The zoning change requests for two residences on West Hopkins Street met with opposition at Tuesday night’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting and ultimately were denied.
Matt Lewis, a former San Marcos planner, filed the requests for zoning changes from Single Family-6 to Neighborhood Density-3.5 for 510 and 514 W. Hopkins St. on behalf of Virgilio Altamirano, owner of Austin-based Apante Investments, which owns the two properties. The house at 510 W. Hopkins is located behind the Twin Liquors at the corner of Hopkins and Moore streets, and 514 W. Hopkins is a duplex two lots over.
Apante, which owns the houses, wanted to remodel 510 W. Hopkins to create two two-bedroom units and a one-bedroom unit and remodel 514 W. Hopkins into a two-bedroom unit and two one-bedroom units, with an existing one-unit accessory dwelling. The plans were for internal work only; the exterior of the houses would not have changed.
Lewis made the argument that allowing the zoning change for 510 W. Hopkins would provide more housing.
“We’re just seeking to allow workforce housing to be integrated in and around the downtown area,” he said, adding that the remodel would allow “multiple people to live in a house form structure.”
Lewis later mentioned the city’s occupancy restrictions that allow a maximum of two unrelated people to live in the same house.
“You coded out the Golden Girls,” he said, referring to the TV show about four elderly women — only two of whom are related — who live together. “This isn’t just about young people.”
Altamirano also spoke to the P&Z commission and said he felt the ND 3.5 zoning would be compatible with the usage of the whole block, which includes a liquor store and small multifamily housing.
“The issue is not who I am, where I live, what I do for a living … the issue is whether the property should be rezoned,” he said.
During public comments at the beginning of the meeting and during the public hearings on the two zoning change requests, numerous residents — mostly from the Belvin Street and Hopkins Street historic districts — spoke against the requests.
Ryan Patrick Perkins read from a letter his mother wrote asking P&Z to deny the requests, noting, “You can’t tell us that we need to build single-family subdivisions and then take away single-family housing in existing neighborhoods.”
Kama Davis, whose family home is on Hopkins Street, made a similar point about the construction of all-residential subdivisions within the city as a backdrop for requests to turn existing neighborhoods into mixed-use areas.
“The new planned neighborhoods are all we’re going to have left,” she said.
Diana Baker also spoke against the zoning change requests.
“This city is already 70 percent rentals, and for a stable economy I believe we need more owner-occupied family housing,” she said.
Lisa Marie Coppoletta also spoke against the requests, noting that efforts to provide more sustainable development and workforce housing are “not always implemented for the best of reasons” and that the term “workforce housing” can be a distraction from the truth.
“It’s like putting lipstick on a blind salamander,” she said. “It’s still a blind salamander, not a supermodel.”
Davis urged P&Z to consider more than the area immediately surrounding the properties and look at the whole neighborhood.
“It’s an existing stable neighborhood,” she said. “... We’re looking at just 200 feet surrounding this one property and I want to make sure we’re taking into consideration the whole neighborhood.”
Commissioner Gabrielle Moore said she thought the zoning request made sense for 510 W. Hopkins.
“They do need this type of housing,” she said, noting that it is walking distance to downtown. “I don’t see it as incompatible at all.”
Commissioner Betseygail Rand said she was torn on the issue.
“I think it’s essential that we preserve the character of the historic district, but this is adjacent to a liquor store and has been a rental for 10 plus years,” she said.
Commissioner Mark Gleason noted that the sign letting drivers know they are entering a historic district is right in front of 510 W. Hopkins and he could not see himself supporting a zoning change there.
The arguments for and against the zoning change at 514 W. Hopkins were largely the same, though Lewis noted that the building had been a duplex -- multifamily -- as far back as the owners were able to trace.
