The Kyle Report: That was fast (if not exactly kosher)

When I first learned about the city’s plans to extend Market Place Avenue from City Lights Drive to North Burleson Street, I predicted that entire stretch of roadway, from Kyle Parkway to Center Street, would be completely urbanized within 20 years. But not even I thought the process would begin this quickly.

The Planning & Zoning Commission is scheduled to consider a pair of zoning change requests at its Tuesday gathering, one of which would convert 6.785 acres of land on the east side of Marketplace Avenue extension, south of City Lights, from retail services to multi-family, to allow for the planned construction of approximately 190 three-story apartment units. Interestingly, it’s the City itself that is seeking the zoning change, although Joe Brooks, the listed owner of the property, has apparently given his consent to the City’s request. I guess that’s why certain regulations are being skirted — namely ones that require a notification sign be posted on property requesting the zoning change. I mean, who’s the City gonna bust for disobeying the law? I doubt if it plans to issue a citation against itself.

I sign would have been helpful, however. Although the agenda itself says the land is "located on the southeast corner of City Lights Drive and Marketplace extension," that’s not exactly true. According to materials accompanying the agenda "The location is located approximately 400 feet south of the intersection of the new Marketplace Extension and City Lights Drive." But that’s not all. Today, I measured "400 feet south of the intersection of the new Marketplace Extension and City Lights Drive" and that put me plumb in the center of the bridge that spans Plum Creek. So, perhaps, maybe, it could be, Plum Creek is going to flow right through the middle of this apartment complex, but for some reason I really doubt that’s going to happen. A sign announcing exactly where the property on which the zoning change is requested is located would have removed a lot of the confusion.

One other thing. At last week’s City Council meeting, Planning Director Howard J. Koontz floated this idea for ways to change the City’s perimeter road fees and during that discussion Koontz produced a chart showing how many trips-per-day certain kinds of developments produce. According to Koontz’s own figures, this proposed apartment complex will produce 1,257 trips-per-day and, according to city ordinances, any zoning change that could result in 1,000 or more trips per day requires an accompanying traffic impact analysis. Needless to say no such analysis accompanies this request. But, as I said earlier, the City is the applicant here so I guess it can get away with breaking its own rules without penalties.

Yep, not exactly kosher. However, if anyone wants to question why "The City of Kyle is the applicant for this request," when ordinances seem to prohibit the city from seeking zoning changes, or why the actual agenda item lists an incorrect location for this development, or why the location listed in the accompanying material is in the middle of Plum Creek, or why no zoning change notification sign was posted on the site, or why a traffic impact study does not accompany the request, there will be ample opportunity to do so at the public hearing that will be part of the discussion on this agenda item.

I was also hoping (probably "wishfully dreaming" might be a more apt description) that the Marketplace Extension would be the ideal "test" area for the City to consider locating what urban land planners are referring to as "perfect communities." You know, completely self-sustaining neighborhoods that won’t become a terrible tax burden on future generations as is the ultimate fate of all the other development taking place in Kyle. But I guess Kyle hasn’t advanced to that level of sophistication. If anyone is curious about what a "perfect community" looks like, I’ve included an artist’s rendering of one below.

The second zoning change P&Z will consider is even more laughable. The request is to change the zoning on 1.5 acres of land located on the northeast corner of the I-35 feeder road and Edwards Drive, just north of the Central Texas Speedway. That property is currently occupied by a warehouse and the applicant is requesting a zoning change from agriculture to warehouse. I’m not making this stuff up. A giant warehouse/used car business occupies the land now.

The way I understand it, the warehouse was built before the property was annexed into the city and newly annexed properties are permitted to maintain non-conforming uses of their property following annexation. However, the used car lot was added after the annexation, so now the property owner, Leonardo Huerta, must request a zoning change.

But at least he has the requisite sign in place (see below).

Longtime readers may be aware of my opposition to warehouse zoning anywhere along I-35 (I don’t believe it presents a good "image" of Kyle to motorists), but this area is pretty much warehoused-to-hell already, so there’s not much can be done to fix it right away.