The Blanco Gardens neighborhood could be getting a new housing development at 112 Smith Lane. The San Marcos City Council approved, on the first of two votes, rezoning two acres of land to build homes on 13 lots at the Nov. 18 meeting.
According to city documents, the property currently has one single family house. The owner is requesting to rezone from Single Family-6 District to Neighborhood Density-3 District — both allow for single family — “in order to subdivide the property into a maximum of 13 lots and construct single family homes.” The neighborhood density zoning allows a “Zero Lot Line” building type, which allows one house per lot that may be detached or attached to another home on one side.
David Soto, San Marcos planning manager, said the Blanco Gardens Neighborhood Area Plan, meant to guide development, identifies the desire for smaller, affordable homes as infill in the area.
“Having a smaller housing type can promote market-based homes and ownership,” Soto said.
Andres Siller, with Sword Engineering, said the homes would have design characteristics similar to surrounding houses at the request of residents during a meeting held to discuss the development.
Council Member Amanda Rodriguez said she was glad that home affordability was a consideration as she was hoping to avoid gentrification of that neighborhood.
“I would love to see any sort of renderings that you all may have on what’s in mind and how the neighborhood comments were applied,” she said.
Sillers said, while they did not yet have renderings, the blueprint addressed resident concerns.
“The type of units that the neighborhood was complaining about, or they had concerns, were more narrow and taller,” Sillers said. “ We wouldn’t be able to do that kind of units in our plats, in our proposed site.”
The rezoning was approved unanimously and will have a final vote at the next meeting on Dec. 2.
