Workshop and Presentation providing an overview and summary of the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Sub Committee (B. James)
Mayor Gutierrez recognized Assistant City Manager Brian James who provided the following overview information which came out of several Sub-Committee meetings:
General Overview:
•The City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission held a joint meeting where they discussed current issues for current and proposed development standards for the City of Schertz.
•It was decided to create a smaller group to discuss the pressing concerns that each board had.
•The subcommittee was created which consisted of 6 members, members identified below:
–3 members from City Council
•Councilmember Jill Whittaker, Chair for the subcommittee
•Mayor Pro-Tem Michael Dahle
•Councilmember David Scagliola
–3 members from the Planning and Zoning Commission
•Commissioner Richard Braud
•Commissioner Earl Platt
•Commissioner Jimmy Odom
•The subcommittee met for their first meeting on September 7th and held a total of 7 meetings
•During the course of the meetings there were discussions on:
–Lot sizes / density
–Set backs
–Straight Zoning
–Planned Development Districts
–Design Standards
–Tree Mitigation Fee Caps
•After much discussion, the consensus from the subcommittee was to recommend allowing straight zoning for R-6 and R-7, currently prohibited from being requested, with the caveat that the allowance would only occur if:
–There are approved upon residential subdivision design standards
–A limitation on the size of areas that can be zoned R-6 and R-7, specifically,
•R-6:
–7,200sq ft minimum lot area
–Maximum of 40 acres allowable
•R-7
–6,600 sq ft minimum lot area
–Maximum of 30 acres allowable
•The subcommittee outlined the following as design standards that are to be included in all residential developments as desired by the City:
–Two off street parking spaces must be provided for mailbox kiosks
–Mailboxes must be covered
–Curvilinear streets are desired, and specific standards will be provided for developers to follow
•For example, a residential street cannot be over 500 feet without the center line deflecting at least 30 feet. Shorter streets under 500 feet can be straight.
–Usable Open Space needs to be provided
•Specifically, 1 acre for the first 100 lots, and a 1/2 acre for the next 100 lots
•Open space needs to be disbursed in the development with a ½ acre minimum of open space
•The purpose of the Planned Development Districts are to promote and encourage innovative development in the City of Schertz. It is a way for the developer to take the current regulations and build upon those to make a unique development that stands out, among others.
•The subcommittee was made aware that developers are needing clearer direction of what the city is wanting to see within the PDD’s. Therefore, the subcommittee created a list of items they would want to see within Planned Development Districts.
Assistant City Manager Brian James stated that staff will go back and work with Planning and Zoning to finalize the standards that were discussed.
Councilmember Jill Whittaker stated that the Sub-Committee spent over 8-9 hours discussing these issues. She thanked the staff for preparing the information on the topics that were discussed. The Sub-Committee compromised on many issues and collectively agreed on several issues presented tonight. Mayor Pro-Tem Dahle agreed that the end results were a compromise and stated that he believes these standards will be good for the city. Councilmember Scagliola stated that most of the topics the Sub-Committee were in agreement in many of the concerns, and it was just a matter of finding the right verbiage. Mayor Gutierrez thanked the Sub-Committee and Staff for working together on this project.
Subcommittee Outcomes Tree Mitigation Fee Cap
•Currently tree mitigation is calculated at $100 per DBH
–Protected Trees (trees 8”- 24”) are mitigated at a 1:1 ratio- or $100 per inch
–Heritage Trees (trees 24” or greater) are mitigated at a 3:1 ratio- or $300 per inch
•The general intent of the Tree Mitigation program is to get the developer to be thoughtful about which trees they take out when they develop property.
•However, the current mitigation rates for heavily wooded lots can cause a significant amount of tree mitigation fee to be due. The goal behind the tree mitigation program is not about collecting money but making sure the developers are thoughtful with their design and construction.
•Based on this there was discussion on capping the tree mitigation fee that could be collected on a per acre basis.
•Based on the discussions at the subcommittee meeting, staff was directed to proceed forward with a proposed UDC Amendment to cap the tree mitigation fee that can be collected to $10,000 per acre.
Mayor Gutierrez stated he liked this recommendation and developers will know the potential costs for tree mitigation moving forward with their project. With the current standards, developer would not know the costs of tree mitigation before getting a tree survey done. With a cap, the developer will get a sense of what costs they are potentially looking at. Councilmember Brown and Councilmember Heyward wanted to confirm that other part of the current tree mitigation standards would not change, only the cap of $10,000 an acre was recommended.
Councilmember Davis stated he does not see the cap being more beneficial to what we currently have with the tree mitigation program. He continued in stating that we currently penalize developers with heavily wooded lots compared to developers with open lots. There are no details to how the $10,000 cap is achieved and if it is possible to have the developers sidestep the costs without definitive details of the Tree Mitigation Program written out. Councilmember Davis believes this does not meet the spirit of the intent moving forward on how we properly look at a piece of property and give guidance to a developer.
Assistant City Manager Brian James stated that no property is created equal, and there is no way to equalize that detail. If City Council would like Staff to work on other options, they will discuss it in further detail and come back to Council.
Councilmember Davis would like to see some comparisons on previous projects' costs and the costs if the $10,000 cap was in place. ACM James will put some comparison data together and bring it back to Council. He will also contact developers who have done work in the city and ask them how much their tree survey cost. ACM James explained that the tree survey helps the developer with the current requirements to save a certain percentage of trees on the property. Without the survey there is not a way to know what is on their property. ACM James and staff will go back and discuss the current tree mitigation, tree surveys, heritage trees, landscaping requirements and take time to really look at all these issues.