Citizen comment:
- Fourl people spoke, calling for City Council to issue a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- Three people spoke against Buccees. I’ll save the details for the item on Buccees, below.
- One landlord speaks against items 17 and 18. These are resolutions from the Neighborhood Commission. We’ll get to those, too.
On the topic of the Gaza ceasefire: clearly, the mass killing of the Palestinian people by the Israeli army is a humanitarian crisis. Now in general, city resolutions on international issues aren’t going to carry much weight. We didn’t issue resolutions when the Rohinga were being killed in Myanmar or the Darfur genocide in Sudan.
But Gaza is more relevant because the US supplies Israel with weapons, and it’s even more local because Governor Abbott actively supports the Israeli army. So you can make the case that cities in Texas should actively and vocally oppose Abbott on this. I support the speakers calling on Council to issue a resolution for a ceasefire.
……
Item 13: Some folks want to put a hotel on I35.
It would go here:
On the street level, it looks like so:
That’s the view from the southbound I35 access road, as you’re heading from Wonderworld towards McCarty.
It had been zoned Heavy Commercial, which does not allow hotels. So the developer is asking for regular commercial, where they can.
What does Council think?
(Saul is absent.) So it passes easily.
…
Item 14: Rezoning some land out by Redwood:
There’s a gas station and some senior apartments there already.
It has been zoned CD-5, which is supposed to feel like a walkable downtown area. Cute little two-story buildings along a sidewalk, where you can easily dip in and out from store to store. Zoning that farmland as something “walkable” is a little ambitious? But sure.
The owner hasn’t been able to get any developers interested in the spot. So he wants to change it to regular commercial. This is more like your strip malls or dollar generals. Big parking lot out front. No longer striving for walkability.
What does Council think?
Great.
….
Item 2: Buc-ee’s.
At citizen comment, there were several people who spoke against Buccees. I’m going to organize their concerns:
Concerns that are nonsensical:
- Buccees doesn’t reflect our values/preserve our unique character/reflect our priorities.
- Inefficient land use
- This is not what San Marcos needs.
- We cannot handle this. We don’t have the infrastructure to handle this.
Is the problem that Buccee’s is tacky? Do the good people of San Marcos only want serious, dignified gas stations, without cartoon mascots? What are we talking about here?
Concerns that at least make sense to me:
- Buccee’s promotes oil-dependency and unhealthy food.
- Keeps travelers from exploring San Marcos
- Buccees generates less property tax revenue in NB than other I-35 frontage retail.
- Jobs are closer to Kyle than San Marcos.
- We should not be subsidizing retail jobs that pay below the median wage.
These are all legitimate drawbacks. Are they drawbacks that outweigh the projected $400K/year that the city will get in taxes? Eh, probably not.
Concerns that I share:
- Contract is full of green-washing and light on details.
- The work environment is toxic. They pay well because they work you to death.
I can’t evaluate whether or not the contract is green-washing. It’s certainly incredibly brief on the rainwater collection and oil-and-water runoff separators. I’d be interested to know what an environmental expert says.
On the work environment, I did a quick Reddit search. For example, this long thread from two years ago. Or this shorter thread from three months ago. There are lots of complaints that it is in fact a very toxic environment. Many comments say turnover is super high.
One last piece of evidence came during the February 20th meeting. The Buccee’s representative said multiple times something like, “The job is tough, so we compensate you for it! No one said it’s an easy job!” That is not a great thing to hear from management.
What does council think?
Mayor Hughson: I just want to highlight the dollars that this will bring in to the community.
Alyssa Garza asks if there’s any representative here from Buccee’s, who can speak to the accusations of bad labor practices?
Answer: There isn’t. City staff weakly gives some anecdotes about staff retention. But there’s no data on turnover or anything
Matthew Mendoza speaks to the quality of the opportunities and why we need good jobs for people without college educations.
The vote:
Everyone reassures Alyssa that labor violations are a federal matter! Surely the Department of Labor will respond promptly to any issues.
That is some magical thinking right there. (Also I learned something new: federal law does not require lunch breaks or rest breaks. Unsurprisingly, neither does Texas. We should probably require breaks in our Chapter 380 agreements.) But generally, there is plenty of wiggle room to be an abusive employer without facing consequences from the DoL.
The San Marxist 
Hi! I’m concerned that city council is approving to rezone areas. Especially the one by redwood; i think that takes accessibility away from people living in those senior apts if the area had already been zoned as a “walkable” area.
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It’s a fair point – part of the reason to zone something is to ensure that eventually, when something gets built there, it matches what San Marcos would like to see. Sure, the owner is obviously impatient about waiting until a developer comes along who matches the vision, and one of these other zonings makes it easier to find a developer. But council could have told him, “Look, you purchased something knowing how it was zoned. Sorry, but this is what’s best for San Marcos.”
I genuinely don’t think most of Council thinks terribly deeply about zoning, unfortunately. Or what might be best for the seniors living at that corner.
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Concerned that it is further setting the precedent that city council will approve whatever development for $$
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Yep. What we really need is progressive candidates. It’s hard to exert influence without having enough receptive ears on council.
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