All right, we got 5:30. Uh, go ahead and call the meeting to order. You wouldn't mind please uh doing the roll call. Uh, Michael York here. Cynthia Salazar Garza here. Michael Miller here. Brian Mandel here. Mike Munoz. Oh, Justin Hedrickk here, Michael Bud here, Ed Kentu here, and Trey Tykeleman here. We have a quorum. Thanks, sir. And if you don't mind, would you read the uh rules for public comment? Citizens will be allowed to attend and make public comments in person at city planning commission meetings. The public is invited to speak on any agenda item and any other items that pertain to the planning commission. Comments are limited to three minutes. If you choose to speak during this period, you will not be allowed to speak again when the specific item is being considered in order the in order of the agenda. Thank you. U with that we'll go ahead and open up the uh public comment. Uh general public comment. If you'd like you can come up speak now. Uh please state your name and address. If you speak now, you cannot speak when the item comes up. So, if you can do one or the other, but not both. Would anybody like to speak now? Okay. Seeing none, we will close general public comment and move on to item three, approval of absences. Commissioner Mandel, I move that we that we approve the absences of Commissioner Chairman or Commissioner Bud. Second. All right. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Okay. Motion passes. Um, next up is approval of minutes for April 16th meeting. Make a motion that we approve the minutes as presented. I'll second it. All right. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I I passes as well. Uh, brings us to consent public hearing. Um, my understanding we've got quite a few people interested in agenda item number six. So, we're going to pull that and hear that separately. And that leaves us with items two, three, four, and five. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Andrew Deus with Development Services reading in tonight's consent agenda. Beginning with item number two, Lamar Park subdivision section 1, block 5, lot 4R. Item number three, Kings Lake West Master Preliminary Plat. Uh, which in fact I meant to mention, Mr. Chair, the applicant has requested to pull that item number three. he just uh messaged about half an hour ago. So I'll be pulling number three off the agenda for the next planning commission. Uh please excuse the late notice. So again, item number two, item number four for conditional approval, Bayerry Terrace block three, lots 1R, 2R, and 3R. And we do have one time extension, Rancho Vista subdivision preliminary plat. This is their first request for time extension. Of the two plats we'll be hearing tonight, again, Lamar Park and Bayberry Terrace. They both meet the terms of the Unified Development Code and Texas Local Government Code. Staff recommends approval. And in regards to the one time extension, staff two recommends approval. Okay. Thank you, Andrew. Uh just to clarify, we don't you don't need any action for number three. It's just pulled from the agenda. They requested to pull from the agenda to be heard uh since it's going to be heard with a half street closure request. So that will be on the next planning commission agenda. Okay. Uh, commissioners, any questions for staff on items 2, four, or five? Seeing none, I will go ahead and open up the public comment for items 2, four, and five. Seeing none, close public comment and entertain a motion. Commissioner Salazar Garza, I make a motion that we approve items 2, four, and five uh presented by staff. Second. All right, we got a motion in a second. All those in favor. Any opposed? Motion passes. Moving on to item number six, new zoning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, Andrew Deus for the record with development services. So, tonight's item number six is zoning case ZN8553. It is requested by the Port of Corpus Christi. This is located in the north side of the city, just a few blocks from our location here at city hall. The request is from the neighborhood commercial district CN1 RM1 multif family district and change to the IH heavy industrial district. You will see a site in the lower part of the screen that is the primary location of the resoning. The small other portions as you go up the map are requests for street closures that are going to be heard by the city council in June. uh and there too since with those closures and abandonments of those rightway they do need to be reszoned to have actual uses upon them. So that is why it is part of this same zoning case. Next slide please. Okay. So for the proposed use the port in discussions with city staff the primary use for the site as you can see at the bottom part of the screen will be for open storage of materials. It will be for warehouse and freight movement activities. So, it's a very fancy way of storing goods out in the open, having a layown yard. There are not going to be any structures constructed at this time. It is again primarily for outdoor storage. It is part of the downtown area development plan that was passed in 2018. The future land use map does identify it as light industrial and as covered in our report, the uh primary 40 acre site that is located to the north is currently zoned heavy industrial as are other adjacent tracks. So that is why we too are uh looking at the heavy industrial district despite the future land use map stating light industrial. The existing zoning district as mentioned before is a combination of CN1 and RM1 and at the bottom of the slide are the various surrounding uses and I have some additional slides at the end to go over that as well. Next slide please. Of the 41 notices mailed out, we receive zero in favor and zero in opposition within that 200t boundary as required by state statute. We did receive uh and at last count at just before 5:00 an additional notice. So there are six notices that have come from outside of the 200 ft boundary. Next slide, please. So the proposed resoning is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan. However, it is inconsistent with the future land use map since that is at the light industrial stage. The proposed amendment does align with zoning regulations, the character of the neighborhood, and it will not have negative impact as you have vacant lots primarily surrounding it or other industrial uses. With that, staff recommends approval of the heavy industrial district. And with that, I'd be happy to address any questions. Thank you, Andrew. Uh, commissioners, any questions? I do. Um, so the warehouse that they're planning on trying to put their what exactly is it that they're going to be because you said it's going to be outside potentially a future warehouse, but at this time it'll be entirely outdoor storage. There was a mention in the staff report in discussions with the port of military vehicles. The purpose of having outdoor storage is to compensate from the loss of acreage as part of the Harbor Bridge construction project. So those former layown yards that were once available are of course no longer available due to new infrastructure. So the port is asking to recoup some of that acreage loss and use this site for that storage. How many acreage is this? This is only 7.9 acres in total. Now the large track to the north is the undeveloped 40 acre tract. So the port had lost due to the construction of the new bridge. They had uh lost some of the warehouse area that they original storage area. Yeah. So now they're requesting and who this is the property that belongs to the port. Correct. It is currently owned by the port. Okay. Thank you. That's it for now. Andrew, I've got a question on the Yes, sir. the current land use map. There's a couple of professional offices that would abut the new heavy industrial. Are those does that mean there's something functioning there or is is there a building there or is it are they just zoned? One parcel is vacant. One parcel does have a metal building style of of office. Okay. Any other questions for staff? Uh, a couple questions. I think I just need to look at this zoning map. Which one? Question. Uh, some of these tracks of land, were they acquired as the buyout for the Harbor Bridge that the port owns right now? So, there was, if we can go down a few slides, please. U, there is a map to kind of identify what is currently owned by the port. Uh, one more slide. Perfect. So, as you can see on the screen, all the properties in blue are currently owned by the Port of Corpus Christie. Roughly 90% of the area that have been acquired over various years, but it wasn't acquired directly as a may not necessarily because of the buyout, but of course, if opportunity was there to to purchase the property. Since uh the buyout was led by Tech Dot. Okay. this this existing land use map. Um you have a lot of VAC's vacant properties. Yes, sir. What what is it possible to pull up the base zoning of all those properties? Yes. Uh let's see. Let's go back of of this entire slide on the screen or the the smaller maps that we had. No, I'm I'm looking at Okay, I'm looking at the wrong sheet here. We can go back to the notice map, please. And that has the uh perfect that has all of the underlying base zonings IL and then across port is where you have uh predominantly single family outside of the Port Avenue corridor. And the the majority of this property is currently zoned IL or IH. It is currently RM1 with a three lots being zoned neighborhood commercial cuz I I thought I whenever I was reading um on legisar that uh that there was a at least that there was only three ac that the total thing was 7.6 acres. I'm trying to find where I read it. And that u three acres of it was um RM1 or something. and uh and then a less than an acre was RS6. Am I correct in that? Uh I don't think there was any RS6 property. It is or or some sort of there's a a small portion that's CN1 and the the greater portion is RM1. Okay. C1 technically the streets don't have zoning. So we have to account what is the typical adjacent zoning that it would be transitioning to. CM1 acres. Where are you looking at that? Okay. So, that's that's what I was trying to to figure out was because in your in your um in your background, it says that.3 acres is sewn CN1 and then approximately 3 acres or RM1. So, what is the remainder of the property? Because that's only 3.3 acres. Let's see. 7.6 6 acres and right that RM1 has to be larger. It's just uh based on the map on the screen, but we can get to that exact number. Like what was the zoning for the other four acres, I believe, is what he was asking. Right. So just off of the map, the the portions of street and the predominant primary area of rezoning is RM1 only the the.3 the smaller lots would be CN1. So that that can't be 3.3. That has to be or three acres. That has to be a greater number. Okay. I was I guess I had um you know just kind of deduced in my brain that the remainder of it was some sort of a industrial whether light or heavy uh zoning and that only these portions of it were needing to be reszoned. But uh I guess I misunderstood that by by reading this that way. Um, I did go out and visit the site and I drove around and