PRESENTER: Presenter
Mary Lovell, CNU-A, Senior Planner
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SUBJECT: Title
Public hearing and recommendation to City Council regarding amendments to the City’s Code of Ordinances in Chapter 144 Zoning, Section 1.4, Definitions and 5.3-4, Additional residential buffering requirements
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DEPARTMENT: Planning and Development Services
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COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Staff Contact: Mary Lovell, Senior Planner, (830) 221-4051, mlovell@newbraunfels.gov
The City recommends updating Chapter 144 by adding two new terms: "adjacent" and "abuts/abutting," clarifying the regulatory intent of Additional Residential Buffering Requirements in Section 144-5.3-4.
ISSUE:
The City’s Code of Ordinances does not currently include definitions for the terms “adjacent” or “abutting” which has resulted in various interpretations of their meaning and use; and difficulty in enforcing ordinance requirements, especially when there are inconsistent, varying, or large gaps (like roads, rivers, highways, or railroad tracks) between properties. To reduce confusion, and improve fairness and consistency, staff recommends adding clear definitions for these terms in Chapter 144, and applying them accordingly in Sec. 144-5.3-4.
Staff has also identified Sec. 144-5.3-4 (b) as an outdated section regarding an ADA exception for fuel pumps. It doesn't address modern technologies like video screens at fuel stations or EV chargers. Additionally, Federal ADA requirements always supersede local ordinances, causing this section of the Zoning Ordinance to be unnecessary.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN REFERENCE:
The proposed amendment is supported by the following action items from Envision New Braunfels:
• Action 1.3: Encourage balanced and fiscally responsible land use patterns.
• Action 1.11: Update policies and codes to achieve development patterns that implement the goals of this plan.
• Action 3.1: Plan for healthy jobs/housing balance.
• Action 3.3: Balance commercial centers with stable neighborhoods.
• Action 3.6: Pro actively provide a regulatory framework that remains business and resident friendly.
STRATEGIC PLAN REFERENCE:
☒Economic Mobility ☐Enhanced Connectivity ☐Community Identity
☐Organizational Excellence ☐Community Well-Being ☐N/A
• Support Confluence, the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Strategic Plan, by helping to ensure a community that supports the targeted industries and increases the diversity of job opportunities in the community.
• Incentivize mixed-use developments and redevelopments in targeted locations to create a built environment with integrated housing, commercial centers, and opportunities for improved connectivity.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Land Use Fiscal Analysis (LUFA) supports revising current codes that are unclear and/or outdated and removing unnecessary barriers to commercial development resulting in increased future tax revenues to offset service delivery costs. The proposed amendments are supported by the following general recommendations of the LUFA:
• Align development policy to support fiscal health and affordability.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the following amendments, which will improve enforcement, remove inconsistent restrictions for different properties, increase reliance on Sec. 82-9 - Noise regulations, and remove unnecessary barriers for local businesses:
1) Define “adjacent” and “abut/abutting.”
2) Revise Sec. 144-5.3-4 (c) for clarity, by utilizing the term “abuts” rather than “adjacent,” retaining the reference to both “residential uses and residential zoning,” which will continue to buffer homes that are within commercial or manufacturing zoning districts (old cumulative zoning) and also by adding a reference to Chapter 82 where the Noise Ordinance resides, for additional noise standards.
3) Delete Sec. 144-5.3-4 (b); drive-thru speakers are already regulated in Chapter 144, Section 5.2., and ADA allowances at fuel pumps are addressed under the Americans with Disabilities Act and do not need to be repeated in the local Zoning Ordinance.