Another Single-Family Housing Development Hits A Road Block

San Marcos Planning and zoning commission opened the discussion for a rezoning for a property on Spring Road; however, the project failed to receive the commissions recommendation for approval to City Council.

Staff Reports

Last Tuesday, another potential single-family housing development was turned down, and this time, before it reached City Council members.

San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission opened the discussion for a potential rezoning for a property on Spring Road. 

The vote on the proposed project was originally postponed at the last meeting to allow the developer an opportunity to meet with neighbors.

During the public comments, several neighbors stated the process was incomplete.

A Spring Road neighbor who lives across the street from the proposed project, Ann Dupont, said she was never contacted during the two-week period.

Currently, the property has assumed zoning of Future Development and lies in the city’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction. Thomas Rhodes, a consultant on the project, asked the commission to consider changing it to a character district-3. The property is approximately 4.851 acres.

The character district zoning would allow for 29 single family lots. The developer planned for only 27 lots and would build two retention ponds on the property for runoff collection. At the August 14 meeting, staff recommended the approval of the zoning change. However, planning and zoning failed the item when it returned to the committee on August 28.

In August, San Marcos City Council received a presentation covering the Mystic Canyon development, another proposed single-family district located near Castle Forest, Franklin Square and Bishop Crossing neighborhoods.

While staff said the proposed development would be required to follow all of Code SMTX’s environmental restrictions, the motion to rezone the property from Future Development to Single-Family F3 ultimately failed with a 3-3 vote with Councilmember Saul Gonzales absent.

Council member Lisa Prewitt said she could not support new development on the property even under the current zoning.

However, council members did vote to postpone the zoning change until the developer and city staff could discuss council and residents’ environmental and traffic concerns.

During the discussion, several council members showed interest in having the development change to a character district versus a single-family F-3 project.

Both the Spring Road Project and the Mystic Canyon project are located in the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.

Despite failing in planning and zoning, the Spring Road project will go before the San Marcos City Council; however, without a recommendation of approval from planning and zoning, it will need a supermajority vote to pass.