Bellaire City Council gathered for a public hearing Aug. 3 that expanded upon amendments to the Corridor Mixed Use zoning district that were already approved by the council back in March.
The CMU district spans from North First Street to Chimney Rock Road, adjacent to Bissonnet Street, and is home to many of the city’s mixed-use developments.
Some context
In March, Bellaire officials approved a set of amendments related to the CMU district in the city’s code of ordinances, which were recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Per previous reporting by Community Impact, the now-greenlit amendments involve:
- Removing veterinary services from the definition of “Business and professional offices and services”
- Designating veterinary services as a specific use
- Revising the permitted use of multifamily dwellings so that such use would be allowed only through an approved planned development application and only as part of a mixed-use development, as well as reducing the maximum allowable density from 30 units per acre to 20 units per acre
- Establishing a height-setback plane for developments fronting major streets
- Reducing minimum front-yard setback requirements for sites with less than 100 feet of depth from street frontage
- Extending the front building setback line and front height-setback plane by 5 feet each on lots greater than 150 feet in depth
- Reducing the rear height-setback plane maximum from 27 feet to 17 feet for commercial developments abutting residential districts
Additionally, Bellaire City Council came to a collective agreement during discussion that single-family detached dwellings and townhouses should be permitted as stand-alone uses or as part of a mixed-use development in the district, according to agenda documents.
However, because this revision was not previously recommended by the P&Z Commission, nor was it included in the public hearing notice, city staff had to revisit the commission for review of the new proposal.
The P&Z Commission held the public hearing in relation to this matter at its May 14 meeting.
The present
At the Aug. 3 public hearing, Director of Development Services Travis Tanner informed the council that the P&Z Commission ultimately recommended approval of the new changes June 4.
Alongside this recommendation, Tanner said the commission and city staff also proposed the following general provisions, completely separate from the permitting of single-family detached dwellings:
- Restricting single-family residences from fronting on Bissonnet Street
- Adopting dimensional and development standards similar to the R-6 Small-Lot Residential Attached District
The development services director added that the implementation of the R-6 district standards would ensure that the city is prepared in the event that single-family residences are developed in the area.
Offering input
When it came time for questions, council member Ross Gordon asked that city staff double-check the language used in the R-6 district standard amendment for discrepancies prior to returning for final deliberation.
Gordon said that although the city has adopted several townhouse development standards into its code of ordinances, current single-family detached regulations do not use these standards.
Instead, in regard to townhome-related matters, the code refers only to standards utilized within the R-1 district, which has different requirements for single-family detached properties than it does for townhouses.
Gordon pointed out that the verbiage of the proposed R-6 district standard ordinance suggests that the dimensional and development standards would apply to both property types. He followed up such observation by saying that the phrasing should be reviewed to maintain consistency throughout the city’s code.
“You may want to include similar language, which basically references back to the residential zoning district table for all single-family detached houses,” Gordon said. “But I appreciate putting in the townhouse language. I just don’t want to apply townhouse standards to single-family development if we have another method of doing that.”
Next steps
Bellaire City Council is anticipated to take action on the new amendments related to the CMU district in the city’s code of ordinances in its final deliberation meeting Sept. 21, per agenda details.
