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| City Council Regular Meeting |
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| BACKGROUND |
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
The answer to that question can vary greatly depending on what city and what part of the country you are in. However, you can distill the answers down to a single over-arching theme. A Comprehensive Plan is a foundational document that cities use to help guide future development.
Land development is a complex and heavily regulated process. There are numerous tools in the toolbox to guide development, such as zoning regulations, development codes, fire codes, building codes, impact fees, state laws, federal programs, along with many others. The Comprehensive Plan is one such tool. It differs from other tools as it is not a regulatory document. It is not law. However, it is a rationale that informs our regulatory and code-making process. A city uses its Comprehensive Plan as one form of justification for its land development policies.
The current Comprehensive Plan that the city uses was adopted in 2002. The life-span for these documents typically range from 15-20 years. In 2013, the Schertz Sector Plan was adopted to supplement the current Comprehensive Plan. This is typical best practice, as Comprehensive Plans should be evaluated every 5-10 years to ensure that the community vision and goals match adopted policies and developmental realities in the city.
As the life span of the current Comprehensive Plan (with the Sector Plan supplement) has ended, the city hired the planning consulting firm Freese and Nichols to work with staff to update the Comprehensive Plan. This process began in March of 2023. The goal of the project was two-fold. First, create a Comprehensive Plan that is streamlined, flexible and easy to use, and second, concentrate on certain "Focus Areas" in the undeveloped portions of Northern and Southern Schertz to determine future land uses in these sections of the city. Through these two overarching objectives, we were able to create a plan for all of Schertz.
The first half of this process was primarily about public and stakeholder input. Freese and Nichols hosted a website that conveyed project information, updates, and timelines for the Plan. Also, this website had a survey and interactive map that allowed all citizens to engage and provide input. The final count was 408 survey responses and 74 comments on the interactive map. Running concurrent to this wider public engagement was a focus group component for the Focus Areas. The target regions in the northern and southern areas of Schertz were divided into 5 separate Focus Areas and staff organized 5 separate focus groups of stakeholders to provide more in-depth and detailed information. These groups consisted of business owners/leaders, homeowner associations, Joint-Base San Antonio, representatives from various surrounding governmental authorities, and the City of Schertz development team. These focus groups provided valuable information about the current direction of these regions, and also what the citizens and stakeholders of these regions want to see in the future. Finally, staff along with Freese and Nichols met with community stakeholders at the Dunkin' for Pumpkins event in October. This event allowed for significant interaction between the staff, the consulting team, and the citizens of Schertz.
The city organized a Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC), and staff along with Freese and Nichols held four separate public hearings with this committee, including one with the Schertz City Council. These public hearings were opportunities for Freese and Nichols to give progress reports and show drafts of the new Comprehensive Plan. These public hearings provided the opportunity for the Committee and the public to give input on the progress.
The latest version of the Comprehensive Plan has been drafted and a summary is given below.
The Comprehensive Plan:
The plan is broken down into 4 Chapters as shown below.
| Comprehensive Plan Chapters |
| Chapter 1 |
Community Snapshot |
| Chapter 2 |
Focus Area & Engagement |
| Chapter 3 |
Land Use & Economic Strategy |
| Chapter 4 |
Appendices |
Chapter 1: Community Snapshot
This chapter is a standard component of many planning documents. Serving as an introduction, it details what the Comprehensive Plan is, and how to use it. This section also provides an existing conditions report for the community, such as the history, geographic and demographic information, business/ecomonic information, and other planning documents that may affect the Comprehensive Plan.
Chapter 2: Focus Area & Engagement
This chapter serves as a report on the timeline of the extensive public engagement mentioned earlier by detailing the input given at the CPAC meetings, the website, survey, and interactive map, focus groups and community event. Through this process, the Comprehensive Plan creates policy statements that reflect the voices of the community. This chapter also takes an in-depth look at the Focus Areas. Each area has its own limited existing conditions reports and recommended strategies and proposed land use.
