Council offers direction for changes to city code

San Marcos City Council received a presentation on specific Development Code amendments as requested recently by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

At the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, Amanda Hernandez, city of San Marcos director of planning and development services, went through the code, section by section, and then offered the council a set of changes for consideration.

Council members then proposed additional changes to be made to the code.

The council recommended that the set of changes be referred back to the planning and zoning commission members for their consideration and additional feedback. City officials noted that Planning & Zoning meetings are also open to the public and usually streamed, so that whoever wishes to speak to any of the suggestions will have an opportunity to do so. That feedback will also be taken into consideration by the city council when it next considers the changes.

Hernandez said that amendment changes that affect city parks and open spaces will be presented to the Parks and Recreation Board for member feedback later this month.

She said P&Z is expected to hold a public hearing on amendments changes either this month or in September. The city council will hold its public hearing and likely take action sometime between September and October.

Hernandez said some of the proposed changes were necessitated by the need to comply with new state laws, adding that planning and zoning commission members would need to make the council the final approving body for development plats as it will be outlined in the city code.

“Plats generally do not have a public hearing. Replats have a public hearing, and we cannot change that process,” Hernandez said, adding that it was previously an action that was on the consent portion of the Planning and Zoning Commission agenda, but it will now be taken out of that body’s responsibilities.

Hernandez said state law does not require that there be notification made to surrounding residents of a plat up for consideration, only a replat.

San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson said she would like public notification to be included for new plats, as well, moving forward.

“I’m going to make a motion to amend,” Hughson said. “That we add a page … to the website where all plats are posted within 30 days of approval.” Her motion passed unanimously.

Hernandez said that the Planning and Zoning Commission has created a new zoning category– Business Park–which will encompass a mix of commercial and certain industrial uses. In this new category, the code would allow buildings to be 45 feet tall and three stories.

Hughson reminded the council that an applicant earlier in the year was denied a development request near the convention center, due to the possibility that the development would increase noise in the area. She said she doesn’t want to mitigate noise via the backend with a noise ordinance, but instead recommended that by decreasing the allotted size and number of truck bays allowed in the Business Park zone, noise would be decreased.

Hughson made a motion to set the height limit at 35 feet, which passed unanimously.

Hernandez said P&Z is proposing that residents in the immediate vicinity of proposed development be notified of these plans and zoning changes.

“Every development agreement that gets approved, whether new or amended, has to have a public hearing by state law at city council,” Hernandez said. “We are proposing that amendments, new [developments and] any public hearing for development agreements would have that notification.”

Hernandez said that any new development with parkland dedication would be required to have public access, but maintenance would be done by the appropriate homeowners association. San Marcos Parks and Recreation Director Jamie Lee Case said this is something that they have already been negotiating with new developments; it is just being solidified in code.

Hughson said she was concerned about how they would enforce maintenance on these privately owned, public parks, as usually they put a lien on the property, but it is unlikely that a park would be sold. However, Hughson said she realized there was no perfect solution to this situation.

Hernandez said P&Z would like to impose a fee in lieu for public parkland dedication, in which they would appraise an acre of the land in order to calculate the fee. Signage will be required to alert the public that they have access.

San Marcos City Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Mark Gleason said he liked the idea of basing the fee on appraisal value.

“Great idea to just base it off of appraisal, because it could be very different in different parts of town, based on location, and also, you will keep up with inflationary costs for rise and even falls of property values,” Gleason said.

Hernandez said P&Z commission members would like to update requirements for single family homes, by updating occupancy restrictions that allow three unrelated people in the home.

San Marcos City Council Member Matthew Mendoza said he would like to review some of the requirements for single family homes, as the code was put in place by a previous city council. Hughson said the reason the previous council decided to allow three unrelated people was during COVID-19 when people were facing the loss of their homes and needed to move in with others.

Mendoza said he felt this rule is often manipulated and abused.

“I’m just concerned about residents that have had their whole lives in these neighborhoods who see some of our neighborhoods and some of these houses overflowed with people who aren’t related to each other,” Mendoza said.

San Marcos City Council Member Alyssa Garza said the issue here would be how family is conceptualized differently by different people.

“I honestly think the conceptualization of a family is so broad now. When we talk about last names, that’s such an outdated notion of a family,” Garza said. “There’s a substantial amount of our community that has nontraditional forms of family. I find the whole thing problematic.”

Gleason said he would like to leave this portion in the code and hear what P&Z and the public have to say about it, and Hughson agreed. No motion to change this portion of the code was made.

Hughson made a motion to amend, based on public comment given by the Chances R Bar Owner Johnny Finch, who said the current code for the size of awning is disproportionate to the height of many downtown buildings. Hughson said she measured several of the downtown awnings which were eight feet. Hughson moved that a change be made setting the minimum to seven feet. She said she was proposing six to five feet for the depth. This amendment passed unanimously.