Days left to fill out survey for Comp Plan
The deadline to participate in the Vision SMTX++ Comprehensive plan survey is tomorrow, and city staff are urging participants to give their feedback. The Vision SMTX Comprehensive plan, which was created at the end of 2022 would replace the current plan, Vision San Marcos: A River Runs Through Us. According to the Vision SMTX website, the San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission and San Marcos City Council have made amendments to the draft plan, which means the amendments made would be changes to the new plan, not the existing plan.
San Marcos Director of Planning and Development Amanda Hernandez said that the city is trying to represent the entire community, which is very diverse.
“It’s very important that we have a comprehensive plan that is up to date. Our current plan was adopted in 2013, so we’re about going on 11 years now of having that plan,” Hernandez said. “So much has changed in San Marcos in those ten years that we really need to get this plan adopted and have a new and fresh vision for what the city will look like for the next 20 years.”
San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce President Page Michele thinks community input on the comprehensive plan is incredibly valuable.
'The Chamber of Commerce strongly encourages everyone who lives and works in San Marcos to take the time to give their feedback on Comp Plan through this survey,' Michel said.
Many of the changes highlighted are small, as they reflect updates to the proposed Vision SMTX draft plan; however, this survey is still an opportunity to comment on the entire Vision SMTX++ update from the currently approved 2013 Vision San Marcos: A River Runs Through Us.
Hernandez explained the timeline of events that occurred with the new comprehensive plan and the amendments.
“What happened was the original [draft] went to our planning commission and a committee of the commission, also including [San Marcos] Mayor [Jane] Hughson, went through the document and gave us a bunch of modifications,” Hernandez said. “Some of those modifications we as staff identified as what we call stylistic, so it might have been that a sentence was worded in a way that it could have been worded more clearly. So kind of the words were just rearranged. In other instances they were adding more text or removing text, which we marked as notable.”
According to city documents, there were several key themes discussed such as a desire to have well connected parks and open spaces. The development of alternative modes of transportation like bike infrastructure, public transportation and enhanced walkability were discussed. There was a focus on protecting valuable natural resources, a desire for community arts and culture events with strengthened partnerships and a strong need for affordable housing.
Hernandez said a notable change on the document ensured that it included plans for the entire city.
“An important change, item number one, … is adding a statement about the east half of San Marcos because the plan only addressed, in that particular section, the west half of San Marcos,” Hernandez said. “Some of the important changes are making sure that we were hitting and talking about the entire community.”
Many of the amendments are minor wording changes, such as under the Arts and Culture section. Instead of “attendance at arts and culture events,” the amended version states “increased attendance at arts and culture events.” The edits for that section continue in that manner.
Hernandez said this particular change came about when at a city council meeting Hughson said that the item needed more substance.
“So it’s those types of things that are being changed to provide clarity,” Hernandez said.
The amended plan added an environmental protection item that stated the city would “adopt a dark skies ordinance to mitigate harassment of wildlife and preserve rural character.” Under the same category, the words “monitor” or “increase” have been added to the beginning of the items to give clarity. For example, “percent impervious cover per subwatershed with quarterly update reports” is now “monitor percent impervious cover per subwatershed with quarterly update reports.” The first draft of the new plan stated “proportion of open space to population,” and the amended version states “increase proportion of open space to population.”
Under the development section, the first draft of the Vision SMTX comprehensive plan stated “streamline the development process for priority housing development and to keep pace with population growth.” It has been amended to state, “encourage and consider incentivizing diverse housing types. Consider encouraging all neighborhood centers identified on the Preferred Scenario Map to allow for multiple diverse housing types.”
The preferred growth scenario section of the draft originally stated, “a key aspect of the update to the Comprehensive Plan was revisiting the Preferred Growth Scenario directing future investments and development in San Marcos. Vision SMTX builds on the community’s previous Preferred Growth Scenario, but also adjusts to the development of the past decade, new community ideas and national best practices. This section also introduces a framework for helping to ensure that development in San Marcos is contributing to complete places and communities.” It has been amended to state “the Preferred Growth Scenario direct future development in San Marcos. Vision SMTX builds on the community’s previous Preferred Growth Scenario, but also adjusts to the development of the past decade, new community ideas and national best practices.”
Under zoning, the first draft of the Vision SMTX plan stated, “zoning is conservative in nature and has a bias towards maintaining the status quo. Growing cities, though, are not static; new residents move in, new businesses are established, and new technologies change the way people live. These factors create pressures that change the way land is used. The purpose of planning is to anticipate and shape this change in a way that provides opportunities for new development and redevelopment while preserving the community’s cultural and environmental heritage. A comprehensive plan articulates the community’s vision for the future; zoning and other regulatory and budget tools implement that community vision.” The amended version states, “The purpose of planning is to anticipate and shape change in a way that provides opportunities for new development and redevelopment while preserving the community’s historical, cultural and environmental heritage. A comprehensive plan articulates the community’s vision for the future.”
Hernandez gave an example of several properties on Post Road where the preferred scenario aligned with the current use but not the landowners plans for use.
“The owners said, ‘hey we’re on post road we’d like to do something that’s commercial.’ So one of the amendments that was made at Planning [and Zoning] Commission was to change that color from residential to commercial,” Hernandez said. “That’s an important amendment. It’s important to that group of property owners that has plans for their property, and that’s something that the city, if it's in an appropriate location, can support at the comprehensive plan level.”
Hernandez said this is the community’s opportunity to give feedback.
“If anyone needs help, I want the community to know that staff is here. The comprehensive plan is a very technical and often complicated document,” Hernandez said. “We can talk them through [the document] in more day to day terminology that’s not necessarily going to be in the comp plan because it does need to be technical. Because it’s guiding what city staff are doing as we move forward.”
Hernandez said although the deadline is near, there are paper versions of the survey that can be picked up.
“I’m sure we can accept them up until Monday even though the survey closes on Friday, but take the weekend to look through this. And even on Monday if you have questions, give us a call. We’re willing to accept comments in any form. It doesn’t have to be the survey. It doesn’t even have to be on our printed copy. Send us an email,” Hernandez said. “This is our last push. We’re hoping that we can get the feedback from the community that we need to give [the] council what they need to make that final decision on this document.”
There are 93 sections amended in total. The amendments can be found at this link visionsmtx. com/wp-content/ uploads/2024/01/Summary- of-Changes-Table. pdf. The amendment comments can be emailed to planninginfo@sanmarcostx. gov or the survey can be taken using this link surveymonkey. com/r/FSKX8TX or this one visionsmtx.konveio. com/vision-smtx-summary- changes-survey.
