Items 15-16: 38.5 acres is being annexed and zoned. La Cima is growing.
I found myself wanting to do a deep dive on La Cima. How did we get here? I thought maybe I could try to finally wrap my head around La Cima. (I’d also like to do this for Whisper Tract and Trace.)
So La Cima was first approved in 2013, as Lazy Oaks. Most of the city’s online archives only go back to 2014 though, so I literally can’t find a map of the original parcel. It was 1,396 acres in size.
In 2014, it grows to 2,029.023 acres (and maybe gets renamed?) It looked like so:
That’s RR12 right at the entrance of the pink part, right where Old 12 meets new 12.
Basic stats, 2014:
– 2,400 houses
– 32.4 acres parkland
– 800 acres conservation
– 2,029 total acres
I think they actually start building houses in 2017.
The second amendment appears to be May 15th, 2018.
Now it looks like this:
So in 2014, that tan part – all residential houses – didn’t wrap around to the left of the conservation open space, and now it does. Plus they added apartment complexes. (I’m okay with the apartment complexes being added! I don’t like developing over the aquifer, but I don’t want it to be a cloister of wealthy people, either.)
Basic stats, 2018:
– 2800 dwelling units: old 2,400 houses + 400 new apartment units
– 35.6 acres parkland
– 791 acres conservation
– 2,029 old acres + 394 new acres = 2,423 total acres
In August of 2020, it grows again:
Adding that new pink part in the lower right hand side.
Basic stats, 2020:
– Still 2800 dwelling units
– 37.66 acres parkland
– 800 acres conservation
– 2,423 old acres + 129 new acres = 2,552 total acres
In November 2021, we added amended it to allow for the film studio. The plan seems to be for it to go in that new pink section on the lower right.
Of course, the fights weren’t until the following June, when everyone was super pissed about building on the aquifer. Listen: they are absolutely correct to be mad! It’s just that the fight wasn’t held at the correct time, legally speaking. By this point, City Council was just trading environmental protections for tax credits.
The funny thing is that the really big change came just one month earlier, and no one paid any attention.
This is in May, 2022, and it’s a pretty drastic change:
It jumped clear across RR12!! That whole tri-colored bit on the upper right is brand new!
So what happened? A lot of housing was relocated. That light green piece in the upper left used to be residential, but now it’s conservation. So there are good parts and bad parts.
Basic stats, 2022:
– 4200 houses, 980 apartments
– 37.66 acres parkland
– 792 acres conservation 1227.8 = 2019.8 acres conservation
– 2,552 old acres + 1296 new acres = 3848 total acres
So: is this a good thing?
I don’t know. It’s a complicated thing. There’s a lot more conservation, but a lot more building and living on the aquifer. I feel weird about it.
(Wasn’t I paying attention last May? Apparently not! I listened to the entire meeting and did not have a single thing to say about La Cima! You probably shouldn’t trust me very much.)
Also, not that much of it has actually gotten built yet. They’re chipping away at it.
So now we’re all up to speed on La Cima. So what actually happened last Tuesday? A very a small bit, 38.5 acres, is finally getting annexed and zoned:
That pink square is my best guess of where it is.
Max Baker attempts to persuade the developer to use something water-friendly: either purple pipe or rainwater detention. He gets brushed off for both, in a slightly condescending way.
The vote:
Yes: Everyone except Max
No: Max
………………
Item 17: There’s an application to rezone 1.35 acres in the middle of Blanco Gardens.
Here’s Blanco Gardens, and they want to rezone this pink square:
So really RIGHT in the middle of Blanco Gardens. Aren’t there houses right there already?
Yes. This is a block full of houses, but it happens to have some undeveloped land interior to it, and the developer wants to add houses inside the block.
Some important details:
- They can already develop it, SF6, which means single family housing with lots at least 6000 sq ft big.
- They want SF4.5, single family housing with lots at least 4500 sq ft.
So they can fit in more houses under SF4.5 Staff estimates that they could fit 8 houses at SF6, and 11 houses at SF4.5.
Other important details:
- WE HAD A BIG FLOOD A FEW YEARS AGO, IN THIS EXACT NEIGHBORHOOD. And a few years before that. And a few years before that. Etc.
- P&Z denied this request! So it would take 6 councilmembers to overturn it.
City council also denies it, 7-0, so that is that. The developer can still build their SF6 houses if they want (and if they want to piss off the neighborhood).
…
Item 19: Here is El Centro:
They’re good people!
The School Board officially gave that land to El Centro Cultural recently, and then came to find out that there’s a weird alley running through the school that still belongs to the city.
So we got a charming history of this alley – before SMCISD was SMCISD, it was the San Marcos Public Free School system. Then in 40s, it spun off. Gradually the city gave SMCISD bits and pieces of this land, through the 70s. But there was still this one alley on the books (but never built).
So we have officially abandoned the alley, which can then be given to SMCISD, which can then be given to the good people over at El Centro.
The San Marxist 