MIDLOTHIAN – The Midlothian City Council, after a lengthy discussion, passed an amended resolution to support a group called CARS, which stands for Citizens Advocating for Road Safety. The CARS group is made up of local citizens, some who have worked in local government in the past and whose focus is to prioritize state highway improvements in the area, with an emphasis on Highway 287. The CARS president, Dan Altman, gave a presentation regarding the group’s efforts and their reason for a resolution request.
It was said that the resolution was necessary because of the funding available for highway improvements that could be directed to Highway 287. The idea is that there could be an expansion of Highway 287 into a proper three-way roadway in the future.
It was pointed out by Altman the resolution is in support of “what the group is advocating, not the group itself.”
After a lengthy discussion about the pros and cons of supporting an advocacy group and how this could allow the group to make decisions that might not be appropriate for an advocacy group, Place 6 Hud Hartson made a motion to pass the resolution with amendments, which passed unanimously.
Council also passed all other agenda items unanimously but went into an executive session for one item regarding the rezoning from an Agricultural Zoning District to a Single Family Two Zoning District that included approximately 1,150± acres.
City Council Items Passes June 13, 2023
The other items that passed included a bid to award to Circle H Contractors, L.P. for the Mt. Zion Road Realignment Roadway Improvement Project in an amount not to exceed $2,120,899, a vote to authorize the Midlothian Fire Department (MFD) the ability to establish a Firefighter Lateral Pay Policy to initiate a standardized pay schedule for lateral-entry firefighter candidates, an agreement with Alpha Testing for roughly $87,115.00 for design review, inspection, and testing of the building envelope, waterproofing, structure and enclosure of the public safety and court building, and an agreement with KSA Engineers, Inc. (KSA) for the preparation of the Mid-Way Regional Airport Business Plan for $153,620.00. These costs will also be shared with the City of Waxahachie at $76,810.00 each.
Mid-Way Regional Airport Business Plan Agreement With KSA Engineers Moves Forward
The Mid-Way Regional Airport, Joint Airport Board, had initially approved an agreement with KSA at their May 11 meeting. KSA will determine the Airport’s market area, provide an assessment of that area, conduct the airport market assessment, including development strategies and potential financial implications, and provide a financial plan to create better funding for improvements included in the master plan. Staff notes also noted that the company will develop “a strategy to target new industries to the airport as well as update minimum standards, rules and regulations, rates and charges, lease agreement policies, and business operation processes.”
The completion of this project is anticipated to take 12 months.
Midlothian Mayor Justin Coffman said he believed this plan “was very much needed,” he is looking forward to seeing changes and what comes from the assessment.
Consent agenda items passed unanimously, including the minutes from the Midlothian City Council meeting of May 23, the minutes from the Mid-Way Regional Airport Joint Airport Board meeting of April 13, a resolution approving and awarding agreements for Disaster Debris Monitoring Services to Thompson Consulting Services, LLC (Primary); Debris Tech, LLC (Secondary); and Witt O’Brien’s, LLC (Tertiary), an amendment to the Texas Department of Transportation Airport project Participation Agreement for the Mid-Way Regional Airport Master Plan, and an Interlocal Cooperative Purchasing Agreement with the City of Burleson.
Public Hearings
There were six public hearings, which passed except for the hearing regarding an ordinance change at 508 Bryant Avenue, which is in a Residential Three (R3) Zoning District, possibly to be changed by the rezoning of the property to an Urban Village Planned Development District for single-family residential uses. This item was moved to a future city council meeting.
The other public hearings included the granting of a Specific Use Permit (SUP) for a secondary dwelling presently zoned Agricultural (A) District at 5420 Cripple Creek passed, as did an ordinance granting a Specific Use Permit for building wall signs in the Harvest Hill Addition involving a T-Mobile, an ordinance change for the zoning of +/- 60.7 acres, in the R. Berry Survey, from Agricultural to Planned Development to allow for a Distribution Center and Outside Storage and Display uses at the northwest corner of Forbes Rd. and VV Jones Road, an ordinance amending the zoning of +/- 1.782 acres at 3846 Shiloh Road from Agricultural to Single Family and a public hearing to amend the zoning of a Planned Development District at 3846 Shiloh Road to allow for two additional residential lots consisting of 1.740 acres within an existing single-family development.
