Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Good evening. This is your one minute notice. Heat. Heat. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is now 7:01 p.m. Welcome to tonight's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting of Monday, May 4th, 2026. Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission and the public may participate in the public hearing. All participants will be available to speak when called upon. At this time, I would like to explain the procedures to be followed during the meeting. The commission has both a consent agenda and an agenda for consideration of individual items. Items listed on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and non-contested. Item number one, citizen comments, provides the opportunity for members of the public to address the commission on items that are listed on the consent agenda. Each speaker will be listed limited to three minutes, and the secretary will let you know when one minute is left. For all plats and plans conditionally approved or disapproved by the commission, the applicant was provided a written statement of the conditions for the conditional approval or the reasons for disapproval. These conditions and reasons are not arbitrary. They are directly related to the requirements of local government code chapter 212 and include citations to the law that is the basis for the conditional approval or disapproval. For individual consideration items, I will call the applicant or his or her representative to present the case. The applicant will have up to five minutes to present the case, which includes all persons representing the application. Then those wishing to speak in favor and those wishing to speak in opposition will have up to five minutes each to present his or her comments. The applicant will have five minutes to answer questions or provide rebuttal if there is opposition. Prior to speaking, please give your name and city of residence. Remember to speak directly into the microphone as this hearing is recorded for the public record. Any handouts you wish to provide should be gi given to staff. Applicants are not required to stay for the entire duration of the meeting and me may leave once their item has been heard. The next meeting of the planning and zoning commission will be Monday, June 1st, 2026. And the next item on our agenda this evening is citizen comments on items listed on the consent agenda. April, has anyone signed up to speak on any item on the consent agenda? >> No one signed up. Please proceed. >> Thank you very much. Um, so Secretary Meyer, would you please read the consent agenda into the record? >> Yes. The only item we have for uh the consent agenda is is the approval of the planning and zoning commission minutes of Monday, April 6, 2026. >> Thank you. We have a um or I'll accept a motion. >> I'll make a motion for approval of the minute commission minutes for Monday, April 6, 2026. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? Please vote. Motion carries 8 to zero. And Secretary Mrick, will you read the consent agenda for disapprovals? >> Yes. For disapprovals, I have 2026 02 PL Santos Ronnie Edition located at 1301 Ronnie Drive. >> Thank you. We'll take a motion to approve. >> Is this for disapproval? >> Disapproval. >> Disapproval. >> Make a motion for disapproval for the reasons set forth in the staff uh memo. I'll second. >> Thank you. We have a motion, a second. Please vote. >> And the motion carries z uh 8 to zero. Uh now we'll move on to the individual items. And the first zoning case is zoning case 2025-213-Z, MacArthur Marketplace. Is the applicant available? Would you like to come down and speak? >> You're good. >> Ah, okay. Thank you. Um, we did hear your case in work session. So, if you don't have anything further to add, does the commission have any questions for the applicant? No question. Is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of the item? Is there anyone who'd like to speak in opposition to the item? I'll close this item to the floor and return it to the commission for discussion. >> Okay, no further discussion. I'll accept a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve zoning case 2025-213-Z and move forward to city council on May 7th for approval. Second. >> Thank you very much. We have a motion, a second. Please vote. >> And the motion carries 8 to zero. So, congratulations. You now have um a recommendation from planning and zoning commission which will go to city council scheduled for May 7th. So, they will take the final uh vote on that evening. >> You're welcome. Thank you, sir. So we have two items that are companion case. One is the comprehensive plan case 2026-52CP. Is the applicant present? Thank you. Um your case was discussion work session. I don't know if you were there or not. >> Yes, I was. >> Okay. So, uh, with your name and city of residence, >> my name is >> Okay, can you guys hear me now? >> Yes. >> Okay, good. I've always wanted to do that. Uh, my name is Adam Coa. I'm president of Hoffman Planning Associates. Um, and I live in Oceanside, California. Um, I'm here with Michael Hugh. He's a representative of Tesla. Um, and we did get to sit in on the work session, so