Land development: topic for ongoing debate

Land development: topic for ongoing debate

Written by Amy Stansbury Friday, 01 August 2008

Homeowners voice concern over apartments being built near their neighborhoods

Recent Pflugerville City Council meetings were standing room only as city hall overflowed with citizens interested in land development plans and pending zoning change requests. Some of the properties discussed include the 29-acre lot at the northwest corner of Pecan Street and FM 685, and 60 acres on the west side of Stone Hill Town Center.

“With the tolls and arterial roads, Pflugerville is much more attractive to developers,” said Trey Fletcher, Pflugerville planning director. “With that, the land increases in value. The changes in zoning are really an indication of the maturation of the community.”

But at the council meetings, citizens raised two main issues about the use of the land: They did not want apartments to be built near their homes, and they did not believe they received the state-required public hearing notices. City officials, however, said that apartments are needed to provide housing options and that Pflugerville surpasses state requirements for notification.

“The city’s code is to notify property owners who live within 500 feet of property being considered for rezoning, even though the state only requires 200 feet,” Fletcher said. “The community’s input and involvement is critical, though, and as a reflection, we are researching best practices of notification in other cities. We are also working with the Pflugerville Council of Neighborhood Associations to begin distributing notifications via e-mail to neighborhood leaders.”

Not in my back yard

A resident who opposes development near his home is commonly referred to as a NIMBY, an acronym for “not in my back yard.”

“The adjacency concerns are not uncommon, and the things we struggle with as a community with regard to adjacency issues are not unique to Pflugerville,” Fletcher said. “The challenges that each community faces and how they handle it in their own way is to address adjacency in a way that is acceptable, reasonable and appropriate.”

The city’s comprehensive plan sets the policy for how land is zoned.

“It comes back to having a comprehensive plan and associated policies, goals and objectives that are a reasonable reflection of the community’s wants and desires,” he said. “So, as zonings and developments occur, there should be few surprises to the community.”

Fletcher said the city’s need for an updated comprehensive plan is becoming increasingly evident and the cost to develop one is proposed in next year’s budget. If it is approved, the city expects to begin developing a new comprehensive plan in October, at the start of its new fiscal year. The process is expected to take 12- to 18 months, during which the city will solicit public input on the plan via town hall meetings, surveys and other forums.

Housing options

Fletcher said Pflugerville has fewer apartments than most cities of similar size, and there is a need for them.

“There is no home building going on right now, and foreclosures are occurring,” Fletcher said. “There is a market for apartments. People want to locate here permanently, and they need an interim solution.”

Although some homeowners do not want apartments to be built near their neighborhoods, Fletcher said it would not be good for the community if all of the apartments in town were located in one area.

“The arrangements of the zoning districts are purposefully scattered, and the goal would be to spread them out,” Fletcher said. “Planning is not all economic development, but economic development is not successful without planning. The more employers the city is able to attract to the area, the higher the demand there is for various forms of housing — and now more than ever people need to live close to where they work. The city must encompass a diverse housing stock for us to compete within the region. Employers look for that when choosing where to locate.”

Apartments planned for years

City officials have been working with developer Steve Alvis, principal of NewQuest Properties, since May 2006. NewQuest is developing the million sq. ft. Stone Hill Town Center, which features The Home Depot that opened in May and a SuperTarget that is expected to open in the spring of 2009. Alvis said he had always planned a multifamily residential component for the development, and he worked with the city to change the zoning for a portion of the land to allow apartments about a year ago. But when he submitted a request to change the zoning to a higher density, multifamily residential district, some residents who live nearby spoke out at the city council meeting to ask that apartments not be built there.

In the meeting, Alvis said the apartments will be situated on 14 of the 60 acres included in the rezoning application, but he included the entire area in the request to give him flexibility as he develops the land so he does not have to go through the zoning change process again. He said his intent is to preserve more open space on the property by building up instead of out, which would allow more of a buffer between the apartments and houses.

Alvis sold the 14 acres to Greystar Development Group to build the apartments at Stone Hill Town Center. But he said he still has good reason to care about the quality of what is built there.

“If I’m spending around $200- to $250 million on a project that I’m going to own in Pflugerville forever, why would I sell a $2- to $3 million tract of land to Greystar if I wasn’t confident in what they were going to do with it?” Alvis said. “We only get to not do what we say we’re going to do once, and then I’m out of business.”

Councilwoman’s consideration

Councilwoman Starlet Sattler said she voted to approve the zoning change because the apartments will be upscale and not likely be home to many residents with young children who would attend Highland Park Elementary.

“I’m not for apartments no matter what,” Sattler said. “But in this particular situation, when he told me they would be 70 percent one bedroom, I thought, ‘Yay!’”

