Neal Meinzer stepped right off the pages of a George Orwell novel into last night’s Board of Adjustments meeting. Meinzer and his family have owned property at 505 Old Highway 81 South for around 30 years now and they have been using that property for industrial uses. Exactly what is not important, but what they were doing was absolutely kosher because the property was zoned Heavy Industrial. In 2003, the City passed an ordinance completely revamping its zoning designations, although that ordinance (and this is the important part of this story) never repealed the previous zoning ordinance. The 2003 ordinance did not include a Heavy Industrial zoning. That meant that a property could never be zoned Heavy Industrial again within the city limits, but, because the old ordinance wasn’t repealed, those properties already zoned Heavy Industrial could keep that designation.
The matter before the board last night was an attempt by the city, using a loophole in the law, to claim Meinzer’s property did not conform to current zoning ordinances and permanently shutter his business there. Meinzer was fighting to retain it and to give you the punch line right away, the board ultimately and unanimously sided with Meinzer, although the members did so for all the wrong reasons.
According to Meinzer, TxDOT began construction on I35 access roads in the summer of 2012 and, as part of the construction process, erected concrete barriers that made ready access to his property virtually impossible. Although, he claimed, he had many prospective "tenants" who wanted to use the facility as it was intended to be used, they shied away simply because it was so dang difficult to get in and out of it. As a result, the property sat vacant. That’s when the City swooped in, claiming that if a facility located on a property zoned in a manner that no longer exists is vacant for more than 180 days, it becomes "non-conforming," and the City has the right to get rid of it.
As Lila Knight told the board during the Citizen Comments section of the meeting before it even took up the item, the city is selectively enforcing the ordinance. She pointed out that a number of homes located in the Old Town, Spring Branch, Trails, Prairie on the Creek, Steeplechase and South Lake neighborhoods are zoned R-1, a single family residence zoning that also no longer exists since the passage of the 2003 ordinance. I’d be willing to bet that at one moment in time in the last dozen years at least one home went up for sale in one of those neighborhoods and remained on the market for six months or so and during that time sat vacant. I’m also willing to bet the City never even checked into that fact let alone tried to declare it non-conforming. Why? Because, as Ms. Knight, told the board, the new ordinance states "The general public, the city council and the planning and zoning commission are directed to take note that nonconformities in the use and development of land and buildings are to be avoided, or eliminated where now existing, whenever and wherever possible, except: (1) When necessary to preserve property rights established prior to the date the ordinance from which this chapter is derived become effective as to the property in question; and (2) When necessary to promote the general welfare and to protect the character of the surrounding property."
Homes in R-1 areas will not be declared nonconforming because of the second exception and Meinzer’s property should also be spared because of the first one.
All this appeared to go right over the heads of the members of the Board of Adjustments. Board member Matt Janysek correctly pointed out that every single zoning map the city has published since 2003 shows Meinzer’s property is zoned Heavy Industrial and it’s the maps, not the ordinances, that should be the determining factor, even though, in his words, the maps haven’t been corrected to reflect the new zoning. The fallacy in Janysek’s argument is that maps are NOT wrong, so they don’t need to be corrected. They accurately reflect what each property is zoned. It bears repeating that because the zoning designations that existed in Kyle at the turn of the last century were not eliminated by the 2003 ordinance, properties that were zoned Heavy Industrial and R-1 then are still shown on the map to be zoned that way today.
Board member Terri Thompson was concerned that Meinzer was never notified in 2003 that his zoning was about to change. But, again, it wasn’t going to change, so there was no need for a notification.
But, like I said, the board ultimately got it right and sided with Meinzer, although they seemed to be voting more out of conscience than out of reason. But as long as they did the right thing, who’s to quibble why they did it.
As for Meinzer, he may have entered the meeting by way of Orwell, but an obviously delighted Meinzer left by way of Shakespeare.
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