we got to hear some of uh your comments and concerns today. So, um, I guess I'll just jump right into it and and can I confirm, do we have 10 minutes or five? >> You you have 10 if you want to take it with a zoning case. >> Okay. Um, yeah, we'll take them together and we'll see uh how fast we can go. Um but yeah uh first off thank you for hearing us tonight and um as as you guys know this is for the robo taxi that Tesla is starting to develop in different cities around the country. Um they're excited to hopefully bring this to Irving. Um we think it's a good location. Um and this site specifically would be for minor service repairs. um you know, software updates. Um I'm going to let Michael get into the operations because that's kind of his territory more than mine. Um and I'm just hoping to talk a little bit about some of the concerns with the planning and zoning with the uh future land use and and the zone change that um we're proposing for this site. Um as Gina had mentioned in her presentation to you, uh we're proposing an ML20A uh light industrial zone. It's currently zoned as freeway. Um, and as she mentioned, the most of the surrounding properties, I think all but maybe one are also uh ML2A at this time. Some have uh site plans with certain caveats, but it's surrounded by ML2A um uses uh and it's currently in the future land use designation of um business office and we're proposing to switch that to uh manufacturing warehouse to align uh the two uh the land use with the zoning. Um, as Gina had mentioned, um, this facility was recently updated. Uh, if you look, uh, I don't know if you've looked at Google Maps when I first checked it out. It looks very different when you're poking around on Street View. Uh, it's a new facility. They they did a major renovation of the whole premises, and it is primarily geared towards kind of the warehouse manufacturing uses. If you look, there's a lot of loading bays and stuff. not typically something you would see um for a potential business or office kind of park as the future land use is kind of proposing. Gina also mentioned and this was news to me today um that there's you know several demo cases where the new uh you know buildings that are going to be coming in are also um warehouse kind of manufacturingesque buildings. Um, and so it seems like there's a slight disconnect between what city council has directed and what's kind of being developed on these sites um by the the people who own them for potential uses. I know um by where we're located there's been a lot of you know empty kind of commercial office buildings and a lot of people are trending towards more you know spaces that are industrial in nature either for the rent you know maybe being cheaper or because it gives them options to have some office some work space that they can you know um pursue whatever use that they're doing their manufacturing. So, it's almost these hybrid uses. Um, and and that's kind of the case here. Tesla's proposing, you know, office space. Um, they're proposing the light kind of service auto, you know, it's it's cleaning, it's software updates, it's some parts replacement. There's no oil changes because they don't have oil. There's no exhaust system on these vehicles. So, it's not anything to do with with that kind of stuff. It's it's very much it's not necessarily an industrial use, more so of like a service use I would classify it. Um but we just we were um guided to this uh zone and and land use because uh it is new and it doesn't fit anywhere. Uh we've encountered this problem in other cities. People are just seeing this new use and saying we've don't have a place for this in our code right now. Um and so we've been, you know, working with different groups and and cities to try to find, you know, how can we best make this fit with your city to but also ensure um that it's not going to be impactful to the surrounding uses. So um we've worked extensively with the landlord. Um we've they've looked at it with their land use council to see if it would affect any other users that they have on the site and they're in support of of the project as well. um they think it's a good use. Like I said, it's fully electric, so these vehicles aren't emitting uh any harmful, you know, GHG gases or anything like that. They're quiet. Um all the maintenance and all that will be taking place within the buildings. Um, and so I I I understand uh it it's we thought there might be a a a path forward with a commercial um zone here, but uh we were told that there has to be an on-site commercial component. So, that didn't really pan out. Um but from Tesla's perspective, um we're willing to kind of try to find the proper path to work with you. Um, and we know that, you know, the fear is that if we can get over the, you know, public safety concerns that were raised, um, that Tesla is working with fire department and and their team is involved already. Um the fear is that we get to this point where we come back and we've addressed those public um safety concerns, but then this um future land use item is still kind of on the on the board where you know it it could fit. Um, but if there's clear direction from council where they're not wanting us to go