About two years after creating a comprehensive plan, the city of Magnolia is taking its final steps toward implementing its first zoning ordinance within city limits.

“Ninety percent of the people in this town probably won’t ever have the occasion of needing to use [the zoning code],” said Bret Keast, president of land use planning and urban design firm Kendig Keast. “This will primarily address the people who aren’t here yet. As we continue to annex and grow, they are the ones going to be needing to comply with the zoning ordinance.”

Since earlier this year, Kendig Keast has been working with the city of Magnolia to design its zoning map. The city held its second joint public hearing Sept. 8 between the City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission regarding the unified development code and zoning map.

The city is expected to hold an additional hearing Oct. 13  at Magnolia City Hall to iron out the final code and map and potentially implement the ordinance within the next 30 to 60 days.

The new zoning ordinance will allow Magnolia officials to regulate land uses by lot and type as the city limits continue to expand through annexations in the coming years.

Since 2014, the city of Magnolia has annexed nine properties ranging from a few hundred feet to 163 acres into city limits, which now encompass a 3-square-mile area from downtown Magnolia to Spur 149.

The zoning ordinance will serve as a blueprint for future development and will prevent large-scale buildings from being built near the backyards of residents, Keast said.

“The intention was never to change somebody’s existing land use [designation] or force someone into something—it’s just ground rules,” Magnolia Mayor Todd Kana said. “When we grow in the future, we have [zoning] there to work with.”

During the Sept. 8 hearing, Magnolia resident Benita Wortman requested her property on Buddy Riley Boulevard be rezoned in the draft plan from semiurban residential to suburban village to allow for future commercial development.

“I see no problem whatsoever once this plan is adopted if [residents] ask the Planning and Zoning Commission to recommend the change,” commission Chairman Frank Parker said.

For any future rezoning recommendations, residents can submit a petition to the commission for consideration and final approval by the council.