Council enters agreement with softball team

City catches 2012 zoning mistake

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GONZALES — There was a lot of unanimous agreement throughout the night as the Gonzales City Council went nearly two hours long in a regularly scheduled city council meeting discussing over 20 agenda items.

One of the highlights include Resolution #2018-18, which authorized the interim city manager to enter into a license agreement with Gonzales Get-A-Grip for Quadraplex, allowing the select softball team to host tournaments throughout the year.

“The terms of the agreement will be for one year,” Gonzales Mayor Connie Kacir informed councilmen. “Total cost to the Quadraplex by the city would be $6,916. These improvements will be done by city staff and are currently available within the Parks & Recreation departmental budget.”

The city of Gonzales will be receiving gate proceeds for every tournament, according to the agreement. Currently, the tournaments are estimated to bring 300-400 people during the weekends, which would in theory increase hotel/motel occupancy and general HOT Tax funds as well as sales tax revenues. In the first year, it’s estimated the tournaments would make $10,000 in revenue.

Also in the agreement, the facility will remain open to the public when it’s not in use by Get-A-Grip for tournaments.

The resolution passed unanimously.

City Attorney Dan Santee also gave an update early in the meeting on a Planning & Zoning matter, which involved past city councilmen.

Back in 2012, city council passed a resolution instead of an ordinance when rezoning certain properties. The mistake was caught by City Secretary Kristina Vega.

“These properties all have to go back through the process,” Santee informed the council. “I wanted to make you aware of that in an open, public meeting, so that everybody knows, this is on us, this happened, it shouldn’t have, but it has to be fixed.”

Each property has to go through the process of planning and zoning, from the publication process through the notification process.

“I do not recommend this be done at a cost to whoever zoned these properties,” Santee said. “They did everything they were supposed to do. They paid the fees, they went through the public hearings, they went through all that, and then it just wasn’t done right.”

The fix will have a cost to the city, and, Santee explained, it’s the council’s discretion to how they handle it, “but I would not recommend this be at a cost to them,” he concluded.

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