I looked at the various other properties that surround it. Um, uh, especially after reading the letters of opposition that were submitted, I did not see any residences. Um, and one thing that that we struggle with as planning commissioners, especially on contested and and very controversial zoning cases, is that, you know, we kind of have to put blinders on and look at is is the intended purpose for this type of development and everything that could potentially be built there under that the requested zoning, is it appropriate for the area and the neighbors budding? So, um, uh, just wanted to kind of throw that out there, you know, before we make a decision on this thing. And what I witnessed and looked at out there, especially everything west of the New Harbor Bridge, you know, it's it's all kind of been consumed by some sort of light industrial or u heavy commercial or those types of businesses and buildings. Correct. Yes, sir. Um but um I would like to see some clarity. I don't know if you can pull up the um the GIS map or something like that just to make sure that we you know have all the information here about the base zoning for um those properties. I don't know if you have the capability of doing that. Correct. So, what we have on the screen, it it may be a little difficult to see the letters, but uh there is an RM1 at the bottom left hand portion of the screen on the hatched lots and there is a bold box labeled CN1. To the north, uh the predominant zoning is heavy industrial outside of the hatched areas. There's an IH just under the label Summer Street, which is about 2/3 up the map on the bottom. The corridor of port is a combination of light industrial and heavy industrial. Heavy industrial being on the east side, light industrial being on the west behind that one to two lot buffer going into the Hillrest neighborhood. That is where single family residential picks up. So just very similar to Staples near Gardenale, you have a corridor of commercial and in this case industrial and then a two lot buffer behind that is where you pick up single family zoning. Okay. And on the opposite side, uh the Harbor Bridge serving as the primary buffer, you do also have multifamily zoning. So the one thing the story of this map doesn't tell is the large swath of land uh that is taken up by the bridge itself. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Any commissioners have other questions for staff? Okay, with that, uh, we will open up the public hearing for item number six. Anyone who would like to speak, make your way down. Uh, please state your name and address for the record and then you'll have, uh, three minutes. I'll go first. Hey, Brian, how you doing? Got a nice ranch. Um, what was your name again? Andrew. Andrew Deus. Yes, sir. Hi, Andrew. I'm Gilbert. I'm on the map. The very last building that they haven't bought out. Sam came over one day and he told me that I got to sell. I got to sell and I got to sell for 250. This is my business of 20 years. I've been there for 20 years. I invested in this property because you know what? The bridge is going to come in. I survived the port road disaster that never finished that that was went bankrupt and I was still there. And so now that I'm here now, you guys are telling me that I got to move. This whole uh re uh zoning is for one reason. Make my property go down. They wanted to offer me 250 for a land worth over 500,000. And you know what he told me, Sam? Sam, remember the Sam? Sam said, "Hey, you know why they have that fence back there? That big fence?" I said, "No, because it was a toxic plant back there. Do you really want to be next to a toxic plant?" And I'm thinking like the kind of guy tells me this and has his yard man go work on it next week, you know, like there's toxic there. It's toxic. And so now I want to know why do you want my land? Because I bought it there so I can be in the sea district. I've been here making films in Corpus for 20 years. I left California to come here. And now my studio that's worth nothing to anybody because to them it's in the way. They want to destroy it like it destroyed all the rest of the buildings that are there. And now they want to close Broadway. You know, there's a few of us that stay there. And if you need to go to the hospital instead of going all the way around all this mess, Broadway is the only way to get to stables to get to the hospital. But you're going to close it down for some kind of thing that they need for the bridge. What did they lose? They put a bunch of pylons. They lost what 10 square feet in these lots. And for that, they got to acquire the whole property and change it over to H1. basically making it my property go out to nothing because it's going to be just for heavy industrial. Who's going to buy that? You know, so that's why they're doing this, you know. I b I have 200 properties. I know why they you you do things for business to get around things. If you want to build a laundromat, well, you you make the building, you know, it's going to be there for a while and then when you finish it, then you get the permit for the laundromat. That's what's going on here is they're trying to change it all. And all these people here are being affected, not just me. We're all being affected, but I have a house on Southside. I don't have people knocking at my door. Hey, move. You got to move. I'm gonna give you bottom dollar for your house because I want it. That doesn't happen. This is America, man. Like, we're trying to make Corpus nice, but yet everybody here in Corpus, you get shoved out. You get pushed out by the good old boy system. Like, come on. Like, I want to know why do you want my property so bad? I don't you I'll sell it to you, but give me what what it's worth. Don't try to change to the H1 so you can come over and give me 150,000 for a 6,000 foot building that's fully air conditioned. Come on, man. Like, I'm sure they all have to talk and I don't want to take up everything, but this is something that y'all have to look into because you know what? We going to turn Corpus into like a cesspool, you know. Thank you for your comment, sir. Yes, sir. How you doing? Daniel Pena resident of Hillrest where the Biden neighborhood the neighborhood right so some of the things I don't know they got to tell you what they got to tell you most of those businesses that were that were there before our previous mayor going back twice uh told us if they were going to redo that whole area we have books we have plans we have where they were going to make that little stores and little communities and little apartments and everything else so those people that the businesses that were there left for that reason. Some of them stayed till the buyout. I don't know if they if they got a good deal or not, but you know, that area was being cleared and and uh there's so many things they talked about. As far as that area, yeah, it was a it was a brown field where they want to where they want to do this. You know, I don't know if it recently expired or not, but what what what was under there? We're currently going through the mess of Brownfield. They haven't built the the uh the city hasn't built the the park that they're supposed to build over here where the Booker T school was at because that's a brownfield also. They haven't mitigated that. They haven't mitigated that area where they're interested in reszoning the area that was bought out from the apartment complexes that are starting on Winnebago. that was always I also was promised in the transition for the swimming pool, the park, the you know all that area was was already designated. And so these things keep changing over and over. You know what I mean? And what we're I'm saying what we're afraid of is UB's own this and we're we're blocks away. I mean the the port owns majority of the properties, but there are still a lot of us still living there. You know what I mean? We didn't we didn't uh we didn't participate in that program cuz it wasn't uh it wasn't like it was planned, you know, the way it was supposed to been. I think has changed three times before the before the red rod was chosen. We were planning for months and months on what we were going to do and how they were going to help us and how they were going to fix things and and then the red rod was chosen and everything was thrown in the trash. All the promises that were made were basically thrown in the trash and you know so every day this thing changes. We were told by Sam also that they didn't have no plans for anything to do anything over there for 20 years. The properties that they acquired that's a I mean that's a story by itself that the the problem was with the state of Texas Department of Department of Transportation. They're the ones that should have done all of that. When they decided they didn't know how and they didn't want to. They passed it on to the port. The port contributed $20 million to initiate this thing. $17.5 million went to the firm that handled it. So that left them with $2.5 million, but they ended up with all the properties. You know what I mean? Because they're going to get reimbursed by the state for anything they spent beyond $20 million. So now they got the properties, they got, you know, and you know, now to go in there and uh and try to reszone it. You know, that's not a certainly there's a lot of things you should consider. Thank you. Thank you, sir. My name is Henry Williams, 2422 Summer Street. I am a resident of the Hillrest neighborhood. I have a question for you. How are we notified of these zoning changes when they're going to take place? I do not I don't recall receiving notification. Are they done online or are they done through through mail? Andrew, it is uh so the state of Texas requires that we send out notices to within properties of 200 feet of the subject property. So that is the map that we have that shows a ring that goes around and also of course the posted signage and then mail outs. I live in the Hogus neighborhood. I did not receive any notification of this. If if you live within 200 feet of the subject property, so on one of these properties on the map, then a mailing would have gone to the record address on your on the tax roll. Okay. Thank you. Also, I have a uh the street closures of of Broadway of Winnebago and Oasis. Is that a part of this item number six? No, sir. Today's just for the zoning. Excuse me. Today's just for reszoning the the land. We're we're looking at land use. Um the street closures, Andrew, does that even come to planning commission or does that go straight to city council? The street closures will go straight to city council. The zoning portion for what will eventually be purchased by the port is the zoning we're hearing tonight. Are we dealing with street closures tonight? No, sir. That will be handled by the city council in June. Okay. Thank you. And I am al I'm opposed with the change to every industrial. