During a Bastrop Chamber of Commerce’s State of the City event in early September, City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino emphasized that changes are needed to the document—which dictates how structures are designed and placed—to address a variety of real estate aspects, including:
- Drainage and flooding
- Lot sizes
- Setbacks, which balance development needs with community aesthetics and functionality
- Lot occupation, which focuses on land utilization without compromising the environment
- Parking growth
- Building height
- Landscaping
The B3 Code was first adopted in November 2019 and has undergone several revisions since.
“We did amend the B3 Code. That was necessary,” Carrillo-Trevino said. “There is a term called ‘new urbanism,’ and while it is not a bad word, it has become a bad word for historic towns such as Bastrop.”
New urbanism places an emphasis on infill development—the construction of new buildings on vacant or underutilized land—to address density issues.
“That should be good for a city,” Carrillo-Trevino said. “You should want to maximize the amount of tax value per property for a city.”
For Bastrop, though, the city manager stressed that is not the case.
“That means tearing down historic structures and building four or six [additional structures] in their place,” Carrillo-Trevino said.
What officials are saying
Bastrop Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland favors the idea of preserving the city’s history.
“This is an important theme for me,” he said. “I want people to be able to walk out their front doors and, aside from larger trees here and there, I want their views to basically be the same as it is today. So I don’t want houses torn down. I don’t want super dense duplexes put in their place.”
Although Kirkland acknowledged growth will always be on the periphery, he said he wants an influx of new residents to be managed in a way that best complements Bastrop’s charm.
“The things that people are saying today are like, ‘Wow, what a great looking small town,’ ‘Oh, I love this historic section,’ and ‘I love that the people have big yards here,’” he said. “Ten years from now, I want them to still be saying that.”
The outlook
Carrillo-Trevino highlighted how work to manage the city’s growth is ongoing.
“We have made significant changes in the code and will continue by the end of this year,” Carrillo-Trevino said. “We will do a full revamp presentation of the code, and it will no longer be the B3 Code.”
