The Planning & Zoning Commission held the first of what promises to be dozens of meetings Wednesday night to figure out what the City Council had in mind when it gave the Commission a downtown revitalization task. As I wrote earlier, the Council voted 6-1 to instruct the Commission to review what land uses are currently allowed in two zoning districts — CBD 1 and CBD 2 — to determine which uses to keep and which to ditch.
CBD, when employed by city planners, refers to Central Business District, which, in itself, presents P&Z with its first dilemma. As you can see by this map, Kyle’s CBDs, basically runs along and on either side of Center Street from the railroad track on the east to just west of Wallace Street on the west and then along Scott Street to include the library. But that is not Kyle’s Central Business District. Kyle’s current CBD is at the intersection of I-35 and Kyle Parkway and is slowly shifting north along FM 1626. Within a few years, the principle intersection of Kyle’s CBD will be at the Parkway and Kohlers Crossing.
That doesn’t mean there should not be a revitalization in this Center Street area. In fact, quite the opposite. As the only candidate to become a completely sustainable neighborhood in the entire city, this area should be the focus of any municipal revitalization effort. But the neighborhood needs another designation other than CBD, because it is not now and never will be again the city’s Central Business District.
That’s one issue. But P&Z is facing other obstacles as well. It can go through the long list that currently exists that delineates all the types of businesses are currently allowed in this area and then decide which types to excise and which to add. But that could be complete waste of time and energy when, for all practical purposes, there’s nowhere within this district to put any of these businesses. There are no vacant lots in the district.
That means if the City is serious about revitalizing this area it must (1) develop a program that incentivizes developers to redevelop the existing properties within the district and (2) extend the boundaries of the district to places where vacant land exists; i.e., along Old Highway 81 north of Center Street and along RM 150 on the east side of I-35, perhaps all the way to Lehman Drive.
I would encourage P&Z to complete the task the Council assigned it — come up with a completely revised list of allowable uses within the district (with the addition, as I mentioned in my earlier article, of R-3-1 multifamily residential) — along with recommendations that the City (1) create a zoning designation for the district to replace CBD, (2) extend the boundaries of the district to incorporate vacant properties, (3) create a program designed to incentivize revitalization redevelopment, and (4) develop a visual images for what the City wants this area to look like post-revitalization.
The City must also decide the audience for these revitalization efforts — exactly who do they want to attract to this revitalized area. Three possible audiences exist, but only one is truly realistic for Kyle. It’s also the easiest to attract. The first audience is the out-of-town audience. Kyle City Manager Scott Sellers said when he assumed his current position, his No. 1 goal was to make Kyle a destination city. With the events surrounding Pie in the Sky, he has been successful beyond just about all expectations in this effort. But Pie in the Sky does not attract a steady stream of out-of-town visitors. The Texas Pie Company does and the City should be happy with that. Now it needs to develop other places along Center Street for people to go when they come to Kyle for pie. I know Kyle has visions of developing a main street analogous to the one in, say, Fredericksburg, but that main street sprung naturally from the German heritage that pre-existed that development. To borrow from the medical vernacular, Kyle doesn’t have those kinds of pre-existing conditions.
The second audience is those who already live in Kyle and, for reasons outlined earlier, the only local residents this area, when revitalized, is going to attract are those who live within comfortable walking distance of it.
Which naturally brings me to the third audience — those who already live in the district, the low-hanging fruit. Fortunately for Kyle, because the district is already largely residential to begin with, that built-in audience is already considerable and can be easily enlarged by allowing, as I said above, R-3-1 uses. If P&Z and, ultimately, the City Council decide to concentrate on this audience, they are well on their way to a successful revitalization effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment