P&Z does its business and adjourns without fuss

In a meeting distinguished only by its comparative brevity and well-deserved tribute to outgoing commissioner and long-time Kyle volunteer Michelle Christie, who has decided to return to her home in New Jersey, the Planning & Zoning Commissioner unanimously recommended last night that:

• Rick Coleman be granted the conditional use permit he needs to conduct what he is calling the Hays County Fair & Crawfish Boil April 7-9 next to the Central Texas Speedway.
• The proposed Sonic Drive-In at 400 E. RR 150, next to the animal shelter, be granted a variance from the landscaping ordinance which requires that "no parking space is more than 50 feet from the trunk of a tree." Howard J. Koontz, the city’s director of planning and community development, said this ordinance is designed to ensure proper shade for cars parked in these lots and that it should not be enforced for Sonic because its parking is covered by man-made canopies anyway. Today, as is my wont, I did some grocery shopping at H-E-B and maybe, perhaps, there’s a chance that one or more of the trees in that parking lot will, long after I’m dead, grow large enough to provide adequate shade for a car. Maybe. Perhaps. There’s a chance. And even in the unlikely event it ever did grow large enough to provide adequate shade for a car parked 50 feet from its trunk, I stepped off the distance between where I parked my car and the nearest tree. The distance was 47 regular steps or almost three times the distance the ordinance is supposed to require. And you will have to look long and hard (and without success) to find anything resembling any form of covered parking on that lot. And you know what? I have absolutely no problems with the H-E-B parking lot. So, if it’s OK for H-E-B, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with granting this variance for Sonic.