Code SMTX – A Timeline

The goal of the Vision San Marcos Comprehensive Plan, as described by the City of San Marcos website, is to create “a city of bold dreams, recognized for our unparalleled natural beauty, ancient cultural heritage, dynamic university, town character, and crystal clear flowing river.”

    By, Mary Elizabeth Shivers

On February 20, 2018, the San Marcos City Council passed the first of two readings of three amendments to San Marcos’s Comprehensive Plan, a vision runs through us after a presentation from city staff.

Item 14. A and 14 B, Ordinance 2018-02 and Ordinance 2018-03, passed with a vote of five yeses; council members Ed Mihalkanin and Jane Hughson abstained from the votes. Item 14 C, Ordinance 2018-04, passed six to one with council member Mihalkanin voting no. There was no explanation or discussion why.

The goal of the Vision San Marcos Comprehensive Plan, as described by the City of San Marcos website, is to create “a city of bold dreams, recognized for our unparalleled natural beauty, ancient cultural heritage, dynamic university, town character, and crystal clear flowing river.”

The team behind the plan recognized that the Land Development Code of the city needed to be updated in order to fit the goals of the Vision San Marcos Comprehensive Plan, however. And so, the creation of the new land development code, Code SMTX, in which residents, a nine-member citizen committee, and a team of consultants assisted, began as detailed below:

2014 – Code Rodeo and Neighborhood Character Studies

The process began with Code Rodeo, a working session meant to generate solutions for the problems to be addressed by Code SMTX, occurred on October 23-25 and 29.

The event, in which 720 work hours were invested, drew 420 participants and included 22 stakeholder meetings. The event also gained 1,086 views for the Code SMTX website and 15,728 Facebook reaches.

During this year, the City of San Marcos also began gathering data for neighborhood character studies in order “to ensure that each neighborhood maintains its existing character and follows development and redevelopment patterns desired by the residents.”                                                                                                                              

March 3-5, 2015 – Environmental Workshops

Environmental workshops were held so that fresh and updated environmental standards could be added to Code SMTX that would coordinate with the San Marcos Watershed Initiative and the Water Quality Protection Plan.

The environmental measures discussed included temporary erosion control, urban forestry tree canopy, and water quality, with three levels in quality of environmental standards that increased in cost when increased in quality.

The types of areas involving temporary erosion control included urban/high pavement, hill country/Edwards Aquifer, and prairie floodplain.

Urban forest tree canopy was analyzed for urban areas with few trees, large lot areas with many trees, preferred development areas with few trees, and large lot areas with few trees.

For large lot areas with many trees and preferred development areas with few trees, public support was most in favor of the middle environmental standard. For urban areas with few trees and large lot areas with few trees, public support was most in favor of the lowest environmental standard.           

Water quality was analyzed for urban and large lot areas with high environmental sensitivity as well as preferred development and large lot areas with low environmental sensitivity.

Spring 2015 – Plan Your Neighborhood

The City of San Marcos Planning and Development Services initiated a neighborhood planning process called Plan Your Neighborhood, which consisted of six workshops, one in each of the six neighborhood character study areas.

These workshops drew 180 participants altogether. Besides enabling specific methods for incorporating Vision San Marcos at the neighborhood level to be created, they also allowed residents of these areas to give input on how their neighborhoods could be improved.       

August 2015 – Intensity Zones and the Zoning for Character Workshop

The Zoning for Character Workshop was held so that property owners and residents could analyze the regulatory framework proposed for the “Intensity Zones”. “Intensity Zones” were “areas of change” created by the Vision San Marcos Comprehensive Plan with the purpose of enabling residents to fulfill their daily needs within a short distance.

The Intensity Zones were: East Village, Medical District, Midtown, South End, Star Park, and the Triangle.          

September & November 2015 – Code SMTX Draft and Virtual Open House

A working draft of Code SMTX was completed and available for review in September. Afterward, in November, the Code SMTX team opened a Virtual Open House so that residents could give feedback on the methods proposed in Code SMTX.

May 27, 2016 – Public Draft

A public draft of Code SMTX was released. Over 1,000 comments were received for analysis so that a revised draft could be created.                             

June 30, 2016 – Code SMTXplained Open House

The Code SMTXplained Open House was held to enable residents to give feedback on the current draft of Code SMTX. The open house included two 30-minute presentations, discussions of highlights from the draft at informational stations, one-on-one conversations with staff, and a survey questionnaire.                                     

January 6, 2017 – The Revised Draft Code was released.

January, February, March, April, May 2017 – Workshops and Sessions

A Joint City Council and Planning Commission Workshop was held on January 30 by the Planning and Development Services Department to present information on the impact of Code SMTX on existing neighborhoods and to facilitate discussion on these 5 topics: affordable housing, the Development Process chapter of Code SMTX, material standards, neighborhood character, and new housing types.                                                                      

On February 8, another Joint City Council and Planning Commission Workshop was held to present Code SMTX proposed strategies for dealing with water quality, drainage, and flood control and to facilitate discussion on the following topics: corridor overlays, new drainage requirements, new water quality requirements, parking and parkland dedication.

Work sessions were held by the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission during February, March, April and May to discuss these topics: the Development Process chapter of Code SMTX, existing neighborhoods, buffers and transitions, infrastructure and planned development, and environmental and drainage standards.

June, July & October 2017 – Amendments and the Final Draft

The result of these workshops and sessions was an amendment report released on June 7 followed by another amendment report on July 3 that specifically dealt with environmental and drainage issues. The Final Draft Code, based on the application of these reports, was released on October 13.                  

For more information on Code SMTX and the process of its creation and legislation, check out this link: http://www.sanmarcostx.gov/634/Code-SMTX

For information on the vote on Code SMTX on February 20, 2018, check out these sites: http://sanmarcostx.gov/421/City-Council-Videos-Archives

https://smcorridornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/San-Marcos-City-Council-Regular-Meeting-Standard-Agenda-Tuesday-2-20-2018-At-6PM.pdf

https://smcorridornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/San-Marcos-City-Council-Regular-Meeting-Interactive-Agenda-Tuesday-2-20-2018-At-6PM.pdf