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Neighborhood meetings may be bound by new protocols

Zoning Changes
Sunday, September 30, 2018

Neighborhood meetings that developers are required to hold to discuss Comprehensive Plan and zoning map amendment requests could see some changes.

At its most recent meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to approve an amendment to the neighborhood presentation meeting process and provide some standards regarding the locations, timing and decorum of the meetings. The amendment, which city staff said results from direction from the San Marcos City Council, requires that the meetings be held on or near the area where the request is being made, that they be held 20-28 days before the P&Z meeting where the request will be discussed, and that they be subject to the same decorum standards as city council, commission and board meetings.

“Basically, people can’t talk over each other, shout and call each other names during the meeting,” planner Will Parrish said during his presentation on the amendment.

Earlier in the meeting, resident Camille Phillips had suggested that the climate of neighborhood meeting venues also be considered. She noted that she attended one neighborhood presentation, and, “It was outside, in July, in Texas. … As a standard, I would like to request climate control. Please have these meetings inside.”

P&Z Chair Jim Garber agreed with Phillips’ observations and made an amendment requiring a “climate appropriate facility.”

“Camille Phillips made a good point,” he said. “If you’re holding these in the blazing heat in an asphalt parking lot, it’s not helping anybody.”

However, after some discussion of the limitations of holding meetings indoors, Garber withdrew his amendment.

Resident Paul Murray spoke in favor of the change to the neighborhood meeting process.

“I think this sounds like a good thing,” he said. “This was one part of the Land Development Code change that was left a little unfocused.”

The proposed changes to the neighborhood meeting process prompted some discussion of timing, since the meetings would be held before written notice of the developers’ requests are sent out. Written notices for zoning changes go out 17 days before the P&Z meeting at which the request will be heard. Parrish said that if the neighborhood meetings are held that early, it gives the developer and the public a chance to talk things through before city staff even writes a report.

“They can understand their concerns, or the citizens can better understand what the developer wants to do,” he said.

The issue is that sending out notices regarding the neighborhood meeting, followed shortly by notices regarding the P&Z meeting, is a time-consuming task, said Director of Planning and Development Services Shannon Mattingly.

“We’re now blocking out afternoons for letter-stuffing parties,” she said.

Commissioner Kate McCarty suggested that the developers be made to send out the mailings so city staff would not have to send two. Mattingly said the catch would be making sure that the mailings were sent.

The method of notification also came up for discussion; meeting notices are posted on the city’s website and sent out in emails to people who subscribe to the notifications, but the commissioners felt broader dissemination would be needed.

“What we don’t need is having a whole bunch of people show up at our meetings saying they didn’t get the notice,” McCarty said.

An amendment to the motion that notice of the neighborhood meetings be posted five business days beforehand passed, as did the main motion changing the standards for the meetings.

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666