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Did I say that? Lamont Taylor. I live in Hillrest for 65 years. So um very familiar with um um this plan and also as a ex-member of the planning commission surface chair I understand that you guys don't have a have a thankless job. So I I know where you are. Um we discussing the nice land use and we're discussing uh reszoning of the land. Um I uh am in Brooks am I go to Brooks AM church which is on one of these lots over here. I think it's a three down there. And I know uh we would if we had received a notice, we would have uh told you that we're not for uh reszoning this place as a heavy industrial. This is our church. We've been there for 93 years. So, no, we're not in favor is for the neighborhood. And um the the issue that I have here is encroachment. And the issue the encroachment is by heavy industrious uh to my east with the port want to change it and then to the west is where the city is trying to do a dile. So in essence I am closed in I am locked in uh in this particular neighborhood and um so it's encroachment on the left side and it's encrossment on the right side and so whatever chances of a neighborhood resemblance of a neighborhood and and function in that neighborhood yes we still doing this. However, we're being eaten up bit by bit by uh the city allowing uh zoning change changes to be um as a matter of fact the the the hard part about this is that you zone part of Hillrest outside city limits now. So, and that's part of that Hillrest is outside of the city limits which is part of the city of Corpus Christie. So if you continue to do this and destroy a neighborhood and and destroy a people or class of people in the neighborhood, I think that is uh injustice all the way around as far as the zoning is concerned and reszoning is concerned by this august party. So, I personally uh am opposed of the resoning for numerous reasons. Um the lay down yards or whether or not um they had the one that they said that going to be over by Northside Manor up the street that the port wanted for uh industrial uh the lay down yard they have over at for the Harbor Bridge on New Aces. Dust flies through that all the time. We have a southeast breeze coming through. So that dust going to be coming into the neighbors uh yards and houses that live the people the remaining people that are there uh in that particular area. So are we going to be impacted on both sides if you guys continue to let the city court uh excuse me um the zoning laws impact the people the way they're doing? That's my my one of my points and I'll see you later. Thank you for your comments. Yes, sir. Good evening. My name is James Klein. I go by Jim. Uh I live at 3501 Montter Street outside of the Hillrest District, but I'm speaking tonight as the president of the Coastal Ben Sierra Club Group. It's the world's oldest environmental organization started 133 years ago. Uh the coastal ben environmental sier club group uh represents people live in 18 different counties centered around Corpus Christie including people who live in Corpus Christie and in the Hillrest neighborhood. The coastbier club group uh is in opposed to this residential change this zoning change. We are concerned about this because residents continue to live nearby. A heavy industry designation that is being considered now would allow a wider var wide variety of industry that might negatively impact the health of nearby residents. Uh we are concerned about air emissions in particular of benzene SO2, PM2, uh PM 2.5 and PM10 and so forth. And so for these reasons, we urge the uh committee to vote against this zone reszoning. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Jackie Valdez. I live at 5302 Mardle. Um, I apologize if I st sound scattered. I didn't plan on speaking tonight. Um, I come here as someone who used to work with youth in the Hillrest area. Um, I know that I appreciate some members of uh the council by going by there and I don't know what you saw as far as residents there, but I know youth who live there. The families that buy property in this area plan to live there and raise their families. I have worked with kids from Drescco Middle School, middle uh Miller High School who stay late, you know, to uh at practice and buses, school buses don't run at that time. So, they're walking home. And so, even though this might not be taking an actual home from someone, it's in their path paths of 11 year olds, 12 year olds who are walking 8 n:00 at night home. This is not okay. I oppose this. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Mariah Boon. I live at 710 Ponder Street. I'm a social worker and an educator. I spent many years teaching the children of Hillrest at Driscoll Middle School. And it seems to me that almost every time the port want something. Um it's the people of Hillrest who get negative effects from it and it's just not fair. Um the children I taught already had a lot of health problems from the how near industry already was to them and they don't they don't need it encroaching any further. So, I'm opposed to this change. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Wenda Williams. I reside at 1408 Stillman in Hillrest. And let it be known that Hillrest is the highest elevated point in the city limits of Corpus Christie, Texas. Meaning if anything happened with a tidal wave or a tsunami, he'd be the last man standing. And that such thing as a buyout, I despised the buyout because it was more like a bamboozing and hooping situation. People was getting pennies for nothing to try to move somewhere and they still going to have a mortgage payment. My point is I'm definitely opposed to it and I hope you can rectify. If you don't believe me, ask any geologist about it is the highest elevated point. Now, if you really wanted this going back to 2004 when they used to have meetings at Oak Park Elementary, they stated these certain things. They would try to find a direct path of what they was doing to try to build this supposed to be the largest cable harp suspension bridge in North America. Meaning, it's never been done before. Therefore, we have what's going on right now. Like I say once again, the viol such thing cuz you don't want to pay like you. That's how big corporations are. They want to play, but you don't want to pay. Do the right thing. Cuz in these times, you can't go out and find if you can find a house for 50 to 60 to 75 to $85,000, please let me know. I oppose this. Thank you. Thank you, sir. My name is Deanna King. I live at 3418 Crest Cliff Drive, which is actually on the south side, but I was raised in a Hillrest neighborhood until the age of 12. It's disheartening to see that this neighborhood has been dismantled. It was lively when I lived there. It's still lively with the people that still live there. And as the vice president of the NAACP, we oppose this. And the reason we oppose this is because humanity. There's people that still live there. It doesn't matter if it's if if the land doesn't butt up against a house, but they still going to be affected by all the emissions, all the environmental issues. These are people these are people that want to stay in their homes. My grandmother, who is 93 years old, she had to move to the southside because of this. and she was one of the first African-American families to stay in Hillrest neighborhood, her and her sister. And it's disheartening to go to that neighborhood knowing that my grandmother doesn't live there anymore. And there's people that still want to stay there and they have the right to. They shouldn't be pushed out because of money, because of industry. I think y'all need to have a hard look at people. People [Music] matter. People first. And let's not push out the rest of the residents that want to live there for the rest of their lives. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Bruce Watella and I live in uh Hillrest on Hbert Street. Uh my brother and I were also born. We lived there all our lives. My grandparents planned on buying the property in the 1920s uh when they lived in on Moore Street. Um, we've been exposed to a lot of benzene, I have heard, from the previous refineries that were next door. Flint Hills and Sitco have both been fined, as I have read in the caller, uh, for pollution violations. We have a prevailing wind. Uh, of late, it's been 30 up to 40 miles an hour, and it always comes off the water. And this heavy industrial location is going to blow whatever's heavy and industrial right into my nose. So I want you to consider yourself living there when you make this decision. Um I don't need any more benzene. Uh part of the problem that we were offered a buyout from the Harbor Bridge was uh possible benzene coming from all the traffic that would be closer to Hillrest. So, I don't know all about traffic emissions and uh pollution and what's going to be there. I don't mind military vehicles being there because I support the military, but uh permanent heavy industrial uh designation worries me. And so, if you'd put yourself in our shoes, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Matt Manning. I don't reside in the Hillrest neighborhood. However, I have some clients who do live there. I'm an attorney here in the area. And I would tell you this and just keep it very succinct. I think the problem is if you look at a hyper techchnical distance from where the residences are to where this proposed change is, you're going to create the circumstance where it's basically a functional imminent domain, even if not a legal imminent domain. And what I mean is if you compound the issues in the community in terms of environmental issues and the issues of quiet enjoyment of these homeowners, what's functionally going to happen is they're going to be further forced out, even if not legally forced out. The issue as you know is the port of Corpus Christi has imminent domain authority. They have told us unequivocally as has the city that they will not be exercising such authority. I think this is essentially a subdriuge to exercise of that authority. Right. more of the community that is going to be reszoned as heavy industrial will naturally coalesce into the circumstances where people who live there who are homeowners whose property rights here in the state of Texas are sacrosanked will no longer be able to truly enjoy their property the way they would if they were anywhere else that was not in such close proximity. So I oppose it. I ask that you consider not only the hypertenchnical distance from the most the nearest residences to this proposed area, but consider the fact that what will happen is functionally the people who continue to live there will not be able to enjoy their homes. And I re I recognize readily, right, that this is not as densely a populated area as some other neighborhoods, but the reality is people have lived there. These are homesteads. There are people who will continue to live there. And I think changing the designation from light industrial to heavy industrial will make it such that they cannot enjoy their homes. That's why if you look at the tax code, if you look at other codes in the state of Texas, they all put a great emphasis on property rights, especially the property rights of where you live. Accordingly, the people who live in this neighborhood, having this reszoned will affect their ability to live in their homes and to enjoy their homes. And essentially, if the Port of Corpus Christi wants to take their homes from them, there are legal mechanisms whereby they can do that. I don't think that the planning commission should allow the subtrifuge to let them do that without jumping through all the hoops that the state of Texas requires for their homes to be taken from them. If they want to take it, they got to do it the right way. This is not the right way. I oppose it. Thank you, sir. Hi, I'm Dale Swatella. I uh live at Halbert Street in Hillrest and uh I'm very concerned about heavy industrial waste coming uh creating benzene or whatever else coming through the air to my neighborhood. Uh when my grandparents moved there at uh in the 20s there there was no industry. It was just a vacant land. As a boy, I flew my kite at the end of Halbert Street across across Bay Boulevard where there is now industry built in storage tanks. Uh the I I oppose the uh more industrial reasoning and such. And also um a lot of lot of famous people have uh been neighbors of my grandparents. Uh does anybody remember Alan Luten from Password? His wife was Betty White. Uh you might have heard of her at least. Anyway, he hosted Password forever. And uh Howard Edward But has all the grocery stores and his son Charles But they lived in Hillrest neighbors of my grandparents. So I I just opposed all the industry being built up there. uh for it wasn't that way when we moved there. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, the former mayor also lived there during his time. Good afternoon. My name is Tina Butler. Uh first of all, I apologize for my appearance. I'm just getting into town. Uh I live at 1450 Cambridge Drive. Uh my paternal and my maternal uh grandparents both lived in Hillrest. Uh my father who is here today, he still has a a home that is there in Hillrest. And I am opposed uh to this resoning for several reasons. Uh one um I was appointed to the Corpus Christie Housing Authority back in 1991 or '92 by Mayor Mary Rhodess and at that time we were talking about Hillrest. Um so this resoning is not anything new. We know that there's documentation in a booklet that the city put out several years ago that by 2024 they wanted to zone this area for industrial. In addition to that, I recall maybe last year uh 22 or 23, I believe it was 23 that I got contacted by the u uh news station here in Corpus Christie because the city of Corpus Christie did an unveiling of how they were going to make improvements to Hillrest Park. Then we started holding meetings at Brooks Chapel because no one that looked like me was at that unveiling here in Corpus Christie nor any of the residents that still reside. So the plans being put out was new to all of us. So we started holding meetings and I believe that was with Mr. Neman Young at the time. There are two cemeteries also in Hillrest Park. Both of them historical, but one of them the city didn't even know was even there because Mr. Young mentioned to me when I mentioned it that he'd have to go and see if it's still there. The headstones are not there, but the graves are still there. So, like I said, I am opposed to this reszoning because this is not this is not new to us, but the way that this is going about uh in addition, when I was younger, we moved to Deian Leather's Housing Authority, which is on the other side of Port. And every person or every resident that lived next door to my mother, we were doors and doors. All of them passed from breast cancer. So I don't know what they talking about that buffer zone as though the wind still doesn't blow down the street. But every lady who was in the row where I resided passed from breast cancer. So to zone this area where there are still residents and still children, the city should be ashamed because there are still residents who do not y'all don't want the houses, you want the land. And as they mentioned, no one wants to pay for the land for the residents who are still there. So I am opposed to this. And as a founder of the Junth uh festival that we are currently holding, I was also contacted by the city to say, "Hey, we're going to build an amphitheater in the green park that's on the other side of port." So why are you building and putting money into a park that you now want to invest and make an industrial area? So for those reasons, I oppose this. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Sana Lidle. I'm a resident of Hillrest neighborhood address 1422 Kennedy. I was raised in Hillrest and I left and I returned to to Corpus Christi. By coming back to Corpus Christi, I was in and out of the doctor's office, emergency care, you name it, I was there with bronchitis, ammonia, you name it, I had it. Why? Because of the environment here in Corpus Christi. And it was before they Hillrest uh the homes, you know, we lost our a lot of our neighbors. The relocation is before that. Now since then they start demolishing homes. There was pollution. I was in and out. My doctor said you need to leave. And now they want to uh do heavy reszone to heavy for west Washington co area. That's all going to come to us in Hillrest. A lot of us that are here, we're going back and forth to the doctor because of what we're having to deal with now because they still demolishing homes in Hillrest. I don't know how you feel about it. I don't think you would like it if it was your neighborhood, but we've been going through this since 2015. There's a time for a change. Enough is enough. The pictures that they showed us that this area would look like was parks, bike, you know what you call the bike lanes. You'll be able to walk. It was it was going to be beautiful. And the Washington co area and now they want to put the resone it to a heavy lay down area. All I can say, I'm going speak from my heart because I'm not a speaker. Put yourself in our place. And I know this is not about Hillrest. It's about the resoning. But we're going to get hit again. We've been going through this since 2025. And I mean, you have to live there to understand. Hillrest was a very nice neighborhood and it still is. And we've been told by the city manager of Corpus Christi that we are not a neighborhood. So what does that say? We don't exist. We don't matter. But we do. So only thing I can say that you have to think about it as if it was you going through what we going through what you have heard and we go through it every day. So I am totally against the reason. Thank you. Thank you. Howdy. Uh James Perkins, 605 Kettle Street. Uh I oppose the resoning. I'm nowhere near it, but you don't got to be near it to be hit by what the industry puts out. I grew up around Josephine Street. I grew up around Margaret Street. I've got chronic asthma, and it's bad. And these folks are living a sneeze down from where y'all want to do this stuff. It's not healthy. It's not good. How many people have got to suffer for somebody else's pocket? That's, you know, cuz that's all that really matters at the end of it, doesn't it? Corpus Christie don't care about none of the homeless folks. Corpus Christie don't care about none of the uh none of the Sorry. Corpus Christie don't really care about none of the residents. I mean, y'all are building up all those houses over way out by London. Who in Corpus can afford that? Cuz I know I can't. And I got I got good salary. I know I can't. You know, I manage my my a branch of my company and I know I can't. And you're trying to pay these folks what I make in a year for them to leave and they can't afford that. They can't afford those nice houses out there. They can't afford to get away from the industry. And it's just going to keep growing too. Y'all going to take this spot now. Then y'all going to take the next spot after. Then we'll blink. It'll be 20 years later and I'll be right back up here talking about the neighborhood after Hillrest. And then Hillrest will be nothing but a a plaque, a memorial shrine. Y'all ain't Y'all ain't It's It's pocketbooks. And how many lives have to suffer for these people's pocketbooks? I I don't know what y'all make off of it either. I don't know if y'all make anything off of it or y'all just working for somebody else's pocketbook either. What is what how many people are y'all willing to throw for it is really all it is and yeah so I oppose the resign. Thank you sir. My name is Maline Chapman and I live in the Hillrest neighborhood for 70 years. I've lived there. First, I would just like to say on the world at large that I think it's shameful the levels that people will stoop to to enrich themselves, money, greed, whatever, you know, and just dismiss living things in human life. I have cancer multiple myyoma, a blood cancer. And I suspect that maybe the contamination and the chemicals and the industry that surrounds my neighborhood has something to do with that. There's a tank at the refineries that was shown to us with that special camera that cost a fortune. Benzing leaking since 1991 and it's probably still leaking out of that tank over there. All of those chemicals and contamination and encroachment, it it smothers us. It's it's literally killing us. And I just think it's shameful that human beings will stoop to any low level to make money and enrich themselves without consideration for the people living around them. Of course, that's contamination is going to come to us. It's surrounding us now. Where is it going to go? Like they say, it's not going to stop at the buffer zone. Buffers can only be maintained in an enclosed environment. You can't have an outdoor buffer zone, but unless you're going to control the wind and know now don't go that way. You better, you know, just quit being ugly for money. That's all Miss Chapman have to say. