Council approves some, not all for Lindsey Street development

In a confusing back and forth related to a proposed development on Lindsey Street, the council voted against one of the agenda items due to the lack of a supermajority, approved two of the agenda items and postponed one of the items.

The council received a staff presentation and held a public hearing about a possible preferred scenario map amendment for both the current and the future comprehensive plan for land generally located at the intersection of Lindsey Street and North Street from Existing Neighborhood — primarily residential area intended to maintain existing character — to High Intensity-Downtown — compactness, great streets, pedestrian accessibility and bike accessibility and includes all zoning except for conventional residential — at the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday. The entire development spans three plots of land that cross two streets, but the preferred scenario amendment is for the plot of land that is to the west of North Street. This plot was referred to by council as the west side of the development. The council voted five to two in favor of this item on the first of two readings. This is not an affirmative vote as a supermajority is needed to pass the item.

The council received a staff presentation and held a public hearing to amend the official zoning map for the same land from Multifamily-12, 18 and 24, with the number referring to the amount of Multifamily units allowed per acre, to Character District-5 Downtown, which allows a mixture of uses up to five stories with 100% impervious cover. The council decided to split the property into two sections, and vote on them separately.

The council voted six to one, on the first of two readings, to approve a zoning change for the west side of the property to CD-5, which is slightly different from CD-5D in that adherence to Downtown Design Standards is not required and a conditional use permit for student housing would not be allowed. For the east side, the other two parcels of land located to the right of North Street if one is facing the university, the council voted six to one in approval of the zoning change to CD5D on the first of two readings.

The council also received a staff presentation and held a public hearing on a request for a Conditional Use Permit to allow a purpose-built student housing development for the east side of the development. The council voted unanimously to postpone this item to the next meeting on April 16.

The council received a staff presentation and held a public hearing for a request to increase the allotted building height from five to seven stories for the east side of the development. The council voted five to two in favor of this item. This was the final vote on this item.

At the previous meeting in which this housing development was discussed on March 19, San Marcos City Council Member Jude Prather said he was going to recuse himself from the vote due to his “wife’s employment at the university, which has property across the street from this.”

Since that meeting, Prather requested the Ethics Commission look into whether that represented a conflict of interest in this case. The commission voted unanimously that it did not at a meeting on April 1.

“Based on the advice of our legal counsel, we reviewed the underlying facts and information presented at this time with the information presented in the ethics ordinance,” said Eduardo Rios, an Ethics Review Commission member. “It is the opinion of the ERC that through Chapter 2, Article 5 [of the] Code of Ethics, the commission can find no violation of the ethics ordinance. The commission does not find it necessary for Mr. Prather to recuse himself under the ethics ordinance due to his wife’s employment.”

San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce President spoke in public comment, on behalf of the chamber, in support of the proposed development. She said the chamber was in support of the development for four reasons: an increase in housing availability by expanding the housing supply and choices, an increase in tax revenue for the city, walkability to the university and jobs and the adherence to the existing character of the neighborhood.

Darla Munoz, a San Marcos resident, spoke against the proposed development. She said that the developer said he would make concessions by lowering the height of the building and putting less impervious cover than is allowed in the requested zoning changes.

“I appreciate his concessions for this part of the project, but I’m concerned with how legally binding his verbal commitments are since the paperwork for the request has not actually changed,” Munoz said. “My concern is that if you vote to approve you are voting for his original request.”

San Marcos City Council Member Matthew Mendoza said he wanted to ensure that the property would house students but wouldn’t be something that Texas State University would want to purchase later.

“The last thing we want is for Texas State or anybody to purchase this property and make it a giant parking lot,” Mendoza said, referring to the similar lot in which this occurred in that area. “It’s the worst thing we can do for the environment. It’s the worst thing that we can do for anybody that deserves housing.”

San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson said she preferred that the zoning change be to Neighborhood Density-4 rather than Character District-5, which Hernandez said did not require a preferred scenario change. Hughson said the developer suggested that part of the project would be amenable to populations other than students.

“The Neighborhood Density was to take you from the Character Districts, which are the new [and] more dense zoning categories we have … into other areas,” Hughson said. “Now that we’re talking about more traditional housing … If we’re not talking about student housing, and we’re talking about three bedroom [apartments] then we’re easing into what ND-4 is. The difference is he was looking for four stories and this would be limited to three.”

Hernandez said that the biggest challenge that the developer has with the Neighborhood Density zoning classifications is the three story maximum building height, and the maximum number of units would be less than 75. She said the developer wanted at least 100 units.

Due to the denial of the request to amend the preferred scenario map on both the current and future comprehensive plans to accommodate this development by the Planning and Zoning Commission, a supermajority vote by the council will be required to pass the Preferred Scenario Amendment. San Marcos City Attorney Samuel Aguirre said, at the meeting on March 19, that a supermajority is six affirmative votes. The council voted five to two for this item.

After voting against the item, Hughson said she was “still open to other creative thoughts.”

Hughson also said that the item was not “disposed of” because there was not a supermajority vote in favor of it.

“It didn’t pass because it needed six votes, and it didn’t get six votes,” Hughson said. “In order to actually be denied there would need to be a motion to deny, and that would have to pass.”

Hernandez said for the Conditional Use Permit, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended additional conditions: 1. Limit the building height for the land east of North Street to four stories in height. 2. Limit the number of bedrooms for the land east of North Street to three per unit maximum. 3. Require conventional leases for the land east of North Street. 4. Limit the impervious cover for the land east of North Street to 80%. The council voted to include each of these concessions in a zoning restriction attached to the conditional use permit, but the conditional use permit vote is postponed.

Hernandez said the Conditional Use Permit for student housing request would allow units with more than three bedrooms and change the parking calculations. She said the purpose use student housing would be for the east side of the development in which the CD-5D zoning was approved and student housing is allowed. This item was postponed and will be brought back to council on April 16.

Hughson said the Planning and Zoning Commission also voted on the rezoning of the west side of the development, which is the parcel of land to the left of North Street if one is facing the university, and the east side, which are the other two parcels to the right. She said P&Z voted against the west side unanimously and the east side passed in a five to four vote. This means a supermajority would be needed for the rezoning to CD5D for the plot of land on the west side of the development, but that was not needed as the council approved CD-5 zoning instead for the west side of the development. The council voted to approve CD5D zoning for the east side of the development.

The planning and zoning commission recommended partial approval for a change in height from five stories to seven stories by only approving it for the east side of the development. The commission recommended other conditions, including that the development should include a publicly accessible park or plaza and include 20 signed public parking spaces. The council approved the amendments and the height increase for the east side of the development.

For more information go to sanmarcosrecord.com/news/ council-hears-public-newstudent- housing-project.