Lance Arnold, who has been the Weatherford Police Department chief of police since 2017, stepped down to accept the same position with the Broken Bow Police department in Oklahoma, effective December 20.
At the recent meeting of the Weatherford City Council on Dec. 17, Arnold was recognized for his service to the city.
“Chief Arnold has represented Weatherford with honor and brought with him a code of ethics that is non-negotiable. The Broken Bow police department is gaining an outstanding police chief and I have no doubt that his legacy will continue there,” said Mayor Paul Paschal.
A new planned development, Morningside, was approved, but not without a long discussion in regards to the size of the lots.
A 70-lot, 25.66-acre planned community was at the forefront of the discussion among longtime Weatherford residents who are unhappy about the small home sites. No less than six citizens were able to express their concerns why they believed that the new community would not be a benefit to the area.
The 75x100 lot dimensions are considerably smaller than the four to 12-acre home sites that make up the majority of the nearby neighborhood. Mayor pro tem, Heidi Miller, brought up the issue that some of the home sites were less than the 75x100 required city dimensions.
“If we have minimum guidelines in place, we need to adhere to those guidelines. I am all for the growth of Weatherford, but we need to follow rules and procedures.“ Miller said.
The discussion in regards to the home sites continued for almost 45 minutes before Paschall called for a vote for the approval on the preliminary plat, which was approved 4-1.
Another issue was the action needing to take place in regards to the water erosion on Washington Bridge Drive. The U.S. Army of Engineers was charging Weatherford more than $500,000 in “mitigation credits” to offset environmental impacts while working on the bridge.
"This important channel stabilization project, first identified in the 2014 Holland Lake Watershed Study, will implement permanent erosion control measures between the Washington Drive bridge and our trash rack system at Interstate 20," said Assistant City Manager Chad Marbut.
The design includes a concrete-lined channel with vegetated floodplain benches to manage both common and extreme storm events. Marbut said these improvements will protect Washington bridge and the trash rack system from being undermined by erosion, in addition to safeguarding Holland Lake and the downstream Holland Lake Channel improvements from any further siltation.
Marbut noted that before construction can begin, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is requiring the city to purchase mitigation credits to offset environmental impacts under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
A new home development, Burgess Bend, a Meritage Homes company, was seeking approval on a new home community overlay for Weatherford. They did not receive the votes it needed to proceed with the community.
One of the duties for the city council members is to read, front to back, all contracts and proposals that are presented to them to protect the integrity of future developments. An issue was recognized by council member Zack Smith as he examined the pending proposal from Meritage Homes.
The wording,” eminent domain”, appeared in this contract. After it was explained, the council not to proceed with the proposal from Meritage Homes.
“As elected community leaders, we are charged with making tough decisions. Eminent domain is not a term to be used loosely in Texas, Parker County, or in our great City of Weatherford," Smith said.
"When I asked the applicant why they were so insistent on having that verbiage in the contract as 'backup vs working it out with the existing neighbors, I didn’t feel like his answer was sufficient. With this being our first potential partnership, I am not comfortable with the direction the relationship was heading.”
The definition of eminent domain is, “the power of the government to take private property for public use, while providing the owner with "just compensation"
In other words, the proposal stated that they could take the property without working out the details with the homeowner. That was something that all council members agreed was not going to happen.
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