Category: yearly summary

Yearly Clean-up, Summer ’22-Summer ’23

by The San Marxist, posted in yearly summary

I’m trying something different with this year’s retrospective: I picture it functioning like a table of contents, to help organize the past year into a coherent timeline. (Find last year’s retrospective here.)

It’s really dry, boring reading. Sorry! Tune in next week, when our courageous city council members return to their normal shenanigans, on the 23-24 season premier of the San Marcos City Council.

One more thing: Election season is coming up! Two city council seats are up for election:
Seat 3: Alyssa Garza (our noble, lonely progressive representative)
Seat 4: Shane Scott (loves small government and business interests)

Currently, Griffin Spell has filed to run against Alyssa Garza. I have lots of thoughts, but I’ll save them for the future.

No one has filed yet to run against Shane Scott. The last day to file is August 21st.

I am not plugged in enough to know if anyone is thinking about challenging Shane Scott. But I’m hoping!

Yearly Summary

Caveat:
– Many items show up at multiple meetings. I’m usually listing an item at the meeting that you’d want to consult if you went back to look up details.
– when relevant, I’ll include how each person voted
– San Marcos is 15 months behind on posting the minutes to city council meetings. The most recent is May, 2022. What’s up with that?

August 2022:

1st meeting:

  • Four separate zoning cases near the Outlet Malls and Amazon
  • Zoning for housing sprawl approved waaaaaay south, absolutely in the middle of nowhere, near the Hays power plant
  • Decriminalizing weed makes it on the ballot, due to Mano Amiga’s petition
  • Form a committee to talk about a San Marcos GRACE act, which has never come back around again
  • Quail Creek Park is purchased

2nd meeting:

  • San Marcos elections are problematic
  • Riverbend Ranch tries to put exemptions on the industrial part, upstream of Redwood
  • School Resource Officers are renewed.
    • Yes: Mayor Hughson, Shane Scott, Mark Gleason, Saul Gonzalez
    • No: Alyssa Garza, Max Baker
  • Shane brings 3 oz of weed to a city council meeting
  • The Lobbying ordinance dies
    • Yes: Alyssa Garza, Max Baker
    • No: Mayor Hughson, Shane Scott, Mark Gleason, Saul Gonzalez, and Jude Prather

September 2022

1st meeting:

  • Budget and property tax rate discussions
  • Tax credits for a giant tract of sprawl out behind the outlet malls
  • New firestation approved downtown
  • Meet and Confer with SMPOA is approved

2nd meeting:

  • Election discussion
  • Property tax rate set at 60.3 cents, 7 extra police/fire fighters are funded
  • Boyhood Alley renamed
  • Library Fines go away
  • Loquat Street is traded to the University for undisclosed purposes that make me nervous.

October 2022

1st meeting:

  • Noise ordinance and alcohol subcommittee formed. Has not come back around yet.
  • Eviction delay sustained

November Election: my city council candidate recommendations

2nd meeting:

  • EDSM conflicts of interest with GSMP
  • Workshop on the Edwards Aquifer and purple pipe

November 2022

1st meeting:

  • Election results
  • Zoning some new apartments near 5 mile dam
  • Rehousing a few people from the 2015 floods into Sunset Acres
  • The pick-a-pet problem

2nd meeting:

  • Curfews (recently outlawed at the state level!)
  • Puppy mill discussion paused on the second reading.

December 2022

1st meeting:

  • Curfew ordinance is approved. There are two votes:
  • Voters have approved marijuana decriminalization

2nd meeting:

  • Free electric cabs approved downtown
  • Curfew is approved.  (May now be illegal). In theory, CJR committee is studying the issue
  • Very first discussion of SMART Terminal: should 660 acres be moved from the Cotton Center to the SMART Terminal? 
  • Campaign funding and ERC review

January 2023

1st meeting:

  • More apartments on near the intersection of Rattler Road and McCarty
  • Trace gets rid of some of its commercial zonings

2nd meeting:

  • SMART Terminal development agreement is updated. It gets the mushiest, least critical treatment from council. 
    • Yes: Mayor Hughson, Saul Gonzalez, Jude Prather, Mark Gleason, Matthew Mendoza
    • No: Alyssa Garza
      That vote aged poorly!
  • Fire department codes updated
  • Riverbend Ranch subcommittee formed to support Redwood
  • Paid parking at Lion’s Club
  • Human Services Advisory Board grant money new guidelines

February 2023

1st meeting:

  • Repeal of Meet & Confer agreement, re-entry into renegotiations with SMPD
    • Repeal: Alyssa Gara, Saul Gonzalez, Shane Scott, Jude Proather
    • Deny the petition: Mayor Hughson, Mark Gleason, Matthew Mendoza
  • Some townhomes in Trace
  • Preserving land next to Ringtail Ridge park
  • Tiny houses out on Post Road
  • SMART officially approved in an extraordinarily brief discussion (Alyssa is the only no vote)

2nd meeting:

  • Stephanie Reyes is promoted
  • P&Z appointments 
  • Bike lanes on Craddock and sessom

March 2023

1st meeting:

  • Rezone a bit between I35 and the Saddlebrook mobile home community as Heavy Commercial
  • Got rid of some commercial zoning in Cottonwood Creek, despite residents writing letters wanting it to stay commercial
    • Rezone/Tote water for developer: Mayor Hughson, Mark Gleason, Saul Gonzales, Shane Scott, Matthew Mendoza, Jude Prather
    • Keep commercial/listen to residents: Alyssa Garza
  • HSAB grant money finally parcelled out
  • Puppy mills are banned! (Final vote is unanimous)

