Controversial student housing development denied by city

A controversial student housing development — the 75 Sylvan Project — has been denied once again. 

On Tuesday evening, the San Marcos City Council voted 7-0 to deny a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for a purpose built student housing complex located in the 100 Block of South Guadalupe Street between West San Antonio Street and West MLK Drive. 

The unanimous vote follows San Marcos’ Planning and Zoning Commission’s 7-1 vote to deny the CUP on May 28. Then on June 18, council postponed a vote on the project and created a committee consisting of Mayor Jane Hughson, Councilmember Melissa Derrick and Councilmember Joca Marquez to review the project. According to the agenda item, the committee met on July 22, but there was no resolution. 

Public Comment:

During public comment, three San Marcos residents spoke against the project. 

Thea Dake said the project has been fraught with problems from the beginning. 

“If both our citizen boards and elected officials remain concerned about Sylvan’s place in our community, I think we will all live to regret allowing it to move forward as it is,” Dake said.  

Roland Saucedo asked council to deny the CUP and brought up safety concerns for the building.

“Again, I remind y’all of what happened at Iconic Village,” Saucedo said. “We can’t allow something like that to happen. That was three floors — a small building — this is one that’s going to take over a whole street.” 

Ryan Perkins, who serves as a commissioner on the Historic Preservation Commission also spoke against the development. 

“Further, I’m 100% opposed to the corporization, financialized, purpose built student hotels,” he said. “They are wealth privatization schemes that leave swaths of the future generation holding the bag.” 

Council's Discussion:

When Hughson asked staff why the development was back on council's docket, Shannon Mattingly, director of planning and development services for the City of San Marcos said the developer asked for the item to be brought back to Council. 

“We have an email from them stating that they would like it to be moved forward onto the next available agenda, which was this one,” Mattingly said. “And that they were no longer interested in any other negotiations.”

Mattingly said in her understanding the developer of the Sylvan Project no longer has the property under contract, however, the property owners gave authorization to move the application forward and authorizations have not been withdrawn to date. 

Derrick said if the developer, who was not represented at the meeting, was present during the Tuesday vote she would have asked them to meet with the specially-formed committee once again. 

“We had a lot of thoughtful ideas from the members of the committee and it seems like everything was great, they were going to go back and talk to them and then they never wanted to come back to the table again,” Derrick said. 

Following council’s decision to deny the CUP — which would have changed zoning from a CD5D to a CD4 — the area will remain a CD5D zoning designation. CD5D zoning would allow for traditional multifamily developments. 

“So they would have to show how they're not meeting the definition of purpose built student housing, that they're developing as a traditional unit,” Mattingly said. 

"I feel quite confident that our City Staff will be very diligent in making sure that this development does not meet those conditions,” Councilmember Mark Rockeymoore said in response. 

Council voted unanimously to deny the CUP for the development project.