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Robert Hernandez and I live at 4114 Rayfield Road out in Navville and I'm nowhere close to this but uh I have been around Hillrest area. I was raised around there. My uncle owned two stores, one of them on Dempsey Street and I used to work the one on Dempsey Street. I used to work back in the 60s at the old courthouse. The majority of uh my maintenance workers that worked there were from Hillrest. Okay. Good people, lively people. And all I'm saying I'm opposed to this for the for that simple reason that uh it's all about money. And I'm here because it's going to happen in my neighborhood with Edina coming in. Okay. So, uh, and it will come in even though we're trying to oppose it, but we shouldn't let we shouldn't wait for this community to get like Mississippi and other states that are having their own problems when they've been surrounded by all these refineries. There should be a limit of how many refineries can be around a community. Okay? And you all are the planning commission, you all should put it together. Thank you. Thank you. Hi y'all. Uh my name is Eli McKay and I'm a resident of District 1. I live in the Uptown area, so not in the area of this resoning. But I came here today to let you all know that I am against the resoning for this item. I've had the great opportunity the last 5 years to get to know a lot of folks that live in the Hillrest Washington area and uh I I think that they they deserve better. Uh I know personally from serving on the SEAK committee that it's not an easy job that y'all have uh helping plan the future for our city. Um but I do also know from that experience uh that our city has spent at least the last five decades uh responding to gross growth in a reactionary way and not one that really has its focus on how these decisions will impact the people who live in certain areas. U when I first moved here I lived in the Donna Park area which is another you know another community that is getting the short end of the deal. Uh I would say that growth is good but only when it's done in a way that uplifts all members of of a community and not only those who have influence. Uh the residents and business owners in Hillrest and Washington Kohl's deserve to be treated with the same respect and care and focus as neighborhoods on the south side or Kellen or London as was mentioned. Don't get me started on urban sprawl. I urge you all to use more than just your professional experience and your decision-m though I do appreciate that you drove out there. I can say from a recent uh endeavor that I took on that there's a lot of people that live in Hillrest in Washington cos hundreds of homes still in Hillrest. So I urge you to instead of using just your professional experience to use your heart your empathy and you know your vision. A lot of you are young. It's great to see young people on boards and serving their community. You know, I believe that young people can see a future for our city and you want that. You want it to be thriving. And we have to think about all of the people that live in the city. I know the unhoused folks were mentioned, but they're rarely ever taken into account when we do projects uh infrastructure projects like this. So again, uh as was said before by someone else, please when you make decisions, envision the project in your backyard or your neighborhood. Clo closing of streets is a really big one for me, too, because I personally avoid uh highways at all costs. So, a lot of people use back roads, you know, so uh the back roads have to remain open so people don't feel like they're trapped in their own neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Hi, good evening. Um, my name is Ali the Castile. I'm not a resident of Corpus Christi. I am a resident of Taft Texas. Um, my address is 131. Um, but I am uh the program director for Chispa, Texas, which is a community organizing um program of the League of Conservation Voters and we have members in Hillrest uh throughout, you know, Inasis County and San Patricio County. Um, and this project will impact not just residents of Corpus Christie, not just residents of Hillrest, it impacts other communities as well. Whenever I'm coming in from Taft through the Harbor Bridge, um, I have to make certain exits and, um, sometimes those aren't always available. So, I always have to find different ways to get to the area and that is taking the back roads. I've also seen a lot of accidents happen in this area with all of the buildout with the new Harbor Bridge. Um, so safety is a big concern for us. Um, as a planning commission, I also sit on a city council. Uh, we rely on the advice that y'all give us that you all the questions that are asked of the um, person who is making uh, who is who wants this development. there are certain questions that need to be asked on from them uh or of them and we take that information and then we vote on that. So it is a big task that you know y'all have at y'all's um you know y'all are responsible for and that is what is the future of Corpus Christie? What is the future of this area and how are you taking the concerns of the residents into consideration? So this project is not in the future land use map of the Corpus Christie area. Um we shouldn't be looking at more zoning for heavy industry. we should be looking at at least maybe light industry at most especially in an area where a lot of people who come and visit this community have to pass through and is it you know we don't know what the port's plans are 20 years from now 50 years from now and um this project will impact a lot of that and so these community members do not want to live leave their homes you know even though every day there are efforts made to go by there and say hey do you want to sell your home they don't have peace They don't have the peace of being able to go home and just reside in their, you know, just being able to kick up their feet because there's always a knock at their door from somebody saying, "Hey, I'll give you this much money to sell your home." And is that fair? Is that something that you would like to experience yourselves? Having no peace, saying what's going to happen now? What's our next fight? That is not fair for the residents of Hillrest. It is not fair for the residents of Washington. And it is not fair for the community of Corpus Christi and the surrounding neighborhoods because everybody always looks at Hillrest and they say, "We're the next ones. When is our time?" And you have a huge responsibility in front of you and I ask that you oppose this project the same way that the rest of the community members are asking. Thank you. Thank you. Would anybody else like to make a comment? Just one. Sure. Thank you. My name is Pamela Treyan. Um 3325 Meadow Ridge Drive, which is the Flower Bluff area. I wonder if you guys know what's happening tonight. A revival begin citywide revival for us. When you guys start talking about I don't see anybody living in a certain area, you forget about the fact that we still come to the area as well for specific things. Vacation Bible school starts very soon. You guys want to put it off and say, "Oh, it ain't me who going to close the streets. We just worrying about whether light industrial to heavy industrial." But you know that's a lie because you know when you pass this part the street is going to be closed. And so when we want to come to this area and I'm a transplant and military transplant here been 25 years now but the fact that we have these churches in these areas that we can go to was important to me and it should be important to corporate Christians in terms of having a good reputation in terms of saying that folks want to come and commune commune in these areas. Uh, but that's my most pivotal prank is that I look at y'all and I see that y'all say we just going to push the buck cuz it ain't our fault. We just going from light industrial to and that's the other part about this. They already won. The light industrial is there. So why give them more? You know, it's not like we're taking anything from them. The storage outside storage, you know how cuddy that's going to look. We used to pass by and that was St. John Baptist and that was a nice little place. Now look what it looks like. You spend all that time on port to make it nice and beautiful to get to the ball field. Well, keep this area. Keep your promises like previous people said on previous mayors wanting an actual green space. Y'all have the power to just hold this off and let it be to see whether or not we can make that a beautiful area instead of complete of polluting it more. I just don't want you guys to uh say, "Oh, it wasn't me." When your grandchild says this is uh Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Simone Sanders and I'm going to go ahead and yield my time to Tina Butler. There's no yielding of time. Okay. She's I just asked if she could turn over her time to me. Oh, she can speak and say what what what you want. That's what I thought you were asking. I apologize if I Okay. So you won't misinformed she she can speak her to come speak this is information for informationational I don't know why the resident historian thinks that I would know what's supposed to be said uh but um I'm personally opposed um and it's for the same reasons that everyone else has mentioned as well too um For me personally, um we've been shown plans of this green space, this beautiful amphitheater, all of these other things that are supposed to take place. And um either departments don't speak to each other or there's something else a foot, which is why you're going to have residents thinking, "Yes, there's something a foot here." because you've been showed plans for the past 7 8 9 10 years as we go from one park and wreck director to another over the past six years. I think we're on number five or six. I've been shown plans on paper personally. I've been shown plans on a computer. I've been shown plans via email. And I'm trying to figure out how something can be heavy industrial but also have green walking space and and the bike lanes and we can have festivals there is the promises that have been made in the past. Um it's unsafe. So if we're trying to do something that's unsafe, I'm trying to see how do those two plans line up. Things like that don't line up. Now the other U North Side Manor was supposed to be used for industrial purposes because it was close to the port. And then the green plan of 2030 to beautify uptown was supposed to be for industrial as well and that has not come to fruition yet. So this is forformational purposes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Christina English. I live in District 1. Um, the residents of Hillrest are my neighbors and I value them. Um, I'm against all resoning on item six. What's happening in Hillrest is environmental racism. People in people who live in the Hillrest deserve to enjoy their lives there. And closing roads and further encroaching on this neighborhood is an intentional act to make life less livable in that neighborhood. Please don't close streets and don't reszone property in Hillrest for industry. That's it. Thank you. Chloe Torres. I live in district 2. I'm here to echo what others have said before me and ask that you deny the port's request to reszone the area from a residential to a heavy industrial one. I've lived in Corpus Christi all my 27 years of life. And although I have been very very fortunate um to travel all around the world, there is nowhere that I love being more than in my hometown. And that is the only the case because I have met the most amazing people here. Many of whom either live in Hillrest now or grew up in Hillrest. They taught me so much about the hardships that they have been forced to endure over decades. Red lining was the original sin of the north side. Then came refinery row because it was re it was reszoned to be a heavy industrial area. The first harbor bridge. I went to TAMUC. I studied history. I did my my senior project on um grassroots organizing here in Corpus Christi. There were 12 alternative options um for the bridge um the second one and they chose Hillrest. They chose the north side. Um and now the residents there are fighting this. and of course the desalination facility. It is so hard to stomach the amount of injustice this community has had to bear. But what makes them truly special is their devotion and their dedication to keeping the neighborhood alive. And I I don't think I've ever been more angry than when I read a Caller Times article in 2019 that detailed the progress of the Harbor Bridge relocation program that Tex dot, the port, and the city um had to do, right? Because they were sued into doing so. Um in it, former CEO Sean Strawbridge said, "There's always been a lot of talk about communities disappearing, and it's unfortunate that not all communities survive." And it enraged me because that was a blatant attempt to wash the blood off of his hands, the port, the city, and the state's hands. The fact of the matter is, and this is a reality all across the country, neighborhoods do not die. They are killed. And they are killed through actions just like this. So, you have to ask yourself, just like Eli said, not to rely just on your technical expertise and to your one trip through the neighborhood. You have to take an all-encompassing look, a holistic approach and truly ask yourself, do you want to be a part of this unjust and shameful legacy? Please vote no. Thank you. Can you imagine they would have opened more than 200 feet? How many people would be here? Hello, my name is Frank Ayala. I live at 1301 North Staples. It's a building where I have my business and I'm in construction. And in this area, I have a spectacular view of the New Harbor Bridge. I think if you want to plan something, you should plan on houses being built around there. I built a house on Ramirez Street nearby. And I also remodeled the house in the Hillrest area on Van Loan so I could rent it. But I think if you really want to plan, you need to start off with a spectacular view of the Harbor Bridge. And that's what I think y'all should do. And so I'm against this heavy uh industrial use of this area. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Would anybody else like to comment? Yes sir. Uh, Larry Fain, District 2. I'm here tonight to voice my opposition to the proposed zoning changes in the Hillrest neighborhood to heavy industry. Um, so the fact of the matter is that there are still a lot of people that live there and that fact might be inconvenient for the port, but it is a fact. Um, and the proximity of these zoning changes will negatively impact residents. The number 200 feet was thrown out. Sound is going to carry past 200 feet. Smells are going to carry past 200 feet. Uh, dust and pollution are going to carry past 200 feet. Uh, and you have heard unanimous opposition tonight to these zoning changes. Uh, most of it from Hillrest residents with real lived experience. Um, and that should be reason enough for you to deny these changes. And then I guess the question you have to ask yourself is, do I serve the port or do I serve the people? And in fact, the decision that you make on this is going to answer that question. So, thank you all very much. Thank you. All right. Anybody else? All right. Last call. Yes, ma'am. Hello. So, my name is Jennifer Agid and we have a commercial property last building there on port and we saw plans for um apartments, how they said bikes, people riding bikes, parks. So, we tried buying the property next door to ours, which the port now owns. We were under contract, going to close a deal, and then here comes, well, the owner owes $20,000 in fines and fees from the Port of Corpus Christi. And it's like, wow, $20,000 extra from what we were offering. What What did they do? Weed eating along a fence line. You get bill $20,000. Now they cleared it. That's a $20,000 job, probably. But the contract fell through and then here comes the port. sweeps it right under our feet and now they own the seven acres right next door to us and yes and I do oppose of uh the resoning. I feel like people do live in that area and uh they should be heard and they shouldn't you know they did offer us 250 but that's pennies. If the port has over 300 million why offer everybody pennies to move and where where are we going? Where are we going to live? Where are commercial buildings? like we can't go get another commercial property for what we have now. We don't, you know, it's paid off. Why would we want to go somewhere else and have to start life over? And um that's all I have to say. I just feel like the port is trying to take over everything and going behind people's back and adding fines and fees where people just can't buy. We wanted to buy to make our building where people could come and have parties and rebuild Corpus in the Bridge Air. And now it's going to be nothing but heavy industrial, you know. I don't know. That's all I have to say. You know, 200 ft. Thank you. What? And I do believe the 200 feet limit should be spread out. No one was known. We didn't know. The only reason we found out was because the sign's right next door and it fell over. If he would have saw that sign, we wouldn't have known. We didn't We didn't get a letter. And I told him, you know, they took the sign off right before the meeting. No, it fell over. You know, so I think it should have been more secured so people would have saw it and more people would have been here tonight and put more than three days and more than three days. They put the notice up four days. Yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Justine Knox. I live at 1910 Stillman Avenue. I've been living in uh that area for 60 years now. Born and raised. Um, I think I counted 10 of you all up here. Um, city of Corpus Christi is supposed to be for the community. You're supposed to serve and protect the citizens of Corpus Christi, not serve and protect the port of Corpus Christi. I was born and raised in Hillrest. I I bought my home in Hillrest and I plan on staying in Hillrest. I oppose heavy industry being bought into there. I've lost two brothers to cancer and I have a child now suffering with cancer. We don't need any more pollution in that area. And like I said in when I first started out, it's 10 of y'all here. I wonder if you take a a toll of how many of y'all can go back home to where you were born and raised and say this is where I was born and raised and show your kids where you were raised up at and it wasn't taken away from your parents or your history. Consider that and prop the city up to be what is called the body of Christ. quit crucifying the body of Christ with all this pollution. That's all I have to say. Thank you. [Applause] My name is Benell Jackson. I'm a native born and raised here in Cops Christie, Texas. And I remember when I was much younger, the city to me, especially after they uh started calling it the Corpus Christie River area, beautiful city by the sea. It was um it was doing pretty good. We don't have a lot of young people here because there's not too much for the young people to do. And when I was younger, the streets were kept much better. That was probably because we had a group of men that worked for the city. So, they were handy to fix the streets. It didn't take them a long time. It has taken forever. 2001, I left here, went to Florida. I was gone for eight years. And I came back and drove to the church to visit because they were getting out and I wanted to say hello to all the members. I went back to the church driving and I'm looking around and I'm looking and I'm It's like it has deteriorated greatly to me. It used to be the beautiful city by the sea. it it looked like it's going to waste. That's the future I see of Corpus Christi. There's no blooming. There's no progress. And we talked about the community. I don't see us represented on this council, the city council. uh very few places else where the blacks are represented. So you don't you haven't walked in our shoes. You haven't been where we've been. You don't go through what we go through. The the the they always and this has been since eons ago. They always redline the black community. If they are building something, especially bridges and stuff, they're going to go through the black neighborhood, tear it down, force us out. We have to move somewhere else. And then they buy up that land. They make it much better for other people to live in than what we had in the beginning. It's always like that. And the bank started that years ago, redlinining and the the apartments that we used to stay on in the projects, the old projects and the new projects. That's what they called it, the projects. And that's where we had to live. Thank you. Thank you. I oppose. All right. Anyone else? Hi, good evening. I'm Zonita Williams. I am a part of district 2, but I am from Corpus Christi, born and raised. I've been gone for a couple of years in Alabama and I'm just now back here in Corpus. So, hearing about this issue about Hillrest being reszoned, this is not a new topic. This is something that has been talked about even from my younger ages. I'm I'm 27 years old. So, for me hearing about this, I'm like, "Wow, still not letting go. Still not letting go of Hillrest. Still trying to touch this history that is still dear and part of Corpus in general. So for decades, Hillrest was subjected to racially discriminatory reszoning practices that allowed industrial refinery operations to encrouch upon residential spaces, leading to increased population and declining property values and deteriorating quality of life for its residents. These policies were not accidental as they were part of a broader plan for systemic racism. Let's just be honest and call it whatever it is. To treat communities of color as expendables. The proposed reasonzoning threatens to repeat the mistakes of the past that risks accelerating gentrification, displacing lifelong residents and erasing cultural identity of the community that has fought hard to survive and preserve its legacy. I could even say uh as of a couple weeks ago, I was down at Hillrest for Easter and we enjoyed ourselves on a Sunday. People were out there cooking, had had cookouts. People were there at the park. They had brought their kids. I even saw people that I have not seen in years that came down to Corpus Christie just because Hillrest is known to have an Easter celebration. Same thing as well for Junth. That is one of our holidays um within the black community. Everybody can agree with that. But even outside of that, it's not just about it being a part of black history, but this is also Texas history. Hillrest being Corpus Christiey's history as well. So, it really saddens me to hear that once again, we are putting our pockets before something that is so dear to many others that call this home for many decades and for um many generations. So, for me purposefully, I'm coming here. I just got off of work and I made it my deal to come here here to tell you guys face to face. I strongly disagree your idea of reszoning Hillrest area and turning it into a high industrial area. Think about people's health. If it was your own home and if it was your neighborhood, if you were dealing with having um breathing issues, you would complain as well and take your time to come out here. So, put yourselves outside of whatever your job is to make money and bring it back to corpus. think about adding apartments to the area, make beautifying the area. I I mean, it's crazy. When I went down there, the state of what Hillrest looks like today, we got to do better and I'm asking you guys to make a right decision and do right by our community as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anyone else want to comment? All right, last call and we're going to close it up. Oh, you only get once. Only