OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Round Rock City Council Packet Briefing - November 19, 2024

City Council — Tuesday, November 19, 2024
BodyRound Rock, Texas
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, November 19, 2024
StatusFILED
Video Record
Meeting Thumbnail
⇩ GET FROM SOURCE

STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE

Transcript — Verbatim
0:02

Good morning.

0:03

Call the 730 packet briefing to order.

0:06

And please call the roll.

0:09

Mayor Morgan.

0:10

Here.

0:10

Mayor Pro Chim Stevens.

0:12

Councilmember Lee.

0:13

Here.

0:13

Councilmember Flores?

0:14

Here.

0:14

Councilmember Fleming?

0:16

Councilmember Ortega?

0:17

Here.

0:18

Councilmember Montgomery.

0:19

Here.

0:20

And Councilmember Fleming will be here on Thursday.

0:23

She's off raising money for cure for the cancer.

0:26

So staff briefings, do you want to consider staff briefings and council member discussion or questions regarding items on the agenda for the meeting date?

0:34

Meeting, city council meeting.

0:37

Staff presentations.

0:39

We'll have a presentation on university.

0:42

Um sent.

0:45

Anything on the consent.

0:51

G1 to say resolution to enter into an engineering contract with Hendricks.

0:55

Good morning, Mayor Council.

0:57

This is a simple trades contract with HCE, as you know, HC is local down on Main Street here.

1:02

It's a five-year contract with them for all MEP.

1:05

The first thing they're gonna get started on is our downtown electrical assessment.

1:09

So be happy to answer any questions.

1:11

Questions?

1:13

Questions?

1:15

All right.

1:15

G2 consider thank you, Judd.

1:18

G2 consider resolution authorized mayor to execute the first amendment to memorandum lease option between the city and KRCC Brooks.

1:26

Why don't you talk about that one in G3?

1:29

Perfect.

1:30

So I have a quick presentation to do if they'll pull that up for me.

1:33

Um so the Kalahari Agreement's a huge agreement.

1:38

Um and so we're proposing today is just to make some changes to one section of the agreement.

1:44

It's the H2 item.

1:46

It's on the other presentation.

1:48

There we go.

1:49

I should have labeled it better.

1:53

So the original terms of the agreement with uh Kalahari, we had a 355-acre land lease with a 99-year term.

2:02

Uh important part of that is uh at the end of the uh debt being paid off, Kalahari can purchase the property for a dollar an acre.

2:11

So that's an important item to have in consideration here as we talk about uh what exactly this will do.

2:17

Um so what was done is uh at the time of closing, Kalahari made a 17 million dollar lease prepayment and a 10.5 million dollar uh lease payment was deferred to be paid December 20th of 2024.

2:32

So the city owns the land, Kalahari has a long-term ground lease on the property.

2:39

So the amended terms is to remove 30 acres from the lease.

2:43

Uh over the past few years, we've been discussing our ability to long-term serve wastewater in the community, and this 30 acres is immediately adjacent to our regional wastewater plant.

2:54

Uh, we've discussed with the council uh well over uh a year looking for an opportunity to pick up this land for the benefit of the community, not immediately but long term as we continue to grow.

3:05

We've had uh the benefit of long-term thinking and planning.

3:08

So having that flexible 30 acres for future wastewater use is gonna be in our opinion extremely beneficial to this community uh not this year, not next year, but decades in the future.

3:19

And so what's being proposed is to amend that deferred lease payment from the 10.5 million to 6.8, and for consideration of picking up this property to defer that payment until December 20th, 2029.

3:35

Uh, all of the costs uh tied up in this portion of the deal is out of the utility fund, and the land will benefit the utility fund, so it's very simple and clean.

3:45

So, in a very large complex deal, what we're doing is we're removing 30 acres, the city will own that in perpetuity, and for that consideration, we're reducing that deferred lease payment and extending the uh the date out from December 2024 to 2029.

