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Council discusses Twin Coves, signs, single-member districts
By Chris Roark, croark@starlocalnews.com
A fully-functioning Twin Coves Park got one step closer to reality Monday.
The Flower Mound Town Council approved a service agreement with John Burns Construction Company of Texas, Inc. for the construction of the Twin Coves Park sewer system project.
The project includes the construction of an 8-inch gravity collection main, a 4-inch service line and a lift station to provide sewer service for two park hosts, two restrooms, one dump station for about 40 RV guests and 28 cabin sites.
With construction completion, the park will be under the town’s sewer system. At that point, the park will be available for overnight camping and RV guests.
Since Flower Mound signed its lease, the town has renovated the 234-acre park with an improved boat ramp, fishing pier and picnic areas. Those amenities have been open since October.
Also Monday, the council tied up some loose ends from its strategic planning session that took place in July.
With a full agenda at the planning session, some items carried over to later council meetings.
Among the items the council gave the town staff direction to pursue Monday was an ordinance amendment to address political signs at polling locations.
“If someone wants to put up 100 signs on their private property, then more power to them,” Councilman Steve Dixon said. “But let’s try to make this less tacky when people go to vote.”
The staff will likely come back to the council at a future meeting with an ordinance amendment that limits the political signs to three per candidate per entrance to the polling location. Councilman Bryan Webb agreed with the need to limit the number of signs, but he said he would like the limit to be two.
Keeping with the subject of signs, the council directed the staff to come back with an ordinance amendment to allow real estate companies to use five directional signs to advertise open house events. The current limit is three.
The current regulations are a result of the Sign Regulation Stakeholders Committee set up under a previous council in 2010. But several members of the real estate community argued that only having three directional signs is not enough.
“We have some residents who live on interior roads off the main roads,” said Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Mark Wise, whose wife is a realtor. “Sometimes it takes at least that many to get them off the main road. It’s important that they be given five signs find these open houses.”
Council members were concerned about the length of time these signs are allowed to stay up. The proposed amendment is expected to prohibit the signs from staying up overnight.
Council members also discussed the idea of having a small business roundtable discussion quarterly to help address the needs of local businesses.
“This would give these small businesses a place to come into a relaxed atmosphere so that we can understand what their issues are instead of their problems just sitting there,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kendra Stephenson.
Representatives from the town’s economic development department and the Flower Mound Chamber of Commerce are also expected to participate in these discussions.
Also Monday, the council briefly discussed the idea of single-member districts in town, in which a council member represents a particular area.
Dixon brought up the idea more than a year ago before the end of his previous term on council.
The idea was discussed during a charter review commission meeting earlier this year, but the item was not put on the ballot for a charter amendment. Some members of the committee said there were issues with that concept, such as precinct line considerations and possible voter rights issues.
Monday, the council agreed to discuss it further at the next strategic planning session in January.
“Since 2000, Flower Mound has had 22 elected officials,” Dixon said. “And four of those lived east of FM 2499. I would just like to have more representation in the east part of town.”
Dixon also said that he would be in favor of a combination of single-member representatives and at-large representatives on the council.
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