that, then then the then it's going to be hard for Tesla to continue to pursue this type of project with with that kind of variability involved. So, um, hoping to find, you know, a path forward. Like we said, we're willing to work um with the city and staff and with the landlord to hopefully um you know pursue this project at this location because it's a a good spot for them um for their operations. And I'm going to pass it to Michael now to to talk a little bit about those operations. >> Uh good evening, commissioners. I was just wondering if you guys have access to the slides that we also shared. There's like three slides. Um >> yes. Oh, slides as opposed to a presentation >> like a presentation slides. Did you guys receive that? >> No. >> Give us a second. >> Yep. >> Thanks, Michael. Can you tell us your name and city of residence for the record? >> Yeah. Uh, Michael Hugh. I'm based in Austin, Texas. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, this looks to be it. >> Cool. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to give some insight here into our proposed robo taxi operations. Um, I'm I'm part of Tesla's infrastructure uh and development team. So, I'm the design manager for this project. Um, I'd like to preface that like Tesla is an EV manufacturer of both consumer vehicles and and more recently c uh company-owned uh robo taxis. The facility that we're proposing here today is a bit of a departure from like Tesla's typical customerf facing sales service delivery locations where you might take your Tesla vehicle or pick up a new car um or visit a showroom to learn more about our vehicles. Today what's showing on the screen is like what we're proposing is like a purpose-built uh facility in Irving that's utilized for cleaning service maintenance and charging of our robo taxis. If you go to the next slide, um, this is just showing >> you have access to the mouse if you pull the keyboard out. >> Cool. >> In the drawer. Yeah, >> perfect. Thank you. This next slide here, this this shows where the off-site lot is in relation to the site. As you can see, it's pretty close by. The building is 36,000 square ft, and we intend to utilize that like off-site parking lot as sort of like a queuing area before and after vehicles um go to get served or maintained. Uh so just diving into our operations a bit. Uh the main purpose of the building as noted was for vehicle queuing. So vehicles will come in, they'll be queued before they get cleaned. These are daily safety checks and interior cleaning of the cars. any like dirt and grime as well as the exterior of the car will be washed as well as there's a safety component or or service component just like a normal Tesla facility. Um there's service lifts utilized for um light maintenance such as like tire uh alignment or or wheel alignment uh tire changing and and just uh high level diagnostics for vehicles. Uh we also have parts and storage in this building again for servicing the cars as well as an office area for uh Tesla employees and personnel that are supporting robo taxi operations kind of inner Irving. And we've designed our building in a in a way selected this site in a way such that we have queuing inside and at that off-site lot which is very close by so it prevents any queueing like in that truck court area as well as on the streets. Um, we did also see that uh, fire chief Connley did share that letter voicing some concerns about uh, like first responder um, issues and then our fire protection engineering team as well as our robots first responder outreach team has been in contact with him. We are trying to build that relationship now and try and schedule these training sessions. This is stuff that we've done in Austin as well as Dallas where we've deployed already. We just have not done that yet in Irving since we're still a good ways away from actually deploying robo taxes, but we're hoping that uh this facility will allow us to actually get to that point. Um that's pretty much it. Are there any questions about our operations? >> One of the questions I got is uh did you see the letter from the chief of police? >> Yes, we did receive that today. >> Okay. And we our first responder outreach team will be in contact with them as well. Pretty much exactly like uh with the fire department. We will host in on-site training sessions with our autopilot team as well. >> Okay. >> We're just working to actually get that scheduled um and we're meeting with my I think on Wednesday. >> Can you go back to the first slide? So this building that's in the middle is that are you all taking that space too or just what's around the red box? >> Just what's around the red box. So the building have the end cap of the building roughly 35,000 ft. And then the parking lot far away that's 200 stalls. >> Okay. So are we looking at changing for these two spaces versus the entire area? The base zoning is currently freeway and so it would would change everything else to the ML20A. >> Yeah. And and then add the uh auto autonomous vehicle dispatch storage. So that that's what the SP zoning would be. >> Okay. about how many vehicles will you be having there? Uh we estimate approximately a few thousand vehicles to be able to be