San Marcos P&Z Approves A One Year CUP For Olive Garden

While no complaints had been filed with the city prior, P&Z heard complaints from residents during the January 23 meeting. Commissioners postponed a decision on the CUP license to allow staff time to research possible solutions…

Despite complaints from neighbors, San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission approved a one-year renewal of Olive Garden’s Conditional Use Permit Tuesday night.

In January, residents of the Sunset Acres neighborhood addressed noise concerns from the Olive Garden parking lot and asked the commission to deny the restaurant’s CUP.

While no complaints had been filed with the city prior, P&Z heard complaints from residents during the January 23 meeting. Commissioners postponed a decision on the CUP license to allow staff time to research possible solutions.

Pedro Quintero, a resident in Sunset Acres, spoke during the public comments at the meeting against renewing the restaurant’s unless a solution for a better sound barrier was found.

In the January meeting, Quintero attributed the noise problem to alcohol sales at Olive Garden.

“Now that Olive Garden has been consuming alcohol on that premises, the people that attend there and eat and dine are making a lot of noise,” Quintero said. “Their cars go off, their keys, their loud music…we can’t sleep. Our neighbor has a dog. The dog goes off.”

According to Will Parrish from the city’s planning department, the engineering department has been working Olive Garden the last few weeks at possible solutions.

Holes have been cut into the fence between the parking lot and the neighborhood to allow water to reduce flooding in the neighborhood, primarily Patricia Drive, which is lower than the restaurant.

Engineers identified drainage problems with the use of a sound dampening material or the construction of a solid wall, which would potential worsen flooding in the neighborhood.

Parrish said staff had learned Olive Garden shared a parking agreement with the 54^th Street restaurant next door as well as Starbucks; while the Italian restaurant closed at 11 PM, 54^th Street was open an hour later, which could account for noise after 1 in the morning.

Commissioner Angie Ramirez requested the commission change the CUP to a one-year permit instead of a three-year to see how well the restaurant’s noise reduction efforts go.

The one-year permit was approved unanimously with the original CUP conditions and an additional condition that restaurant staff is required to park on the opposite side of the parking lot from the neighborhood.