New food trailer court gets go-ahead

Plans for a new food trailer court in South Austin cleared the Planning Commission last week, despite concerns from its most immediate neighbor. Contractor Ray Yates was representing the landowner, James Samon, and explained that they were seeking a change from Limited Office (LO) zoning to Commercial (CS) Zoning in order to build a food trailer court on the land. Samon also owns the adjacent GNS Lounge and lots along South First Street, for a total of six adjacent lots. Yates said that Samon wanted to get all of those lots zoned uniformly, in order not to inadvertently run afoul of code by parking a trailer on the wrong lot. “There’s no future development plan. He’s an original Austinite, and he’s kept this property in the family. I don’t see any future development other than food court trailers,” said Yates. Jesse Saletan, who owns the property to the west, said his land was zoned LO but used as single-family residences. He said he was very concerned about the prospect of the property changing over to CS zoning, though he supported the idea of food trailers on the land. Saletan said he would support CS zoning for the land along South First Street but not the land immediately adjacent to his own. In the end, the Planning Commission approved CS zoning for tract 1, Limited Retail (LR) zoning for tract 2 and Limited Office (LO) zoning for tract 3, as was recommended by staff.