serviced from one location such as this. Um so that's our kind of estimate at this point. Um now this is only for robo taxi >> indeed >> not for regular >> yeah this would be a purpose-built facility for robot taxi. We do have other um customerf facing locations where you could get your Tesla car serviced elsewhere. This one would just be dedicated for that just since the operations are quite different and this one's more like high volume or much faster throughput since each robo taxi will be coming here every day for that like daily cleaning daily safety check >> and will this be serving just the city of Irving >> uh >> bubble taxi >> this will be serving robo taxi vehicles I'm not sure exactly how far they would deploy in this area. We would call it like the geoence of the Dallas Fort Worth region. Um the intent is to actually utilize like our other facilities as well, not bring all thousand or thousands of robo taxis just to to this facility since it wouldn't be able to handle it. So we'd also use our other like infrastructure that's already built to kind of handle and and spread out. But isn't it currently where the autonomous vehicle just service like one city for example like or parts of the city like just like downtown Austin for example they don't go across highways usually is isn't that the case >> I wouldn't say the vehicles are restricted to a certain area like let's say a vehicle a robot taxi that's dispatched out of here I'm not sure exactly how far it would go if it would go outside of Irving it probably would I would imagine. >> Now you you're all currently um going to be renting out the space, right? >> Yes, we would be leasing this space. >> Now, why did you all pick this spot in particular? >> Uh I believe the proximity close to the airport and just uh the new shell nature of it and the fact that it has that ample parking for us to queue our vehicles. Um again, we don't want our vehicles to be stuck in congestion or traffic either and we want them to have higher utilization. And so if there's periods of of high traffic, we do intend on utilizing that parking lot to kind of cue vehicles before they actually go onto the road, if they're like ready to go onto the road and are clean. But like we've done a traffic simulation exactly around this site to show that right around 5:00 or like the morning peak hours. There's no real point in dispatching cars around then because it's such high traffic actually getting onto the the highway there on the little road that you can see on the bottom uh left. >> If this was approved, how how soon do you anticipate you these robot taxis will be on on the market? this facility. We would if we could get this one approved uh through the reszone process. We're hoping by end of year would be the intent to get this up and running and deploy vehicles out of >> in regards to the concerns about noise like we have seen some of the videos and on just the honking I guess is more of the issue here because I mean how how are you how are you all addressing those issues or how have you all addressed it before? Yeah, I've seen all those videos in of our competitors in San Francisco. Uh we do have a large presence of like remote operators available in both California and Texas that are able to advise and see if there's anything going kind of crazy. And um we haven't had that situation happen yet in in Austin um or or the Bay Area where we are deployed. So, ideally that that doesn't happen. Um, and it is kind of caused by I did see those videos and it's kind of located in really like dense downtown parking lots. This one's a little different where again it's a little more industrial per se where there ideally isn't that much queuing at night uh and blocking roads because ideally there aren't aren't that many people kind of living exactly here. So, >> and what will be the hours of operation? The intent would be uh 24-hour operations because uh the higher volume traffic uh actually at this facility and then the maintenance and cleaning would be at night because that's when there's not that many riders on the road and that's the good point to actually clean the cars before the morning when they can be dispatched to to capture that morning rush. >> So if there was any concern about noise and there will be somebody already on site to be able to address it. >> Oh yeah, there would be people on site at night. Um, everyone will be there actually cleaning the cars. >> Thank you. >> Did you say that you all had location in Dallas already? >> We have deployed a small volume of vehicles. I think a handful of cars in Dallas. Um, correct. Yeah. >> Where where are you all located at in Dallas? >> Uh, they are operating out of our existing um Tesla center uh in Dallas. I'm not sure exactly dealership. >> Yeah. Uh, one of the things the staff mentioned was the possibility of a three-month sort of postponement. So, I just wanted to find out, are y'all this evening wanting us to send this on to the council one way or the other, or are you asking for those three months? Um, that is a tough question because we do know that the council kind of has the concerns about like this general future land use being office business. Um, we would like to utilize some time to get the police and fire departments kind of in support of our our project before we go to city council. um as we would like to have them again in support before we kind of go in in getting that approval. Um so I think so uh if there's a chance if there's a path forward to get through like the actual business office kind of reszone aspect that we think is a little challenging as well as well as getting those departments on our side. we could potentially use that time to um delay the city council meeting. >> Okay. So So you are asking for I mean the staff had mentioned a three-month extension or a postponement and that that is what you're asking for tonight or or not. I mean that's I that's where I'm really >> wondering if he should answer. