ZAP forges compromise on FM 2222 warehouse lot

A business owner wanted to maximize the use of his mini-storage property, but a compromise at the Zoning and Platting Commission on his proposed expansion to a climate-controlled facility allowed its neighbors to keep their cool.

 

On Tuesday, members of the ZAP approved the rezoning of Uncle Bob’s 2222, a mini-warehouse lot at 10307 FM 2222. Commissioners crafted the rezoning – a sort of patchwork of the applicant’s request and staff recommendations – in order to find a balance between the logistical needs of Uncle Bob’s and the concerns of the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

 

According to Clark Patterson of the Planning and Development Review Department, the applicant was seeking rezoning from Limited Office (LO) to Commercial Service (CS) in order to have a zoning category that would allow them to become a legal use and therefore be able to do work on the property. Currently the property exists as a legal non-conforming use since convenient storage is not a permitted use in LO.

 

However, Patterson told the commission, after evaluating the request, staff determined that granting CS zoning status in that area along FM 2222 would be “too intense” in terms of traffic. “Therefore,” he said, “staff is recommending an alternate, less-intense zoning category that will allow the applicant to become a legal use,” Warehouse/Limited Office with a Conditional Overlay, or W/LO-CO.

 

According to Patterson, the conditional overlay would limit vehicle trips to 2000 per day, and approximately 16 feet of right of way from the existing center line would be dedicated for FM 2222 according to the transportation plan.

 

But Andrew Dodson, of Stanley Consultants, speaking on behalf of the applicant, told the commission that his client is interested in developing their single-story warehouses into multi-story controlled storage facilities and that the height limitations built into W/LO zoning wouldn’t allow them to do that. W-LO allows for a 25-foot height restriction, which is why Dodson’s client opposed staff’s recommendation. He said they were hoping to get 30 feet.

 

Dodson said they had suggested to staff a compromise by which the height restrictions on a CS zoning be reduced from 40 to 30 feet. “To do the ultimate, upper-level type storage that they want to do,” Dodson said, “it requires more than one story. But because it’s a Hill Country roadway, we’re limited to 40 feet with CS zoning. We’re offering to go to 30 with the CS.”

 

Commissioner Patricia Seeger told Dodson she wasn’t comfortable with that approach, that she was hoping a compromise could be reached whereby the height restrictions on the W-LO zoning could be raised, thereby avoiding traffic and development troubles that can come with CS zoning.

 

“I’m reticent to give any zoning other than the actual use,” she said, “and the reason is, your property is sandwiched between an apartment residential complex and the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, and we’ve got to protect those kinds of environments, both our families and our preserves.”

 

The commission, staff, Dodson, and neighbors of the client spent the next 20 minutes trying to work out a compromise that would allow the property owner to get the height standards it needed without the intensity related to CS zoning. At one point, Commission Chair Betty Baker did point out that they were arguing over the intensity of CS zoning while ignoring the fact that across the street from Uncle Bob’s is a plot zoned for industrial use.

 

“I can see where staff is coming from (with their concerns),” she said, “but when I look at CS zoning on this property, if I look across the street, that’s industrial; they could be making atomic bombs over there. That’s the most intensive zoning. That does not make the CS look nearly so bad.”

 

In the end, though, it was Baker who came up with the compromise that commissioners could (mostly) agree on: A CS-CO, with the conditional overlay limiting the uses on the property to W/LO and Neighborhood Office (NO), limiting the height to 30 feet and subject to the right of way dedication of 16 feet originally recommended by staff.

 

That seemed to do the trick, as the commission voted 5-2 in favor of Baker’s recommendation.