4:03

Uh and the land, as you can see, is this 30 acres immediately to the west of the uh regional wastewater plant, and you can see a lot of it's in the 500-year floodplain, the two percent floodplain, but a lot of our existing plant is in that same floodplain, so there likely will be a project in the future uh to reclaim some of that property for for long-term use and uh sustainability of the existing plant and the future plant in in the uh distant future.

4:31

So happy to answer any questions, but again, it's uh taking 30 acres out of the lease, city retains that forever and extending that uh deferred payment until 2029.

4:43

And on Thursday night, Bill Auto will be here to answer any questions from Kalahari side.

4:48

Uh just to maybe anticipate some questions in advance.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Engineering And Infrastructure████████████████████████████████32%
Data Center Regulation███████████████████████23%
Procedural█████████████13%
Planned Unit Development█████████9%
Technology and Innovation████████8%
Planning and Development██████6%
Public Works█████5%
Zoning and Development Code████4%
Summary of Proceedings

Round Rock City Council Packet Briefing - November 19, 2024

This is a summary of the packet briefing held on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 7:30 AM in the City Council Chambers. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Craig Morgan at 7:30 AM and adjourned at 8:11 AM. Councilmember Melissa Fleming was absent. The briefing covered items scheduled for the upcoming City Council meeting on Thursday, November 21, 2024, including consent agenda items, a public hearing on a rezoning application, and a resolution requiring a vote. No citizen communication was heard.

Consent Calendar

  • G1: Resolution awarding engineering contract with Hendricks (HCE) for MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) services over five years, starting with a downtown electrical assessment.
  • G2 & G3: Two resolutions related to the Kalahari agreement: (1) removing 30 acres from the 355-acre ground lease, with the city retaining that land in perpetuity for future regional wastewater plant expansion, and (2) amending the deferred lease payment from $10.5 million to $6.8 million and extending the payment date from December 2024 to December 2029. The deferred payment will be repaid to the utility fund. The removed 30 acres are adjacent to the regional wastewater plant, partially in the 500-year floodplain. Staff noted this is mutually beneficial to Kalahari, freeing up capital.
  • G4: Resolution authorizing an agreement with Google Fiber to reimburse the city up to $40,000 per month for 18 months for two third-party inspectors (via HDR Engineering) dedicated to overseeing Google Fiber’s 9-12 daily construction crews laying fiber. City currently has five inspectors stretched across capital projects.
  • G5: Resolution authorizing a contract with HDR Engineering for those two inspectors.
  • G6: Resolution awarding a construction contract to Dan Williams for the Avery Nelson Parkway extension (northeast side), a six-lane divided arterial from counterpoint 117 to 110, including a traffic signal. The existing road segment will be abandoned and likely sold/returned to property owners. Councilmember Ortega raised concerns about preventing drivers from continuing straight; staff confirmed illumination and barriers will be installed.
  • G7: Resolution awarding a $964,000 contract to Patent Construction for a culvert project under the Union Pacific Railroad tracks (48-inch and 42-inch culverts) to improve downtown drainage, notably near the Serving Center. The project was rebid after a prior contractor was stopped due to boring methodology issues. Construction timeline is 3-4 months.
  • G8: Resolution awarding a $499,888 contract to Elect Nord Belco Electric for a new traffic signal at Old Settlers Blvd and Sam Bass Road. The intersection has had 20 collisions in three years, meeting TxDOT traffic signal warrants. Five bidders; low bidder selected.
  • G9: Resolution approving change order #9 ($408,000) for the Kenny Fort Phase 2 & 3 project (contractor: JD Abrams) for quantity adjustments and completed work. Project nearing completion; final asphalt and striping at Gaddis and Kenny Fort intersection expected within days.
  • G10: Resolution casting a vote for Laura Webber’s re-election to the Williamson Central Appraisal District Board of Directors. No discussion.
  • G11: Resolution authorizing a contract with Yellowstone Landscape for citywide landscaping services, continuing a relationship since 2017 via cooperative purchasing.

