Kyle City Council heard almost an hour of public comments April 16 regarding the second reading of an ordinance that would have amended the zoning categories in the comprehensive plan and altered future rezoning in much of Old Town Kyle, a block of land that includes most of downtown as well as some land east of I-35.

The ordinance was ultimately tabled until two public meetings could be held. Notice of the meetings will be posted on the city's website.

City Planner Sofia Nelson said that when the city's comprehensive master plan was created in 2010, Kyle did not have zoning designations such as neighborhood commercial or community commercial.

"On the very, very basic level, the comprehensive plan still reflects those zoning designations that were in place when it was first adopted, and now there's new ones," Nelson said. "We've adopted some new [zoning designations], and we've got to plug them in."

According to a city document from a June 18 public workshop regarding zoning, neighborhood commercial zoning is meant "to provide for various types of small-scale, low-impact commercial, retail, personal services and office uses located in close proximity to their customers."

According to a similar document, community commercial zoning allows for "slightly more intense commercial uses" than what is allowed under neighborhood commercial.

On a broader scale, the ordinance was intended to ensure that the city's original vision, laid out in the comprehensive master plan, remained intact. Nelson said the planning and zoning commission reviewed the city's comprehensive plan to ensure the document was still reflective of the "intent and character" originally outlined for the city's 15 districts.

"In some cases it was not," Nelson said. "In order to keep the document alive, we made some additional recommendations above and beyond just the neighborhood and the community commercial [zoning]."

Those recommendations included changing the city's stance on what types of developments belong in Old Town Kyle.

Two zoning categories, central business district 1 and central business district 2, have guided much of the zoning and development in downtown. The ordinance would have changed these development types from the status of recommended, which all but guarantees approval by City Council, to conditional, which Nelson described as having a "50-50" chance of approval. The purpose of the change was to encourage City Council to take a closer look at developments going into Old Town Kyle.

Nelson used the example of a restaurant looking to locate in Old Town Kyle. Restaurants are allowed under CBD-1, she said, but asked if the restaurant would be appropriate next to the library.

"Would it necessarily be appropriate right by Kyle Elementary?" she said. "Conditional [status] is just saying maybe a retail shop or a caf is appropriate, or it could not [be]. That was the concern. There are some uses that are appropriate for Center Street, but are they appropriate to recommend and send that strong message of a full recommendation status everywhere in Old Town?"

Nelson said the changes would not apply retroactively to current business owners within each of the city's 15 districts. Instead, if business owners wanted their property to be rezoned for a use other than what its permit presently allowed, it would be subject to the new rules.

Nelson said the city held two public meetings with planning and zoning to discuss the proposed changes. Notice of the meetings was posted in a city newspaper.

Ed Winn, a former City Council member and mayor, said he was irked by the council's lack of public input. He said the city should not stop at placing ads in the paper but should consider citywide mailers in the future.

"Anything they have to do to get the word out," Winn said.

City leaders and residents spent months working on the comprehensive plan together, he said, and City Council failed to alert residents that it would be taking action on an ordinance that would affect them all.

"I know that changes have to be made in any plan," Winn said. "There's not a perfect plan. When they modify that plan, it affects the personal life, the ownership of businesses. They did all this without input from the people who were going to be affected by the change."