Commissioners vote against land rezoning request
San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously voted against the rezoning of approximately 24.48 acres located on South Old Bastrop Highway, near the intersection with Rattler Road, at their regularly scheduled meeting Thursday.
San Marcos Planning and Development Services Director Amanda Hernandez said this item will still need to go before San Marcos City Council for a final decision.
The request by Doucet and Associates, on behalf of Roni Realty LLC, was to change the zoning from Charter District-3 to Charter District-5 for undeveloped land, just southwest of the high school.
San Marcos Planning and Development Services Senior Planner Julia Cleary said the zoning boundary does not go all the way to the neighborhood next to it, in order to maintain distance from the neighborhood to the new development.
“We did work with the applicant to establish a buffer, so between 80 and 200 feet of the land adjacent to that neighborhood have not been included within the zoning change request,” Cleary said.
According to Cleary, CD-3 is a less intense zoning district classification than CD-5, which allows for a mixture of higher density residential– larger scale multifamily developments, pedestrian uses and commercial. She said this zoning classification allows for up to 100% impervious cover, which does not allow rainfall to soak in, but it is not in an environmentally sensitive area.
Carla Sisk, a neighbor of the proposed development, said she would like the commission to vote against the zoning change, because the area cannot handle additional traffic. She said she preferred the roads be improved, before development of large scale apartment buildings.
Other neighbors spoke, citing increased traffic and the loss of country living and views of the night sky, as primary reasons for opposing the zoning change.
Cleary said Old Bastrop Highway was indicated for improvement in the city’s thoroughfare plan. She said the developer would be required to construct roadways through the proposed site regardless of the change in zoning.
San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commissioner Griffin Spell made a motion to deny the request.
Spell said under criteria for approval there is a section regarding substantial reasons why the property cannot be approved without the zoning change, and he said there is a lack of supporting evidence for this. He said he does not think CD-5 is more appropriate than CD-3 which he said was only zoned that way in the past several years.
“The area in question has an unused CD-5 zoning both on the corner there and on the other side of a homestead on Old Bastrop Highway. There’s also the CD-5 section that’s across Rattler Road,” Spell said, adding that leaving it as CD-3 would lead to more housing diversity in the area.
San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commissioner Michele Burleson said she had personally driven around the area the day before, and based upon the current roadways could not support the rezoning item.
She said she feels there are currently too many apartments and other developments in the area.
San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commissioner William Agnew said he was not in favor of the rezoning because he was worried what would happen 15 to 20 years down the road when the apartments were no longer desirable. He said the area’s future paired with the proximity to the high school were a concern for him.
San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commissioner Lupe Costilla said she wanted to make clear that the commission is not discouraging development in that area, just that she feels it should be zoned appropriately.
She said higher density development with increased traffic by the high school is her reason for denying the item.
