Planning commission to consider zero lot line home zoning

Proposed zoning change would allow homes like this in Kyle

The Planning & Zoning Commission will consider Tuesday redefining the requirements for the city’s R-1-A zoning designation, replacing detached homes with comparatively small attached homes for these areas. The owners of two lots near downtown and the owner of one in East Kyle that apparently wish to build these types of homes on their properties have asked the commission to delay their zoning change requests until the new zoning designation has been approved.

Because Tuesday is election day, the normal 6:30 p.m. start for the commission’s meeting has been pushed back to 7 p.m.

The new language for the ordinance the commission will consider recommending to the City Council allows for properties zoned R-1-A to contain single family attached residences as small as 1,000-square feet.. Detached residences will be allowed in R-1-A only as a conditional use and "may only be approved after a public hearing is held by the City Council after having received a report and recommendation from the city planning and zoning commission concerning the effect of the proposed use on the adjacent and neighboring properties and neighborhoods."

The proposed ordinance change will also reduce the minimum square footage for townhome lots from 2,844 to 880 square feet, making it the smallest single family residence lot allowed in Kyle.

The ordinance will also create a R-1-3 zoning category that will allow detached homes as small as 1,000 square feet.

All three of the zoning change requests on Tuesday’s agenda — the three requesting delays that are most likely to be granted — are seeking changes to R-1-A zoning so it would appear they intend to build attached, not detached, residences on those properties.

Public hearings accompany the three likely-to-be-postponed zoning change requests as well as to the item to consider the zoning changes. Here’s hoping the commission doesn’t botch these hearings as badly as it did during its Nov. 22 meeting. This past Tuesday’s City Council meeting was example of how to almost handle it correctly (the only error Tuesday was one of the public hearings was mistakenly closed and then immediately, albeit illegally, re-opened and left open, but I doubt the public meeting high sheriff is going to come down on this one too hard since no action was taken that would force litigation of any sort. At least the mayor at Tuesday’s meeting not only allowed, but encouraged those who wanted to speak on the items to be postponed speak during the citizen comments section of the meeting, unlike the chair of the planning and zoning commission who tried to deny those citizens their rights of free speech.

The two properties seeking the zoning change near downtown are located about five blocks south of West Center Street, just east of South Old Stagecoach Road and extend south to Scott Street, between West 2^nd Street and Park Place. Together they comprise about 86 acres. The largest of the two properties, owned by Blanton Family Limited Partnership, is currently zoned Central Business District in parts of it and single family residential R-1-2 in most of it. The smaller property, 7.6 acres owned by Thomas Kaminsky, is currently zoned single family residential R-1-2 as well. The third property seeking this zoning designation is a 53-acre parcel located between Beebee Road and a block south of the Amberwood Loop. It is also currently zoned R-1-2