Chapter 3: Land Use & Economic Strategy
This chapter serves the primary purpose of the document as it is the vision and the guidance for the community and the future of development. The chapter begins by highlighting topics of interest, such as Complete Communities and Innovative Stormwater Management. These serve as recommendations and considerations when guiding development. The chapter continues by establishing a Future Land Use Plan and establishing 9 land use categories detailed later in this report. Chapter 3 continues with a brief section on transportation (the City's current Master Thoroughfare Plan was fairly recent and determined to be sufficient with some minor suggestions), a section on the fiscal impact for these new land uses, and finishes with an implementation strategy for the plan.
Chapter 4: Appendices
This chapter contains two appendices that supplement the Comprehensive Plan by providing greater detail for certain sections. Appendix A has more in-depth information on demographic and market data. Appendix B is a full report of all the public engagements. This includes focus group summaries, and summaries and responses to the online survey and interactive map. |
| GOAL |
| To update the Comprehensive Plan by creating a flexible and easily utilized document to help guide development and establish a vision for the future of the community. |
| COMMUNITY BENEFIT |
| It is the City’s desire to promote safe, orderly, efficient development and ensure conformance with the City’s vision of future growth. |
| SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION |
The current Schertz Comprehensive Plan and the Schertz Sector Plan supplement have reached their sunset and can no longer adequately provide a framework for the future of development within Schertz. Before this whole update process began, staff sat down with our consultant, Freese and Nichols, and examined the current and prospective developmental direction of Schertz, the challenges we have regarding land use, and the issues that consistently arise when using the current Comprehensive Plan. The goal was to create a document that was easy to use, easy to understand, and flexible.
The bulk of this analysis references Chapter 3 of the new Comprehensive Plan. Chapter 1 serves as a necessary contextual device, Chapter 2 explains the process, and Chapter 4 is a compilation of data. Chapter 3 - Land Use and Economic Strategy, is where this plan will be utilized.
The current Comprehensive Plan with the Sector Plan supplement has a Future Land Use Map that established 19 land use categories as seen below:
| Current Land Use Categories |
| Residential |
Residential-Commercial Blend |
Commercial |
Other |
- Estate Neighborhood
- Manufactured Housing
- Single-Family Residential
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- Agricultural Conservation
- Commercial Campus
- Main Street Commercial
- Mixed Use Core
- Mixed Use Neighborhood
- Multi-Family Residential
- Neighborhood
- Transition
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- Commercial Light Industrial
- Highway Commercial
- Industrial
- Industrial, Technology, and R&D
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- Air Installation Compatible
- Air Installation Impact
- Civic, Schools
- Parks, Open Space
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The issue with having this amount of land uses is that it creates confusion. Staff has found that these categories are too specific and too detailed, and often the citizens of Schertz and applicants conflate these land use categories with our zoning regulations. The Comprehensive Plan is a guiding document, not a regulation. Land use categories in the Comprehensive Plan act as a first layer and should serve as a broad stroke or a general direction. However, zoning is a regulation. A more precise tool, to layer on top of the Comprehensive Plan where you fine-tune appropriate land uses with the code.
The Comprehensive Plan needs to be more flexible. Offering more land use categories does not beget more flexibility. In fact, it serves the opposite purpose. With this in mind, Freese and Nichols, along with staff, created a new Future Land Use Map and offered the new land use categories. The new categories consolidate the current ones into fewer options and provide a different nomenclature to avoid confusion with the City's zoning code. These categories are detailed below.
