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After almost an hour and a half of presentations, questions, answers and discussion, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved the rezoning of 934 acres in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) to accommodate Heavy Industrial development.
After rejecting the zoning change at an earlier meeting, P&Z had to vote on whether to reconsider the matter before holding a public hearing and a vote on the rezoning. Developer Mike Schroeder and the Texas Transportation Alliance are requesting the zoning change to allow for the development of an industrial rail park. Katerra, a manufacturing firm that has economic development agreements with the city of San Marcos and Caldwell County, is slated to build its manufacturing facility on the acreage as well and be a part of the rail park. The property in question lies along a railroad track on one side and is adjacent to the San Marcos Regional Airport.
The vote to reconsider the issue was unanimous after city staff provided the commissioners with more information about the proposed project and the property itself, including drainage issues, plans for leaving green space instead of impervious cover and plans for roadway improvements in the area.
P&Z Chair Jim Garber said that after city staff provided him with more information, “I thought the wise thing to do would be to reopen the discussion. … I think staff is prepared to provide us with substantially more information than we had last time.”
Commissioner Mark Gleason agreed with Garber, stating that the floodplain maps alone made a difference for him, as did the knowledge that the development will be right along the new Farm to Market Road 110 when it is built.
“There’s definitely more information here that I felt was lacking last time,” he said, “and I was going to vote to delay it before it got shot down last time.”
Discussion of the development
The commission heard a presentation from planning department and engineering department staff about the planned development, including floodplain regulations, the availability of utilities and emergency services, and potential issues with the San Marcos and Martindale ETJs overlapping. Planning head Shannon Mattingly and Assistant City Manager Steve Parker said the city had met with the Martindale mayor and city attorney, and the cities are working on an arrangement to resolve the ETJ issues.
“Their mayor and city attorney were amenable to an ETJ agreement,” Parker said.
When Commissioner Mike Dillon asked about increased train traffic, Tory Carpenter from the city’s planning department said the rail park will add one to three trains per week, according to the developer.
Schroeder, the developer, also addressed the issue, saying that there are maybe 30 trains a day running through San Marcos, and based on customer demand he would only add one to three per week, though that could increase.
“They won’t stop,” he said of the trains. “It’ll never stop and block traffic or anything like that.”
Schroeder gave a presentation about the SMART (San Marcos Air, Rail and Truck) Terminal and Katerra. He said the companies interested in becoming part of the development would bring thousands of jobs and help the park develop into something that would add $3 billion in property to the San Marcos tax rolls. Schroeder and Carpenter both said that currently, San Marcos has about $4 billion to $4.5 billion in taxable property. He said that the rail line runs one way from Lockhart and then heads south to San Antonio. He also said that the new FM 150 and the likelihood of increased capacity for traffic on Highways 80 and 21 will help accommodate traffic.
“We are here requesting annexation and requesting zoning and all the regulations that come along with it because we want this to be a successful long-term project,” he said.
Schroeder said the rail park already has a contract with Katerra, which he touted as a company that is “aiming to change the way things are done.” Katerra, which manufactures building components, has an agreement with the city of San Marcos to provide more than 500 jobs paying more than $15 an hour in exchange for tax rebates. He said Katerra is looking to have a cafeteria and day care on site and to have very low employee turnover.
“Their logic behind that is you don’t have to be educated but you can be trained to do something special,” he said.
Schroeder went on to say, “We’re doing something that’s great for the city. We’re doing something that’s great for the country. We’re doing something that’s visionary and of the future.”
Contrary points
Not everyone at Tuesday night’s meeting was as enthusiastic about the zoning change or the proposed developments. Several residents of Blanco River Village spoke during public comments and the public hearing, voicing concerns about traffic, noise and having a heavy industrial development close to their homes. While most were concerned about truck traffic, Dolores Rose Lombardo had issues with the potential increase in air traffic at the San Marcos Regional Airport.
“Where we live is a quieter area,” she said. “We have lots of retired people and not-so-retired people but we value the serenity of the neighborhood.”
Commissioner Maxfield Baker had issues with city staff’s work in judging whether the development meets criteria for improvement. He asked Carpenter about what the city had envisioned, in its master plan, for the area called The Triangle out toward the intersection of Highways 21 and 80. Carpenter said it would be mixed use development in the center, fanning out into less dense development. Baker asked if “mixed use” would include residential, and Carpenter said yes.
“We said very clearly that we would not build heavy industrial near residential areas,” he said, noting that besides the plans for The Triangle, the development would be near the existing Blanco River Village residential area.
“I find this to be very sloppy work and don’t appreciate that kind of information being used to basically push us to make our decision,” Baker said.
He added that although no one wants to vote against good paying jobs for San Marcos residents, he found that Katerra rated low on job search sites Glassdoor and Indeed, with two- to three-star ratings from a range of employees on both sites. He also noted that one of Katerra’s major financial backers, SoftBank, has received millions of dollars from the controversial Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Baker was the sole “no” vote on the zoning change request.
On Wednesday, Baker explained that his criticism was meant to point out that there are many unknowns and unclear details surrounding the development.
“The critique of Katerra was to point out that the land developer was painting a best case scenario for this development, while the evidence seems to suggest that this fledgling company hasn’t exactly got everything smoothed out; meaning it’s a large gamble for our city to take. It sounds great, and promises a lot, but looking at the reviews from people that work at their other locations, this company is still making rookie mistakes,” Baker said. “... I see that this could have a huge impact on our city, and hope that as it continues through Council we end up with a solid opportunity for our all concerned parties. So I stand by my vote, and hope that seeing at least one denial from P&Z raises more attention, creates more questions, and results in transparent discourse.”
