With what would typically be the second meeting of the month scheduled to fall the day after Christmas, the Aledo City Council packed an entire 31 days worth of business into their only meeting of the month on Thursday, Dec. 5.
Bursting at the seams, the agenda covered a wide array of issues ranging from updates to signage ordinances to the passage of a hotel occupancy tax.
Amending Article 4 of the Unified Development Code set the business of the meeting in motion. The intent of the amendments was to create consistency in the code, while upholding the desired estetic the city is shooting for as Aledo continues to grow.
Specific changes to Article 4 are things like not permitting signs to be painted on buildings, ground-based signs having at least a five-foot buffer from property lines, and ensuring wiring for electrical signs meeting safety codes.
Ordinance 2024-222 will fill in the gaps in the current Unified Development Code related to maintenance standards and responsibilities for landscaping, buffering, and screening on properties across Aledo. The ordinance will help to prevent potential neglect and degradation of landscaping over time.
The ordinance passed unanimously.
The other noteworthy piece of business for the night was establishing the means for administering and collecting a hotel occupancy tax within the city limits of Aledo. While no hotels are coming to Aledo at this time, there are listings for short-term rentals on websites like Airbnb that are subject to hotel occupancy taxes in most municipalities.
The Council agreed a seven percent tax would benefit the city while placing no extra burden on residents. Following a motion to approve the ordinance that was quickly seconded, the ordinance passed.
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