| Proposed New Future Land Use Categories |
| Main Street |
A category created specifically with Main Street in mind that allows uses that are consistent with adopted policies of the city and the shared vision of Schertz's historic downtown core. There is also room to apply the concept to other areas of Schertz, if the city would ever be amenable to that. |
| Rural Living |
This category is for sparse development and the preservation of open space. Mostly dedicated to the areas around JBSA-Randolph to preserve and protect the mission of the base. |
| Complete Neighborhood |
This category is defined as a broad residential category that provides space for much of the residential uses in the city of Schertz along with complimentary and limited commercial uses. |
| Local Corridor |
This category is used for lower intensity commercial along Schertz's smaller commercial corridors, such as FM 3009 or FM 78. |
| Regional Corridor |
Similar to Local Corridor but scaled up to capture activities along IH 35 and IH 10, two regionally significant corridors. |
| Mixed Use Center |
A category to capture a mixture of uses to provide a live, work, and play element in unique spots in the City. The locations were selected due to various factors, such as being at significant intersections of roads, such as Lower Seguin and FM 1518 or Cibolo Valley Drive and IH 35, or their potential to capture wider regional trends such as a passenger rail stop. |
| Industrial |
This category defines the current and future warehousing/industrial/general manufacturing areas in the city. |
| Public Use |
This category is for parks, open space, and civic/government buildings and facilities. |
| Development Deferment |
This category is applied to areas of Schertz and the ETJ that contain certain peculiarities such as resource extraction, land-fill, or development challenges that make new possibilities for this land only in the very long-term. For these reasons, staff has elected to "defer" the land use until a future time. |
The result of these efforts offers a Comprehensive Plan and a Future Land Use Map that is easier to use and understand.
As mentioned above, when evaluating where to apply these new categories, Freese and Nichols, along with staff, engaged the public and analyzed 5 different "Focus Areas" in the undeveloped portions of North and South Schertz. The outcome of these efforts informed our decision to revamp the current Future Land Use Map for the entire city. As the current Comprehensive Plan is outdated, we also wanted to be informed by contemporary trends and developments in the city. This helps the updated Comprehensive Plan match the direction the city is already headed, in addition to planning for the future vision of the city.
While each area of the city has a mixture of land use categories, the following highlights the overall theme for each focus area and how we assigned the land use.
Focus Area 1 - SE Schertz (east of FM 1518, south of Schaefer Road to IH 10)
Current trends in this area are dominated by new single-family subdivision development and the expansion of FM 1518. Public engagement in this area also detailed the need for enhanced services in this region. Neighborhood units and lower intensity commercial make up the majority of this region, with the potential for mixed use centers and regionally appropriate commercial activity along the IH 10 corridor.
Focus Area 2 - SW Schertz (south of Randolph Air Force Base)
The main goal for this area was to protect the mission of JBSA - RAFB. As a result, this area is characterized by sparse/rural development patterns. Residential is not appropriate in some areas and the Comprehensive Plan is explicit that development choices will be made in conjunction with JBSA. Regionally appropriate commercial activity along the IH 10 corridor is also in this area as it is outside the impact zones of JBSA - RAFB, and creates consistency along the corridor.
Focus Area - 3 - NE Schertz (north of FM 482 mostly in the Schertz ETJ)
The area is dominated by ETJ, which is not under annexation agreements. This means that with recent developments in state law, it is uncertain if or when these areas will ever be in the city. Also, in this focus area is an ever-expanding mining and material operation. The challenges of this area are that if there is any development potential it will be very long term. So, the Comprehensive Plan essentially defers defining any land use until a time when it is more clear what the potential for this area is.
Focus Area 4 - NE Schertz (south of IH 35 abutting Cibolo near Green Vally Road)
This area is in a sparsely populated area of Schertz that has challenges with delivering utilities, maintaining infrastructure, and the presence of conservation easements. Neighborhood units were prioritized in this area, as this matches the trend of what is happening in both Schertz and Cibolo.
Focus Area 5 - N Schertz (north of IH 35 from FM 2252 to city limits with New Braunfels)
This large area will prioritize regional commercial activity, industrial, and potential mixed use centers. This theme fits what the direction of this area currently is and the input from the extensive public engagement from this area.
Rest of Schertz
The new land use categories have been evaluated and applied to the mostly built-out portions of Central Schertz. What room there was for developmental potential matches the direction this portion of the city was already headed in. |
| RECOMMENDATION |
This new Comprehensive Plan will outline the future for development in the city and fulfill the goals stated at the beginning of this update process. If adopted, this plan will provide a clear, easy to understand, and easy to use Comprehensive Plan for citizens, applicants, staff, and our city's decision makers. This plan also provides the space for our decision makers to utilize their judgment and to better discern the appropriateness of future development.
For these reasons, staff is recommending approval of Ordinance 24-S-06.
The Planning and Zoning Commission met on March 6, 2024, and made a recommendation of approval with a 6-0 vote. |
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