get one time. Uh we do appreciate the comments. We are going to go ahead and close public hearing uh for item number six. Um and we'll entertain uh discussion question. Actually the question is is the applicant here? Yes sir. If they have a representative. Yes sir. No. Usually we let them speak before we close public hearing. They didn't come up but um I guess too late now because we've closed it but I have questions for the applicant. Is it appropriate for me to ask questions of the applicant? Um if he does wish to address the board. Okay. Yes. Okay. Come up. Approach podium. If you don't mind, we'd go ahead and state your name and address as well. So, good afternoon, um, chairman and commissioners. Uh, my name is Samville. I'm the director of real estate for the Port of Corpus Christi. What is the, um, what are the materials that are going to be laid down? So, right now, we're contemplating just open storage. So, like wind blades, military cargo, right? Because right now, like the military when they come through with vessels, all that cargo goes to the Hooks parking lot. Um, and as it was mentioned during the staff presentation, so when we conveyed right away for the Hopper Bridge project, we lost operational space within that footprint. So we're trying to do with this project is just make up for what we lost to improve overall cargo efficiency in and out of the port. Um, so you know, the bigger track that, you know, we've acquired is over 26 acres and that property was a former tank farm that we acquired. So we acquired that from multi-green trust and they clean up that property up to industrial level. So the bulk of that property is indeed restricted for only industrial purposes. So the ask today is just to to continue to go down to Noasa Street which is one block over um and make all that one into one contiguous layown area because my my I guess what I struggle with is if um so I'm looking at Northport running north and south. Yes. And I'm looking at everything east of Northport and basically you've got um a couple of businesses on Northport. You have the subject property, then you have the bridge, right? Um and I'm sympathetic and I appreciate some of the the comments from the from um the commenters about uh there was a couple things that that resonated with me. Obviously the southeast wind predominant southeast wind is always a concern. Um Hillrest has benefited you know and I use benefited lightly. I understand, you know, everything kind of grew around the Hillrest community, but they have benefited from the predominant southeast wind where the locations of the of the current plants are. And this pocket of Hillrest is I mean, Hillrest has been, I agree, has been under attack since the cut was created whenever 37 um basically cut that area off from the rest of the city. Um, so what I worry is is, you know, because I I look at it and I drive around that property and I and I think about lay down area and I think a properly screened um lay down area would not be detrimental to that property. Yes. However, the requested zoning could allow for many other things that aren't a properly screened layown area. Yes. So, if a either a special permit or a reduced zoning would be amanable to the applicant, then I think there's a compromise here. Um, otherwise, if it must remain heavy industrial, I'm probably going to be a no on this. So, um, just I let's kind of try to maintain decorum. You know, I just it's a difficult position to be in as a planning commissioner whenever these cases come up because you have to ask yourself appropriateness, right? And I think that um that what you're stating to us that you intend to use it for is appropriate for the area. However, what could go there may not be. Yes. And I and I don't think that the port has any intentions of baiting and switching in in the short term, but who knows what this is going to look like 20 years from now. And maybe the residents do decide this is not the place to be and we're out, you know, at that time and maybe heavy industrial is appropriate at that time. But um I just, you know, kind of want to want to know from you that would compromise. Yeah, absolutely. It's fine. Yes, that is available. The applicant can can reduce their request at any time. Uh we would still continue on to city council with your recommendation of altering the request if there's a majority vote to such an effect. Uh the light industrial district will still allow open storage and warehousing as a byright use in that zoning district. Is it required with light industrial? cuz I I do think some screening would still required. Okay. Yes, sir. And so, um, and what is that? What are the screening requirements? Is it like rubber slats in a in a No, it it does have to be a substantial screening fence. It it can't be a chain link. So, it does have to be solid. It has Well, I mean, even if it was chain link with slats, you know, just something to screen the visual. So from our end, we're looking at developing something that you would see off a highway, you know, like what you see off of um 361 closer towards U Galahar in that area, right? That way that's uh screened off in the residential area that's next adjacent to it. Okay. So something of that stature is what we're looking at. All right. I like it. Good. Yes, sir. Can you explain the difference between heavy industrial and light industrial and what differences could be allowed or not allowed between the two? Primarily the difference between heavy and light is the manufacturing of goods. So your light industrial is going to allow open storage warehousing uh welding facilities, cleaning of industrial equipment that may come off rigs. Uh all of those are allowed in light. Your heavy industrial is when you get into manufacturing of raw goods. So if I were to bring in crude oil, raw ore, and I'm producing a product. So if I want to have a hydrogen plant, I would need to have heavy industrial because I'm receiving raw materials and then manufacturing a product. That is the the primary difference between light and heavy. Can you do a tank farm in light industrial? Yes, you can. Since it's purely storage, now if I'm refining to produce gasoline or any other oil product, I would need heavy. That pure storage can be done in light. because I am concerned about some of the concerns that were raised with benzene and southeast wind blowing into that directly into that pocket. So, is there any intention currently for the port to do any kind of uh crude oil storage there? No. And I think if it's if you go back and look at the actual zoning map, you could see that everything that's north of the lot, that's already zone heavy industry. So, I guess the ass today is just for the stuff that goes down to Winnebago. I think that's one of the main concerns that the people have of the light industry and the heavy industry, right? Because of the chemicals that heavy industry brings. So, if the port can come up with something that can justify that we're not going to have anything of that nature, that it's just going to be something to put their equipment for warehousing. Uh, you know, that to me makes it feel a little bit easier for me to, you know, understand and allow something like this. But being the heavy industry with the what Hill Chris is already suffering with, I just find it difficult for us to continue to pour some more of that on. But on the port side as well as a developer, we need to understand that and as planning commissioners, we need to do the best to our ability for the benefit of Corpus Christi as well as the residents safety. So you know I have to go thinking on the terms of how can I balance this? What is it that we can do? And with the heavy industry right now I just feel that it's a little bit too much and if we if the port can come and present something that's going to be to the nature of not having any of these chemicals around and something that they can use, they do own the land. they are able to go ahead and access this and uh the port is a very important asset to Corpus Christi as well as the base and we need to do everything in our power to be able to make sure that we balance it and take care of it. Um because you know we do hold on to these economic strengths that corpus holds with these uh amenities. So, uh, the light industry to me is something that I think I want to just pinpoint and if we have some kind of amendment stating that we're not going to have anything of chemical uh, presented in this u, I think that could make me feel a little bit easier. So, Mr. Chair, if I could add some information quickly. So, as one of the commenters mentioned, there are various codes that we as staff have to navigate when addressing potential uses. One of those being the International Fire Code. So, there are very stringent limitations on when you start crossing 5,000gallon amounts of any type of chemical stored, especially anything that's flammable. So, the things that are kept in mind, and I've had to work with the fire department on something as small as the storage of pesticides, they do take into account prevailing winds. They do take into account the fact that there is very little separation to significant infrastructure being the Harbor Bridge. So the likeliness of installing or maintaining large amounts of any chemical would be prohibited by the IFC since you're under a significant means of transportation. That's what I was thinking. Uh just from proximity only to the bridge, not only from and uh I think it was Miss McCay that that made the point about um you know the entrance to our city. Sure. But the safety of the structure of the bridge as well. um you know especially if there was any were to ever become in for it were it to ever become a refinery or or something that there would be issues there but uh but I I think a a good compromise would be to in lie of heavy industrial go for a light industrial zoning for the whole property. Agree. I one other question I wanted to be able to ask is that when we were when you were we're talking about what the proposed piece is here, we were going to there were going to be modifications into the the street, right? We were going to modify. So if we were to do if we were to have a special have a special permit, we wouldn't there wouldn't be need any change for us to be able to there wouldn't be any change for street directions, size of streets. we wouldn't they wouldn't be running at it because there was a concern with folks that were getting in and out of their subdivision. If we if it was a we had a special permit going and not changing over the industrial piece, we wouldn't have to be able to change the driving in and out of that. Sure. Understand? If the uh AV room could pull up the last slide of the presentation, I did put something together to show how routes would be affected moving among the the three parks as part of the settlement agreement. And so the yellow lines represent how traffic would move. The major node where all routes connect would be at the corner of port and where Noasis turns into Wnebago just to the west of the subject property. But that in essence shows how the bridge has impacted how traffic moves between