A bunch of zoning cases.
- One near the outlet malls, on the other side of 35, got postponed.
- One near the high school got approved. Not sure what it is. Light industrial?
- A low income housing complex for seniors in the Whisper tract PDD. Everyone hates the location, but it will bring in a ton of money to the San Marcos Housing Authority.
And then…we have the curious case of the narrow house on Lockhart St. This is inconsequential but symbolic. And so weird.
A year ago, the owner asked to build a little house on the lot and split it into two lots. P&Z approved, Council denied. (I did not see that meeting.) From what I gather, Saul Gonzalez rallied against it, saying he used to live in that neighborhood and could speak on behalf of the residents, who did not want it. Fine.
So now it comes back. It was a super feisty P&Z meeting, with Zach Sambrano speaking particularly forcefully in favor of the little house, squeezed onto a tiny plot. Namely, what exactly is the problem with this? But they voted it down 6-3.
To overturn P&Z, Council would need a supermajority of 6 votes. And Shane Scott recused himself, because he lives near there. So there was no way this was ever going to pass. But the discussion was bizarre.
Saul moved to deny. There were the usual points about changing the character of a neighborhood, and traffic.
After a couple comments, Alyssa Garza spoke up and said, “You all are speaking to different residents than I speak to. The neighborhood residents that I spoke to all said that they didn’t mind the house being built.”
This is where the conversation got so very weird. I’m looking at Saul Gonzalez, Mark Gleason, and Jane Hughson.
Saul basically said, “I know a lot of the residents. Unfortunately, they’ve passed away, and their children now live there. Their children said they don’t mind. But still, it’s a slippery slope.”
Mark Gleason and Jane Hughson both said some version of this: “I talked to some residents! They said they don’t care if it’s built. But they said it with cynicism and resignation in their voice. Therefore I’m discounting their words.”
This is just an amazing bit of NIMBY-projection where it doesn’t even exist! “There’s no way they meant what they said, so instead I’ll have to trust the deep longing I imagined in their voice, for heavy-handed NIMBY protectionist measures.” I was genuinely dumb-founded to hear this verbal fancy hot-stepping.
In the end, “Preserving the Uniformity of the Neighborhood” ended up being the holy grail to which we sacrificed this little house. Does one house really affect affordable housing? Not in the grand scheme of things, but it’s symbolic AF.
Voting to deny: Saul Gonzalez, Mayor Hughson, Mark Gleason, and Max Baker.
Voting to approve: Alyssa Garza and Jude Prather.
The San Marxist 