Discussion Items

  • H1 – Public hearing on a rezoning request for 57.15 acres: The property is on the west side of IH-35 near Chisholm Trail Road, currently zoned C1 (general commercial). The applicant proposes a Planned Unit Development (PUD) with a base zoning of C1A, adding data center, electric substation, and office warehouse uses. The PUD divides the site into three parcels: Parcel 1 (north) allows a data center (subject to light industrial design standards, no overhead doors facing IH-35), Parcel 2 (middle) allows an electric substation only in conjunction with a data center, and Parcel 3 (south) is C1A plus office warehouse (much of it floodplain). Staff from Planning (Bradley) presented. Key points:
    • The data center building height and setbacks follow C1A; design standards are light industrial. A compatibility wall and buffer (8-foot masonry wall plus evergreens) will be required along the northern property line next to a future high-density multifamily PUD.
    • For the substation site, three monarch live oak trees exist. The applicant will preserve the two largest (48-inch and 49-inch) and remove the smallest (36-inch), but only if the substation is developed; otherwise, no tree removal is permitted without separate council approval.
    • Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval. No public testimony at the hearing, but one email was received from a nearby property owner expressing concerns about data center noise, light, and fire hazard.
    • Council discussed: water usage (closed-loop cooling systems are more efficient; Councilmember Montgomery asked about requiring such loops in the PUD—not currently included), power supply priorities during freezes, total number of data centers (this would be the fourth property entitled; others: Switch (three buildings), SABE (two buildings), Amazon (entitled for data center on its property)), and whether Encore (local utility) could accommodate more. Staff noted data centers require council-approved PUDs, giving council case-by-case control. Councilmember Flores asked about height limits (12 stories along interstate).
    • Staff recommended approval.

Key Outcomes

  • Resolution E1 (Adopting the Covered Applications and Prohibited Technology Policy): Staff presented the state-required policy banning TikTok and similar apps on government-issued electronics. Councilmember Flores moved, Councilmember Lee seconded. Roll call vote: All present (Lee, Flores, Ortega, Stevens, Montgomery, Morgan) voted yes. Councilmember Fleming absent. Resolution adopted.
  • All other items (G1-G11, H1) were discussed and will be considered for action at the November 21 City Council meeting.

Meeting Transcript

Good morning. Call the 730 packet briefing to order. And please call the roll. Mayor Morgan. Here. Mayor Pro Chim Stevens. Councilmember Lee. Here. Councilmember Flores? Here. Councilmember Fleming? Councilmember Ortega? Here. Councilmember Montgomery. Here. And Councilmember Fleming will be here on Thursday. She's off raising money for cure for the cancer. So staff briefings, do you want to consider staff briefings and council member discussion or questions regarding items on the agenda for the meeting date? Meeting, city council meeting. Staff presentations. We'll have a presentation on university. Um sent. Anything on the consent. G1 to say resolution to enter into an engineering contract with Hendricks. Good morning, Mayor Council. This is a simple trades contract with HCE, as you know, HC is local down on Main Street here. It's a five-year contract with them for all MEP. The first thing they're gonna get started on is our downtown electrical assessment. So be happy to answer any questions. Questions? Questions? All right. G2 consider thank you, Judd. G2 consider resolution authorized mayor to execute the first amendment to memorandum lease option between the city and KRCC Brooks. Why don't you talk about that one in G3? Perfect. So I have a quick presentation to do if they'll pull that up for me. Um so the Kalahari Agreement's a huge agreement. Um and so we're proposing today is just to make some changes to one section of the agreement. It's the H2 item. It's on the other presentation. There we go. I should have labeled it better. So the original terms of the agreement with uh Kalahari, we had a 355-acre land lease with a 99-year term. Uh important part of that is uh at the end of the uh debt being paid off, Kalahari can purchase the property for a dollar an acre. So that's an important item to have in consideration here as we talk about uh what exactly this will do. Um so what was done is uh at the time of closing, Kalahari made a 17 million dollar lease prepayment and a 10.5 million dollar uh lease payment was deferred to be paid December 20th of 2024. So the city owns the land, Kalahari has a long-term ground lease on the property. So the amended terms is to remove 30 acres from the lease. Uh over the past few years, we've been discussing our ability to long-term serve wastewater in the community, and this 30 acres is immediately adjacent to our regional wastewater plant.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI
TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com