Council moves to approve development agreement with BNSF that adds large buffers, limits heights and certain uses

City officials reviewed and moved forward with a development agreement framework with BNSF Railway that the city said would add new protections for nearby homes and limit certain industrial uses.

Courtney, a city staff member who presented the draft terms, told the council that the negotiated development regulations add protections that were not in the previous agreement: “we have been negotiating with BNSF since, May when BNSF well, this body denied the preliminary plat application, BNSF filed a lawsuit against the city, asking the court to require the city to approve the plat,” she said, then summarized the negotiated protections.

The nut of the proposal is a 500-foot vegetated buffer from the property line with planting (trees, shrubs, turf) and a masonry fence that must comply with Code of Ordinances section 27.8 immediately inside the buffer. In addition, the city described minimum front, side and rear yard setbacks of 320 feet each (described in the discussion as a combined 820 feet between the property line and any building, outdoor storage, railroad spur track or lay-down yard). Structural height would be capped at 55 feet; silos, antennas and elevated storage tanks would be limited to 175 feet. Courtney said interior landscaping and interior screening are not required, but off-street parking, loading and signage must conform to the current code.

Uses: The agreement, as explained by Courtney, would allow M1 uses on property inside the city limits. Property in the city——s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) would be largely M1 but would permit a subset of heavier M2 uses on the ETJ portion only; the presenter listed examples including asphalt manufacturing and refining, concrete batch plants, contractor storage, petroleum product sales/wholesale, scrap metal sales and storage, cement and gypsum products, certain chemical and glass manufacturing, food processing, pipe sales and certain plastics and steel fabrication, and heavy warehouses and storage.

Operational safeguards highlighted in the draft agreement include: limits on outdoor lighting to full-cutoff fixtures directed downwards; a specific maximum noise threshold of 75 decibels (allowed for a maximum of 15 minutes in any one-hour period); provisions addressing dust, odor, smoke and particulate matter; and a prohibition on leasing property to third parties to install wireless communications infrastructure on structures at the site.

The draft also would require any streets constructed by the developer to meet the city——s current design standards and calls for safety-related coordination: the agreement includes hazmat training for city department personnel and volunteers upon request (the presenter characterized training as available and described it as supportive of volunteer career development). The agreement includes a $20,000 contribution to fund park improvements upon the city's request.

Council members and others framed the draft as a substantial improvement over an earlier agreement that, they said, lacked many restrictions. The mayor said the later draft represented a better outcome for the community than the earlier May 2023 proposal, and Courtney noted the agreement contains a provision to dismiss the pending lawsuit if the council approves both the development agreement and the preliminary plat: “Upon as well. Approval of the development agreement and approval of the preliminary plat, then the lawsuit will be dismissed,” Courtney said.

Council members also discussed annexation and timing: one speaker said the original annexation term in earlier negotiations had been 10 years and that the revised agreement reduces that to five years.

What happens next: Council discussion ended with a motion to move the agreement and associated preliminaries forward; transcript records that the motion carried (no roll-call tally was provided in the meeting transcript). The agreement and preliminary plat approvals remain the formal acts that, according to the presenter, would trigger dismissal of the pending lawsuit and permit the conditions described above to be enforced.

Votes at a glance: The transcript records a motion to advance the development agreement and preliminary plat; a seconder was recorded and the chair stated the motion carried. No formal roll-call vote tally was recorded in the transcript provided.