Following a request from the mayor that council reconsider the recently approved noise and food ordinance policies, the council voted to adopt the ordinances again with some changes.
June 11’s meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, and a prayer led by Mayor Gibson. The floor was then opened up to the public, where multiple members of the community complained about the lack of transparency, lack of minutes from previous meetings and exclusion of certain businesses from the noise ordinance community.
Local Tammy Morrow took issue with the food truck ordinances, calling them an overreach.
“The proposed ordinance states that the permittee must remove the food truck after seven days from the permit expiring,” said Morrow. “I question how the city has the right to say what stays or goes on private property.”
The second item was revising the noise ordinances. Mayor Gibson brought this item forward for multiple revisions, including allowing commercial areas, and live music venues to produce more noise than residential areas.
Some council members spoke on the complaints they had received about the newest restrictions.
Councilman Jeff Flowers said that the council tries but cannot accommodate everyone and that the ordinances are about accountability.
“Not everyone’s going to be 100 percent happy,” said Flowers. “I’m not happy.”
Following the debate, the council voted torevise the ordinances to allow a maximum of 65 decibels during the regular business hours. The ordinance also extended the regular business hours for live music venues for Friday and Saturday night, allowing them to remain at 65 decibels through 1:00 a.m.
Some Bandera citizens pushed back at the meeting, saying that the new ordinances were still restrictive. One common talking point was personal anecdotes of enjoying the live music that they could hear from their yards.
“There’s nothing that’s been wrong in the past 25 years, and nobody has ever brought this up again, then why are we starting to bring it up now,” said concerned citizen Jayson Zamora.
The prospect of these noise ordinances scaring away visitors because the bars are not attractive to tourists with these ordinances was also a contentious issue.
The council next approved a revised food truck ordinance. This follows a moratorium and some ‘timeline issues,’ according to the mayor.
The new ordinance created a monthly mobile food vendor permit option, which allows those vendors to pay for the number of months they want to operate, up to 12 months.
Some citizens said they took issue with the idea of having to remove the food truck from the property when not in use, especially if the truck is kept on the property of the owners. The council cited public nuisance laws in their response.
The council voted to revise the ordinances as well as approve the fee schedule, with the permits now requiring only $10 for each day after the initial time period.
A full video of this meeting is available on the Bulletin’s website, BanderaBulletin. com Earlier in the meeting, city specialist Susan Hutcherson presented grant applications the city recently submitted and received totaling $39 million. City Administrator Stan Farmer also presented on the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. The city had requested $15.4 million to complete a water treatment plant, and received $1.4 million in principal forgiveness, with a further loan of $3.1 million.
After the presentations, the council discussed and voted on four items. The first item was the Texas Department of Transportation project to take place on Highway 16 and Highway 173. The project would add left-hand turn lanes and improve the sidewalks for pedestrian safety, according to the meeting agenda. Andres Gonzales of Tx-DOT spoke at the meeting and noted the inconvenience this project would cause. He said that despite that fact and their history of pushback from locals, he wants this project to go forward.
“We want to spend our time and efforts into something that’s going to be good for everyone,” Gonzales said.
The resolution to approve the project was passed.
The council meets every second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m.
For more information, as well as the agenda packets for each meeting, go to www.banderatx.gov/ meetings.
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