What happened
Pearland City Council voted unanimously Sept. 9 to adopt an amended version of the Pearland 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which gives guidance on land use, development and the city's future appearance.
“A comprehensive plan for a city guides the future land use ... and is the overarching plan for our future,” City Manager Trent Epperson said.
The plan offers a thorough and overarching guide for what Pearland will look like, including where neighborhoods, retail, parks and all the essential city places will be located.
The backstory
Before being adopted Sept. 9, the plan went through significant public and City Council input sessions where the subject of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, were brought up frequently.
An ADU is a smaller, independent residential dwelling unit on the same lot as a single-family home, according to the American Planning Association.
Following the June 24 City Council meeting, city staff were asked to revise the plan to update its guidelines for ADUs.
At the June 24 meeting, council member Joseph Koza requested an amendment, which passed unanimously, that the plan be updated to reflect ADUs could only be permitted in “certain zoned areas.” He argued allowing ADUs in existing neighborhoods could potentially make areas zoned for single-family housing into multifamily housing.
Koza said at the Sept. 9 meeting he did not feel city staff’s updates to the ADU clause reflected what City Council had requested for revisions.
“In the comprehensive plan, from what our meeting was last time, I’m not so sure [we accomplished] what we were after,” Koza said.
Koza said he was particularly unsatisfied with the language about creating “focus groups" including representatives from developers, real estate agents and community members.
After discussion, City Council voted unanimously to remove the clause about ADUs to discuss at a later undetermined date and then voted unanimously to pass the remainder of the plan.