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um and and maybe we can brainstorm here because I I don't know option. I think Gina said we have to go to council this week because it was >> Is that correct? Like we don't have a choice. >> Well, I mean if we don't if we don't vote on it tonight, if we postpone, you don't go to council. >> Okay. >> So, until we vote on it. And because that's an interesting uh as I had mentioned and as Michael's been mentioning, it's hard for us um or hard for Tesla to um agree to keep going, you know, with the public safety and addressing those concerns, which we think are very addressable. If if there's essentially a line that's been drawn in and that future land use is is a non-starter for council, that's hard to, you know, pivot to four months of work. >> Yeah. There's no reason to wait. >> And so I don't know if it's I I mean, I understand you guys have to make a recommendation. Um, and to me it's like I'd like to maybe get in front of council to kind of talk about, you know, ho how firm that is because it sounds to me like they it's semi-reent the last, you know, handful of years. Um, but just to kind of discuss, you know, the these new uses, the ones that are being demoed and brought in, you know, they're warehouseesque buildings. These are warehouse-esque buildings. we understand that there's this, you know, desire for kind of an office building use there, but the reality is that it's it's not trending that way. Um, and I don't know if that's a very candid discussion, like can you, you know, consider changing. Um, and I don't know how we get to that point with them without you guys making recommendation. Um, and I'm assuming, you know, if we get there, we could ask for a continuence with council. So, >> are there other tenants in those in this building? There are some I don't remember who they are, but we we've discussed with the landlord and um made sure that their uh activities, you know, their uses are not affected by the switch and they've confirmed with their land use council that those other businesses are not going to be impacted by a a change from freeway to um light industrial. And Gina, I don't know if I saw Did the landlord actually put any recommendation into the packet at all? Nothing. Okay. Any further discussion or questions for Adam and Michael? Okay. Hey, is there any >> uh Chief Hogan? >> Madam Chair, Council Jeff Hogan Fire Department. Uh we do the fire department is requesting a delay. Uh just in that right now whatever uh contact we've had has been minimal. So nothing much more than emails I believe. And uh we really need something more substantial um when it comes to a response side to the operations of not only what's going to be stored in the facility but the vehicles as well. So we are requesting that delay. Thanks chief. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this item? Anyone who would like to speak in opposition to the item, I'll close the item to the floor and return it to the commission for discussion or a motion. >> If there's no >> Yeah. >> So, um I I can't support this without knowing the answers in terms of, you know, fire and police having a chance to to weigh in and to evaluate it and look at it, you know, get those questions answered. Um, but I also understand your your dilemma that you can't really financially move forward with the work that it'll take to do that without having some sense that there's at least some chance that you would get an approval. Um, looking at the location, the location makes sense to me in terms of what what you have in mind. Um, but again, I don't know what the council where they're sense of this is either. you know, they may at the next meeting be inclined to just deny it outright and then then it's not an issue. Uh it's not an issue for fire or police or for you all because you all go on to the other things you do. So, um I'm in favor of moving this on to the council. I will vote against it because I we don't have the information. Um but uh but that's that's just where I stand on this. >> If there's no further Um well I believe a postponing is a is the right proposal at the time so that they have the time to address the concerns they have with fire and and police. Um and as well I mean you probably you can get it done I mean within the next this month. I mean you may be back in June. So it doesn't have to be three months. That's what I will think. Yeah, I actually agree with that is uh