Planning & Zoning recommends city replace residential policy guidelines with a book of pictures

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended last night the City Council adopt revised, less-stringent policy guidelines regulating the construction of single family residences in Kyle while, at the same time, recommending the council replace all these policy documents with a "style guide" for homebuilders.

The guidelines were originally adopted in reaction to concern raised over such subdivisions as Steeplechase and Spring Branch that contained homes with basically only four different floor plans and that were dominated by garages that protruded from the fronts of the home.

"They looked like places where people simply parked their cars at night, not like places where they lived," one city official told me. "We wanted to create actual neighborhoods in Kyle, places with character."

But the adoption of the written policy guidelines as well as subsequent revisions to that policy brought with them their own sets of restrictions. The restriction that raised the biggest concern was that the guidelines prohibited the construction of most upper-level "executive" housing. Kyle provided great opportunities for the first-time home buyer. After that? Not so much in the way of step-up housing.

"It’s gotten to the point where I view housing policy guidelines the same way in which one Supreme Court justice described pornography," I head one planning official say. "I don’t know how to define it, but I know it when I see it."

Thus, this caveat was included along with the revised policy guidelines (which you can read here) the commission recommended last night:

"Because the length and complexity of this policy has grown with each new edit, staff is considering (and will likely implement) the idea of replacing this policy document with a ‘style guide’. The style guide would feature architectural styles and accessory attributes consistent with that Kyle expects from quality structures, and development at-large. The style guide would provide direction for our home-building clients, and the resultant applications would be reviewed by the staff and confirmed by the Planning Commission for construction."

That should not be interpreted as P&Z must approve every new home planned to be built. The commission will review and most likely will be asked to offer its stamp-of-approval of the design guide before it goes to the council. What P&Z would then have authority to rule on is any significant deviation from that guide sought by a homebuilder, but rejected by the city’s staff.

Planning Director Howard Koontz told the commissioners last night he could have the guide ready for their review as early as March but that April was a more probable target date.

In other action last night, the commissioners postponed until their Jan. 10 meeting decisions on three residential zoning requests that would be directly affected by the revised policy guidelines and elected, by a 5-2 vote, Dex Ellison as the commission’s chair. He replaced Mike Rubsam, whose term expired last month.