Dickinson City Council and the Dickinson Planning and Zoning Commission met in a joint special session and agreed to hold a workshop to review the city's Unified Development Code and recent zoning map changes following public comments and questions about how the UDC was adopted and how it affects single‑family properties.

The meeting opened with public comments. Robert Bragg, a broker and co‑owner of Buy Your Realtors, told the council he supports redevelopment but said some recent rezoning effectively removed single‑family uses in areas where single‑family homes now sit. "When you look at the areas of concern ... that entire area got changed to downtown and urban transition. Neither of those allow for single family homes," Bragg said, urging the council and commission to "relook specifically at these zones" and consider rezoning some areas to allow single‑family homes.

Resident Garland Copeland said he submitted a public information request for a final report from the planning and zoning commission and said he had not received a document titled "final report." "I was not given that final report," Copeland said, asking the body to produce the report if it exists.

Bruce Henderson, president of the Planning and Zoning Commission, described procedural and substantive problems with the UDC adoption. "The UDC came in and basically took an entire section of the comprehensive plan and threw it in the trash can," Henderson said, adding that the commission had asked to table the UDC for more information but that it went to council and was adopted. Henderson and other commissioners and council members said parts of the new zoning map placed commercial designations into existing residential neighborhoods and that some downtown rules (initially) did not allow retail until corrected.

Staff and legal clarifications were provided during the discussion. A staff member (Mr. Doan) clarified that a comprehensive plan is adopted by council vote and does not require a citywide election. City staff (Mr. Dunne) said that notice was provided for the comprehensive rezoning and that the council had adopted alternate notice procedures; "the alternate procedure was to provide notice by publication, only," he said. The UDC's nonconforming property rules were read aloud from the code. A staff speaker summarized the nonconforming rules: "A nonconforming structure may be repaired, maintained, altered, or enlarged. However, no such repair, maintenance, alteration, or enlargement shall create any new nonconformity or increase the degree of the existing nonconformity." Commissioners and members of the public discussed how nonconforming use and nonconforming structure differ, how abandonment is triggered, and how severe storm damage interacts with rebuilding under current rules.

Council members and the commission discussed process. Several speakers urged that the council and commission "roll the map out again," overlay the previous map and the new map, and identify problem areas so changes can be made in groups to reduce cost and delay for property owners. Staff committed to bring maps and materials to the planned workshop and to work with commission members on scheduling. There was no formal vote recorded at the meeting; council and commission members agreed to a follow‑up workshop and to let Planning & Zoning take the lead on drafting recommended changes.

The meeting concluded with repeated commitments to coordinate: commissioners asked staff to provide the old and new maps for the workshop, and council members said they would not dismiss the commission's work and would consider commission recommendations when revising the UDC or rezoning particular parcels. No formal ordinance or rezoning action was taken at the session; staff will schedule the workshop and supply materials as requested.