doing a postponement and giving them time to work with fire as well as police and then also just making sure that the landlord actually comes on record saying that he doesn't have any issue and it's not going to impact any of the other people before changing a zoning that you've got tenants already in. Those are my thoughts. Okay. If there's no further disc there's another >> I'm just I'm just going to I'm going to weigh in on the fact that this is a uh this is a land use um question that's been put in front of us and the recommendation from staff and past city council has been that it's business and office. So um I do feel we should be looking at it from a land use perspective and not necessarily Tesla. So >> Debbie, one thing I would say is >> one thing I would say is it looks like that that building has been changed. So it's going to be kind of hard for it just to be business because the building is a warehouse. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay, if there's no further discussion, uh I'd like to move uh comprehensive plan case 2026-52-CP uh to city council for denial. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Please vote. >> It's going to be split. >> Mhm. >> Four four. So it the motion for denial has passed 6 to2. This is not the end of the road. This gets you where you want to be 2 days from now, 3 days from now in front of city council. Well, they'll take a final final vote then. So it does get you in front of if if we postponed it, um you wouldn't be in front of city council. >> Postpone. >> Yeah. And city council can postpone. >> So it I think this actually gives you the option that you really would prefer at this point. I'd prefer just to to talk to council and then if we need to postpone at that point. >> Perfect. >> Thank you for your understanding. >> Do we need to do the >> No, you got to do the Hold on a minute. >> Hold on a second. We're going to go through the formality of the zoning case if you don't mind. >> Okay. So, um, now we're on to zoning case 20265-51-Z. We've heard your case both in the work session and public hearing. Do you have any other comments to make? Okay. Thank you. Uh, anyone else who'd like to speak in favor of the opt of this item? No. Anyone who would like to speak in opposition to the item? Okay. I'll close the item and return it to the commission for discussion or a motion. If there's no further discussion amongst commissioners, I'd like to move zoning case 2026-51-Z to the city council for denial. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to deny. Please vote. Thank you very much. The motion is to deny 62. And we thank you guys both for coming from California and Austin. And we'll see you we'll see you Thursday. Okay. Uh, zoning case 2026-57-Z. This case has been withdrawn, but um, we'll just hold the public hearing in any case. Is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of this item? Anyone who in opposition? So, the case is withdrawn by the applicant. So, we'll move on to the next case. We are now at comprehensive plan amendment case 2026-112-CP. The applicant for the for this case is actually the city and the commission is not going to act on the case at this time, but we will hold a public hearing for the case. Anyone who would like to speak in favor? Anyone in opposition? Seeing none, at this time I will ask for a motion to postpone to the June 1st hearing. >> I'll make a motion to postpone comprehensive plan 2026-112-CP to June 1st, 2026. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Please vote. So, the motion passes to postpone this case to the planning and zoning commission public hearing on June 1st. Uh, the companion case is 2026-58-ZC. The city is also the applicant for this case. Um, the commission can't act on the case at this time, but we'll hold the public hearing anyway. Is there anyone who'd like to speak in favor of the item? Anyone in opposition to the item? All right, I'll close the item to the floor and return it to the commission for any discussion or a motion. If there's no further discussion amongst the commissioners, I'd like to move zoning case 2026-58-C to our June 1st uh meeting. Postpone it till June 1st. >> I second. Thank you very much. We have a motion and a second. Please vote. The motion passes 8 to 0 to postpone to the public uh hearing for planning and zoning on June 1st. Uh final case this evening is 2026-82-ZC. This case is also postponed to the Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing on June 1st. Um, but we'll hold the public hearing regardless tonight. Um, does the commission have any Well, the applicant's not here, correct? Okay. No applicant. Um, is there anyone who'd like to speak in favor of this item? Anyone in opposition to the case? So, seeing none, I'll move the to close the item to the floor, return it to the commission for discussion or a motion. If there's no discussion, I'd uh move the zoning case 2026 82Z for postponement to the June 1st uh hearing. >> A second. >> We have a motion, a second. Please vote to postpone. And the motion carries 8 to zero to postpone um to the planning and zoning commission public hearing on June 1st. And thank you all very much. meeting is adjourned at 7:39 p.m.