Sattler said she also considered what would happen if [the council] did not approve the zoning change, since it was already zoned to allow lower-density apartments.

“If we leave it and there are one to two kids per apartment, which is what is likely to happen with the way it was already zoned, it would burden the schools,” Sattler said. “And if we put this many houses on the property, which statistics show would likely have 2.5 kids each, that would still be over 200 to 300 kids being added to Highland Park Elementary. At least with the one-bedroom apartments, it’s not going to significantly affect the school.”

Another reason some residents were concerned about the development is because a road is planned to connect the shopping center to the Highland Park North subdivision. They did not want vehicles to cut through their neighborhood from Heatherwilde Boulevard to get to Stone Hill Town Center, but Sattler said she drove the route and thinks it is unlikely.

“You would have to zigzag through it,” she said. “It’s just not a feasible way to get there, and most people wouldn’t even know how to get through it.”

The city council unanimously approved the zoning request June 10.

Plans changed, no apartments

Lifelong resident Gladys Pfluger owns a 29-acre tract of land at the northwest corner of FM 685 and Pecan Street that is under contract with Jay Symcox of Symcox Development and Rex Hoover of Newport Development. The two partnered to purchase and develop the land, which they call the Pflugerville Town Square. They submitted an application to have the zoning of the land changed from Agriculture/Conservation to an ALUR, which stands for Alternative Land Use Regulations, with a General Business-1 base district. This zoning would allow retail, commercial and residential developments to be built on the property. Symcox and Hoover planned to build multifamily residential on one section of the property, and commercial and retail on the other.

Although the Pflugerville Downtown Association did not want apartments built there, a representative said members generally supported the zoning change because they saw it as positive for downtown retailers and restaurants — and they wanted city hall built there, too. But at least 20 percent of the adjacent neighborhood residents signed a petition opposing the development. Several of the petitioners spoke at the July 8 city council meeting, stating that they wanted any residential development at the site to be housing that is owned rather than rented.

Over the last few weeks, Councilman Victor Gonzalez led several meetings with the developers and interested stakeholders together to try to understand and come to resolution on the issues, but nearby residents maintained a zero tolerance for any apartments built on the property.

In an effort to secure approval for the zoning change, the developers told the city council at the July 22 meeting that they will not build apartments on the property. They requested a modified General Business-1 zoning and asked the council to remove the Central Business District overlay requirements for the entire tract. The CBD overlay requires additional development standards unique to the downtown area, and city staff and the Architectural Review Board must approve site development plans.

“We have said no apartments whatsoever,” Hoover said to the council. “It’s a swing of millions of dollars to our project, but we didn’t think the project could move forward.”

Councilman Mike Marsh told Symcox and Hoover that in some ways, they are taking on a burdensome piece of property.

“This is obviously a very special piece of land in Pflugerville, and being at the crossroads of 685 and Pecan, it would form a visual image of Pflugerville,” Marsh said to the developers. “It really needs some out-of-the-box thinking — something that would really set the tone for the way Pflugerville wants to look.”

The issue was tabled by the city council at the July 22 meeting. The developer is expected to work with the city on more detailed plans for the site before Aug. 26, when the city council will consider the zoning change request. A supermajority, which is four out of five council members, is required to approve this zoning change because of the petition.

Pflugerville Planning Dept., 100 E. Main St. • 990-4370, www.cityofpflugerville.com, planning@cityofplfugerville.com

The City of Pflugerville is required by state law and the city’s code of ordinances to notify residents about public hearings for rezonings via the following: Mailing public hearing notices to residents living within 200 feet of property with a pending zoning change request; Pflugerville Zoning Code mandates 500-foot notification area (includes properties on municipal tax roll) • Posting signage on the property • Advertising in the designated city newspaper • Listing on city council meeting agenda, which is posted on the city website • Notice on television channel 10 (Suddenlink cable)

Public hearing notices

Pflugerville Council of Neighborhood Associations to distribute public hearing information - 29-acre tract of land in zoning change request submitted by Symcox Development and Newport Development

The city recently began coordinating with the Pflugerville Council of Neighborhood Associations to help notify residents about public hearings. PfCONA President Kevin Kluge said he is supportive of this collaboration, and he hopes to pass along more than just public hearing information.

“One of the things I hope to try for in the notification is that I will be able to notify not only on zoning changes, but also notify neighborhoods about first readings for development conceptual plans,” Kluge said.

Kluge said developers often request a zoning change before they have a good idea of exactly what they want to build there.

“They want to just change the rules so they can build something there,” Kluge said. “But the neighborhoods are very concerned about the actual building and development that’s going to take place there, which isn’t always addressed in the zoning.”

To get on the PfCONA distribution list, e-mail info@pfcana.org or visit www.pfcona.org.