2nd meeting:

  • Citizens protesting SMART are ramping up
  • McCoys will be building a new headquarters campus in town
  • New murals!
  • Committee-on-committees is formed. Alyssa, Matthew, Mark
  • Vacancy taxes are floated by Max in public Q&A. Will hopefully come back around

April 2023:

1st meeting:

  • P&Z approves the Heavy Industrial zoning for SMART Terminal
  • Little square behind Embassy Suites is officially denied Light Industrial zoning.
    • Deny: Mayor Hughson, Alyssa Garza, Matthew Mendoza, Mark Gleason
    • Approve: Shane Scott, Jude Prather

2nd meeting: 

  • SMART Terminal zoning ends up with Council agreeing to revisit the development agreement, due to community outcry
  • More apartments by the high school, along 123.

May 2023:

1st meeting:

  • Presentation on the new Meet & Confer agreement
  • Clubhouse style apartments across from the Outlet Malls
  • The SMART development agreement is re-opened
  • The city can boot cars with too many unpaid parking tickets

2nd meeting:

  • P&Z members rewrite their own Comp Plan, I am annoyed 
  • Satanic Temple leads the council in prayer
  • Remove 104 acres of commercial from Riverbend Ranch, because why not let developers build 1200 acres endless uninterrupted sprawl like they want?
  • Meet & Confer comes back around.  Negligible changes were made. Council did not bring the Hartmann reforms to the negotiation table in any meaningful sense.
    The vote:
    • Yes: Mayor Hughson, Jude Prather, Shane Scott, Mark Gleason, Matthew Mendoza, Saul Gonzalez
    • No: Alyssa Garza
  • Eviction delay is set to end
  • Ending the General Contractor testing requirement to pull permits

June 2023
Only 1 meeting:

  • CBDG money delegated
  • 4 hour parking in limited locations downtown
  • The last $3 million of ARP dollars is parceled out
  • New art installation in Ramon Lucio Park

July 2023
Only 1 meeting:

  • SMART Terminal/Axis Logistics withdraws its zoning request
  • La Cinema land is annexed and zoned
  • P&Z has an extremely frustrating workshop on the new Comp Plan.
  • Homeless action plan workshop

Yearly Clean-up, Summer ’21-Summer ’22

by The San Marxist, posted in yearly summary

This is the first time I’ve attempted a retrospective summary post, and it is very rocky.  I went back through my notes, but I can guarantee that I missed things. I wasn’t even consistently taking good notes! Life’s a dance you learn as you go, right?

Here are my three categories:

  1. Major legislation from the past year, and how each councilmember voted

Oh god this was hard to carry out.  Full set of caveats at the link.

  1.   Unfinished business.  Lots of things feel like they got accomplished, but haven’t been formally turned into policy and can still stall out. For example:
    – Ending the ban on more than two unrelated people living together
    – Banning sales of pets from puppy mills
    Both of these were discussed, but not yet implemented.

Again, my list is super spotty and incomplete! It’s also possible some of these did wrap up, and I missed it. 

  1. Developments that have been approved, but who knows how long until they materialize. This list is also very incomplete.

God I feel so apologetic about this whole entry! My goal is to get better at this kind of thing over time.

Anyway, city council meets next on Tuesday. Regular city council coverage will resume!

Major Policies from the Past Year

by The San Marxist, posted in yearly summary
  1.  What was the major legislation that was passed this past year, and who voted for what?

This is so hard. Sometimes major legislation is discussed privately in executive session, and the public part is brief.  Sometimes it’s been cloaked in legal language, or I haven’t had the backstory, or I just didn’t realize that it was important.  It’s easy for me to blog things that spark a big fight. But being controversial is not the same as being important. 

For example, last December, Council passed the Development Agreement on the huge tract that runs adjacent to Redwood.  I totally missed its importance. In May, Council expanded La Cima from 2,550 to 3,800 acres. I missed that, too!  I don’t yet know how many other important things I missed. 

Next: Knowing how councilmembers voted does not tell you the whole story. Who was an advocate who won others over? Who watered it down with stupid amendments? Who initiates legislation and who is mostly passive?  Who initiates little frivolous ideas, and who initiates important ideas? I don’t know how to summarize all those sorts of details. 

Also: what about things that are done yearly, like renewing a contract with GSMP or creating and approving a budget? They’re routine but they’re important, and having good councilmembers makes better outcomes. What about ARP money? Or CBDG money? It matters greatly, but it’s hard to summarize.

Here’s my attempt. (You should be able to scroll around.)

Unfinished Business, Summer ’21-Summer ’22

by The San Marxist, posted in yearly summary

2. What was begun, but not completed? 

Very often Council tells staff to go research something and bring it back. I haven’t necessarily made a note of all of those.  My impression is that, under Bert Lumbreras, sometimes the assignments just disappeared into the ether.  Under Stephanie Reyes, I get the picture that things will eventually get done, but they’re slow due to being understaffed. But I’m not on the inside and I don’t actually know.

Approved but not yet built, Summer ’21 – Summer ’22

by The San Marxist, posted in yearly summary

3. What kinds of developments were approved, and are now part of some developer’s infinite timeline? 

It took me most of this past year to get a handle on how to write about zoning cases, so I don’t have a great handle on this question, either. There were conversations about gas stations that I didn’t record. This is not exhaustive.