San Marcos City Council Holds Discussion Regarding Strategic Housing Action Plan

By Terra Rivers | Managing Editor

The San Marcos City Council discussed the proposed Workforce Housing Task Force Strategic Housing Action Plan and provided direction to staff.

During the public comments, several members of the Taskforce address the city council expressing their disappointment and concern regarding the Planning and Zoning Commission’s proposed amendments and asking councilmembers to adopt the plan in its entirety.

Laura Dupont, Chair of the Workforce Housing Taskforce, said she had the honor of serving as the taskforce’s chair for the last year and was extremely proud of the Strategic Action Housing Plan.

“Our Taskforce was created by City leadership and intentionally designed to represent the diversity of our community,” Dupont said. “Our members did a great job of bringing differing perspectives, experience and concerns to the table.”

Dupont said the document before the council was simply a plan that “identifies, outlines and qualifies by both difficulty and cost, strategies that can be used to move the needle on creating affordable housing in our community.”

Dupont continued by saying that it does not obligate any current or future city leader, and it will not change any current zoning.

The SM Planning and Zoning Commission proposed the following six amendments to the housing plan.

Remove Action D2. Accommodate Growth through Appropriate Zoning

• The City should pro-actively zone both undeveloped and infill areas in accordance with the Comprehensive Plan to ensure that the capacity for residential growth is in excess of the anticipated population growth instead of relying on each individual project to request zoning.
• Approved 8:1 – Gabrielle Moore – Dissenting

Remove Action B1. Development Codes and Zoning

• Support diverse and vibrant neighborhoods by expanding the types of zoning districts and building types allowed within existing neighborhoods. Use a community-driven process with a focus on accommodating residents through all stages of life.
• Approved 8:1 – Gabrielle Moore – Dissenting

Remove Action B3. Infill Housing Assistance

• Assist builders with fee waivers, clear-path permitting, and regulatory incentives like reduced parking or additional units in exchange for permanently affordable housing in pre-identified infill sites.
• Approved 7:2 – Gabrielle Moore, Betsey Gail Rand – Dissenting

Modify Action D1. Opt-In Zoning Overlay Districts to insert the words High and Medium

• Create Opt-In zoning districts in High and Medium Intensity Zones that offer an option for increased density and fast-tracked permitting in exchange for affordable housing and other community benefits important to those strategic locations.
• Approved 8:1 – Gabrielle Moore – Dissenting

Modify Action E4. Remove Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing to remove Parking Requirements Height Regulations and Maximum Density from the list of regulatory barriers.

• Remove regulatory barriers to affordable housing when developments include a percentage of affordability.
• Barriers may include:
  • Impact Fees
  • Parking Requirements
  • Height Requirements
  • Maximum Density
  • Requiring a full site plan review for projects with 12 units or less
  • Material requirements
  • Permit fees
• Approved 6:3 – Gabrielle Moore, Betsey Gail Rand, Mathew Haverland – Dissenting

Modify the implementation steps of the Three-Year Action Plan Item:

• Accommodate Growth through Appropriate Zoning by removing implementation steps two and three Implementation Steps
  1. Identify areas in High and Medium Intensity Zones from the Comprehensive Plan that are vacant or underdeveloped and are appropriate for higher density zoning districts.
  2. Utilize a small area planning process in Existing Neighborhoods on the Comprehensive Plan to build community support for zoning districts that provide opportunities for additional diverse housing that fits into the neighborhood.
  3. Proceed with a rezoning in Intensity Zones while ensuring mixed incomes and diverse communities.
• Approved 8:1 – Gabrielle Moore – Dissenting

Councilmember Melissa Derrick said she had spoken with one of the Planning and Zoning commissioners, and the reason they had taken out the small area plans was because the city doesn’t know what they are yet.

“I agree with Mr. Lumbreras that we’ve got a lot of areas, and I think they’ve pulled out the main areas that we need to go over and see if we need to change in our code…” Derrick said. “I think we have a lot of discussions to have around policies and procedures as we move forward, and I think they caught a few of them.”

According to the agenda, the staff recommends “the approval of the Strategic Housing Action Plan as presented by the Workforce Housing Task Force.”

Abigail Gillfillan, Planning Manager, said the city’s comprehensive plan includes projections on its expected population growth, but the numbers did need to be updated as the city had already surpassed those numbers.

Gillfillan clarified what Action D1 regarding accommodating growth meant.

“What this is saying,” Gillfillan said, “Is that your zoning or your capacity for how many people you can fit in there, you should have zoning that allows enough people to meet those goals from the comprehensive plan.”

Councilmember Ed Mihalkanin clarified that what the planning and zoning commission did was to remove city government-initiated re-zoning.

“A lot of people talked to me about having city government-initiated rezoning, and they were very uncomfortable with that,” Mihalkanin said. “And I share that concern, and I support removing this from the plan.”

Gillfillan said that the rezoning through Action D1 would happen through a robust planning process that included all of the people that would be affected by it, and determining where those areas are is what the comprehensive plan was for.

“In terms of this in the action plan, what the Task Force was talking about is that as we start doing neighborhood plans and small area plans, affordability needs to be a top priority in those plans,” Gillfillan said. “A lot of times as you move down to smaller geographical areas, it’s easy to lose sight of those overarching, community goals. So the Task Force wanted to make sure as you moved down to smaller, neighborhood areas, affordability is something that really needs to be taken into consideration.”

Councilmember Lisa Prewitt said in the memo the city manager had sent them; he mentioned that a lot of these action items were probably some of the most important tools that the city might use to get to affordable housing.

“Instead of saying we’re going to remove these from the plan, maybe, we need to come up with a different way to set that,” Prewitt said. “Maybe, we’re not removing, but we’re putting them off to the side, to re-evaluate, to look and see what the impact of the finances would be on them.”

City Manager, Bert Lumbreras, said the plan is a set of action items, but they’re not effective until the council establishes policies.

Council directed staff to bring the Workforce Housing Action Plan back to them as a work session so that they could take more time on it.

Dupont said she felt the arguments used by Planning and Zoning to qualify their amendments were disappointingly grounded in the idea of protecting neighborhoods, and her question was, what were they protecting neighborhoods from?

“While I have heard it said we only had one community member representative,” Dupont said, “I want you to understand that we ALL represent this community, and our engagement is not limited by whatever professional hat we wear during the day.”

Dupont continued, “If we continue to allow the concerns of a few to outweigh the needs of many…we will fail our community.”