City seeking architect to design civic center
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

The Lampasas City Council voted unanimously Monday to issue requests for proposals from architects for a proposed civic center.

The civic center committee received three responses to requests for qualifications and will ask all three firms to submit proposals, committee chairman Jack Calvert said.

With the invitation to submit proposals, the committee will send a report outlining priorities for the new facility, including meeting areas, classrooms and performing arts space. All three firms will receive the same packet, allowing them to include the same building features in their proposals.

Councilman Robert McCauley expressed concerns about leaving athletic facilities out of the report. Mayor Judy Hetherly said playing fields already are planned for the sports park on Farm-to-Market Road 580 West.

Calvert said plans prepared nearly 10 years ago included sports facilities, which made the price of a civic center too high. As a result, a research committee had to postpone plans for a civic center for nearly nine years.

"We don't want to do that again," he said.

McCauley said he wants to make sure citizens can comment in public hearings on civic center plans, including its location and amenities. City Manager Michael Stoldt said the city will hold public hearings after the council chooses an architect.

"This is a public project, and we need public input," Calvert added.

The council has not yet selected a site for the civic center, but Calvert said the committee recommends building the facility at Campbell Park, just south of the Hanna Springs Swimming Pool parking lot.

The committee also considered the Santa Fe Square, including the former Winn-Dixie building; AMVETS Post 80 home; the Holiday House and the FM 580 sports park.

Campbell Park seems well-suited to a convention center, Calvert said, because the city already owns the property and could share parking space with the swimming pool.

In another item, the council voted unanimously to join with the Lampasas County Commissioners Court to build a new animal control facility.

The Commissioners Court will write an interlocal agreement for the construction and operation of the complex, likely to be located near the city's wastewater treatment plant.

Lampasas Veterinary Clinic, which provides an impoundment service for the city and county on Farm-to-Market Road 580 East, will not take impounded animals after May 31, as the clinic plans to focus on veterinary medicine.

City and county law enforcement officials are looking for places to house stray animals from June 1 until the opening of a new facility, Lampasas Police Chief Tim Angermann said.

Dr. Curtis Kidd and his family, who have offered impoundment for years, have given the city valuable service, Angermann added.

"I hate to lose (the city's impoundment partnership) with them, because we have had a good working relationship with them," the police chief said.

The new animal control facility probably will not be ready until the fall, Stoldt said. Staff will select an architect to expedite the process, he added.

"We're not doing our standard RFPs," the city manager said. "There's just not enough time to get them out and get them back."

In other business, the council voted 7-0 to pass several amendments to patio home regulations in the city's zoning ordinance. The amendments include a reduction of the front yard setback requirement from 25 feet to 20 feet on lots with rear-entry garages. Lots also must be located on a block at least 250 feet long and situated between two adjacent public roads or between an adjacent public road and the end of a cul-de-sac.

The amended ordinance also states that no additional off-street visitor parking shall be required for dwelling units that provide two covered parking spaces in addition to a garage.

The covered parking must be within the building lines and on the same lot as the main structure.

With a garage and additional covered parking, each lot can accommodate as many as four vehicles, Building Official Lance Carlson said.

The amended ordinance also sets a minimum floor area of 800 square feet for homes on lots less than 5,500 square feet.

Homes must have at least 1,200 square feet on lots of 5,500 square feet or more.

Also Monday, the council held a public hearing but did not vote on a request for a specific-use permit for an RV park at 905 E. Fourth St. Rickey Abraham submitted the request for a 1.3-acre tract that sits in a commercial zoning district and currently houses a manufactured home park.

The property is not well suited to a commercial structure, Carlson said, as about half the tract lies within a floodplain. The RV park's office/bath house will be at the front of the property outside the floodplain.

"If we knew water was coming up, we could always get the RVs out," Carlson said.

Of 10 notices sent to nearby property owners, three have been returned in favor of the specific-use permit and one in opposition.

The Planning and Zoning Commission has heard Abraham's request, but because the commission tabled the matter the council could not vote. Abraham is working on a new site plan, but he is not making public improvements and therefore will not have to submit a plat.

Council member Wanda Bierschwale said she wants Abraham to obtain an engineer's approval, as she said the owner of Boone RV Park did.

"He paid $5,000 for an engineer, and it seems like if we required that of him we should require it for this," said Mrs. Bierschwale.

In other matters, the council:

• voted 5-2 to remove a stone monument from the entrance of Diamond Ridge Drive. Hetherly, Mayor Pro Tem John Cole and councilmen McCauley, Jerry Grayson and Les Gerhardt voted in favor of removal. Mrs. Bierschwale and council member Debbie Fuller were opposed.

• voted unanimously to continue charging Atmos Energy a 3 percent franchise fee. Raising the fee could have generated as much as $40,000 in additional revenue for the city, but customers' utility bills would have risen.

• unanimously passed a resolution determining a public necessity for condemning unclaimed property, which will be used as an easement to extend utilities to the new high school site.

The city has been trying to purchase a tract owned by the late W.H. Chambers, but the deceased's heirs have never legally claimed the property. As a result, the city has no property owner with whom to negotiate.

• unanimously approved an agreement to pay Langford Community Management Services $20,000 to administer a 2007 Office of Rural Community Affairs Disaster Grant. The grant award includes $20,000 for administration costs.

• voted 7-0 to spend a maximum of $6,000 for repairs to the Street Department's asphalt distributor, which is used in the sealcoat program.

• approved the appointment of Marcus Johnson and Ken Smith to the Zoning Board of Adjustments by a 5-0 vote. Cole and Grayson abstained.