San Marcos City Council To Hold Joint Meeting With P&Z

Staff Reports

On Thursday, the San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council will hold a joint design guideline workshop regarding the update to the downtown design standards and guidelines.

Winter & Company and City Staff will provide the commission and the council with a presentation.

Winter & Company were contacted in 2012 by the City to develop and adopt Downtown Design Guidelines and Architectural Standards to regular the look and feel of new buildings in the downtown area.

According to the agenda, the standards and guidelines adopted in 2012 were carried over into the new San Marcos Development Code and into Appendix A of the San Marcos Design Manual in 2018. Both standards and guidelines are utilized when reviewing new development in the downtown area.

In January 2020, the San Marcos City Council provided direction to update the design standards and guidelines using the guidance of the previous consultants.

Key topics to be addressed include:

• Massing of larger buildings to promote compatibility with traditional scale of downtown;
• Variety in articulation of facades to be more in scale with design traditions;
• Treatment of building materials;
• Street level design to provide sense of place and activate the public realm; and
• Transitions from higher density zones to abutting sensitive edges.

The virtual workshop will convene Thursday, Dec. 10, at 5:00 PM.