Bastrop residents and developers will see future growth guided by a new set of land-use rules after council members replaced the city’s development code and zoning map this spring.
Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland said the vote for the Bastrop Development Code marked the final step in the city’s effort to undo the previous development rules known as the Bastrop Building Block, or B3.
The biggest structural change with the BDC is the move from the B3’s place types. Those planning categories, such as P1-P5, organized land from rural edges to more urban main street blocks based on building form.
The new code instead uses a traditional zoning map with named districts, such as rural residential, single-family residential and mixed-use.
What's happening
City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino said Bastrop had “come light years in a very short period of time” while creating the new code, which she said was a community effort over the past year.
Though she and council members agreed that B3 did some things well, like improving walkability and preserving historic downtown, it proved difficult to use with a one-size-fits-all approach. Bastrop officials emphasized that the BDC is meant to make it easier for residents and developers to file for and easier to read on the zoning map.
Brittany Epling, Bastrop’s senior planner, said the zoning map update does not reclassify individual properties but instead shifts them into newly named districts with updated standards.
She said the change is intended to move properties into comparable districts under a framework that is clearer and easier to navigate for residents, businesses and staff.
Why it matters
James Cowey, director of Development Services, said the shift moves away from B3’s more complex planning rules toward traditional zoning with commonly known districts, uses and standards.
City documents explain that the B3 did not fit well with Bastrop’s traditional single-family neighborhoods, and raised broader concerns about impervious cover in flood-prone areas, lot sizes, parking •and mo•re.
Officials said the BDC responds in part by updating rules for single-family neighborhoods to reflect Bastrop’s more traditional development patterns, including larger front yards, front-driveway parking and fewer alleys, and by adding a floodplain overlay that applies extra standards in flood-prone areas.
What's next
Carrillo-Trevino said the new code restores the Zoning Board of Adjustment and creates additional administrative relief pathways that were missing under the B3.
“But that chapter is over,” she said. “This really is a code for the people, and it’s enforced by the people, and ... we work for the people.”
Council member Cynthia Meyer emphasized that a grandfather clause is in effect, and those whose plans may be affected should call the city at 512-33•2-8842.
Council member Kerry Fossler said she and other council members will keep track of variances and use them for future amendments.
“Obviously, it might need some tweaks here and there, but we’re finally in a moving forward part of the zoning, the codes and zones, and it is worthy of a celebration,” Bastrop Mayor Ishmael Harris said.
