say. And the closest it comes to a definition for any of the terms is this: "stakeholder—residents, employers and business owners, landowners, brokers and developers, partner agencies and organizations, nonprofits, and public officials." That's pretty comprehensive. It doesn't explicitly include renters, but because renters are residents, I'd argue that it implicitly includes them. But does the City think that? Really?

Grading Richardson's Comprehensive Plan

Source: City of Richardson.

The City of Richardson has published a draft of its long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the first since 2009. The initial grade I'd award? Incomplete. I was interested in, for example, what the recommendations would be for increasing the so-called missing middle housing in Richardson, that is, housing types like duplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), bungalow courts, and townhomes. I found some mushy aspirations, but nothing that commits the City to any changes.

Point North...Park?

The City of Richardson has published a draft of its long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the first since 2009. My eyes went immediately to how Point North Park is represented in our new plan. Point North Park is in far northwest Richardson, wedged between Canyon Creek and UT-Dallas.

"Resolved" Doesn't Mean What They Think It Does

Steven King's "IT", not my alley. IJS.

Driving home Saturday night, I noticed that a grate on a storm drain in the alley was out of place, leaving a potentially dangerous surprise for an unsuspecting driver. But...another neighbor had already taken action, moving an orange traffic cone from a nearby construction site over to the missing grate. Thank you to a good neighbor. Immediate danger addressed, I filed an issue on the MyRichardson app.

Volkswagen: About that Mural...

Clay Cooley VW. Photo or Rendering?
Before or After? You decide.

At the September 23, 2024, meeting, the Richardson City Council approved by a vote of 4-3 a request by Clay Cooley Volkswagen to add a repair shop, a body shop, and a vehicle storage lot on their property in the Interurban District. That was all covered in "Council Recap: Sell Out for a Mural", which was already a long post, so I left out a couple of points that should be made. About that mural. And about that landscaping.

Council Recap: Sell Out for a Mural

At the September 23, 2024, meeting, the Richardson City Council approved by a vote of 4-3 a request by Clay Cooley Volkswagen to add a repair shop, a body shop, and a vehicle storage lot on their property in the Interurban District. This is the district Richardson once envisioned as an "edgy, mixed-use district built upon the existing bones of the district, focusing on adaptive reuse of existing buildings and targeted infill development." We are now faced with admitting that the Interurban District would have been better named the "Car Lots and Repair Shops District."

Council Recap: Ethics, Transparency, and Trust

The Richardson City Council reviewed its Ethics ordinance on August 26, 2024, as required by law every two years. Two years ago, the City Council found nothing to amend. This year, City staff recommends six amendments. Three of the suggestions are simple clarifications to head off potential misinterpretations. Two of the changes relax the ordinance in favor of officers. And one toughens penalties, from $200 to $500 for an officer failing to obey a subpoena. I have no objection to any of these changes, and in the interest of reducing the length of this post, I won't even summarize them. Watch the video yourselves. ;-)

Instead, I want to talk about a related subject that City Manager Don Magner rolled into this agenda item, and that's for either the Ethics ordinance or the Council Rules of Order and Procedure to add guidelines for Councilmembers meeting with property owners, developers, and other stakeholders that have action scheduled for consideration by the Council, or merely to discuss topics that may come before the Council in the future.

Council Recap: Competing Views of Development

Part 2 of an important topic.
Part 1: "Council Recap: Comp Plan Update"

In the August 12, 2024, review of progress on the City of Richardson's update of its Comprehensive Plan, City Manager Don Magner and Mayor Bob Dubey laid out competing models of how development works in Richardson. Neither view was laid out in detail. I'm not sure either person has given the matter enough thought to do that. I'm not sure either one even sees the conflict between the two models. Going by what little they did say, conflict there is, and both models should raise warning flags.

Council Recap: Comp Plan Update

On August 12, 2024, the Richardson City Council and City Plan Commission (CPC) received an update on the development of a new Comprehensive Plan for the City. The emphasis was on land use with focus on allowed secondary uses, missing middle housing, and identified redevelopment zones. City staff plan to finish the Comp Plan and present it to the City Council for adoption in December, 2024.

My hopes for this update to the Comp Plan, the first since 2009, have steadily fallen during the year-long effort to produce it. Here's why.

Council Recap: Interurban at the Crossroads

On August 12, 2024, the Richardson City Council deliberated an application by Clay Cooley VW to add a repair shop, a body shop, and a vehicle storage lot on their property in the Interurban District. Clay Cooley VW's vision is for a car-centric business located along a busy freeway. The City's vision for the district is at odds with that. There's already a major mixed-use development underway just south of this site, Belt+Main, for which Clay Cooley VW's dealership will act as a blockade against extension of that mixed-use neighborhood to the north.

Spoiler alert. After ninety minutes of deliberation, the City Council continued the hearing until September 23 to give the applicant time to...to do what, exactly? Mayor Bob Dubey punted that question to City Manager Don Magner, saying, "Don, would you please tell the applicant what we're asking him here?" And Magner punted that question to tomorrow morning, saying, "I think if it'd be okay with the applicant, I can follow up tomorrow, and we can put our thoughts together and give you some clear direction."