Council Fails To Approve Rezoning Request For CD-3 Residential Project

Staff Reports

The request to rezone approximately 12.5 acres of land generally located North of the Intersect of Highway 123 and Monterey Oak Drive failed to pass on Tuesday.

The council voted 2-4 on approving the ordinance rezoning the property to Character District 3 following a public hearing.

The property is adjacent to Cottonwood Creek subdivision, which is a neighborhood with a mixture of single-family homes and townhomes, according to staff.

The proposed zoning district, CD-3, allows six building types, including House, Cottage, Cottage Court, Duplex, Zero Lot Line House, and Civic Building.

The maximum building height allowed within this district is two stories. Any lots proposed to be 45 feet or less in width will require alley access.

Shannon Mattingly, Director of Planning and Development Services, said the developer was interested in single-family zoning and would go through the process of submitting that request if that was the desire of the council.

Mayor Jane Hughson said she could not support CD-3 immediately adjacent to single-family and probably never would be able to.

“We had known about these potential problems with only six residential categories, two of which are extremely low density,” Hughson said. “We knew this was a problem. If this rezoning request is not approved, I implore the staff to create a new category for CD for single-family houses only with occupancy restrictions.”

Hughson said a new category for character districts would give the city all the benefits of CD-3 without all the reasons to never vote for it; the reason is that CD-3 contains too many options.

A majority of the council were in agreement that their primary reason to vote against CD-3 was the lack of occupancy restrictions.

Council Members Mark Rockeymoore and Maxfield Baker said they supported the project under CD-3 zoning and felt it was a good fit to the area.

In other news, a request to rezone the adjacent 18.5 acres to Character District 4 passed 6-0.

The applicant said they plan to build 16 units per acre for a total of 288 in the CD-4 project; the units are expected to be market price for San Marcos.

The applicant is expected to submit a new rezoning application for single-family; the council directed staff to expedite the application if possible and waived the application fee.