SM City Council Discusses Parks, Recreation And Open Space Master Plan, Postpones Charter Amendments Indefinitely

Staff Reports

On Tuesday, the San Marcos City Council held the first of two public hearings on the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan and voted to postpone the formation of a Charter Review Commission indefinitely.

Drew Wells, Interim Director of Community Services, gave a brief presentation to council regarding the comprehensive update of the city 2010 Master Plan.

Wells said the process began nearly two years ago in June 2018 and is now in the final stages of the adoption process.  

During their March 12 meeting, the San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the plan, provided comments to staff and voted to recommend approval to the city council.

Following the public hearing, Council Member Lisa Prewitt addressed resident Roland Saucedo’s comments about a lack of bathrooms at a number of the city’s parks.

The City of San Marcos has a total of 15 neighborhood parks including Dunbar and Anita Reyes.

Wells said the parks department and community hadn’t really discussed adding bathroom facilities to the neighborhood parks due to the proximity to residents’ homes.

According to Wells, the department does have plans to make improvements to the restroom facilities at the Riverfront Parks, which will be included in Capital Improvement Projects moving forward.

Prewitt asked if there were any parks that were larger and further away from homes that the city might look at adding facilities to.

Wells said he had been told they are looking at adding restrooms to Dunbar and El Camino Parks, even though it is not included in the master plan.

The parks master plan will return for a second public hearing on May 7, and the council will vote on approval at their May 21 meeting.

After further review, the council voted unanimously to postpone an official charge for and the formation of a Charter Review Commission and any potential amendments to the city charter regarding council member term limits, moving elections to odd-numbered years and mayoral terms.

Mayor Jane Hughson said it was brought to her attention that the last Charter Review Commission in 2017 had already discussed several of the charter amendments that were being proposed and had voted against them.

Since the commission had reviewed the proposed subject in the last charter review, the council decided to postpone the item indefinitely and leave it to a future council and charter review commission to address.