During a special meeting June 3, the Magnolia City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission discussed the possibility of implementing zoning in city limits within the next few months.
City officials received a zoning presentation from Bret Keast, president of land use planning and urban design firm Kendig Keast. If a zoning ordinance is implemented, the city of Magnolia would be divided into several districts by lot size and type, and future builders would be subject to the new development standards.
“Ninety percent of the people in this town probably won’t ever have the occasion of needing to use [the zoning code],” Keast said. “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.”
In early zoning plans, proposed lot sizes and classifications for the districts include NC1 for acre lots, NC2 for quarter-acre lots, NC3 for 5,000-square-foot lots for single-family homes, NC4 for 5,000-square-foot for multifamily units and other related types and NC5 for manufacturing areas. Some of the different residential districts range from large lots with high density to smaller lots with lower density, including rural residential, rural estate, suburban residential and semiurban.
The proposed zoning map is expected to be ironed out into a preliminary report during the June 25 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, Magnolia City Attorney Leonard Schneider said. After the report is released, two public hearings will be held with City Council and P&Z members to gather input from the community on any possible changes to the zoning map and ordinance text, Schneider said.
P&Z members will prepare a final report and hold a third public meeting with City Council to receive any additional recommendations, he said. From start to finish, the entire process could take about two and a half months to proceed through the steps and potentially implement the zoning ordinance in an additional 30 to 60 days, Keast said.
“Some people are going to interpret things differently, and there is going to be some warming up period [to the zoning ordinance],” Keast said. “There are going to be some adjustments.”
“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.” —Bret Keast, president of land use planning and urban design firm Kendig Keast
In addition, language has been added to the zoning code to authorize applicants to include an escrow payment when submitting a development application to the city, Keast said. The escrow payment allows the city time to review the application, and officials may maintain a portion of the funds through an administrative recovery fee to offset other costs in the future, he said.
“With the city of Richmond, if the applicants post $5,000 upfront and if the city only spends $1,000, they get $4,000 back,” Keast said. “If it’s a major development and it goes on for months, they spend $10,000 and post another $5,000—that way it’s not coming out of the city’s coffers. It’s a pretty common practice.”
Deed restrictions are another zoning aspect many existing homeowners in city limits are subject to for subdivision development, Schneider said.
“If the deed restrictions are more restrictive than what’s in the city’s code, they apply,” Keast said. “If the city’s regulations are more restrictive than the deed restrictions, they don’t apply. As an example, if there are deed restrictions in an area that call for a 30-foot front setback and the city’s code only calls for a 25-foot front setback, you apply the more restrictive. The zoning ordinance is not meant to override deed restrictions.”
City officials plan to post a large map of the proposed zoning districts in City Hall to allow for public comment once the P&Z members approve a preliminary report later this month, Keast said.
Zoning is designed to allow for a blueprint for future development in the city and to prevent large-scale buildings from being built in residents’ backyards, he said.
“I don’t anticipate a lot of issues because we’ve just taken what the property is being used at now to implement the process,” Magnolia Mayor Todd Kana said. “When we grow in the future, we have [zoning] there to work with. It doesn’t look like we’re really affecting anybody.”
Kendig Keast and Magnolia officials are also working to create an online interactive zoning map to allow potential applicants to submit applications through the city’s website in the future.
