According to City Manager Wayne Reed, the OT or Old Town is mentioned in the Unified Development Code 41 times, and the amending or removal of the overlay district would require evaluating those sections to understand the effect an amendment or removal would have.
Council members supported becoming more educated about the overlay district and possibly amending it to remove the blanket zoning of Commercial, Level 2.
Council also discussed the rezoning of properties within the OT to fix residential properties being zoned as C-2.
According to Reed, there are approximately 41 nonresidential properties and 134 residential properties within the OT.
District 7 Council Member Joel Hicks said when the OT was created, residents did not receive notification regarding the change in their zoning, and the rezoning would revert properties back to single family.
“It was unjust to the citizens 13 years ago when this took place,” he said. “They didn’t notify a single one of us that this was happening. Nobody was notified.”
Letters will be sent out to residents who have homes that fall under the C-2 zoning, which will notify them of the changes council plans to make. Residents will have the opportunity to keep the C-2 zoning.
According to Reed, the city will work with the appraisal district to inform the county on which properties are planned for rezoning.
The tentative deadline for the public hearing of the rezoning of homes is Feb. 28 with a tentative deadline of March 18 for the approval of the ordinance.
For the amendment of the OT, city staff will have additional meetings with the Cibolo Planning and Zoning Commission, and council will revisit the item in a future meeting.
