The San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously March 26 to approve the city's new comprehensive plan. Commissioners also took steps to allow for construction of the city's third H-E-B store.

The comprehensive plan, Vision San Marcos: A River Runs Through Us, is scheduled to go before City Council for final deliberations, with public hearings scheduled April 2 and April 16. The plan is the product of more than a year and a half of input and efforts by city staff and members of the San Marcos community.

"I feel the plan is balanced and took all interests into account when being developed, and it's been an extremely transparent process," said Matthew Lewis, the city's director of the Planning and Development Services Department. "It is a full, comprehensive document that is looking at our long-term growth solutions. We will go back and re-evaluate implementation tools and realign our infrastructure to make the plan come to fruition."

The draft plan can be viewed at www.sanmarcostx.gov/vision.

Also on March 26, commissioners discussed whether to amend land requirements in the southeastern corner of the intersection of McCarty Lane and I-35, where H-E-B is negotiating the purchase of 17 acres for a new grocery store.

"They can have whatever they want if it means we get a third grocery store in this town," Commissioner Curtis Seebeck joked.

Commissioners approved the amendment at their subsequent meeting in April.

The Planning and Zoning Commission also approved a request to rezone 2 acres in the 1100 block of Craddock Avenue for the construction of a church. The property had been designated for low-density residential development, but the rezoning for public institutional use will allow the San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to build a sanctuary and parking lot that exceed low-density restrictions for impervious cover.

In addition, commissioners voted to postpone a public hearing and zoning request by representatives of the Walton Group, a Canadian company that is planning to develop 495 acres at the corner of Old Bastrop Highway and Centerpoint Road.

Commissioner Carter Morris said the request should be delayed until after the company has finished negotiating with the City of San Marcos to create a public improvement district for the planned mixed-use project.