Washington Kohl's and Hillrest. So yes, you do have a longer route to the north, but you still have an interior route between Coke Street, Lake Street, and Winnebago. And of course the frontage road which is MLK Boulevard. But the street closures are not in our purview. Correct. But this is just an example to show that it it is the traffic can still move in and around the subject property. If that addresses your question, sir. It does. I I I would I would much more favor a special permit than not change the the the massive changes that something like this would does for heavy industrial would it it's it's too much of an impact in that particular area. And the other piece would be if we can eliminate the the the the transportation that the folks that live in the area are not impacted. I'm I'm all in favor of that. The only issue with a special permit is it's very difficult [Music] to, you know, because you've got and and I still don't have a clear answer on Andrew. Did you look up what the distribution of the entire property, the current base owning is because we've got Yes. on that that original map. We can even go to the first slide that has the aerial along with the base, but it doesn't show what the where this where it says subject property and it's got a line. I don't see what that zoning is of this entire piece of property. I was going to for on the east side of Port Avenue that is heavy industrial. In fact, the notice map, it's hard to see the uh identifiers. It's ahead three slides. Uh what? Right there. Thank you. So on the right side of the map, you're going to have heavy industrial. On the left side of port, the western side that is light industrial. So the subject are we mislabeled? I'm I'm noting what's confusing us. You've got an IIL. Not you, but there's there's an IIL there to the right of where it says subject property. What is track number 19? The big one. Is that heavy or is that light? That is that is heavy. So if you're if you're looking to the north under number four, that is where the IH label. When was when was 19 zoned heavy? That is the the original zoning. Yeah, that's probably back in the 60s because that's the former Kirk McGee tank farm. So at one point that was all t storage tanks. And I think where it gets confusing is when you see the IIL, that's really the corridor for the bridge. That's the really the bridge right away. Wow. So 19 is already heavy, correct? It's already heavy industry. So all we're asking for is just to add those that additional portion to the south, make it all one contiguous heavy industry track. Well, I I maintain my my position that um that the IIL would be and and I'll probably make a motion here in a minute to recommend Iel, but I just hope that everybody in the room knows that um track 19 is not under consideration today. And that bigger track 19 is also one that's dee restricted for industrial purposes. But I'm still I'm still struggling with Andrew why the notification area is so skinny. Is is that because the zoning of the proposed uh condemned streets? It it follows the boundary of every property that is up for zoning has a 200 foot buffer. So instead of doing 10 concentric circles, we found it to expand as much notice available to the neighborhood to grant one long cloud shape. So actually more notices are going out in reality. I believe the last count was 41 notices on how many were mailed out, right? Yeah. So we've assembled everything that's north of Wnebago except for two properties. you know, this gentleman's and there's another track there, track number 12. Um, and that doesn't belong to the port. Um, so in essence, you know, that whole area would be a 41 acre lay down area because everything except for that little portion that's highlighted there on the south is not currently zoned IH. And I guess the preference would be still to do the heavy industry with the restriction that it's still is for open storage. exposed it away. But you we can't do a we can't do a zoning change with a with a special permit. It would be the existing base zoning which is currently you know a mixture of various different residentials with a special permit on that. Okay. Gotcha. Correct. Yeah. So um so again if you're if you're if if the port is amanable to it I'm still going to maintain recommending uh the base zone or the the zoning change to be ind light industrial in l of heavy industrial. That's fine. Okay. Y'all ready to make a motion? Okay. Any other commissioners have questions? All right. With that, I'll I'll make a motion that we deny the requested zoning change in lie of uh approving a change of zoning from the current base zoning to light industrial. Commissioner Mandel and I will second that. All right. We've got a motion and a second uh to deny the heavy industrial and uh recommend approval for light industrial. Uh all those in favor say I. Mr. Chair, if I could please request a voice vote one by one just so we have a clear. You want to do a roll call vote? Please. Do you mind doing a roll call vote? Call us out like that. Andrew, it's just for clarification on the record, but yeah, that's fine. Go ahead. I'm going to go nay. Uh Cynthia Sazar Garza. So we're actually doing the denying the first an I vote would be yes for light industrial I. Ryan Mandel I. Michael Miller. I Munoz is not here. Justin Hedrickk. Hi. Michael Bud. I Ed Cantou. I Trey Telman. I. All right. Motion passes. Motion passes. Um, for those in the audience, just so you know, uh, we are not the final decision here, planning commission. We're just a recommending body. This will go to uh city council. Um Andrew, will notices go back out with the city council hearing date? I'm sorry. Date will be June 17th. Okay. And I did hear that maybe the sign got knocked over. So if that's the case, we will we will go out tomorrow morning. It was standing up whenever I was there earlier today. Yeah, I was down at on that issue. Will the street closures be a part of this particular zoning process or that is a it'll be a separate item heard by council also on the 17th. Okay, good. Thank will they get a notice for that as well? Unfortunately, not for the street closures, but it it will be on the agenda if they're in attendance for the reasonzoning. That of course on the same day. It'll be on the same day. Okay. Thank you. Um okay that takes us to uh director's report. U report for this evening sir. Okay then we will go ahead and adjourn the planning commission and convene the beach dune committee. Um if you would do a roll call for beach dune committee please. If I could get the presentation for the beach. If y'all don't mind, could could everyone please step out? We we've got another board meeting to get to. I appreciate y'all. Thank you. Yes, sir. Go ahead. All right. Michael York, here. Cynthia Salazar Garza here. Michael Miller here. Brian Mandel here. Mike Munoz. No. Justin Hendrickk here. Michael Bud here. Ed Cantou here. Trey Telman here. We have a quum. Thank you. Um I'll go ahead and say the comments. The public is invited to speak on any agenda item and and any other items that pertain to the Beach Dune Committee. Comments are limited to three minutes. Uh we will wait till we get to the item to open that. Um approval of absences for Commissioner Mandel. 7:15. I move that we approve the absences of Commissioner Mandel from August 21st, 2024. I second. All right. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Motion passes. Approval of the Beach June Committee minutes from August 21st. Commissioner Randall, I move that we approve the minutes from August 21st, 2024. I second. All right. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I. All right. Uh motion passes. Moving on to uh item number eight, public hearing for a beachfront construction certificate. Uh and Andrew, I want to ask a question. Yes, sir. I got a reached out from the applicant. Is the description on here correct? to the best of my knowledge. Yes. Okay. Um he was just worried that it was for looked like it was stating a different property. It may just be the way that it's uh worded here, but Okay. Please proceed. Good evening, Beach Dune Committee Planning Commission members. Thank you for your patience. Elena Bendo with development services. Um and you are correct. The address is 6961 State Highway 361. Um the case before you is BD8646. It's the applicant is Inffort Ventures LLC. Um located at 6961 uh State Highway 361. This is for a largecale dune compensation. Next slide, please. A little bit of project background. Some of you may remember that you did do an approval for a project for construction activities at this site. When the um contractor that was hired began those construction activities, um inadvertently there was adverse impacts to dunes and dune vegetation. The applicant in coordination with the county and the GLO and the city has put together a mitigation plan which is before you now. that mitigation plan has already gone before uh the county and received their dune protection permit. Elena, can I pause you? Yeah. No. So, did we just misstate completely mistake the the the agenda item? Yeah. So, when the applicant reached out, he said that he was worried his item wasn't on there because the what's stated on the agenda is wrong, but when you click on the attachments, they were correct. Right. The agenda does state Noasis County Coastal Parks Department which was heard at the last beach dune committee. That's so technically the item isn't on tonight's agenda. That's correct. What can we do to help us out? I know he's been waiting 30 days for this to come up. So I hate for him to miss out on a like a technical conditional approval for us. It's not properly posted. So we can we go back one slide as well? We can put it on the next immediate planning commission agenda. This is completely the wrong um it's the wrong caption. It's the wrong caption. On the upside for the applicant, you did receive the GLO comments today. We were going to recommend just approval without the condition. We were waiting for GLO approval which can take up to 30 days. And in order to facilitate and get the applicant up and going, we uh went ahead and scheduled for planning commission. So we we will have to repost. So the the correct item is listed. Is the case number correct? No, that is the I remember reading in that case for Bob Hall that is that is the uh the case from the previous Oh, I see down here it's 8646. Correct. The attachments are correct, but the caption is incorrect. Therefore, it wasn't properly posted and cannot be heard. So it's a dress rehearsal. It will be heard at the next planning commission/Bache committee meeting comments came back favorable to the BCC. Correct. And so it will be when? In two weeks. Two weeks. So it won't be conditional when it comes back. Correct. Okay. All right, gentlemen. Well, I apologize. You've been waiting quite a while. Um, so we don't there's no action. We there's there's nothing. Correct. That previous item was already voted upon. Okay. Well, and there's no director's report for Beach Dune Committee other than look out in the next two weeks for uh this item to reappear with the correct caption. Okay, with that we are journ. Wow.