If approved, the city of Kyle may have found a way to diversify its neighborhoods' architecture and appearance.
Planning Director Howard Koontz said the Planning and Zoning Commission noticed a homogeneity to each of the city's neighborhoods and brought their concerns to staff.
As a result, the commission voted to draft a residential style guide and present it to City Council during their meeting on Aug 1.
“To an extent, everyone can understand the reason, but it could also be foreseen that it could be harmful in the long run to the resiliency for our housing market,” Koontz said. “We sought to raise the bar through the idea of creating standards that made quality products and boosted quality of life without pricing out the development community from being able to build here.”
Koontz said housing projects already in process or finished would not have to follow the new guidelines, but all new projects would have to apply the new changes starting Aug. 2, if the guide is approved.
The draft style guide includes bans on cul-de-sacs, faux veneer panels as a primary cladding and homes with similar site plans built within three lots of each other.
“These are just little attributes, no major revolutionary changes,” Koontz said. “They are just evolutionary things that builders have gotten away from and that we would like to see them go back to.”
City Council will either vote on the ordinance tonight or push it to another meeting after discussion, Koontz said.