PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
Last week’s regularly scheduled Planning and Zoning meeting saw a proposal by a student housing developer looking to build on a plot of land next to the “tiny but mighty” H-E-B in Downtown San Marcos. The first proposal was for an Alternative Compliance to the maximum building height requirements in Section 4.4.3.7 of the Land Developers Code, increasing the permitted building height from five stories to seven. The second proposal was for a Conditional use permit to allow a purpose built student housing development. The Planning and Zoning commission voted no on both items after hearing from developers, concerned citizens and staff from the city of San Marcos who recommended a denial for both items. The proposed property lies between West Hutchison Street and Pat Garrison Street between North Comanche Street and North Fredericksburg Street. The developers are Next Chapter Properties based in Illinois.
“Next Chapter Properties has been specializing in the development and management of superior- quality student apartment assets near major universities for over 20 years, “ according to the website. They currently have 15 properties in six markets with the only other Texas location in Corpus Christi.
The development team has been purchasing land on the 2.2 acres after negotiations with landowners. The existing use of the space consists of professional offices, rental homes, vacant structures, and a parking lot. The adjacent Cypress apartment (formally Vistas) is six stories while other surrounding properties are one to three stories. The existing zoning is Character District 5 Downtown, which allows five stories by right. The city of San Marcos presented their assessment to the Planning and Zoning commission, listing out the criteria for approval outlined for the zoning change. Out of the ten criteria only two were met with three being partially met and five being not met. The city reviewed the Downtown Area Plan, which was adopted in November of 2023 and showed that the proposed development falls within the Downtown Core design context. A corner of the property located at the Pat Garrison Street and Comanche Street intersection is designated as a Pedestrian Gateway, which “create[s] vehicular, multimodal and pedestrian gateways into Downtown to provide an arrival experience and increase sense of place,” according to Downtown Area Plan. The San Marcos Design Manual states that it does not allow “additional height adjacent to the Downtown Historic District. Additional height may be considered where it will not obscure key views, but additional height above five stories is discouraged in this design context.”
“Most of the rental housing options in downtown are student oriented. Additional non-student housing oriented rental housing options are needed,” according to The Downtown Area Plan.
When assessing the proposal for the Conditional Use permit to allow purpose built student housing, the city of San Marcos provided a neutral recommendation, citing the conflict with the adopted Downtown Area Plan.
Representatives of the developer spoke to the Planning and Zoning commission to persuade approval of both items presented. Both items were requested on behalf of Shannon Mattingly who is the Director of Land Use and Entitlements at Drenner Group; She was also the former San Marcos Director of Planning and Development Services and was a part of the development team on the Downtown Area Plan project. She explained that the developers could work in the current codes but wanted to make the project better, so that’s why they are seeking additional stories and a Conditional Use Permit. She said that the proposed seven stories would not need an additional height increase and that they could keep the building under 75 feet, which is currently allowed in the present code designation for the property. The reason for requesting additional stories is to build additional parking within the structure. The Conditional Use Permit would also allow the developer the option of including units with four, five or six bedrooms as opposed to the maximum of three bedrooms approved in its current zoning.
It was around one in the morning when public comments were heard by citizens concerned about this development. They stated concerns about the possibility of Texas State University eventually buying the student housing property, thus taking away tax revenue from the city. This has been a pattern with student housing developments in San Marcos as each semester attendance records are broken and the school is running out of space to house its freshman and undergraduate students. The Planning and Zoning commission debated both items and cited concerns about increased traffic in the area that already sees traffic problems. After much debate the commission voted to deny both items with a 8 to 1 vote on the request for Alternative Compliance to the maximum building height requirements. The commission voted 9 to 0 to deny the request for a Conditional Use Permit for purpose built student housing.
