The League City Planning and Zoning Commission recommended that City Council adopt proposed amendments to Chapter 125 of the Unified Development Code, Article 6 (Provision of Parkland), changes prompted by the Westside Master Plan and public input emphasizing parks and trails.

Christopher Sims, League City's director of development services, told the commission the changes were designed to implement the Westside Master Plan and respond to more than 1,400 public comments that singled out "more parks, trails, open space" as a top priority. Sims said the amendment would create a park-overlay district (pod) covering roughly 3,300 acres of undeveloped land on the city's West Side and would change how public-park dedication is calculated inside that pod.

Under the proposal, inside the pod the city would change the dedication metric from residential units to persons using an average household size of 2.69 people per residence. For developments that will contain more than 1,000 residents inside the pod, the proposal calls for a 15-acre minimum dedication for public parks (larger than the existing 10-acre minimum used outside the pod). For private parks the amendment would institute a minimum amenitization standard, require a six-foot-wide trail connection for private parkland, and allow amenitization credit (including up to 50% credit for detention-area amenities in some cases).

Sims said the Lloyd (Lloyds) PUD and Westland Ranch have already adopted many of the proposed standards and that the amendment seeks to ensure the West Side meets the citywide target of roughly 15 acres of public parkland per 1,000 residents. Sims presented an examples-based policy appendix showing an amenitization point schedule in which different amenities earn points toward private-park requirements.

Commission discussion touched on feasibility across the city: Sims noted it will be difficult for many east-side sites to meet the new standards because large contiguous parcels are less common there, and he said developers may choose to proceed under the existing rules if that is advantageous. Sims also said the amendment would still allow fee-in-lieu of dedication in some circumstances, but inside the pod fees would be allowed only for dedications of a half acre or less.

Commissioner Frank Dominguez moved to recommend the amendment; the motion carried with an abstention from Commissioner Pam Arnold (recorded as 4 in favor, 1 abstention). Sims told the commission the item will be scheduled for City Council consideration on November 18, with a second reading on December 6.

If City Council adopts the amendment, larger West Side developments would face higher public-park dedication requirements and developers would have clearer options to provide higher-quality private parkland through an amenitization credit system.