The Aubrey City Council passed a resolution that allows it to move toward approving the Duck Point Public Improvement District for one of the city's new residential developments.
Jim Sabonis of Hilltop Securities presented the timeline for approving the PID, which would include a public hearing on Feb. 27 and would allow the transaction to close on March 27 if fully approved, as well as the economic impact of the project.
'Duck Point is 160-acre master planned community, 448 sin- gle family lots,' Sabonis said. 'Part of the development agreement indicates 23 acres will be dedicated to the city for a city park. Projected buildout's about $200,935,000 annual ad valorem tax to the city based on your annual tax rate.'
The city worked with the developer to agree to a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone of 48% to the development and 52% to the city.
'The total principal interest of this [PID] would be $70.8 million and funded over 30 years,' Sabonis said. 'Annual payment is about $2.4 million and annual principal interest per parcel would be about $5,216. The lien on each would be about $71,000.'
The money could go toward street and sidewalk construction, landscaping, park development, and water and wastewater infrastructure if the PID is approved.
After the promotion and badge-pinning ceremony for Sgt. Joshua Johnson concluded at the top of the meeting, Aubrey Police Department Chief Richard Brooks shared some good news with the community about the department as a whole.
'I was notified on Tuesday that we are going to be re-accredited as an accredited agency,' Brooks said. 'We are one of less than 200 [accredited] agencies in the state of Texas, and all of these officers that are here tonight are the reason for that. They do outstanding work.'
He also credited Lt. Abram Salinas with his work managing the accreditation program.
The fire department also swore in Chance Groothuis and promoted Ryan Stone, Grant Beste and Alec Canada to driver engineers.
During the business portion of the meeting, the council approved an interlocal agreement with the city of Midlothian for AFD to purchase medical supplies as well as an amendment to the lease with Stryker Medical for ambulance supplies and maintenance.
'You approved this last year for the items we needed to kind of freshen up our supplies on all of our ambulances,' Chief Eric Schlotter said. 'The items that … we're asking to add now would help us with the opening of Station 3, but then also moving to provide [advanced life support] service out of our staff vehicles so the battalion chief, the EMS captain, myself, the assistant chief and the fire marshal would all have ALS-capable staff vehicles.'
The council also approved the preliminary plat application for High Country Phase 10, comprised of 136 residential lots, three nonresidential lots for neighborhood amenities and a general retail lot on 32.121 acres.
City Planner Helen-Eve Beadle explained that the conditions that had been required by the Planning and Zoning Commission had already been satisfied, which led the council to approve the plans with no conditions.
The council also approved a bid of $3,619,241 from THI Water Well for the Rockhill Water Well project.
Brad Davis of Davis Water Well spoke, saying the city's bid system skewed the results because of the 10-point category for preexisting relationship with the city.
'It was not truly competitive,' he said. 'In reality, there was only one bidder, the third-highest bidder on the project, that ever had an opportunity to be considered the winning bidder.'
He asked the council to award the contract to his company instead for the bid of $3,430,691.
Based on the scoring metric, which was disclosed in the bid package, THI received a score of 89.54 points and Davis Water Well an 82.
City Attorney Patricia Adams offered additional information.
'The city does have a process for protesting bids for a bidder, and that process was provided upon request to Mr. Davis,' Adams said. 'The city manager, to date, has not received the written notice of protest, so he did not follow the process.'
The council voted to follow staff recommendation on the matter.
The council also contracted with Birkoff, Hendricks and Carter for the professional engineering services for the Trivedi Park Water Well for $670,250.
Executive Director of Operations Leanne Wilson also introduced Carl Hagar, the city's new chief building official.
Sgt. Joshua Johnson smiles as his wife, Leslie, pins on his badge during the Aubrey City Council’s Jan. 23 meeting. Abigail Allen/The Post-Signal
